Yikes!
Maybe the land/groove pattern provided evenly spacedweak points around the barrel's circumference, which they would.
why would someone ruin a rifle for a couple of pictures?
You never know. There are people out there with money to burn who will do anything to make their point of view seem viable. If it really was staged, they could be using them to show how "dangerous" guns are, and how "unsafe" and "negligent" gun owners are.
I honestly think that somebody just had enough balls to document a screw up they experienced and is sharing it in the hopes thatit may save someone else a really bad day. In any case, it's not the kind of thing you get to see veryoften. Thanks for posting.