Gun Bows Up!
A former employee of mine was injured this morning when a two-year-old straight pull Mauser in 7mm Remington Mag blew apart at the receiver for no apparent reason.
When he bought the rifle, I told him I did not trust the locking system because it seemed to me that it could suffer from inadaquate partial lock-up. He assured me that it would not fire unless it was completly locked up.
This morning, he fired a factory load out of a vice with no problem to check zero. Being dead on at 100 yards, he removed it from the vice to shoot off hand. This is when it exploded. The factory case was split and the bullet exited the barrel with no apparent problem. The bolt blew back and was stopped from causing serious facial injury by the release catch. The real damage came underneath the rifle where the magazine blew out of the bottom and splintered the stock. This is where the injury occured. The shooters hands and forearms were burned, lacerated and filled with splinters -- painful, but it could have been a lot worse.
He's taking the gun to the dealer who sold it to him, who, I am sure, will send it back to the factory. I warned him that this is where the buck passing will start with the dealer blaming the factory, the factory blaming the ammo and everybody blaming the shooter.
Anybody else heard of problems with straight pull bolt actions?