So out of a few thousand guns made and in current use, we have four claims of blown up guns. One involving a person testing loads beyond those listed as safe in the manual (Note: The 10ML-II's manual suggests a load of 44 grains of XMP-5744 with both 250 and 300gr .452cal bullets, and does state in a following paragraph that one may "try loading
one or two grains more or less of these powders with saboted bullets of similar weights and diameters." Mr. Bridges was shooting
48-49 GRAINS of 5744 with an unspecified bullet when his rifle blew.) while at the same time testing an unspecified component for longevity (not to mention a person who has logged 35,000+ shots on Savage 10ML without incident, I might add).
Here is the quote from the article:
After running a series of shots with 48-grain charges of Acurate Arms 5744, with no excessive pressure signs with the primers or recovered sabots, he moved up to 49 grains of the same powder. And when the trigger was pulled, the rifle literally came apart in front of his eyes.
One might think that after shooting several shots with 2+ grain overcharges, followed by a 3+ grain overcharge, the rifle did what any overtaxed machine would do and failed. Try running your cars engine at redline for awhile. Sure, it runs fine for a little while and then wham! you throw a rod and bye-bye engine. Machines that are worked past their design limits long enough will fail.
Another who was using a powder that it not recommended in the manual, but was mearly suggested by an unnamed (former?) Savage engineer. And two more that are as yet unsubstanciated reports, where we don't know for sure exactly what the shooters did or did not do that may have caused the problems.
So the system is not perfect, like all other devices it can fail as well. Savage, Winchester (BPI), and I'm sure every other ML manufacturer has made guns that have been blown up. Four out of thousands isn't too bad. And let's not forget that CF rifles blow up all the time. Like I said, I personally witnessed a Remington M700 BDL .223 blow up literally 6 feet away from me. Would you say that the design of the M700 is flawed and all M700's are unsafe. I don't think so.
I personally will trust my Savage over any imported Traditions, BPI, or CVA gun any day. 129,000psi vs. 9,900psi...hmm, which one am I going to trust?
Mike