Thanks for posting this as a newbee to ML this an eye opener for me and a must add to things to check if a misfire occurs.

This is nothing new with that model rifle you can do a search and find where seven or eight have really granaded, has something to do with burn out around the breach plug face and the fact that the breach plug is only threaded half way. I'm amazed guys are shooting them

You are onto something here.


This kaboom had nothing to do with the breech plug. It is still in the gun.

actually that scope is bent up towards the front lense.


ooof! that hand looks nasty as heck

my bad, wrong post

Please show us your search results, there are only 2 documented cases that I am aware of and I have searched and I also built my own Smokeless Gun . Killed 3 deer wit it this year.

What do you mean by detonation? If the bullet is properly seated on the powder what would cause a detonation?

I'm mainly going by the location of the burst. It is way, WAY to far forward for what one would expect with a breech (at ignition) failure. Look at the pics Toby Bridges posted of when his gun "failed" and you'll see the difference immediately.

This is not common folks. As has already been communicated, two instances are known. One "happened" to Toby, who somehow had a gun fragment in his hands without so much as a scratch, immediately after he had a falling out with Savage. The other, this case, is almost certainly an obstruction or unseated bullet from the location of the burst.

It is not uncommon AT ALL for newbies to have misfires -- wrong powder, too loose sabot, etc. A 209 is a powerful primer and could easily move the bullet way down the barrel. Forget to reseat.....BOOM...not the gun's fault.

spaniel
A detonation is a rare phenomenon, not fully understood that happens with cartridge guns mostly. Its when a hang fire acts like a fully obstructed barrel. The old german gunsmith that work for me told me about it.

Never heard of that, so I guess I have no insight. One possible way I could imagine this playing out in real life it would work the same way in either type of rifle. The primer detonates, unseating the bullet and moving it some way up the barrel. In a cartridge rifle this would be up into the throat where the bullet will lodge in the lands, in a ML it would basically be the exact scenario I was already suggesting where the sabot moves up the barrel. Then the powder fires late.

I have had some failures-to-fire with old military 30-06 ammo but never a hangfire in a cartridge gun, so I don't know how the internal ballistics would work with that.

It is my understanding that a 'detonation' occurs very rarely if and when a cartridge case isn't near to fully filled with a slow burning powder such as 4831. Some reloading folk will warn the beginner not to use those slow burning powders for 'reduced' loads. I have never been close to such a thing, but it is still spoken of in the magazines. Magazine writers recommend one use 'fast' burning powders for reduced loads, not powders considered 'slow' that are used for magnum cartridges, to avoid 'detonation'.