My educated deduction is in fact in agreement with those who were suspecting an excess amount of oil in the barrel. Oil can be a guns best and worst friend as you have now discovered.

I imagine that you wanted to kep that new rifle in absolutely excellent shape so you might have " made sure that barrel was protected" with a swabbing or too of an oil soaked patch? I' m sure you had good intentions.

After a good bore scrubbing, it is important to swab out all the solvent you POSSIBLY can (patches are cheap and barrels aren' t). Then, just two or three drops of oil on a patch and run it through the barrel quite a few times. In the barrel a film of oil a ten thousandth of an inch will protect equally as well as a film of oil a hundredth of an inch thick. When a barrel is oiled I like to put a small round sticker over the muzzle to keep " lint" and " fuzz" (that is usually the lining in alot of cases)from getting in there and sticking to the oil.

I really like the " dry film" lubricant/protectants out there, cause nothing sticks to them. I personally use the LPS brand on all my firearms.

In closing, look at the bright side Dakota.............the barrel COULD HAVE EXPLODED! Severly injuring , or even causing death to you or others that might have been around you. Modern rifle pressures are quite high, I won' t look up the exact pressures, but when you are roughly in the 40-50,000 psi range (I' m just guessing). That my friend is enough energy to lift a couple of semi tractors or 10-12 automobiles. THAT IS PRESSURE THAT CAN BE QUITE HARMFUL.

Glad you weren' t injured.

" DAKOTA NUT 5" .....do you drive a Dodge Dakota?

Uncle Matt (in IL)