Well, we don't know what really happened. Sure, it is possible that Toby's rifle blew up just as he has claimed.
I will tell you another thing, Toby keeps changing his story. When the incident occurred, he said that he had two game wardens for witnesses. For years, he did not mention any other witnesses than these two game wardens.
Now, "At least a half-dozen other shooters witnessed the incident, along with about twenty Missouri conservation officers who were at the range to qualify with their handguns that afternoon...."
Another weird thing about Toby's story, he waited a month after the explosion before he told anybody.
If he was so concerned about the safety of all us Savage shooters, why didn't he spread the word immediately?
And for Toby to speculate that Savage paid off one of the guys whose rifle exploded, that is just internet rumor mongering on Toby's part. He admits he doesn't know whether Savage bought the guy off or not.
Again, no name of the victim, no photos of the "exploded" gun.
Savage is in business to make money. If they were aware that they were building a lethally dangerous rifle, wouldn't they simply change the configuration of the breech plug, and reconfigure all the old "dangerous" ones?
Savage stands to lose their shirt if someone were killed by an exploding rifle that Savage had known for years was a faulty design.
Besides the millions they would lose in the lawsuit, Savage would have to recall all the muzzleloaders and reimburse the owners.
Also, very bad publicity.
Anyway, I do appreciate your posting of this link. It is a damn fascinating story, and I am keeping my eyes peeled to try to get to the bottom of it.