Smokeless M/L mishap

This happened 4 months ago, I heard about it last year.
Pretty gruesome pics of that hand.

I have had a Savage for 6 years and have killed 3 deer with it. I really like this rifle.
If you dig around you can see an example of a barrel blow up on almost any rifle.
A few weeks back there were pics going around the web of a Smith and Wesson .44 mag that blew, that guy's hand was a real mess.

A few years ago there were pics on the internet of a nice Tikka rifle from Finland that blew the barrel.

There have been several reports of CVA muzzleloader barrels blowing.

In this case, the explosion was several inches in front of where the bullet should set when the gun is properly loaded.
It makes me think that this could have been a bullet not properly seated on the powder, or maybe a bore obstruction, maybe he loaded two bullets and didn't seat the second one.

When Savage was testing the original rifle, they fired it with a double charge of smokeless powder and the barrel didn't blow. The sabot blew.

I hope they get to the bottom of this barrel blow up and publish the results.
 
I'm almost positive that this supposed gun failure is from the former Savage employee who was fired by the company.

He appears to be the only person in the world who has managed to blow up an ML10..... not just once, but twice.

I'm sure that his status as a disgruntled ex-employee has no bearing on that at all.:rolleyes:
 
There is an ongoing push by Bridges to discredit Savage and their muzzle loaders. Please read the article below to help you understand a little better...


Now for the one and only critic of the Savage muzzleloader who has extensively used the rifle; that being Toby Bridges. I have never met Mr. Bridges, but have corresponded with him. He was for years the preeminent proponent of the Savage muzzleloader, and I mention him here only because of recent developments regarding his relationship with that firearm. Recently, Mr. Bridges experienced a catastrophic failure with a Savage muzzleloader using smokeless powder. This concerned me, because I own and use an identical rifle. Mr. Bridges has published this incident on the internet, and is now advising against the use of the Savage, after years of promoting the rifle.

I want to preface my following thoughts on this matter by stating that I have no dog in this fight, and this is just my opinion, after investigating this matter as best as I could. There are, however, a few facts that pertain to the relationship of Toby Bridges and Savage Arms. Mr. Bridges worked for Savage, with the job of testing and promoting the 10MLII muzzleloader. He has fired more rounds through Savage muzzleloaders than anyone to my knowledge. After a few incidents that are none of my business resulted in Mr. Bridges having a falling out with the inventor of the rifle and a run-in with the law, Mr. Bridges also was fired by Savage Arms, for failure to perform his job, and having a really poor attitude.* Shortly thereafter, Mr. Bridges suddenly had a 10ML blow up while he was supposedly testing it. The gun was utterly destroyed, but the shooter was not scratched.* He was supposedly shooting a safe load in the gun; one which in fact I have exceeded many times. Now Mr. Bridges declares the Savage unsafe. This is, keep in mind, after he was let go by Savage Arms. I have seen pictures of the destroyed rifle. There is no way short of a divine miracle that someone could have been sitting behind that rifle with his cheek pressed to the stock, and have not been seriously injured. My opinion, and it is worth what you paid for it, is that the gun was intentionally blown up.
Click to expand...
 
I read through several of the links available through the first link and typing Toby Bridges into google.

Interesting to say the least. Peetzakilla is correct, this is the same guy who has an axe to grind with Savage.

I believe he (Toby Bridges) is located in Missouri, so I am going to try to run his name through case.net and see what comes up.

But as an aside, after reading all this stuff about the Savage 10 ML-II, the reviews are very positive and I might even buy one myself.
 
ok I have a question. Someone said he didn't seat the slug tight enough. I thought with smokeless powder, the slug wasn't supposed to sit pressed into the powder and in black powder you seat the slug on top of powder?
 
Savage Arms still shooting It

Savage Arms was able to recover the rifle, rebarreled It and It Is reportedly
good as new now. :cool:
 
I know Toby Bridges.
Six years ago I was looking about for an inline to buy. I got to talking to Toby on the internet. We wound up emailing each other a dozen times.
I was looking at the Omega, and the Savage.
Toby was a big rep for Savage and he owned 4 of them. He went around the country giving shooting demonstrations.
Very few Savages had been sold, at that point.
Toby reassured me about the Savage, and in fact, he talked me into getting one.
I liked Toby and found him to be knowledgable.

Back then, we were all corresponding on the Dougva Savage forum.
Well, a year after I had bought my Savage, Toby posted that his gun had blown.
I was the first to respond that day. Funny thing was, it had blown a month earlier.
I asked Toby, on the forum, If the Savage was a dangerous pipe bomb, how come he let a month go by before he warned us?

Well, then it came out, that he had been fired by Savage, and had a big run in with the inventor, whom he had been buddies with before.

So, a civil war broke out over on the Savage forum, half the guys believed Toby and supported him, the other half thought he was full of it, and had way overcharged that rifle on purpose, and pulled the trigger with a 50 foot kite string.
I joined the anti-Toby faction.

The debate raged on the Savage forum for 3 months, finally the mods shut down the debate, said it was time to talk about something else.

So, Toby has lost credibility with me, he definitely has an axe to grind.
 
This incident, and more importantly the e-mails that included grisly pix widely sent to so many of us are a good example of why we shouldn't believe everything we see on the 'net. Have read about attempts to duplicate the damage done and promptly joined the anti-Toby camp. My first impression was a barrel obstruction but for some reason I think smokeless powder in a ML, even a modern ML, is a silly idea. If it works for you, I'm OK with that but black powder has so much to offer.
 
A barrel obstruction will blow up a barrel even with black powder. It's the impact of the bullet with the obstruction that ruptures the barrel, not the pressure of the gunpowder charge.

'Tho I haven't tried it yet, I'm pretty sure you can rupture a barrel with no gunpowder at all. Have a bullet lodged in a barrel blank, and then shoot a bullet into the open breach, like Robin Hood splitting the arrow, and I say the impact will split the barrel open right where the bullet was obstructing the bore.
 
To an extent, you're right, ZW. My black powder rifles clean up quickly with common household cleaners and a few patches. Wish I could say that about my smokeless powder rifles. There's something about a big boom and blue smoke. You'll never know til you try, ZW.
 
TXGunNut said:
I'm OK with that but black powder has so much to offer.
Click to expand...

TXGunNut said:
There's something about a big boom and blue smoke. You'll never know til you try, ZW.
Click to expand...


Oh, do tell.... What exactly does BP offer that smokeless does not? I mean, besides the toxic cloud, corrosive residue and cleaning after every shot to maintain accuracy?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top