Just to illustrate how unpredictable the rifle game can be, allow me to relate the following incident, which I witnessed personally years ago.

As a member of the US Marine Corps Reserve high power rifle team, I was participating in a match at Fort Benning, GA. I had completed firing on the 600 yard line and was heading for the score board when I noticed a commotion on the firing line. One of the competitors was firing a Winchester Model 70 pre-64 target rifle in caliber .308 Winchester. He was using Lake City Match ammunition. He had just fired his 14th shot for record and had it scored and had reached up to place a round in the chamber, when he realized that there was no chamber to load.

When the preceding shot had been fired, the top half of the chamber and the top half of the receiver ring had simply vanished. The action looked as though it had been placed in a milling machine and the top half of the receiver ring and barrel milled off. There had been no loud report accompanying the shot and the bullet had struck the target and had been scored, as had the previous shot.

The only explanation I heard which made any sense at all was that there was an undetected flaw in the barrel, which, over time, had expanded until the point of rupture had been reached. Barrel and action were, of course, marked WP for Winchester Proof.

Inexplicable events do occur. Negligence is the failure to take precautions against predictable events.