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The Ruger Nr. 1 is, indeed, a very strong action....BUT... The only rifle of my make which anyone ever blew-up was a #1. It was a .30-378, with a massive (five-inch full-diameter breech cylinder @ 1.2", and straight taper to the muzzle (30") @.875". The owner was responsible for the failure, and said so. He was testing handloads - fired two shots which he needed a cleaning rod to eject from the chamber (and knew this should have been a red light) but, because the first 2 were in one hole, he just HAD to fire the third shot - unfortunately, he had left the tip of the cleaning rod in the bore, about 4" ahead of the chamber. The barrel was split like a banana peel in four sections, from the breech to nearly 20" forward. The receiver ring was split about 1/4" back from the face, but did not fail. The barrel shank sections had been sprung clear of the receiver, but the barrel did not entirely separate from the receiver because the foreend hanger kept the bottom banana-peel section from falling out. The head of the case had expanded to the full width of the breechblock seat in the receiver, and had tried to crawl over the top of the block like toothpaste. The rifle was completely destroyed (and he only found the rear half of his very expensive scope). The shooter was not seriously hurt, by great good luck and the fact that he had been shooting over sandbags, so that his left hand and arm were not under the rifle (he'd have needed a BIG bandaid). NOTHING is foolproof - fools are much too inventive. And the load data which started this thread is very likely to ruin someone's DR, with injury very probable. mhb - Mike |