A good friend of mine is an instructor at the largest professional hunting and game ranger training facility in SA. They offer dangerous game hunting courses on a huge property bordering Kruger for about six months of the year. During the course of the year, they host not only college students but private individuals (such as members of the SA Hunters and Game Conservation Organisation, who get to attend the courses at a discount as part of member benefits) who wish to attend the courses for their own experience. As such, he gets to see all sorts of rifles in action. It is amazing how many rifles (and their owners) misbehave when they are suddenly put to the test in hot, dry and dusty conditions during stressfire exercises. This goes for a few modern double rifles as well.

I have attended the courses on a number of occasions. My weapon on each occasion was an original 1930 Type-A Oberndorf M98 in 9,3x62. The 9,3, together with a Heym 89B .450 NE, comprises my own heavy battery.

And yes, I have seen a rather sheepish M03 owner standing with the bolt of his rifle in his right hand as the "charging" paper elephant on skids ground to a halt in a huge cloud of dust about two feet in front of him. I have fired the rifle and know the owner personally - he's a surgeon here in SA and I'm good friends with a colleague of his, who owns an identical M03, also in .404, also with the same symptoms. The latter gentleman has since commissioned a .450 Rigby Rimless on a Granite Mountain Arms action from a gunsmith here in SA.

I'm reliably informed that some of them will discharge by their own accord as well if the bolt is closed REALLY hard on a loaded round. This I haven't seen with my own eyes, just for the record.

The M03 may be lots of things but I don't think it's a dangerous game rifle.

As for the M66, it happened to a son of a former president of the abovementioned hunters association during a buffalo hunt in Zimbabwe in the early 1980's. It was chambered in 9,3x64. He sold it soon afterwards and went back to a Model 70 in .375 H&H. He wrote about it extensively after the incident. He died a few years ago but I was on friendly terms with him.