I've seen a rifle blown up similarly to that and the cause was wrong ammo. The fact that this was out of an old box and 3 rounds fired successfully makes me wonder if a portion of the third case didn't separate and get sucked down the barrel enough to form an obstruction....like a piece of the case neck? But I'm guessing here.

What a shame that was a nice looking rifle.

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don't cuss farmers and ranchers with your mouth full

Had a blown apart Ruger heavy-barrel varminter in the gun shop last year. The owner came in hopping mad, cussing this sorry piece of junk that blew apart his 20X Leupold scope, knocked out his drivers-side window, and broke the windshield of his new Chevy 4-wheel drive crew-cab pickup.

Here's the story, and keep in mind that this bozo is left-handed.

This guy was driving through his pasture when he spied a coyote trotting along, doing whatever coyotes do in cattle country. Our nimrod decides to decrease the coyote population of his ranch. When he had stopped, he used his jacket to rest his rifle on, on the window. (The electric window made for easy elevation adjusment.) Keeping an eye on the coyote while blindly reaching for a bullet in the console of his truck; he quickly grabbed a bullet slammed the bolt closed, and blew his gun apart. Fortunatly, most of the damage to the rifle and scope were outside the vehicle. He had a loud ringing in his ears and a couple of spinters in his right hand. (amazing!!!!!)

He came in cussing Ruger and Ruger rifles and telling us how he was going to sue them for all they were worth. Told us to find a box to ship it back to Ruger and that he was on his way to see his lawyer with a whole lot of pictures of the rifle and his truck.

The floor plate had blown open, knocking out his rifle rest (window with jacket for pad). Both sides of the beaver-tail fore-arm were blown off. The extractor flew past his ear and hit something in his truck and ricocheted into his windshield, and broke it. The rear scope-ring had broken loose, and raise about one-inch, bending the scope.

Well, being the curious types that we are,we hammered the bolt open (finally). Welded tightly in the chamber and plain to see was the culprit. A 7.62X39 hull stuck where a 220 Swift was supposed to be.

Well, we called him to come back and look at his rifle. (He was highly insulted that we didn't just do as we were told!) When he saw what we had to show him, he just grabbed the rifle and left the store. He has never come back into the store, and we have never heard anything else about.

WHAT IF: he had been on the other side of the truck and fired naturally (left-handed). I wonder where the extractor would have been!