Christian, Not to start an argument here, but I am speaking from roughly 100 yrs reloading experience. First on your comments on the Savage 99, This action was the strongest lever action built. It was built to handle much higher pressure cartridges than any other rifle of its day, maybe with the exception of the 1895 winchester in the 30-03 and then the 30-06. So yes the 99 is only a lever action, but it is more than strong enough to handle any factory loaded round or any hand loads that are loaded in the specifications set forth in reloading manuals. If it wasn't do you think the rifle would have lasted as a production gun from 1899 until Savage discontinued it in the early 1980's (actually from pre 1899 because the original design of this action came out a few yrs earlier). Now on to the pressure issue, I know the weather you speak of, I dont live that much north of you that we dont have hot days, and both my brother and I both spent hotter days in much hotter climates than we see in this part of the state. Now I would hate to have to sit and figure out how many thousands of rounds were loaded and fired by my family since the early 1930(?), and we have never had a pierced primer, a primer that has been cratered by high pressure, or any other signs of high pressures. Not to say that we are conservative with our loads either, as many of the rifles we load for are at max loads according to our manuals. So to blame a manufacturer for 2 incidents when they load hundreds of million rounds a yr, I would have to ask, was the ammo reloaded norma brass, was it the right ammo for the rifle ( I have seen this too many times to say it doesnt happen), If it was reloaded was it reloaded properly and ALL steps followed as they should be or was someone careless and rushed thru and forgot something. As far as the pressure "spikes" that you speak of, what your saying is that if you work up a load for a given rifle in Feb. in a temp of 20 F and you shoot that given load in the summer at 80 F then you will have a dangerous load in your gun because your pressures will be too high. Then, for example if the army loads ammo for the troops up in Wisconsin in the winter and then ships it out to the soldiers in Iraq or Afganistan in July, That ammo is unsafe to use because it could cause the weapon system to malfunction, Right? Yes temp does change pressures but not to the degree that you are telling about. If the primers ruptured, was there any other signs of high pressure, i.e. ejector marks, loose primers ( did they drop out or the primer pockets), flattened primers, or an action that is hard to open or completely stuck closed? Did the rounds go off as expected or did they hang a bit? if they hung a bit my guess would be that something possibly was blocking the flash holes causing pressure build up there ( yes that is a step to reloading, clean and inspect the flash hole). If they went off as expected and the primers ruptured and everything else was up to snuff, then how about the rifle? How old is it and what condition is it in? I've seen worn out firing pins that cause light cratering in primers, easily confused with a high pressure sign, I've also seen rifles with firing pins that were homemade (drill bits placed in to replace broken firing pins), and I've also seen firing pins that were "touched-up" by a "basement gunsmith" and actually sharpened to a point because it was thought that that would help the primer go off when actually the spring was replaced with too soft of one. So you see, before someone claims that one type of ammo is dangerous to use, you must rule out a lot of variables that could cause similar types of malfunctions. And when you compare all the rounds loaded and fired that started their life in one companies plant with just 2 incidents, sometimes its not the ammo but operator headspace and timing. And if you have any questions about it, just ask I can answer just about any question you have about reloading because if I dont know it I'll find it in one of my manuals, because my idea of "light reading" is reloading manuals and firearms books! Enjoy this fine sport and never stop learning, but only believe 1/3 of what you hear and 1/2 of what you see and question everything because the more you learn the better equipped you are! PAoutlaw
