Well, the claim for 'factory loaded' smells a bit like fish.
First, the choice of load is not real intelligent.
Remington factory 'Nitro' STS Sporting loads in a Damascus hammer Parker?
How unpleasant would that be if everything went well?
1 1/8 oz at 1300 FPS, 1 oz at 1350 FPS. Those are the two cataloged.
No. I don't buy it. Nobody in their right mind does that.
Those are reloads put up in gold STS cases (I do that all the time myself, the color helps identify the load).
Somebody misidentified the powder, or made some other gross error like a double charge of a dense, quick powder.
The reloads may have been obtained from another person, and the guy is just trying to cover up the real story.
Obviously, my opinion only... a blown barrel without warning with only 10K PSI +/- is just too unlikely.
