I found a thread that talked about Michael Petrov's custom Meunier 1903 being purchased at auction and the buyer took it to the range and using light loads experience a catastrophic failure .... unfortunately, I didn't bookmark the thread and I want go back through it again. I'm hoping that someone could please enlighten me and point me in the right direction by posting a link? I had the opportunity to hold it's twin in my hands at a recent gun show... I tried to buy the rifle after the owner shared his price, I agreed....unfortunately the owner then got cold feet and walked away. Yes, I am trying to locate the owner to see if I can obtain it.... anyway, thanks in advance.
I read through all of that again and found one of the links on page 4 to be interesting. It was on the Shiloh site and the rifle similarly blown up was a late Springfield and the load was 25 grains of 5744 (note - the link to the manual and stated maximum loads with several lead bullets) but...http://www.shilohrifle.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=284436#p284436 it turns out the shooter disassembled his remaining loads and found "one or two" that were double loaded. I found a mention of something else of interest and of possible bearing on the issue - 5744 can jam up in the measure. Now if one load was 3 or 4 or 5 grains light it might not be noticed with normal bench to bench conversation going on but if the next one was a max load (or maybe a little better) to start with and got an extra 5 grains and 5744 tends to spike pressure rapidly with overloads, well... I know for sure 5744 will jam up because it happened hast week in my Harrells but was quite noticeable in the clear drop tube. Anyway, I always use a flashlight and double check the powder level in every case in the loading block before the bullets go in. Take care!