“Wardens say a man from Peru [Maine] was hurt Saturday when the lever of his rifle exploded,” wcsh6.com reports. ”A 49-year-old Peru man suffered injuries to his right hand when the lever action on the he was using exploded upon firing during target practice at a gravel pit in Roxbury . . .He was using a Marlin 45-70 rifle when the lever action blew when the gun was fired.” I know Marlin hates to see this stuff on the web—especially as the culprit is bound to be poor maintenance or reloading “issues.” And what the incident really shows us is that tens of millions of guns don’t blow up every single day, despite abuse, neglect and misuse. Hats off to the industry or making it so. Not to mention ambulance chasing lawyers . . .
I haven't been able to find the results of investigation into the cause of this "explosion." The rifle was reportedly sent to the crime lab for inspection, but nothing reported as yet.