Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Embrace The Truth - Catastrophic Gun Failure

I can't get a copy of the pdf without joining another forum, but what I have found is that you have this on at least 4 other sites, cut and paste, and almost everyone is asking about the 40% liability on your part, although I did find out it was for handloading, yet that was from someone else who apparently found the settlement amount as well.

Apparently the veracity of your load data was suspect?

Geez, dude.

Just spit out the details and suck it up.

Guys on the archery forum are already commenting how you look good in your most recent glory shots for archery kills for being permanently disfigured.

Out with it. I don't care if you were 90% at fault as long as you own it and be objective, and not come off like a whiney bitch.

You're street cred is already on the verge of crap.

Nor this one.

In a vacuum, claims that the reloads were within SAAMI because the other ones you "allegedly" reloaded at the same time were tested and found to be OK, and that other Encores were evaluated to be out of spec are strong statements, but folks would like to evaluate the road to those findings for themselves to make a conclusion.

But the jury still found some negligence on your part, and that's what other reloaders want to know - what was done to get the failure.

If you want folks just to get a hard on for TC just because you grossed 600 large or so, sorry, not going to happen.

A retrial and/or appeal will be interesting.

If only he had received an [b][color:#3333FF]Encore Owners Manual[/color][/b] with his purchase, this tragedy might have been averted.....

Yeah, I'm sure some law dog at TC won't point out that the plaintiff, out of aggravation for not receiving perceived satisfaction, posted the same thread on 5 sites attempting to damage the defendant's reputation.


I think errant manual was also cited.

Maybe the old ones don't have that warning???

Of course, a new trial was requested. That is preliminary to filing an appeal and extends the deadlines for filing of said appeal. It ALWAYS happens in EVERY civil case REGARDLESS of whether a judgment is appealed or not. To fail to do so WOULD BE MALPRACTICE. Therefore, nothing can be read into the fact that a new trial has been requested.

Secondly, I don't place all that much weight in the 40% negligence thing either. Since I can't read the judgment, nor do I have access to the trial transcript, I can't exactly tell the jury's reasoning. However, I suspect it had something to do with hand loading.

Now, given that most of the American public is not savvy on shooting and even many of those who are, aren't savvy on hand loading, I'm not too surprised. Give a litigation team of four or five lawyers at $500 an hour five or six years of expert opinions, depositions, and forensic recreations and they'll make hand loading look like something that best belongs in the medieval laboratory of Dr. Faustus, with loads conjured by the Devil, that only a righteous and pure firearm designed by God himself could withstand. So, actually, finding Thompson Center 60% at fault is pretty damned impressive.

Yeah, those corporate lawyers tend to be a mite crafty.

I hate it that someone was injured.

From what I can read, Sam covers it very well. Sometimes stuff happens. If its a big trend, fine, if not, well I have other thoughts. Much like Rem 700 triggers, I"ve seen a few go bang, every last one was monkeyed with... I"d take all the triggers they are replacing happily. I can deal with the supposed safety issue.

Personally I have a hard time with headspace causing a boom. Especially since ever reloader knows what the headspace is before tehy ever start loading, and they load and size accordingly.

If they don't, they are taking a risk IMHO.

Hope you continue to heal.

Nope, actually that is what happens. TC rolled the dice. They could have settled and the details of said settlement would have been confidential. Most likely, you would never have heard of this. They rolled the dice and lost. Now, the Plaintiff gets to scream it to the heavens if he wishes.

Like Jeff, I hate to see that someone was injured, and worse that there was suffering and perhaps loss of a faculty that cannot be restored. I imagine if it were me and I knew it was not my fault that I would be forever pizzed.

What I have a problem with is when someone (new) comes onto a site with the express intent to bash and vent. I know, that's the way of social media, but it's not for me. If you're that hell-bent on spreading the word, go rent a billboard.

me too, at least not with ammo that is withing spec.

Can't make a judgement with the story so far.

Strange the thing is there but not here to read.

Something is wrong with the way this was presented.

I doubt that headspace would cause a catastrophic boom with A PROPERLY DESIGNED FIREARM. That is kind of the point. I've seen cases that completely separated in bolt actions that the shooter didn't even know had separated until he pulled out half a case.

So, if there was no evidence put forth that the shooter had packed a case full of pistol powder, I suspect that IT IS something wrong with the design or metallurgy of the firearm.

It happens to all makers. Remember Sako had that run a few years ago of bad steel where barrels were banana peeling.

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Could well be. But thats not lawsuit material IMHO.

If it was would we sue ourselves for every mistake we ever made, intentional or not?

Lawsuit material is decided by damages. If you get an eye put out through no fault of your own, you might be a little less likely to let bygones be bygones. You after all, will be the one dealing with the results of said negligence for the rest of your life.

Further, litigation serves the market by providing incentive for manufacturers to take all reasonable precautions to make sure something is designed and built right.

I do know that the encore is not a particularly strong action and is not suited to heavy magnum chamberings. I owned one and will do so again but it's not going to be anything running high pressure like a WSM or 300 win mag even. They stretch and the headspace gets long. Keep it to muzzle loading or 06 or 08 case cartridges and you'll never get near the limits of the action. I also kept track of the headspace and had to shim mine.

It appears that this wasn't "no fault of his own". The jury determined that handloading was an issue and assigned 40% of the fault to him.

As stated, the retrial/appeal will be interesting.