Sears and Associates filed suit on behalf of a client on October 14th, 2010 in Denver Federal Court against Savage Arms Inc.
The man was severely injured on October 31st, 2009 when the Savage Model 116 rifle he was shooting exploded when he pulled the trigger. He had loaded his rifle with .300 Remington Ultra Mag ammunition and was sighting in his rifle on the first day of hunting for the season in Colorado when, upon squeezing off his first shot, the rifle exploded, sending metal shrapnel flying. The hunter suffered injuries to the face, head, and arms, causing bone and nerve damage.
He had purchased the weapon from a sporting goods store in the Denver area in 2004, and had used the hunting rifle without incident for both target practice and hunting until the day of the accident. The .300 Remington Ultra Mag cartridge is one of the largest that is sold commercially.
The lawsuit claims Savage Arms was “negligent by failing to exercise reasonable care in the design and/or manufacture of the rifle to prevent the rifle from creating an unreasonable risk of harm to the person or property” of those who would use the gun in a reasonable manner. It also states that the hunter sustained his injuries while he was using the rifle in a reasonable manner, and that the rifle was not designed or manufactured to withstand the repetitive stress on the steel components caused by reasonable and foreseeable use of the .300 Ultra Mag ammunition.
