Went out to a friends in the country today to shoot my ML10-II. There were a bunch of his family there and my wife,and our yellow lab Belle. I was shooting in a field at 2 liter bottles with water in them at 200yds. While I was loading the gun,my wife was trying to get the dog to stay off the road. I stoped loading and went to help her. Got back to the bench and primed the gun,took aim and wham! I thought it was going to knock me off the bench! I had left the ram rod in! What a dumb mistake! Anyway we went into town and got my other ram rod. While I was at home I removed the breech plug,and wiped out the barrel,it looked ok. Then I thought that I would run a sabot,with the bullet in it to check out the barrel. Well about two inches ahead of where the bullet seats there was a loose spot. Now I'm getting pretty sick! I reassembled the gun,and poured a charge in then the bullet with the sabot. It went down the bore like normal,then almost fell off the ram rod, then for the last two inches loaded like it always did. I removed the breech plug,and pushed out the powder,and bullet. The barrel has expanded for about two inches(I guess this is about where the bullet jag on the ram rod was setting when I shot it!) I've never felt so dumb in my life! I know not to let myself be distracted when loading a muzzel loader. Dosen't look like I'll be shooting it this year for deer season. Can you buy a barrel from Savage? Or should I send the gun in for repairs? Ron 
