Cimarron,
My 2 cents...
There really are some underlieing issues in this whole saga. It started as a "one man crusade" right here in this forum. The author is really a "pro" buy American person (and I am too when I can afford it on a retirement salary). He is really trying to protect the American manufactures as more and more muzzleloaders are being built off-shore. And the reality of this is that these manufactures are able to under-sale American made guns, and more importantly cause the American manufactures to lower their quality to be price competitive with foreign imports.
His efforts to get one company to tell him how or if they proof tested their rifles to a greater proof than the one stamped on the product. The company has never complied with his request and this began the crusade. This person never represented an office of any authority to make the request, it was an independent American asking for the information from a private company. Over the years he has been able to convince several followers to join into the crusade. He is not mis-leading them he is presenting what he believes is the truth. He has complied information over the years that help him justify the whole effort, and upon request I am sure that he will provide you with the information.
It is unforunate that the orginal CVA company which was contracting for ML guns from Spain, got bit by a production method that allowed a run Apollo barrels to make it to the US and the US market. From all the information I can find it was not a defect in the barrel that caused the problem, the barrel did not blow up, but it was problem with the mating of the breech plug to the the barrel, coincidently Green Mountain Barrel Co. had a simular incident not to long ago, put out the recall and continued in business, for CVA it was another story. Another holding company was formed and titled BPI, they continued the recall and picked up the CVA contracts and re-offered guns to Americans.
It really is unfortunate that the average middle class American are disappearing, but statistically it is happening. The majority middle class people in America continue to look for the best buy,not nessarily the best product, because they are unable to maintain the needs of survival, plus be able to purchase the extras on the wages that they are receiving. Middle class jobs are moving and will continue to move from the US to foreign countries while upper class professional jobs continue to rise in the US to those people that can afford the cost of education. Statistics indicate this trend will continue for some time. As I have said before all of this leads to the success of the Wal-Marts and the loss of the mom and pop stores.
It is my personal belief that SOME Spanish barrels are lesser quality than most American barrels - but I do not condem them to being, in general, dangerous.
Most accidents, whether it be Spanish, Itialian, Russian, English or American can traced to owner operator error.
And I like you am very tired of the whole thing. I really wish he would prove his case in a court of law and give up with the court of public opinion. But without quality physical evidence you can not get in to a real legal court so the next best thing which Americans can really do well run a trial in the public court and let people feed on rumors and near facts....
Sorry for the length....
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