Around 1990, a lot of T38s and T99s were being imported from China and they were being sold very cheap, $19 to $50. I bought a few of these hoping to be able to restore them, but the ones I got weren't worth restoring. My friends and I decided to do a blow up test on one T99. This was done at our local shooting range with approval from the rangemaster. The load was a caseful of Unique and a 170 grain lead bullet. The cartridge was chambered and the barrel filled with dirt. Rifle was tied to a rubber tire and covered by a couple of more tires. Trigger pulled by a 100 foot string. Pulled! boompff.. Hardly any noise. Upon inspecting the damage, the receiver survived, there were chips missing on the threads. The barrel jumped out about a thread and the barrel could be hand twisted off the receiver. There was a bulge in the barrel a couple of inches forward of the rear sights. The bullet and all the dirt that was in front of it actually left the barrel ! The bolt face was fused with the brass from the cartridge head, otherwise the bolt was still in locked position in the receiver and took some pounding to remove it. The extractor was bowed a little, but overall the bolt body was intact. The magazine follower and the magazine box was bent out of shape and the stock was broken forward of the grip area. I think a person could have survived shooting this gun in such a condition, maybe as a temporary hospital case. I gave the receiver to a gunsmith who used it on a .22 single shot gun project.
