[Hutch]

Mods, this may belong in Gunsmithing, but I thought I'd start it here....

I was at the range today with daughter and her boyfriend. I was managing both of them at a side-by-side outdoor plate range, when I heard a report and a startled curse from the young man. He still had the Ruger pointed down and downrange, but announced that it had fired when he released the bolt to chamber the first round. I took the pistol and examined it. The safety was about 2/3 to 3/4 of the way into the Safe position (up). It was in battery. I worked the bolt, and a live round was ejected. I looked up at him and asked him if he had is finger inside the trigger guard, and he was quite firm (and believable) in asserting that it was not. I had previously observed good muzzle control and "Rule Three" habits, so I believe him. The rest of the magazine went downrange with no problem. At that point both he and my daughter declared they heard two very close reports. At that time, I didn't think to look for spent shell cases (there were a lot on the ground, anyway) to see if any look they had fired out of battery.

WWYGD? (what would you guys do?) I could not duplicate the position of the safety. Up, it locks the bolt (Open or closed), down, well, you know. Is this a known or common problem? The only options I can think of are to hope it doesn't recur, call Ruger (and likely ship it to them), or sell it to someone I don't know, which is not really an option at all.

[Sistema1927]

If it had happened to you, then you might have some concern. Since it happened with a "newbie" at the controls, I wouldn't worry about it until it occurs again.

It could have been one of several things, from an AD to a little bit of crud on the breech face.

[tinygnat219]

First thing I'd do is clean the gun. Sometimes crud will build up in there without you knowing it and can make something like this happen. I mean a good cleaning here. Disassemble the entire and really wipe things down. Then, take it back to the range and see if you experience anything out of the ordinary. I don't think you will.

[ZeSpectre]

I saw a savage (64 I think) .22 rifle go full-auto once. A tiny little fragment of a cartridge rim had chipped off and got stuck in the firing pin channel wedging the firing pin forward and BRAAAAAAAAP.

To say we were a bit startled would be an understatement.

When we examined the gun it was easy to see that the firing pin was staying forward but we couldn't figure out why until we did a complete disassemble (what a pain) and found that bit of brass wedging things in place.

In short if you suspect it doubled (or really even if you don't suspect it) I would do a complete takedown and thorough cleaning and inspect the parts. If you don't know what to look at/for then I'd take it to a gunsmith and have them examine it for you. It may cost a few $$$ but that's nothing compared to what an unsafe gun could cost you.

[G. Freeman]

This is very easy to check. Disassemble the gun and take the bolt out. Completely take the bolt apart and look to see if the the firing pin is too long or not working (may have too much crud thereby keeping the FP in the forward position). Also look at the spring for the firing pin to see if it has been damaged. With much use, the firing pin spring can break.

Let us know what u find.

[Hutch]

Thanks guys. It seems that there are no known bugs that cause this. I'll take it down to pins and screws and clean it up.