Can you have accidental discharge while chambering a round???

[AirPower]

I've never had a problem before and my understanding is that most automatics have the firingpin recessed unless hit by hammer so it should be safe when slide strips 1st round from magazine. But could accidential discharge happen during the chambering process?

The only scenario I can think of is mechanical failure when hammer fails to lock back and follows home with the slide. Another one is the unsafe position of the trigger finger but this is preventable. Other than it, it should be pretty safe since the primer shouldn't be impacted by anything.

This goes to my point, should you be careful of the muzzle coverage even when chambering the 1st round?

 

[cslinger]

You should absolutely be careful of muzzle coverage when chambering a round. Never muzzle anything you are not williing to kill or destroy.

Things can happen, even if they are not likely. The SKS comes to mind as well as some rimfires. The SKS firing pin channel can gunk up and cause the pin to protrude and rimfires can go off with a smack to a light primer.

 

[WT]

Yup, it can go bang when you are not expecting it to.

It doesn't have to be the firing pin. Sometimes the extractor hits the primer.

 

[wanderinwalker]

I may be wrong, but I believe the worst a hammer follow will usually give you is an uncocked gun. The hammer (could?) follows the slide down at the same speed, thus is doesn't transfer enough energy to make the pistol go BANG! But there is a potential for discharge, so keep the muzzle pointed away from anything you don't want to destroy.

 

[cslinger]

Basically I think what we are all getting at is.

Is it likely? No.

COULD it happen. YES.

Always keep you muzzle in a safe direction because of the unlikely COULDs. Remember that old saying about the most dangerous gun being the unloaded one and all that.

 

[Tom Servo]

I had it happen once with a little .25 (Davis or one of the cheap ones) back in the early 90s. A guy brought it to the range to prove just how crappy it was. Sure enough, it couldn't get more than three rounds off in a row without jamming. This thing was UGLY, too. Nobody had ever cleaned it, and it was pretty scratched up.

Anyhow, I was curious. I racked the slide and let it slam forward,

*bang!*

Luckily, it just hit the dirt about 18" in front of my feet, but regardless of caliber, that was the loudest gunshot I ever heard. I froze and looked straight at it. Index finger still on the slide. I cleared it and handed it back to him, and he quietly put it away. Hopefully, it's been melted down somewhere.

Anyhow, it's best to remember rules 1 and 2 when you're doing ANYTHING with a gun, especially anything that may cause the action to cycle.

 

[c_yeager]

It is certainly possible. Guns are mechanical objects and they WILL break and fail at the least opportune of times. Due to the severe consequeces of such a failure muzzle awareness must be considered AT ALL TIME. Particularly when the firearm is being manipulated in any way.

 

[bountyhunter]

I've never had a problem before and my understanding is that most automatics have the firingpin recessed unless hit by hammer so it should be safe when slide strips 1st round from magazine. But could accidential discharge happen during the chambering process?

You sure can. There are a variety of ailments that can cause the firing pin to protrude slightly through the breech face and then when you chamber the round you get an AD. Sometimes, you also empty the magazine into the ceiling in about a half second.

A bent firing pin can get stuck slightly forward. Crud buildup in the FP channel can do it, and a damaged FP spring can hang the firing pin.

Bottom line: when the round chambers up, don't have the muzzle aimed at anything you don't want a hole in.

 

[jc2]

It's been known to happen in Glocks (crud in the striker channel) and Makarovs for sure. In both cases, you're likely to discharge more than one round--possibly the entire mag in the Mak, but the chances are the Glock will jam on you before you get through the mag.

 

[wally]

There are reports of Walther P38 going full auto when the slide mounted safety is engaged to drop the hammer because the firing pin block breaks. Never seen it my self, but I'm real careful when I shoot my old "West German Police" P38.

I've heard stories of 1911s doing the same from hammer follow, again never seen it, don't want to.

Muzzle control to always keep it in a safe direction is the key!

--wally.

 

[JohnKSa]

Things that can cause slam-fires.

Heavy unsprung firing pins in guns with no firing pin safeties. Especially with soft primers.

Broken firing pins. If the pin breaks in front of the firing pin safety, bad things can happen.

Jammed firing pins. By crud or foreign objects that jam the pin in the forward position.

Broken sears.

With the exception of the first, these things can pretty much happen to any brand of pistol.

And there may be more ways to have a slam fire that I'm just not remembering at the moment.

 

[Onmilo]

This is generally referred to as a 'Slam Fire'.
There are many causes and all are disquieting.

 

[Hypnogator]

Once upon a time, I put a 9mm bullet through the floor of my apartment. (Luckily, stayed in floor, didn't penetrate downstairs.)

Luger with a bad sear was the culprit.

 

[Onmilo]

<<<<9 Luger through the dishwasher, totally the fault of the gun of course.

 

[45auto]

In a non-series 80 1911, it can and does happen...trust me on that.

It's the hammer following the slide down, not a protruding firing pin.

So, always point in a safe direction when chambering.

 

[Jim Watson]

The guy standing next to me at the '03 IDPA Nationals had his Glock slam fire upon the "load and make ready." One of the SOs said, "I was looking right at him and his finger was NOT on the trigger." They let him get his gun checked and continue the match. He got through with no more little surprises, which supports the dirty striker theory.

I had a friend's Beretta go off in my hand. We never could figure out what I or it did wrong, but it did not include pulling the trigger.

I saw another friend's S-80 Gold Cup with the firing pin stuck protruding, it had jammed against the firing pin block plunger when dryfired at the previous stage's "unload and show clear." Good thing he noticed it before reloading.

Guns are pieces of machinery, built no better than they have to be to get you to buy them, and they can go wrong in surprising ways.

Keep them pointed in a safe direction when doing ANYTHING.

 

[Serpico]

At home I always do it over the phone book....I have a P7 and have heard of one incident where a guy squeezed the cocker and it slammed home and fired...maybe he had a finger on the trigger and didn't realize it...then again, who knows....better safe than sorry....

 

[Black Snowman]

Statisticly, something unlikely to happen will eventually happen. Stay safe. Not a pistol, but suprplus SKSes are netorious for having cosmo in the bolt hanging up the firing pin and have slam fires.

 

[Onmilo]

I blew up my 10mm Witness by slam fire because of not reading instructions.
Put a 20 pound Wolff recoil spring in the gun, the Wolff recoil spring came with a free firing pin spring and explicit instuctions to NOT install the firing pin spring in the newer series guns of which mine is.
I did it anyway, it caused the firing pin to jam itself exposed from the breechface.
First round chambered and fired fine.
Second round slam fired because of this little firing pin boo-boo, the blast bent the firing pin down against the breechface, blew the magazine out and bulged the left side rubber grip panel.
The cartridge case was split from casehead halfway up the side.
As for the bullet, it went somewhere downrange.
European American Armory was kind enough to replace the slide and barrel for $50.00 which I thought was more than fair.

 

[NavajoNPaleFace]

I can't say I can recall any accidental discharges ever happening to me but chambering rounds in my Colt 80 Series 1911 will leave a dimple in the primer nearly every time.

It concerns me because I will generally chamber one out of every 20 rounds I reload to test for chamering.

 

[Jim Watson]

Navajo,

1. A S80 with intact firing pin block should not dimple primers when chambering a round. For that matter, a neutered S80 or real 1911 should not either. (I just tried it with both.) I think you have a mechanical fault, maybe a safety risk.

2. The usual chamber check of reloads is with the barrel out of the gun. Feeding and functioning can be properly tested only by firing, hand cycling does not duplicate shooting. A cartridge gauge is simpler and not expensive.

 

[g56]

About 20 years ago I bought a new in the box AMT Government Model at a gun show, I had been without a 1911 for a number of years and wanted one, the price was right so I bought the gun. I should have performed a safety check on it before buying it, if I had I wouldn't have bought it, when you retracted the slide and let it go, the hammer would fall every time, I wasn't sure if that would happen when chambering a round, so I made up a dummy, sure enough it did it even when chambering a round from the magazine, I put a primed case in the chamber and let it go, it fired the primer! I sent the gun into AMT and they fixed it safety wise. I still have the pistol and still shoot it from time to time, it wasn't a very good pistol overall, it's unreliable and wouldn't really recommend one.

I didn't know at the time you shouldn't put a cartridge in the chamber and drop the slide, you should load from the magazine, I kept breaking extractors and finally figured out that was probably the cause, I quit doing that and never broke another extractor.

 

[USP45usp]

Had an SKS slam fire on me, I should have asked how to clean the cosmo out of the bolt and firing pin area (luckily, I only loaded one cartriage).

I don't know if this is OT: Decocking a CZ-52. Again, before I read up on the do's and don't's of a "new" CZ-52, I decock the first one that I got. Worked fine, all good and well, no sweat (or tears). Second one that I got, from another company, cleaned it, oiled it, put one round in the mag., pulled back slide (was smart enough to be outside at this time), let slide go, all fine and dandy. Wasn't planning on firing it right then so I thought, it's got a decocker, the decocker on my first one works, I then assume that this one works:

BANG. No ears on at this time, wasn't planning on firing it at that time.

Got on the internet, ears ringing, read up on it. On the Mak site:

"Test out your decocker on your CZ-52, some work, some DON'T".

yup, some work, some don't .

Wayne

 

[Dr.Rob]

Happened to a custom 1911 of mine... lucky I was pointing it downrange. Hammer followed down and BOOM.

Scared me good.

 

[musher]

Had a mossberg model 44 (22lr) detonate a cartridge outside the chamber once. I was about 3 shots into the magazine when I worked the bolt to feed a fresh round. Somehow it hung up on the edge of the chamber at just the right angle to smash the primer on the edge of the bolt. Made a loud pop and showered my arm with brass. No damage, but it got my attention. Just another good reason to wear safety glasses.