My first slamfire.....

[230RN]

If it was a J9, the firing pin is not loose. It is held back by the sear. The problem, as I see it, is that the firing pin got jarred loose from the sear on slide closure, or did not engage the sear on the last retraction of the slide.

On the other hand, even autoloading guns with sprung firing pins dent the primer on closing. Very common with Garands and M1 Carbines. Scary when you eject a chambered round and see that little dent on the primer. However, things (springs, masses, primer sensitivity) are well-balanced in these guns so you almost never hear of a slamfire in these arms.

On the third hand, SKSs are known to slamfire if the firing pin channel gets dirty. There's a guy in Bowie, Texas who makes firing pin-return spring assemblies for replacing the loose {free-floating) firing pin in these rifles with a sprung one. He'll even do it for you through the mail (no FFL required if you're just sending the bolt alone in.)

Terry, 230RN

REF:

http://www.murraysguns.com/sksown.htm

 

[Analogkid]

Bought a .22 Jennings at a local gunshow. Fired two rounds; the third shot made the gun blow up in my hand. Bit of case in my face; chip in my glasses in front of my eye. Stay away from them.

I call bs.

Maybe it was reassembled incorrectly and the slide came off but I Highly doubt it *blew up*.
We have had several split cases and tons of Overcharged rounds and never grenaded the 4 we have.

But if you get the slide catawampus it can thork you in the brain box.

 

[230RN]

Amusing:

All that weight on the slide, you don't need much of a recoil spring.



(Pic credit in properties)

 

[RetiredUSNChief]

Heh!

Correct me if I'm wrong here, but I'm guessing a lot of failure to ejects....and a lot of failure to feeds even if it does eject.

 

[Ramone]

I have a shelf full of old real books for that purpose. I used to keep an old expired vest on the wall for an indoor "safe direction," but it looked like heck hanging there all the time.

So I just rearranged a shelf on my bookcase with "expendable" books and it fits in with the decor better. The length of the shelf is accessible from the side so that's the side I point the gun at. Any bullet would have to go through 2 1/2 feet of books to escape.
Terry, 230RN

I use those two methods myself- about 40" of hardcovers I won't miss, and a NYPD issue Second Chance Vest inside a USMC issue Vest (circa '83), hung inside a closet door (with a 'keeper' strap to keep them in position).

Both are indicated with a used target- on the end of the shelf and the outside of the closet door- so they can double as dry firing 'safe directions'.

 

[c4v3man]

The best news is that whatever happened didn't happen again... would hate to imagine what could have happened if it continued to slam fire through the rest of the magazine...

 

[EBK]

That was a negligent discharge. Never drop the slide on a live round in the house. While 99 times out of a hundred, or more, it won't go off, the possibility exists.

Glad everyone is OK, and I hope the ringing goes away soon.

LOL so I am supposed to go outside to chamber a round in my HD gun?

Not sure the people in my apartment building would look kindly on that and almost 100% positive the police would get me for brandishing.

 

[EBK]

HMMM? I have several of the Bryco 9's, Jennings 9's and even a Jimenez 9.

How did you accomplish this? I don't even think there's a way to put them back together wrong and have that happen.

Was the Booger hook on the Bang switch when you *Racked one in the pipe*?

Not familiar with this firearms internal workings however if the firing pin is free floating the inertia from the slide/ bolt dropping will make a slight indent on the primer. Some soft primers can be set off during this action.

 

[2nd 41]

I had a slam fire with a S&W mod41 with a Clarks barrel. A Remington Golden did not feed entirely...I pulled back the slide..released it and the sucker discharged. I was at an indoor range. I was pointing downrange. No harm done...just shook me up. We can never be too safe. And don't ever think safeties do not fail. That goes for a safety on any devise. To the OP...glad you are ok.

 

[SunnySlopes]

I also strongly distrust SA striker fired handguns.

What is a "striker fired" handgun? Which models?

Also, what is a floating firing pin and which guns have it?

 

[bushmaster1313]

Are there self loading pistols that cannot slamfire (because of their construction) even if the slide is racked with a finger pulling the trigger?

 

[Impureclient]

I'd leave the hole as a reminder to the event. It's good to remember that things like this can happen.

I did that with a bb gun hole in a hall closet door in our home. It was a new bb gun I was setting up for my son at the kitchen table. I don't know what happened as it happened so fast but I must have grabbed the trigger while looking the gun over. We immediately found the hole and I left it there as a lesson to why we practice safe handling.

Nobody mentioned about the hole at this point but the popcorn ceiling is an easy fix. They sell small containers of acoustic ceiling repair at Home Depot or Lowes or you can just use the regular smooth repair stuff and blend it in to the popcorn by balling up a little and dabbing it on the area after you have filled the hole with the patching compound. It really is easy to fix as the popcorn hides a lot of mistakes. I jammed a broom handle into the ceiling when I was younger and my parents had no idea as I quickly repaired it in minutes with an old tub of joint compound in the garage I found. The roof is trickier as being in FL, you probably have a shingle roof like most of us. If you are just renting, you will have to at minimum lift the shingle, patch it with tar paper and smear a bunch of tar under there. Small quantities of each can be had easily by asking a local roofer for a small sample of each. That hole will create a huge problem later if not repaired promptly. If you own it, then you are better off replacing the shingle. Getting an new one to match the old ones is the only problem. I have a couple small holes in shingles that were repaired with the paper and tar but I intend to redo the roof soon so I didn't pull the shingles because I didn't want a bad mismatch as the shingles are really at the end of their life. Maybe you got lucky and hit a roof beam.

 

[El Mariachi]

Fwiw, years ago when I was a kid and did property management for a r/estate company, my go-to popcorn ceiling fix was Colgate toothpaste and Quaker oats.







Yes, really.....

 

[jamesbeat]

Are there self loading pistols that cannot slamfire (because of their construction) even if the slide is racked with a finger pulling the trigger?

In theory, all semiauto pistols should behave that way.
The disconnector should prevent the pistol from firing until the trigger is released and pulled again.
The disconnector is activated by the slide moving backwards, so in theory you are doing this every time you fire the pistol.
The disconnector is there to prevent out-of-battery discharges and to provide semiauto operation.
If pistols didn't work this way, they would be full auto!

 

[Trent]

But if you get the slide catawampus it can thork you in the brain box.

That's the best description of a failure event that I've ever read.

 

[230RN]

SunnySlopes asked, post 60,

What is a "striker fired" handgun? Which models?

Also, what is a floating firing pin and which guns have it?

A striker fired gun is one where the firing pin itself is held back by the sear and is strongly sprung to jump forward to the primer when it is released from the sear, setting the primer off because of the energy of the spring pushing the firing pin (or "striker") that way.

These "strikers" are usually heavier than just a little pin in the gun.

There is no hammer in a striker-fired gun.

This is different from a hammer-fired gun, where the hammer strikes the light firing pin, driving it forward to strike the primer. The energy of the hammer transferred to the firing pin is what fires the primer by its own inertia, or, loosely, by its forward momentum.

A "free-floating" firing pin is one where the firing pin is not sprung lightly in either direction, but "floats" in a hole or groove in the action. It can be seen that a bit of dirt or other circumstances can "jam" the firing pin forward so that it protrudes from the breech face. When this happens and the slide or action closes, it hits the primer and sets it off. The SKS is of this type, and standard procedure in cleaning is to shake the bolt back and forth to make sure the firing pin moves freely in its groove. (When this happens, it is possible to "dump" a whole magazine-full in machine gun fashion. This is highly dangerous, obviously.)

Some firing pins are not "free-floating" in this way, but have a small spring to hold them back and retract them from the bolt face after they set off the cartridge. This is the nature of the gunsmith-in-Texas' business I referenced above: to install these springs in the otherwise free-floating firing-pin guns such as the SKS. A look at his site (noted in my post) will show many pictures of what is meant.

The M1911's firing pin is sprung backwards like this, and disassembly manuals caution one to keep the firing pin from flying out on disassembly. They can strike you in the face or eye when flying out of the back of the slide. Not to mention that they are difficult to find if your face or eye don't stop their travels.

Most bolt-action rifles are actually striker-fired. Among the exceptions are the M1 Garand and the M1 carbine, where there is an internal hammer which you can't see, and lever-action type rifles, where you can see the external hammer.

Many guns fire from the open-bolt position, where instead of a firing pin being released, they have an immovable firing pin mounted in the bolt face. Thus, when the bolt is released from its open position by the trigger and sear, the bolt flies forward, picking up a cartridge, and when it is seated, the immovable firing pin strikes the primer. When the bolt recoils upon firing, it is kept back in its open position by the trigger and sear until the trigger is pulled again.

I am sure others will add to my comments above, and they are welcome to, since it's bedtime for me and this is a pretty condensed version.

Feel free to ask questions.

Terry

 

[mbt2001]

Bought a .22 Jennings at a local gunshow. Fired two rounds; the third shot made the gun blow up in my hand. Bit of case in my face; chip in my glasses in front of my eye. Stay away from them.

I call bs.

Maybe it was reassembled incorrectly and the slide came off but I Highly doubt it *blew up*.
We have had several split cases and tons of Overcharged rounds and never grenaded the 4 we have.

But if you get the slide catawampus it can thork you in the brain box.

I am inclined to agree with you... I have owned a few of the Bryco, Lorcin, Jennings and while they are not Kimber's by any stretch of the imagination, I think that they are serviceable weapons and am sick of hearing the "they blow up in your face" crock. I have never seen one or heard a reliable story from someone who actually had one blow up. I have seen the pictures of FN's and Glock's that blew up, but no one is dogging them.

Get a Jimenez new, do fire a few mags (and only a few) at a stretch, clean them and maintain them and they will be decent weapons. Buy them poorly maintained and used up from some pawn shop for $20.00 and you are asking for trouble, as you would with any other gun you bought that was poorly maintained and used up.

Regarding the ND issue, there are a few possibilities; the one I favor is:

1) did the OP insert the mag and then push down the slide stop so that it rammed the cartridge home and if so had he done this many times with the same round? That could have caused an ND because of protruding firing pin or a weak/sensitive primer.

I do not disagree that striker fired guns could conceivably have problems, hell all guns have been ND'd... Vigilance is the order of the day.

Order one of these http://www.safedirection.com/. They are Kevlar and can stop a round. Handy little things. Certainly peace of mind cannot have a price put on it.

 

[Brno]

...which is why I keep a pair of J-frame .38's bedside instead of a cocked and locked SA.

I realize this does not explain the slam fire in your situation, but it keeps me from ever having to explain one in mine.

Better safe than sorry.

 

[c4v3man]

Certainly peace of mind cannot have a price put on it

True, but that doesn't mean it's not overpriced. CTD has kevlar flak vests for $40 that can stop a 9 pretty reliably. I'd imagine that folding the vest a few times would stop anything a "handgun only" $180 pad would stop. Get a cheap, small steel plate to put behind it and you'd be in even better shape...

EDIT: Overpriced may be the incorrect term... better than what you need may be more appropriate. Obviously liability insurance, creating a clean, professional looking cover/hanger, etc costs money. I'm just saying there are other options that are far less than the cost of a decent .22 . Also $180 is halfway towards getting an actual class IIIA vest that you could keep bedside for the same purpose, but have the added utility of protection if needed.

 

[SunnySlopes]

A striker fired gun is one where the firing pin itself is held back by the sear and is strongly sprung to jump forward to the primer when it is released from the sear, setting the primer off because of the energy of the spring pushing the firing pin (or "striker") that way.

This is the Glock? So, as per the instructions earlier given, one should never chamber a round in a Glock indoors, or some such?

I ask, because my HD handgun is a Glock 19 w/tac light. I've heard of people negligently discharging their Glocks by inadvertently pulling the trigger, usually while holstering their weapon. But I've never heard of a Glock discharging via slam fire.

And, as someone already posted, I'm not going to wait until a bad guy is in my house to chamber a round. If I'm going to do that, I'll use my 870 HD. It makes a much louder racking noise. Usually accompanied by some witty, ominous statement.

 

[Captaingyro]

A federal agency I have trained with expects it's officers to chamber a round when loading their issue weapons at their residences. As a "safe direction", they recommend pointing at the baseboard of a stud wall on the ground floor. The idea is that a bullet will have to pass through the baseboard, then the sill plate of the stud wall, then the subfloor, and finally into the slab or crawl space.

Personally, I keep a three inch thick slab of maple in the shop for the same purpose. It's up against a wall with a concrete slab beyond. No holes in it so far, but I know the weapon is pointed at something I am perfectly willing to destroy.

 

[mbt2001]

I have a copy of harry potter 5 (hardback) that I use...

 

[icanthitabarn]

Wait for a good gun buyback program if these aren't off limits to you.

 

[BHP FAN]

Commercial drywall patch compounds cost less than $10.00 for a little bucket, and is really easy to use. get a plastic putty knife for $1.99, and you're in!put a little ''dollop'' in the hole so that it stands just a little out from the surrounding material, scrap across it with the putty knife, you're done. sand sparingly around and over the hole the next day if you want it invisible. I just did this for my kid's apartment for nail holes and such in the sheetrock when he was moving, and he got his deposit back!

 

[PavePusher]

Get an old 5 gallon metal bucket (preferably with some cool artwork from a service station or something on it), fill it full of sand, plant some miniature ice plant in it, put next to your night stand and call it Shabby Chic.....

Beat me to it.

Clearing barrel (bucket). Clearing Barrel (Or Bucket). CLEARING BARREL (OR BUCKET).

Can You Hear Me Now?

$5 of 5-gallon plastic bucket from a hardware or gardening store, and a few shovels-full of sand or dirt, put on lid, cut a 3" hole in the center of the lid.

CLEARING BARREL.

Are we clear on the concept yet?


Note: This comment is not meant to be aimed solely at the OP, it's for EVERYONE with guns.