OK, I end up chambering the same round over and over as I go coyote hunting with my ar-15, I have heard of them slam firing when the bolt slams on the round. All I know is it looks like it could as my first round is quite dented from the pin hitting it alot. I have learned to rotate the rounds. But how possible is this to happen or how common?? I know this really is not a reloading question here...sorry.
Slam Firing
- Thread starter aralot
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Slam fires are common in the AR-15 if you use the wrong primers. CCI makes special primers for the AR. Here is a link: http://www.midwayusa.com/Search/#cci #41 primers____-_1-2-4_8-16-32
Steve in PA
Member
I've reloaded several thousand .223 rounds for my AR using regular CCI SR primers.
Slam fires usually occur because of sloppy reloading practices. Make sure the primers are seated correctly and you won't have any problems.
Slam fires are not limited to AR rifles. Any rifle with a floating firing pin; AR, M1 Garand, M1 Carbine, etc..."can" have a slam fire.
I also load for both of those rifles using regular CCI primers too.
Slam fires usually occur because of sloppy reloading practices. Make sure the primers are seated correctly and you won't have any problems.
Slam fires are not limited to AR rifles. Any rifle with a floating firing pin; AR, M1 Garand, M1 Carbine, etc..."can" have a slam fire.
I also load for both of those rifles using regular CCI primers too.
guntech59
Member
I keep hearing about "slam fires" but I have never seen one nor do I know anyone that has.
Just curious...how many here have actual first hand knowledge of one?
FYI, I use CCI primers for my AR.
Just curious...how many here have actual first hand knowledge of one?
FYI, I use CCI primers for my AR.
rcmodel
Member in memoriam
I had them a lot in a Colt AR when I first started reloading the .223 around 1970.
(A slam-fire in an AR-15 is really nothing spectacular if the gun is pointed in a safe direction. It just amounts to an unexpected round firing when you chamber it, or doubling sometimes.)
I later tracked it down to my poor method of trimming out GI primer crimps with a pocket knife, and smashing the primers in with a Rock-Chucker press primer arm,
Once I started swaging primer pockets, and seating with an RCBS hand primer tool by feel, I've never had another one in the last 40 some years.
rc
(A slam-fire in an AR-15 is really nothing spectacular if the gun is pointed in a safe direction. It just amounts to an unexpected round firing when you chamber it, or doubling sometimes.)
I later tracked it down to my poor method of trimming out GI primer crimps with a pocket knife, and smashing the primers in with a Rock-Chucker press primer arm,
Once I started swaging primer pockets, and seating with an RCBS hand primer tool by feel, I've never had another one in the last 40 some years.
rc
guntech59
Member
Thank you, RC. That was my point. If you load right, there really shouldn't be a problem..
I had one with an AR. I was shooting the 200 yard standing stage during Highpower. I dropped the round in the chamber and hit the bolt release. The round took a divot out of the ground in front of the firing line. My ammo was primed with the new brass colored Winchester primers.
I seat all primers by hand incidentally.
My scorer just razzed me at the relay change. When he gets up there, his AR slamfires, taking a divot out of the firing line. His ammo was primed with Federal match. This gentleman is a Distinguished HM and has two President’s 100 brassards. I really doubt his ammunition was poorly loaded.
There have been enough slamfires in AR’s, during the standing stage, that the NRA changed the rules. It used to be you could rest your rifle on your stool while loading. I saw guys who put the muzzle on their stool and loaded a round. I am certain some of them put a bullet through their stool.
These two slamfires are the only ones I have seen, but bud’s report others. If you do enough searching on this forum you will find other reported AR slamfires.
The good thing about AR slamfire's is that all I have every heard of were in battery. Garands and M1a’s slamfire in battery, and out of battery.
Just because you have never seen one does not mean it does not happen.
I seat all primers by hand incidentally.
My scorer just razzed me at the relay change. When he gets up there, his AR slamfires, taking a divot out of the firing line. His ammo was primed with Federal match. This gentleman is a Distinguished HM and has two President’s 100 brassards. I really doubt his ammunition was poorly loaded.
There have been enough slamfires in AR’s, during the standing stage, that the NRA changed the rules. It used to be you could rest your rifle on your stool while loading. I saw guys who put the muzzle on their stool and loaded a round. I am certain some of them put a bullet through their stool.
These two slamfires are the only ones I have seen, but bud’s report others. If you do enough searching on this forum you will find other reported AR slamfires.
The good thing about AR slamfire's is that all I have every heard of were in battery. Garands and M1a’s slamfire in battery, and out of battery.
Just because you have never seen one does not mean it does not happen.
guntech59
Member
Slamfire1, Thank you for the enlightenment.
earlthegoat2
Member
MMMM slamfires.....
legal machine guns
legal machine guns
I agree that primer initiated slamfires are a subset of all causes. However it is the one with the least recognition and most denial.
Many folks just believe that a primer is a primer: primers are all round and shiny and all the same. You will see posts by guys who proclaim with revolutionary fervor that there is no such thing as a milspec (less sensitive) primer.
Mechanisms with free floating firing pins are particularly prone to slamfiring with sensitive primers. Your rifle probably slamfired because the forward speed of the firing pin was increased by the strong recoil spring. Just that little additional speed was enough to overcome the ignition threshold when the firing pin bounced off the primer.
There are some reports of slamfires in AR’s that have the operating rod conversion. My guess is that the additional weight of the carrier increased forward velocity during cam down.
Incidentally, if you look at the “Black Rifle: An M16 Retrospective: http://www.amazon.com/Black-Rifle-M16-Retrospective/dp/0947898867 there is half a chapter on the early slamfires the Army/Marines had with the M16, and what they did to reduce them.
Illegal machine guns. Search and you will find a guy who leant an AR to a friend, the AR slamfired at the range, and the original owner is now in jail for processing a machine gun. Search some more and you will find that the BATF took a FAL owner to court for owning a “machine gun”. According to the FAL owners statement, a spiteful person sic'd the BATF after him. The BATF then found commercial ammo with sensitive primers (it was Winchester) and got his rifle to slamfire. The owner had to go to court.
Maybe the moral of the story is, follow safe reloading practices or the BATF will ensure you have unsafe sex in prison!.
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