[Darkangel]

I posted this in another thread, but got to thinking.. Who else has experienced this?

My wife and I were at the range one day with her 10/22.. She had a malfuncion, so her being new to shooting I took the rifle to clear it. It was a round partially in the chamber, and a casing stove-piped sideways half out of the ejection port. I removed the mag, I racked the bolt back, canted the rifle until the casing fell out, then let the bolt go forward under its own steam.. I can say with 100% certainty that I am glad for all the years of weapons drills in the military, as I had kept it loosely on target the entire time. When the bolt reached its happy place, that single round that had been half loaded went off.

My finger wasnt anywhere near the trigger. Moral of the story: If you let the bolt on a 10/22 slam home with a round in the chamber, but no mag in the rifle, it could fire. Both our 10/22's marr the side of the rim on a casing when I tested with primer only... (as if the bolt hits one side of the casing with the headspace before the other, as the firing pin wasnt responsable for firing that round, or any of the tests that went off afterwards - it was the one side of the 'headspace' crushing the one side of the rim, but only with no mag inserted in the rifle).

After much research, it seems to be a common, but fairly rare occurance, where a round actually fires. Just know it can!

 

[moondog911]

Greetings,

Thanks for your post because I will be picking up a 10-22 in the near future.

moondog911

 

[hightechredneck123]

If the round is already in the chamber when the bolt slams shut, doesn't the ejector hit the rim of the cartridge, much like the firing pin does?

 

[Darkangel]

The extractor should slip over the rim, same as if the mag was feeding the round into the rifle.. If the extractor was jammed, then it could indeed happen that way.. In our case, and I suspect most ppls, is actually the bolt face slightly crushing the side of the rim as it slams shut (causing the round to fire occasionally).. I think its an alignment issue that having a mag in the rifle corrects..

 

[hightechredneck123]

OK, that makes sense, the bolt is free to flop around a little bit.

 

[harryball]

Slam fires can happen under several circumstances. The most common is a stuck firing pin. Some SKS's are notorious for it. Maybe the bolt wobbled but I'm wondering if maybe the firing pin was stuck forward or was pushed forward by dirt or debris.

 

[Darkangel]

No Sir, no stuck firing pin, and no firing pin dent in the casing.. That was my first thought too...