M305 Owners - Could you please share your experiences with slam firing and doubling?

Just a small update - I've since returned the rifle to Canada Ammo after explaining the problem (quite some time ago, actually) and received a replacement and haven't had any issues since. No hassle with CanAm - they were very accommodating.

I'm thinking the culprit was the way I was holding the rifle and squeezing the trigger. That being the case, I think the rifle may have just been bump firing rather than slam firing - I think I may try the same squeeze to see if I can duplicate the phenomenon.
 
I had a slam fire once on my norinco m14s. I dropped a reloaded round in the chamber and racked the bolt and it went off. The bolt came apart, fortunately I found all the parts on the table and put it back together. The rear third of the case was gone and I had a couple of cuts on my finger and a piece of brass in one cut that I pulled out. The bolt was jammed back, I thought the gun was scrap but I got it loose and racked it few times. Took it apart, reassembled the bolt and put it back together and it seems fine. I got the broken case out pretty easy with the chamber brush. I asked a gunsmith and he said it was probably a primer seated a little high.
 
I've had a case head separation in mine from using brass that had been reloaded two many times, and used a flathead screwdriver to dig in and pry it out.

claw808 said:
I had a slam fire once on my norinco m14s. I dropped a reloaded round in the chamber and racked the bolt and it went off. The bolt came apart, fortunately I found all the parts on the table and put it back together. The rear third of the case was gone and I had a couple of cuts on my finger and a piece of brass in one cut that I pulled out. The bolt was jammed back, I thought the gun was scrap but I got it loose and racked it few times. Took it apart, reassembled the bolt and put it back together and it seems fine. I got the broken case out pretty easy with the chamber brush. I asked a gunsmith and he said it was probably a primer seated a little high.
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Had a case separation which resulted in a slam fire and totaled my m14 bolt. Have never had the desire to shoot one again. Was using american eagle ammo (likely the culprit).
 
Gentlemen, NEVER drop a round in the chamber of an m14 and drop the bolt on it.
This a very rigid and basic rule for the M14 family of rifles.
ALWAYS load from the magazine.
This is not a suggestion.
 
Pr589 said:
Had a guy next to me whose m305 was doubling frequently. The trigger assembly looked fine and it passed the trigger follow test.

It seemed to be a technique issue in the way he was holding the benched rifle (he is a right forced to shoot lefty due to physical issues) and the fact that he was not following through on his trigger pulls.

He changed his technique and did not experience further doubling for the balance of the range session.
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Mine has never slam fired. It has never doubled when I shoot it. When one of my sons shoots it, he gets a lot of doubles. He has a very gentle and precise squeeze. I can't get him to be more positive about pulling the trigger.

I don't use Federal primers in it. If I did, I could probably get it to slam fire, especially if I chambered the round and then dropped the bolt.
 
45ACPKING said:
Gentlemen, NEVER drop a round in the chamber of an m14 and drop the bolt on it.
This a very rigid and basic rule for the M14 family of rifles.
ALWAYS load from the magazine.
This is not a suggestion.
Click to expand...

I had never heard this before
Is it because of the extra force by not having to strip the round from the magazine ?

Then that would apply to other similar rifles as well ?
 
RickR1100 said:
STOP GIVING UNSAFE "ADVICE"!

To say that a slam fire "has nothing whatever to do with the rifle" isn't just missleading, it's FALSE and allowing an unsafe condition to continue.



To the OP, sometimes grease, fouling can cause the firing pin to rest in a "forward" position, allowing a slam fire to occur. This is more often seen on SKS's that have been heavily used, and not cleaned in the firing pin hole or pin itself. It can also happen with soft primers, meant for bolt-action hunting rifles and not military style semi-autos that often don't feature firing pin springs and meant to shoot military ball ammo that tends to have thicker primer cups to resist damage.

That said, I've not experienced slam fires or doubling myself. Well...ok, shooting the old 9mm SMG in the 1980's was nothing but slam-fires...but for that weapon it was behaving as designed!
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honestly sunray is a fool. he gives out HORRIBLE and UNSAFE advice all the time. he's a damn know it all, but he seems to know less than nothing.

Slam fires can and are caused by all the things 45ACPKING listed, not just high primers (and, by the way, if it is the ammo causing a slam fire, it's ALWAYS the primer as far as I know - can't think of anything that would possibly cause a slam fire other than high primers or very soft ones, but even those, if seated correctly and as deep as they are supposed to be, I find it somewhat hard to imagine a slam fire situation, though I don't think it could be ruled out).

But there are many other things that could cause a slam fire, so don't say it's always the ammo, sunray. Or wait, that's your trade mark, know everything, give bad advice, then disappear from the thread once called on it.
 
claw808 said:
I had a slam fire once on my norinco m14s. I dropped a reloaded round in the chamber and racked the bolt and it went off. The bolt came apart, fortunately I found all the parts on the table and put it back together. The rear third of the case was gone and I had a couple of cuts on my finger and a piece of brass in one cut that I pulled out. The bolt was jammed back, I thought the gun was scrap but I got it loose and racked it few times. Took it apart, reassembled the bolt and put it back together and it seems fine. I got the broken case out pretty easy with the chamber brush. I asked a gunsmith and he said it was probably a primer seated a little high.
Click to expand...

it wasn't a primer seated high, more than likely.

it's the fact that if you drop a round in the chamber, then the op-rod and bolt have much, much less resistance against them flying forward. they hit the chambered round with much more force than they otherwise would (more speed), and this means that the firing pin, which is a free floating pin, has more momentum. And what happens to things with momentum, when one tries to stop them? They keep going if they can. Your pin kept going and smashed the primer, but it sounds like it did this before the bolt was locked home. You're pretty lucky to be honest.

But no, it isn't a primer seated high at all. as 45ACPKING said, NEVER EVER chamber a round then drop the bolt on it. It needs the resistance caused by stripping the cartridge from the magazine to slow down the bolt and oprod.
 
Ganderite said:
Mine has never slam fired. It has never doubled when I shoot it. When one of my sons shoots it, he gets a lot of doubles. He has a very gentle and precise squeeze. I can't get him to be more positive about pulling the trigger.

I don't use Federal primers in it. If I did, I could probably get it to slam fire, especially if I chambered the round and then dropped the bolt.
Click to expand...

I have a Polytech that I loaned to my brother and he had the same problem as your son.

Stateside this is not an uncommon occurrence amongst novice shooters, and has been labelled the very unmanly term of 'milking the trigger'.

just info

Myself I use CCI #34 primers and physically check my handloads to eliminate high primers.
 
Never had a slam fire with either my M305 or SKS. Always clean your guns, make sure the firing pin is dry and load from the magazine. And no matter what always point down range with a firm grip when you arm your firearm. You can never be to safe with that.
 
RickR1100 said:
STOP GIVING UNSAFE "ADVICE"!

To say that a slam fire "has nothing whatever to do with the rifle" isn't just missleading, it's FALSE and allowing an unsafe condition to continue.



To the OP, sometimes grease, fouling can cause the firing pin to rest in a "forward" position, allowing a slam fire to occur. This is more often seen on SKS's that have been heavily used, and not cleaned in the firing pin hole or pin itself. It can also happen with soft primers, meant for bolt-action hunting rifles and not military style semi-autos that often don't feature firing pin springs and meant to shoot military ball ammo that tends to have thicker primer cups to resist damage.

That said, I've not experienced slam fires or doubling myself. Well...ok, shooting the old 9mm SMG in the 1980's was nothing but slam-fires...but for that weapon it was behaving as designed!
Click to expand...

Um... SMGs have fixed firing pins and shoot from an open bolt. There is no such thing as a slam fire with an SMG however the safety was always dodgy. :)

But yes, clean the bolt & firing pin & avoid civvy primers.
 
M305 Never had a slamfire or doubling. Shoot mainly mil 7.62x51 and some small amounts of Winchester whitebox .308 and American Eagle .308 (some people don't recommend this ammo for use in M14's) 1 of my SKS's (Norc mil factory 26) did double with reloads using winchester primers (properly seated) the others seemed OK with it. Went back to milsurp x39 and it operates properly.
 
No slam fires yet. Have put over 1000 rounds through and have had about 5 doubling. I understand from some of the posts I have read that doubling can be caused by slowly squeezing the trigger. When the weapon discharges the recoil causes another round to fire because of the position of your trigger finger at the point of where the weapon will fire.
 
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