M14s slam fire

maddog221

maddog221

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I had an unintentional discharge with my M14 today. I had 3 rounds in the magazine, fired the first shot without anything out of the ordinary happening. On the second pull of the trigger the rifle fired, chambered another round and fired.

The third discharged round was still in the chamber, hammer cocked, with the bolt stuck in the closed position. I was able to force the action open and eject the empty case. This is what I found.

Federal165gr-2.jpg


Federal165gr-1.jpg


As far as I am able to tell, there appears to be nothing wrong with my firing pin, could this be a result of using sporting ammunition (soft primer?) in a battle rifle? Any advice would be appreciated.
 
It is surprising that the case remained in the chamber.

The round fired without the hammer striking the firing pin. That is why the primer extruded into the firing pin hole - the hammer wasn't backing up the firing pin.

Check that the protruding metal is not actually a piece blanked from the previous round - that could be another, separate issue that could cause a slamfire.
 
tiriaq said:
Check that the protruding metal is not actually a piece blanked from the previous round - that could be another, separate issue that could cause a slamfire.
Click to expand...

That was my first thought but I can find no evidence of that. I've put maybe 80-100 rounds through this gun with no problems.
 
Yep, Federal primers are THE WORST thing to use in an M14.

That looks though like one of the prior rounds had a pierced primer and that the blank punched out of the first primer caused your firing pin to stick forward. Hard ot say for sure without seeing that round in person though.
 
Claven2 said:
Yep, Federal primers are THE WORST thing to use in an M14.

That looks though like one of the prior rounds had a pierced primer and that the blank punched out of the first primer caused your firing pin to stick forward. Hard ot say for sure without seeing that round in person though.
Click to expand...

That was my first thought as well however, looking at the 8 rounds I had fired previously, I can find nothing unusual. I was able to pick the protrusion off and it appears to be extruded as tiriaq had suggested in his post.
 
The firing pin channel may have crud or debris in it that may have caused the firing pin to stay in the forward position.

It would be prudent to clean it before you attempt to fire it again.
 
The primer material flowed backward into the firing pin hole.
As mentioned previously in this thread something, likely dirt, or a bit of brass held the pin in the protruded position, when it struck the soft federal primer, the primer fired, the fact that there is so much material extruded into the firing pin hole indicates that the firing pin did not stay protruded, likely the material that flowed backward drove whatever was holding the pin - back into the bolt body. The grit(or whatever) may still be in the bolt body, a thorough cleaning with a proper solvent, and a good blasting with a compressor is in order.
 
Wendell said:
The firing pin channel may have crud or debris in it that may have caused the firing pin to stay in the forward position.

It would be prudent to clean it before you attempt to fire it again.
Click to expand...

Done! Didn't find anything when I cleaned it. It's not something I want to see reoccur, I'll be using Winchester 168gr for moose next week.
 
Also try to find a chromed firing pin if you want to use this rifle like this. They are out there you just have to look.
chromefiringpinsm.2.gif
 
The idea behing the chromed firing pin is that all the carbon debris won't stick to it and it will be hard to rust out. There for the cleaning of the firing pin and firing pin channel will need to be done less often. This dosn't mean there is anything wrong with the standard firing pin's just some people are lazyer than other's and this make's for once less thing to due in the cleaning process.
 
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