What do you call it when a round goes off by itself when it's inside of the chamber?

missfire?

A miss fire is when it does not fire after the firing pin hits the primer, trigger is pulled.
A slam fire is when the round fires due to the closing of the bolt on the chamber, no trigger pull.
An out-of-battery fire is when the round fires with the bolt not fully closed and/or locked, trigger is pulled.
 
That would describe my shorts

A bit premature for that kind of joke, don't you think? ;)

The specific circumstances of the incident will affect what we call it.

If the chamber was extremely hot, and the cartridge discharged due to spontaneously igniting, that's called "cooking off". Generally only seems to happen with extreme rapid fire and/or extremely hot weather.

If a cartridge is chambered and immedately discarges without the trigger being used, that is called a "slam fire" in most cases. It's usually due to the firing pin getting stuck in the forward position and protruding from the bolt face to strike the primer when the action slams shut.

If you pull the trigger and the firing pin hits the primer and nothing happens, then a short time later the cartridge discharges that is called a "hang fire". From what I've heard these are fairly rare nowadays, though I suppose you might run into these if using old reloading components.

In any case if your gun goes click when it should go bang, or goes bang when it should click, it is a serious problem and should be investigated. It could be a sign of an imminent critical malfunction, people have ignored it and had their gun explode afterwards.

If a cartridge is chambered and you discharge, we call that "wacking off".
 
"...accidental discharge..." No such thing. Operator failure. Mind you, on rare occasions, a semi can double fire if an internal part is broken or tries to escape. Had a Senior Cadet shooting a C1A1 have it happen on a range when the safety came loose. Doubled and jammed. Asked him why he did it. Couldn't keep a straight face though.
"...A slam fire is..." Usually caused by improperly loaded ammo. Primers are seated too high. Or like Stevebot-7 says a broken or stuck firing pin will do it too.
"...Cooking off..." That'd be a cartridge that fires out of an MG that has been fired so much that the barrel gets red hot. Highly unlikely you'll ever see a cook off out of anything else. Ambient air temperature means nothing. If it's hot enough to cause a cook off, you'll be dead.
 
A bit premature for that kind of joke, don't you think? ;)

The specific circumstances of the incident will affect what we call it.

If the chamber was extremely hot, and the cartridge discharged due to spontaneously igniting, that's called "cooking off". Generally only seems to happen with extreme rapid fire and/or extremely hot weather.

If a cartridge is chambered and immedately discarges without the trigger being used, that is called a "slam fire" in most cases. It's usually due to the firing pin getting stuck in the forward position and protruding from the bolt face to strike the primer when the action slams shut.

If you pull the trigger and the firing pin hits the primer and nothing happens, then a short time later the cartridge discharges that is called a "hang fire". From what I've heard these are fairly rare nowadays, though I suppose you might run into these if using old reloading components.

In any case if your gun goes click when it should go bang, or goes bang when it should click, it is a serious problem and should be investigated. It could be a sign of an imminent critical malfunction, people have ignored it and had their gun explode afterwards.

If a cartridge is chambered and you discharge, we call that "wacking off".

Thanks I never knew what that last one was called :confused:
 
Back
Top Bottom