Anschutz 64 MP R, a problem with the safety

Big Bad

Big Bad

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Last time out shooting my Anschutz 64 MP R I had a little incident. The rifle is less than 2 years old and I've used it pretty much exclusively for bench shooting, darn good rifle. Anyway, I've never paid much attention to the so-called safety, so this time in mid last session I just thought I'd click it on and off a few times to make sure it was operating freely. I'd just loaded a 5 round mag and as soon as I touched the safety, bang! the rifle discharged. What with safe muzzled control and all, no harm done except to my nerves, but on the next shot I couldn't make it happen again, safety worked normally. Next reload, no problem, reload after that still no problem but later on with a full mag it happened again, discharged when I moved the safety from off to on, so so far this seems to only be a problem on a full magazine.

The first time it happened I was thinking I might have carelessly activated the very light target trigger but the second time I definitely did not. Any suggestions as to what to do here? I mean aside from not relying on the safety, which I never do anyway.

Edit: I was working the bolt and safety this morning with the rifle unloaded and on one occasion only it fired as the safety was being disengaged.


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depends on the type of safety I am guessing its a firing pin safety. So what might be happening is when you fire it with the safety applied the safety is working and stopping the firing pin but when you release the trigger the trigger is not resetting the sear holding the firing pin so now only the firing pin is only held by the safety. releasing the safety in this condition will be the same as pulling the trigger firing the rifle. I think this was a major issue in the Remington 700 series and resulted in several deaths and one of their bankruptcies.
You should contact Anschutz about this its not a small issue and they might be gratefully to hear about the problem before it results in death or injury.
 
WobblyHead said:
depends on the type of safety I am guessing its a firing pin safety. So what might be happening is when you fire it with the safety applied the safety is working and stopping the firing pin but when you release the trigger the trigger is not resetting the sear holding the firing pin so now only the firing pin is only held by the safety. releasing the safety in this condition will be the same as pulling the trigger firing the rifle. I think this was a major issue in the Remington 700 series and resulted in several deaths and one of their bankruptcies.
You should contact Anschutz about this its not a small issue and they might be gratefully to hear about the problem before it results in death or injury.
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Contact with Anschutz is already under way, thanks for the suggestions.
 
It's possible your trigger is out of adjustment with the result that the safety doesn't work as it should. The following is from the Anschutz North America website's maintenance section h t t p s://www.anschutznorthamerica.com/maintenance-tips.html




 
^^^ Didn't have that site, a good asset, obviously. I'm gonna wait to hear from the company before I try anything myself though, don't want them telling me I voided the warranty or anything like that. And as I say the trigger is pretty excellent the way it came from the factory, takes a very light touch.
 
Once again its SUPER G to the rescue of his fellow gunners. Im gonna have a medal or trophy made in appreciation of You just being You. Thanks Glenn
 
I concur with grauhanen, trigger adjustment must be slightly out of spec. The trigger instructions clearly specify to test safety function after any adjustments. I would turn the sear engagement screw clockwise 1/16th-1/8th turn. You will not void any warranty by making minor adjustments to the trigger as outlined in the user manual. Your trigger may be great for a bench only rifle where the safety is never used... but as you clearly use the safety... adjustment is required and my money is on the sear engagement. What are you afraid of? You turn a screw 1/8th turn one way... it doesn't work... you just turn it back :)
 
It's simple enough to try, but now I feel obligated to wait for a response from Anschutz. I already told them I haven't made any adjustments myself. If there's been no response before the next time I want to take it out however....
 
grauhanen said:
It's possible your trigger is out of adjustment with the result that the safety doesn't work as it should. The following is from the Anschutz North America website's maintenance section h t t p s://www.anschutznorthamerica.com/maintenance-tips.html




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An Anschutz expert I got ahold of advises that the 1/8 turn trigger (sear) adjustment is probably what's indicated for a safe safety, says from the sound of it that my trigger is set 'way lightly for a new from the factory rifle, but of course I do like it that way for target shooting. If that's indeed all it is, I can live with it for bench shooting but not for hunting (even though I don't use a safety for that, having a rifle that discharges when the safety is touched or bumped is for sure potentially deadly), and certainly can't leave it as is for passing the rifle on. Anyway, I've yet to hear from the Anschutz people directly, waiting for that as final word.
 
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Big Bad said:
Anyway, I've yet to hear from the Anschutz people directly, waiting for that as final word.
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If you emailed Anschutz in Germany, it's possible you may wait a long time for a response. You might have better luck sending a message to Brad at Nordic Marksman, Anschutz dealer and parts supplier to Canadian shooters.
 
I'm not entirely positive but I believe that most if not all of the safeties for Anschutz rimfires are sear based. ie: locking bar moves to prevent the sear from moving
The problem that you could be running into is that with a full mag there's enough back pressure put on the sear via the firing pin and bolt to prevent a positive lock up. If you have some snap caps run them through your action from a full mag paying close attention to the safety engagement.
Again not entirely positive this will help with diagnosing your problem but I hope it helps.
 
grauhanen said:
If you emailed Anschutz in Germany, it's possible you may wait a long time for a response. You might have better luck sending a message to Brad at Nordic Marksman, Anschutz dealer and parts supplier to Canadian shooters.
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I did go through Nordic Marksman, phone and then email, they said they were referring it on to the company. No response yet, if I was Anschutz I'd've been onto this pretty quickly but time will tell.
 
MrGoose said:
I'm not entirely positive but I believe that most if not all of the safeties for Anschutz rimfires are sear based. ie: locking bar moves to prevent the sear from moving
The problem that you could be running into is that with a full mag there's enough back pressure put on the sear via the firing pin and bolt to prevent a positive lock up. If you have some snap caps run them through your action from a full mag paying close attention to the safety engagement.
Again not entirely positive this will help with diagnosing your problem but I hope it helps.
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That's worth considering but it also can be make to happen with an unloaded rifle, as I discovered here at home.
 
Had the rifle out yesterday and could not get the problem to repeat. However I can't say I worked at it, just flipped it on and off maybe 8 times through the session. Still awaiting advice from the maker.
 
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