My M1A double fired this week...

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LowLead

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I recently picked up a Springfield M1A, gave it a good cleaning and took it out. The first day out I ran 200 or more rounds through it. I took it home and cleaned it again. The following day I brought it out to the range and it fired two rounds on one squeeze. This happened after I fired a couple of magazines off already. I have looked at some of the other threads on the forum, etc. but I must say I don't know enough to begin trying to figure out why it did this. If anyone has any useful input or a referral to a person experienced with these rifles it would be much appreciated!

Thanks!
 
Make sure the firing pin in your bolt is absolutely clean with no junk to make it stick. Clean with brake clean and blow it out with it. You might have got some brass or something in the bolt when you last cleaned it. It should rattle in there back and forth when you shake it. Other than that if you have handloads with high primers or some ammo that has soft primers would be the most likely other scenario.
 
It's possible that when the bolt is traveling to the rear and pushes the hammer back, it's not pushed down / back far enough to engage the seer. If the trigger group descends at all (due to wear, impact, improper assembly or a new stock that has chubbier dimensions around the trigger group / magwell) this can happen. So another piece of advice would be to check the seating of your trigger group. Check out post 5 in this thread:

http://www.canadiangunnutz.com/forum/showthread.php/91174-M14-M305-M1A-Test-after-assembly?p=789417&viewfull=1#post789417

It's one cause of slam-fires, though by no means the only cause. But it is the most common. Slam-fires are bad; in addition to shooting off twice (or more), the round can be fired before it is fully chambered - quite dangerous.
 
Doubling is not necessarily a slam fire situation. Disassemble, clean and grease the rifle as per usual. Do the hammer follow test. If it fails, you have either a stock fit issue or a trigger problem.
If it passes and continues to double.... Somethin else is going on.
Is yer gas plug tight.... Ect
 
Also, remember that an M1A comes with a lifetime warranty from Springfield to the original owner. If the problem turns out to be too difficult to find or fix, they usually honor their products quality. Still give it a try if you don't want to be M1A-less for a couple months...

Were you using your own reloads?
 
I had the same problem with my poly tech. The trigger was very smooth and to light, turns out it had been honed. Replaced he trigger and sear, no problem now.
 
Something others have not mentioned yet... I have seen an M14 double when being bench shot for accuracy. A seasoned competative shooter was behind the gun & we believed it was the pressure on the trigger & recoil that allowed the double to occur.

The gun did not have any issues & the second shot hit several inches directly above the first shot.

So, I do believe it is possible for a gun, that doesn't have any mechanical issues, to double when just the right amount of pressure is placed on the trigger.

Cheers
Jay
 
X2jay: I believe it's called trigger bounce, usually when rifle isn't held firmly into shoulder. Rifle bounces off shoulder pushing trigger into finger.
 
Very good insight from all of you, thanks... I will check the bolt and firing pin, as well as my shooting technique. The stock is OEM. I also noticed my gas piston was slow to move under gravity with the bolt locked open, I'll give it a good (dry) cleaning. The double fire occurred with Winchester factory ammo, I had no issue with Norinco .308.

Thanks for the hints...
 
One cause of bump fire might be due to heavy winter coats. Recoil pushes the stock back compressing the coat material which then re-expands forcing the rifle forward. If the trigger finger is not firmly followed-through, this could result in a double.
 
Jay said:
Something others have not mentioned yet... I have seen an M14 double when being bench shot for accuracy. A seasoned competative shooter was behind the gun & we believed it was the pressure on the trigger & recoil that allowed the double to occur.

The gun did not have any issues & the second shot hit several inches directly above the first shot.

So, I do believe it is possible for a gun, that doesn't have any mechanical issues, to double when just the right amount of pressure is placed on the trigger.

Cheers
Jay
Click to expand...

Yup, this platform is known to double with a limpwristed, loose shouldered shooting stance.
But, if the rifle doubles, performing the hammer follow test is step one, prior to feeding her more ammo to look for other causes.
 
I think I was shooting it pretty loose, similar to my bolt action 30-06.. I will complete the hammer follow test, then take it out to the range again if it passes the test. Thanks for the insight...!
 
It's usually caused by failing to follow through on the shot when firing from a bench. Uaually only when shooting from a bench too. The shooter releases the trigger too soon and recoil causes the trigger to be pulled again. It's very exciting but only dangerous if the muzzle gets pointed where it shouldn't be. Just hold the trigger back until the rifle has stopped recoiling.
Has nothing to do with heavy coats. You know of any coat lining that is strong enough to do that? Mind you, a heavy coat will change the trigger pull length and that could do it. So will heavy gloves.
 
sunray said:
It's usually caused by failing to follow through on the shot when firing from a bench. Uaually only when shooting from a bench too. The shooter releases the trigger too soon and recoil causes the trigger to be pulled again. It's very exciting but only dangerous if the muzzle gets pointed where it shouldn't be. Just hold the trigger back until the rifle has stopped recoiling.
Has nothing to do with heavy coats. You know of any coat lining that is strong enough to do that? Mind you, a heavy coat will change the trigger pull length and that could do it. So will heavy gloves.
Click to expand...

I think he meant shooting with a heavy coat will make the rifle sit on your shoulder as if you were limp, no matter how stiff your body is.
 
Happened to me the first time I shot my Garand years ago at the range here in BC. Almost crapped my drawers. Old timer next to me walked up and I thought "oh, oh, here it comes." Instead he told me he trained on the Garand locally for WWII and to be sure to follow through with the trigger pull, pause a bit, then release. Problem solved. Fantastic luck to learn that from someone who used it back in the day.

Boom-Boom said:
X2.

I had same with M1A and M1 Garand as well. make sure you keep trigger finger pressed down after shot to avoid doubling.



BB
Click to expand...
 
Sounds like that second round was a result of Slam Fire. You can check for this by chambering a round (at the range!) and then extract and look at the primer. You will probably see a dimple on the primer where the firing pin has struck it, even though you did not fire. This is normal on the M1A, but a gummed bolt might hold the firing pin strong enough to detonate the primer. The downside is if you encounter a sensitive primer, and it will slam fire as OP told us.
 
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