Quoted:
Perhaps I was not clear enough.
He was firing a string of shots when the bolt got hung up on the way forward. He tried squeezing the trigger, nothing happened. So he transitioned to his side arm and some time between transitioning to his side arm and being jostled/bumped/whacked around the bolt finally went into battery and after it went fully into battery did his trigger get caught in some of his web gear and the rifle then fired. Had he done as instructed, safe'ing the weapon the now functioning weapon would not have discharged a round "accidentally". During the AAR he figured that he was on a snap cap or out of rounds so he didn't need to put the safety on. He now understands why we are trained to always put the safety on during transitions. You could probably go a lifetime and not replicate that incident, but then again...
Make sense now?
No, it does not... because you can press the trigger with the bolt out of battery and have it travel under spring pressure forward towards the firing pin, but if the bolt is not in battery, the hammer cannot strike the firing pin. The bolt can be out of battery by an inch and allow the hammer to fall. If your guy had his bolt that far out of battery where the hammer cannot be released, which is what I believe your explaining, then he has bigger issues. How can some one have there gun in that kind of condition and be ready to engage targets??? Sounds more like a training issue. So he transitions... unless hes engaging hordes of bad guys and this sounds like a training scenario, then he finishes the drill with a pistol...accesses, reloads and holsters, and then gets his primary up...
Apparently he never looks in his ejection port or uses the dust cover... amazing how that little piece can keep out foreign debris. and if you take a quick look and then close it between firing, it eliminates a lot of "Million to one" malfunctions.
Your right, sounds like a million to one, You have your SOP's.. I have mine...