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Posted: 1/12/2011 9:52:39 AM EDT
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I was at the range today running my Spikes stainless conversion and had a problem. I ran four mags through it and had a couple of FTF but nothing major. I put the fifth mag in the well and cycled it back to chamber the round. When I pulled the trigger I heard a pop, not a crack, and smoke started to pour from my reciever. When I opened the bolt, the back half of the round fell out like a little disc and the shell casing is now jammed in the Spikes reciever and will not come out. I was shooting Federal ammo.
Anyone have experience with this? Any ideas as to what happened? |
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It appears you just have an Out Of Battery discharge. That is, the round was not fully seated when it fired. This caused the back of the case to blow off (that is all the smoke you had coming out) and the case seperated leaving part of it jammed up in the chamber.
What you need to do: First, remove the casing from the chamber adapter. This can be done in several ways. It could be as simple as using a small straight punch to go in from the "barrel" end and push out the casing. Of course, this is done with the adapter unloaded and out of the rifle. Next, you need to find out why this happened. Common causes are that the bolt is not traveling all the way into "battery", that is fully seated against the back of the chamber adapter. If you do some research here there are some posts, look in the OOB sticky, about these things and what can cause them. I have seen a Spikes unit where the plating was a bit rough inside and it was not easy for the rounds to chamber fully. If this is the case, call Spikes as they will take care of it. Its an easy check to just drop a round into the chamber adapter (off the rifle) and see if it drops in freely with out any pressure applied to it. Also...some ammo will leave a lot of lead deposits and these can cause rounds to jam and not seat fully. Check closely for this and read about different ammos that are bad about this. I have had three different .22 firearms get bad lead deposits that were difficult to clean. Needless to say I got rid of the offending ammo! If the chamber seems OK, and it should be very clean and smooth, I would clean everything up and put the conversion back in the rifle. Then, with the firearm NOT loaded, I would cycle the bolt and observe if it is moving freely and if the bolt is moving fully forward and seating properly on the back side of the chamber adapter. I would check the inside of the chamber adapter closely and insure it is SMOOTH and that nothing is impeding the seating of a round. Also, I would make sure the conversion is fitting properly into the upper receiver and the chamber. I have seen some rifles where this fit was tight and there were issues. My buddy had a DPMS where there was a slight issue with this. |
| You bring up some very valid points. In looking back, I do remember having to take a couple of the rounds out with a pic because they did not eject. I wonder if it was just fouling that caused the OOB discharge. I contacted Spikes and they suggested getting and easy out and try pulling it out or sending it back to them. Thank you very much for the input. |
| Just as a reminder, if you ever get an Out Of Battery ignition there is a chance a bullet maybe lodged in the barrel. Always inspect the bore for obstruction after an OOB. I've had numerous OOB's over the years and have had bullets fail to exit the barrel. Fortunately I never ruined a barrel but it is worth the time to check the bore! This is another reason I carry a military cleaning kit in my rifle case, the cleaning rod works could on stuck cases on center fires and lodged bullets on rimfires. |
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Quoted:
Just as a reminder, if you ever get an Out Of Battery ignition there is a chance a bullet maybe lodged in the barrel. Always inspect the bore for obstruction after an OOB. I've had numerous OOB's over the years and have had bullets fail to exit the barrel. Fortunately I never ruined a barrel but it is worth the time to check the bore! This is another reason I carry a military cleaning kit in my rifle case, the cleaning rod works could on stuck cases on center fires and lodged bullets on rimfires. Thanks for adding that. I got in a hurry as wife just got home and wanted help. I never got to that part. I too carry a GI cleaning kit and I run a patch down the bore every so often at the range. Also, any time anything out of the normal happens or the firearm just doesn't sound right I check the bore. When we were young my brother blew the family .22 due to something stuck in the barrel. I remember that WELL all these years later. My father saved the rifle and made us all look at it once in awhile to remind us of what can go wrong. |
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Quoted:
Just as a reminder, if you ever get an Out Of Battery ignition there is a chance a bullet maybe lodged in the barrel. Always inspect the bore for obstruction after an OOB. I've had numerous OOB's over the years and have had bullets fail to exit the barrel. Fortunately I never ruined a barrel but it is worth the time to check the bore! This is another reason I carry a military cleaning kit in my rifle case, the cleaning rod works could on stuck cases on center fires and lodged bullets on rimfires. Yep. Since it is .22, there is not enough pressure to detonate the barrel. It will however leave a nice little ring in the bore. Surprisingly, this does not effect accuracy a great deal. Ask me how I know> 
OP - when did you buy your conversion? I had an older unit, and as it turns out, some of these had very tight chambers which induced FTFs and OOBs. Spike's sent me an updated chamber adapter and the conversion worked flawlessly after that. In fact, I ended up just buying a dedicated upper from them. Spike's CS is fantastic. |
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I was shooting a CMMG Conversion in a 1:12" this past weekend.
I had one Federal Case get stuck so bad I had to take the rifle down. The case split at several points and was hung up on the sides of the chamber. It did not blow out as is normal near the rear. A well placed pocket knife blade got it loose.. The barrel was clear so we continued to shoot. I did have a few dull pops but I've come to expect that with Federal Bulk. Good Luck with yours, Spec |
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