AR Sponsor
Posted: 11/10/2011 5:11:45 PM EDT
|
Gentlemen,
This question concerns a Colt 6520 I recently bought. Couple weeks ago I started checking on the 'net for Federal Small Rifle Match AR primers to stoke my new Winnie brass. Grafs was out, and every place that had them would not ship to Alaska. This leaves (a large nationwide seller of sporting goods) in Anchorage, they WILL ship to the Bush. I called them the guy said he had many cases of them, and had already shipped that morning, eleven (11) cases out to some guy in a village. I made sure I said "okay, we are talking about Federal Small Rifle Match A-R (I am spelling out the "A" and "R"), primers for the AR-15, not regular match primers", to which the fellow enthusiastically told me he knew what I was talking about. I felt I could wait a week or so to see if any would come in at Grafs. Couple days ago I checked Grafs again and found no Federal Small Rifle Match AR primers in stock. Called (a large nationwide seller of sporting goods) in Anchorage and guy said he had lots, still. Okay. Yesterday I decided to order a case of 5k and I specifically stated "Federal Small Rifle Match A-R primers", and reiterated these are the special primers for the AR, guy told me he had them, said "ok I'll go get them off the shelf and get this going". Called back a few minutes later to say he had 3 boxes of 1k, not a whole case like he thought, but he might locate some more, could I wait a couple hours as he had just been called to a managers meeting"? I said "sure". Hour and a half later he calls to tell me "I've located another two boxes of those Federal primers, they were hiding behind some other brand of primer." I again asked him if the order would now total "5k Federal Small Rifle Match A-R (I am spelling out the "A" and "R" primers")? He said "yes". So I gave my CC number. Today they are up at the airport. I go get them and come home to find......they are Federal Small Rifle Match primers. Plain jane, not the AR primers with the harder cup to prevent slam-fires. FECES! Also, the guy DID NOT find "two boxes", he found an additional 20 boxes of 100, which would be fine, but he charged $4.79 per hundred rather than $4.29 per hundred which is what they cost in the big box. So now I am sitting on 5k primers I am wary of using. How much did this cost? With the additional box of CCI Large Rifle Benchrest primers for my .223 WSSM: $381.70 total. I have since called the manager and he told me flat out they'd refund my money and send me a case of the correct primers. So before I go for this and possibly get someone fired for making this mistake, how probable is a slam-fire in the AR? This is my first AR. I always uniform primer pockets and use a K&N priming tool to set the crush at 0.002", so no primer will ever be high. Thank you. |
Well let see -servered 24 years in the Mil -never saw a slam fire, Put thosands of rounds down range - alway use bolt release to chamber rounds - never had a slam fire! Use SR primers for thousands of rounds in my AR's never had a slam fire. Your probability of a slam fire -ZERO! In other words forget about it! Let see what would cause a slam fire? One an out of spec firing pin or a burr that keeps the firing pin from moving back ? - broken firing pin? If you keep your gun clean and inspect it you should never have any of these problems!
|
|
Quoted:
Remember to always point the gun in a safe direction when chambering. 99.999% the ammo will be fine. If you have high primers (reloads) the slam fire event would be more likely to happen. I dunno.... a hammer hitting a primer won't set them off (in a case) I doubt the bolt hitting a high primer would. But that's just imo |
|
Thicker primer cups mitigate against primer perforation caused by heavy hits typical of ARs and other "military" rifles. Also remember, M193 and M855 and similar operate at the ragged edge of brass-case allowable pressures. You don't want a closed-bolt primer perf and a load of gas in your face.
The OOB concern is a different issue, best prevented by proper reloading technique, ie., be darn sure all your primers are seated properly. If you stay sensibly clear of flat-out-max pressures, and do not have a firing pin protrusion/cratering problem, you should be fine with the standard small rifle primers. Just be sure you never load small pistol primers in .223. People sometimes confuse inadequate primer hits seen with carrier bounce in full-auto with lighter marks created b/c of the AR's floating firing pin. Sam |
|
JohnWII
I don't think mag in or out makes one bit of difference! The wt of the firing pin doesn't have enough enengy to fire a primer. With out the energy of the hammer it just isn't going to happen! Now have an out of spec firing pin/bolt burr all bets are off!
|
|
Having the mag in does make a difference - stripping the round out of the mag slows the bolt down a little, making the slam fire less likely. Only time I've ever seen one was at a highpower match with a round loaded directly into the chamber, no mag in the rifle.
It can happen, it's just very rare and with factory ammo, not really a concern at all. Really thin-cupped primers, maybe not fully seated? Maybe then. |
AR Sponsor