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Posted: 5/4/2008 7:06:08 AM EDT
| I have read in a old SGN article that if your firing pin in your ak47 was not spring loaded that it was just a matter of time before experiencing a slam fire, is this true? I only have one ak, made from a excellent polish kit, and it does not have a spring loaded firing pin-any thoughts? |
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I had a WASR-10 that would give lite pin strikes. Wolf, Barnaul, Norinco and GT with it and had light pin strikes with all. The firing pin hit the primer and didnt ignite, i wouldnt doubt 20x harder than the firing pin could do alone w/o the hammer. I read a few of those articles talking about slapfire, some sounded like they were trying to sell "their" product. |
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A good many military rifles have free-floating firing pins, including the famed US M1 Garand Rifle and the M1 Carbine, the M14, the AR-15/M16, as well as the AK, none of which are known for "sooner or later slam firing". In all cases, the designers used a firing pin that's too light to develop enough energy to fire a primer without being struck by the hammer. While these rifles will often leave shallow firing pin imprints on the primer, this simply isn't enough to fire a primer in a GOOD round of ammo. If you examine a free-floating firing pin, you'll notice how it's been lightened by machine cuts to reduce the weight and mass. The standard AK pin is mostly a thin. flat section, only widened at the very front. This produces a very light, low-mass pin that can't develop enough energy to strike a primer very hard on it's own. What causes slam fires are one of two things: A defective rifle. Defective ammo. Defective rifle causes can range from a firing pin that's fouled or deformed and stuck in the forward position, to a defective/altered trigger assembly which "jars off" when the bolt closes and drops on the firing pin. Most rifles like the M1 rifle and Carbine, and the AK have a firing pin blocking safety interlock system that prevents the hammer from contacting the firing pin unless the bolt is locked. If this is worn, altered, or defective, the firing pin can contact the primer and fire it, but this is clearly a case of a defective rifle. A common cause of a "jar off" is when the owner has attempted to modify the trigger assembly for a better pull, or in a few really stupid cases, where the owner has attempted to convert the rifle to full-auto. We've all read stories about soldiers who could convert a rifle to full-auto by "filing something" in the rifle, but in each case, they "forget just which part they filed". What they actually did is to alter the trigger assembly so that when the bolt slams shut, the force causes the hammer to "jar off" the sear and drop. In all cases, what you are getting is a slam fire, and seldom more than a two or three round uncontrollable burst before the weapon jams. This damages the rifles action, and sooner or later it gets damaged enough to allow the rifle to fire out of battery, or fire in an unlocked condition. This is the most dangerous of the slam fire conditions. The major cause of slam fires is defective, usually reloaded ammo. In this case, the primer is not seated to it's full depth and is sticking up above the case head. When the bolt closes, it contacts the high primer and fires it. In all cases, when you do get a very rare slam fire, it's because SOMETHING is defective or out of spec. This is really rather rare, and the rare slam fire that occasionally happens is almost always a case of improperly reloaded ammunition. In those few cases where it's the rifles fault, it always a case of something out of order in the rifle, often the users fault, either for altering the rifle, failing to maintain it, or inspect it. Bottom line is, if you have a rifle and ammo in good condition you'll have no slam fires as proved by literally billions of rounds of ammo fired by M1 rifles and Carbines, M-14's, AR-15 and M16's, AK's and many other rifles without trouble. Inspect, and UNDERSTAND your rifle and it's safety systems, and be wary of reloaded ammo. |
Had a slam fire issue with an SKS using commercial winchester ammo in yellow box I think it was USA brand ammo, the cheap commercial stuff. It would do doubles and triples,immeadiately switched out to military stle harder promered ammo and problem vanished. So I'm guessing it was primer related to the commercial ammo. Shot tons of wolf,S&B, barnaul,brown bear, norinco with no problems. Also in the article you read you'll notice that the author claims credit for this spring loaded firing pin idea, the article is "kalashnicopies" keep in mind the author also states that the Yugo AKs are the only ones to use a 1.5 mm thick metal for the reciever. I have 5 chinese AKs that tell a different story....... 
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They're hard, only some commercial stuff has soft primers. You usually only have to worry about soft primers with hand loads, so if you deside to load for any gun that has a floating firing pin make sure to get hard primers. |
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