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Posted: 10/17/2008 10:58:46 AM EDT
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Ok, before this gets locked and trashed I need to get some mod "insight". EDIT: Ok, mod approval....technical discussion of "how it operates" is ok as long as we don't discuss "how to make it". My question is basically "isn't this a 'slam fire' operation?" I'll get more detailed if they allow it. Don't want anyone to get 'uptight' over discussing how things work. Ok, going to look at the link posted....but as I was studying another site it appears that the hammer is released from the sear as the bolt carrier goes back. So as it goes forward it's (the hammer) just waiting to come up and hit the firing pin. Seems like a slam fire. |
hijack in progress. When you try to use one of the top carriers with a Lightning Link, the link will hit the rounded edge at the rear of the carrier before the carrier closes into battery allowing the rifle to fire. From the link above. I guess I don't understand which part it is talking about hitting. Is there a reason you can't trim a standard bolt to match the sp1 bolt? Still what part is wrong? |
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So there is no possibility for the hammer to release before the bolt is fully closed? Seems like if the timing was off that could happen, especially with a bolt that was not like the SP1. I could see how the rounded edge would trip the LL sooner. Do you have a LL? 
EDIT: Just did some more reading......there is definately the possibility for an out of battery fire and a dangerous KABOOM! |
A possibility? Well, of course there is. I've seem semi AR15s slam-fire as well as M16's slam-fire, when they were out of spec and not operating correctly. Anything can malfunction. But (and this is the beauty of the Lightning Link) a properly adjusted registered LL will not slam-fire, and slam-firing plays no part in its intended function. A slam-fire by definition is when the hammer rides the bolt into battery. A correctly set-up RLL does not permit that to happen. Instead, when a registered LL is installed the disconnector grabs the hammer during recoil as the bolt carrier is driven backward and holds it until the bolt carrier bottoms out, reverses direction and is halfway through its forward motion toward battery. The RLL then pulls the disconnector backward and releases the hammer. RLLs are like RDIAS and factory M16s in that rate-of-fire is determined by ammo, gas-port size and buffer weight. In general, ROF ranges from 650 to 800 rpm. So you have to remember that the bolt carrier (and RLL) are cycling at well over ten times per second. Once the RLL pulls the disconnector away from the hammer as the bolt carrier is moving forward, the bolt itself has time to slam home and rotate into a full lock before the hammer touches the firing pin. The above is a rather inelegant explanation. If you ever have a chance to see an RLL installed in an AR15 and see how it functions, I'm sure it will become much more clear than my muddled explanation above. But set up correctly, an RLL does not permit a slam-fire function. It is as true to Gene Stoner's original cycling sequence as the design-spec autosear is. |
Just helping to clarify. Burst kits are installed to make the AR15 select fire (semi or full-auto). The burst kits are modified to do this. Installing the RLL without a modded burst kit will make the AR15 full auto only. |
Not as a result of the operation of the link, no. More importantly, it doesn't matter if the hammer does release before the bolt is fully closed and locked, because the bolt telescopes within the bolt carrier. If the hammer falls before the bolt carrier is fully forward, it strikes the bottom of the carrier instead of the firing pin. The firing pin is also not physically long enough to protrude from the bolt face and strike the primer until the bolt carrier is almost completely closed, and the bolt at that point is DEFINITELY fully seated into battery, and rotated at least partially onto the locking lugs. If bad headspace, or crud in the chamber prevent the round from fully seating, in most instances, the location of the cam pin relief in the upper will prevent the bolt from telescoping closed far enough for the firing pin to be able to reach the primer. About the only thing I can think of leading to an OOB kaboom (as opposed to a squib bullet barrel obstruction or reloaded ammo overcharge kaboom) would be foreign debris stuck on the bolt face, or a round already chambered being lit off by another round trying to chamber behind it, and none of those conditions are related to when the hammer falls, or whether there's a lightning link or DIAS or factory auto sear is installed in the rifle.
No, I don't have an LL, I have three. The chance for an OOB with a link causing the hammer to fall early is exactly the same as for a DIAS or factory sear causing the hammer to fall early, which is essentially zero, and not related to the type of mechanism being used. To achieve slamfire in an AR-15/M16 design you might use a really strong hammer spring and really soft primers, and hope there's enough pressure left from the hammer riding the carrier into battery to light that soft primer. Or you could try reloading with excess primer protrusion, so the bolt face has a chance to set it off instead of the firing pin. Or you could super-glue a teensy bb to the bolt face to act as a fixed firing pin. Some of those methods would be unsafe, all are actual slam-fires, and none except the really soft primers method is even remotely related to when the hammer falls or if there's a sear or link or even a hammer installed in the gun. And further, even the soft primers method wouldn't result in a kaboom, since that method actually has to have the bolt closed and locked for the firing pin to reach the soft primer. |
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