A guy I know was reloading his stock Bushy m-4gry with 55 gr TAP and when he let the bolt fly he had a slamfire. Fortunately the round went straight into the ground. He swears his weapon was on safe and his finger was not on the trigger. Will reloading the same round multiple times cause this to happen?  I want to call B.S. and tell him he probably pulled the trigger when he shouldnt have but there were no witnesses, we only heard it and went out into the parking lot. I did 3.5 years active duty in the army and 5 years in the guard (airborne infantry)  and have never seen one. Can you enlighten me?

This really reinforces the whole "keep your muzzle pointed in a safe direction" thing.

theoretically the firing pin could fly forward and hit a soft primer, causing it to fire. but like you said, i've never seen one.

what could cause this? a worn firing pin retaining pin?

Due to the free-floating firing pin in AR15 rifles, this can happen.

More likely to occur to a reloader with a "not-fully" seated primer, but repeated chambering of the same round is Verboten IIRC, in the military for this reason.

And yes, as I reload I have seen this occur on about 3 ocassions.


Which is why one should never depend on the "safety" and ALWAYs make sure your rifle is pointing in a safe direction when chambering a round.


Mike

if he hasn't already, I'm sure he needs to change his pants.

Seat those primers folks... it scares me even reading this, I normally walk the first one in then tap it home.

keep the business end up and downrange!

Quoted: would be a good time to check the timing of his FCG. can happen, is very rare with com ammo

Is there  timing with a semi weapon? If so how is this checked?

Quoted: if he hasn't already, I'm sure he needs to change his pants. Seat those primers folks... it scares me even reading this, I normally walk the first one in then tap it home. keep the business end up and downrange!

I don't know if he shat himself...but he was white as a ghost when we got out there.

This was factory Hornady TAP ammo, not a reload.