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Old March 13, 2011, 06:36 PM   #4
Slamfire
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Join Date: May 27, 2007
Posts: 5,261
Yes, please provide pictures.

I have handled FN 49’s, I assume that it has the same free floating firing pin arrangement that FAL’s have.

Quote:
Yesterday, I took the rifle and the magnled casing to the gunsmith at my local Gander Mountain. He seemed to be fairly familiar with FN-49's as his first question was about whether or not I had the one-piece or two-piece firing pin. He inspected the rifle and told me that it was mechanically fine and that the only two reasons he could think of for the mishap were either debris stuck in the firing pin channel or a defective round of ammunition.
For decades, the NRA and the ex Ordnance Department employees writing for the American Rifleman, kept up a campaign to wish away slamfires in Garands. Being total suck ups to their former employer (the Army) who was providing a lot of resources to their sport and their magazine, they would not acknowledge that primer sensitivity was a real cause of slamfires, instead they wrote articles claiming that only defective Garands , or only defective ammunition (high primers) could slamfire out of battery. They would not, and neither will their acolytes, acknowledge that mechanisms with free floating firing pins will slamfire given a sensitive primer. And they would never have agreed that the Garand design is defective, prone to slamfiring out of battery, instead they were always blame shifting to the owner/operator. For decades the Garand and the M1a were the only semi auto’s on the market, foreign jobs, like yours, were just not around or were not fired enough to reveal the interesting characteristics they have.

From the answer you got from the Gander Mountain man “its all your fault”, it sure sounds like he is one of those old school acolytes.

You will see this sort of thinking in old legacy posts from Bart Bobbitt. The link is in this thread http://thefiringline.com/forums/show...9&postcount=40

And my reply was here http://thefiringline.com/forums/show...4&postcount=41

Even though Bart actually witnessed slamfires, he could not and would not acknowledge that primer sensitivity was the cause. His convoluted explanation of the evidence before him is all based on the group think of the era: that only high primers or defective guns have slamfires.

Until that generation is below the ground, and silent for decades, you will continue to hear the same wrong answer.

Winchester redesigned their primers around 1999 to make them more sensitive. I called and was told “this was to combat off center firing pin hits.”.

I will bet that your firing pin is especially heavy.

I am going to assume that FN49’s and FAL’s have similar free floating firing pins. I am aware of a Gun Club bud who loaded ammunition with brass finish WLR and the gun slamfired, in battery thank goodness, when he put a round in the chamber and dropped the bolt. This is how the military manual told him to load the thing single shot. The slamfire so un nerved him, he left for home and did not fire another round. He told me he disassembled the mechanism, everything was as clean as the night before, and there were no broken parts.

There are reports from the web with slamfires in FAL’s.

It is obvious that given a sensitive primer, FAL’s will slamfire. If you are unlucky, it will slamfire out of battery.

I would recommend never using Winchester ammo again and to roll your own. I recommend the use of “mil spec” primers, which are less sensitive than the commercial brands. CCI#34’s are advertized as mil spec, I have read that some Russian primers are harder than rocks. That is just great. Less sensitive is better than more sensitive in these military rifles. I will recommend small base sizing, use a case gage and size to gage minimum, seat all primers by hand to ensure that all are below the case head.



Quote:

FAL Slamfire

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthrea...05910&posted=1

Today, 04:27 PM
#18

W.E.G.
Senior Member


Join Date: 09-26-06
Location: all over Virginia
Posts: 1,812 I slam-fired a FAL once.

Lake City M852 ammo.

Entreprise receiver.

1.633 headspace.

Tossed the round in the chamber.

Slingshot the charging handle.

Fired as soon as the bolt slammed.

Lucky it was in-battery.

I'd like to know what kind of ammo was involved in the KB mentioned in the OP.
I don't know what is "white box surplus."






http://www.falfiles.com/forums/showt...e+or+slam+fire

This was in a discussion of slamfires and FALs, I this guy had a slamfire in a FAL with US LC M852 match ammo.

W.E.G.
Administrator
Silver Contributor

FALaholic # 1211 June 26, 2008 07:57






FAL Files:

Slamming the bolt may cause a slam-fire.

I didn't believe it until it finally happened to me.

I was firing 600 yards from a prone position.
I tossed one shiny new round of Lake City M852 into the chamber, and thumbed the BHO.
The rifle fired at the moment the bolt slammed home.
My 600 yard groups were already sucking beyond belief (all over the 6 and 7 ring).
Expensive TASCO "World Class" scope went T/U that day.

The slam-fire was just the icing on the cake for a day when pretty much everything was going wrong.


FAL doubling leading to ATF seizure.
http://www.falfiles.com/forums/showt...hreadid=183318
The rifle in question never doubled on me and I shot it in numerous matches.

The atf got it to double by putting the selector on FA and trying many different types of ammo until they found one with a super soft primer that would double when the hammer followed the bolt home

At the actual test firing that we conducted there were 12 tests with 4 types of ammo and only the Winchester hunting 308 doubled and it did it only twice.

The problem was a worn out firing pin spring.

I never tried to shoot the fal with the selector on FA for the obvious reason of knowing that it could only fire out of battery that to do so would be risking a dangerous outcome.
I also would never shoot expensive hunting ammo $15 a box of 20.

The HTS set (DSA) was not doubling

I work with a Class 2 manf. and I have no reason to shoot a illegal MG we have all the legal ones we could ever need.

The ATF agent that confiscated my FAL's did not do the test he took the rifles to the tech branch in DC where they were "tested"

After many months and $ my lawyer, expert witness and I got to do our test with the ATF and we video taped it and that is when the truth was shown.

A local gun dealer here in NC By the name of Dan D. who for some reason did not like me actually turned the ATF my way by telling them a bunch of lies.

After the many man hours spent on my behalf I think the atf just tried to salvage a conviction of an innocent person to justify all the time spent in their investigation of me.

It is a long story but this sheds light on the jist of it.

I just this week was given back my property except for the one rifle that malfunctoned.

Thanks to diligent work by my Lawyer
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Last edited by Slamfire; March 13, 2011 at 06:57 PM.
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