Circuits
03-11-2002, 03:08 PM
I was shooting one of my M16's with a .22 kit (Ceiner "atchisson" type) this weekend, and had an interesting breakage/failure - one I've never encountered before.
I had been shooting for a couple hours (not all on this one rifle, mind you), and just inserted a full 30rd magazine.
I pulled back the charging handle and released it to chamber the first round, and the rifle proceeded to empty the entire mag in one long burst. My finger was nowhere near the trigger.
When it ran out I disassembled it on the shooting bench to find the cause of the malfunction - the "J pin" in the hammer which retains the hammer pin inside the receiver had broken off, and become lodged under the trigger in the bottom of the receiver. The trigger could not come back far enough to engage the hammer, but since the selector was set to 'auto', the auto sear did its job and pretended I was holding the trigger down.
I've never had a j-pin break before - but I guess there's always a first. Thankfully, I practice safe firearms handling, and the weapon is ALWAYS downrange, even when inserting a magazine or pulling the charging handle. All 30 went safely downrange and into the berm.
ALWAYS KEEP YOUR WEAPON POINTED DOWNRANGE, OR IN A SAFE DIRECTION! There's a reason for those handling rules, and they proved themselves yesterday, and a few times in the past.
I had been shooting for a couple hours (not all on this one rifle, mind you), and just inserted a full 30rd magazine.
I pulled back the charging handle and released it to chamber the first round, and the rifle proceeded to empty the entire mag in one long burst. My finger was nowhere near the trigger.
When it ran out I disassembled it on the shooting bench to find the cause of the malfunction - the "J pin" in the hammer which retains the hammer pin inside the receiver had broken off, and become lodged under the trigger in the bottom of the receiver. The trigger could not come back far enough to engage the hammer, but since the selector was set to 'auto', the auto sear did its job and pretended I was holding the trigger down.
I've never had a j-pin break before - but I guess there's always a first. Thankfully, I practice safe firearms handling, and the weapon is ALWAYS downrange, even when inserting a magazine or pulling the charging handle. All 30 went safely downrange and into the berm.
ALWAYS KEEP YOUR WEAPON POINTED DOWNRANGE, OR IN A SAFE DIRECTION! There's a reason for those handling rules, and they proved themselves yesterday, and a few times in the past.