Had a really weird 'failure to fire' malfunction this weekend....

[tank_monkey]

I was at a friend's ranch and I was alone at the private shooting range when I decided to pop out some guns and try them out on the 50 yd range.

1) I pop a loaded 20 round factory mag into a Ruger Mini 14 GB and fire one round - BLAM! I see the casing fly off in my peripheral vision, but when I pull the trigger again, all i hear is 'ca- click' ... nothing. I hold the rifle for some seconds just in case it is a hangfire. Then I carefully remove the magazine and rack the bolt. Out pops a chambered round that is perfect, an undented primer.

2) So I reload THAT unused .223 round into the magazine, load the mag, rack the bolt and try again. Well it sure wasn't the ammo because the first trigger pull .. "BLAM!" and out flies the spent shell casing. but when it comes to shot number #2, "ca click" nothing... I pull out the mag, AGAIN, and sure enough, there is a perfectly unused round flying out the chamber when I rack the bolt. HUH? I know that the firing pin is not broken because it fires one round at a time, but I can't seem to get it to set off the 2nd round whenever it gets chambered. Anyone ever run into this before? These are good rounds, but they are handloads I bought. They seemed a little 'hot' from what I remember.

On another note, I tried to do the same thing with a FAL clone, but I won't bother describing that. It's been a long while since I fired that rifle and I figure NOW that I'm here typing at the computer, that I probably did not adjust the GAS knob in the front. Once, my M1A cycled once until I realized that i had the gas cut off switch engaged (for grenade launching blanks). I probably forgot to check that for my FAL clone. Just a note, the FAL is one of the old CENTURY franken guns. So it may be just a piece of crap...

But any ideas on why the Ruger malfunctioned?

[Richard Simmons]

Is the bolt closing all the way on the second round?

[O.S.O.K.]

Also, wondering if the round is seating too deeply in the chamber - first one is ok but second one is slammed in harder and seats deeper? Chamber a round and push it in hard and see what it's doing... maybe.

Wierd.

[deth502]

Is the bolt closing all the way on the second round?

this.

[Schuetzenman]

Yes if the bolt appears closed but really isn't the timing of things should prevent an out of battery firing. If there is NO firing pin mark on the primer than the pin isn't falling. Handloads you say, could be they are not sized corrctly and a touch long in for the headspace. You might want to get a Dillion overall case length gauge to check the ammo for proper headspace. http://www.dillonprecision.com/#/con...fle_Case_Gages

[mushroom]

Simplest thing to do is run a box of factory loads through... If it works it's the ammo.. if not... I think the other guys covered it.. Good Luck!!