Always remember the rules of gun safety

[CountryBoy19]

Principles of operation

"Always load using the magazine to feed rounds into the chamber. NEVER drop a round into the chamber with the slide locked back, then drop the slide onto the chambered round. The extractor is NOT meant to pop over the case rim. The round is meant to slide up UNDER the extractor hook during feeding from a magazine. This breech loading technique is exceedingly abusive to your extractor and will cause loss of extractor tension at the least, and in the worst case scenario will cause the extractor hook to break. If you are looking to load the gun to its maximum capacity, chamber a round from the magazine, remove the mag, load another round into it, and reseat the mag. Give the mag a tug on the baseplate to ensure that it is seated."

Just to add to this, this is the case with most handguns. However, on a lot of rifles, such as an AR, the extractor jumps over the rim no matter which was you load it. Handguns are designed to be loaded from a mag so the rim slides under the extractor, but it doesn't matter on rifles.

Teach me. Why would you hand-load a round in the chamber of an AR?

I did just because I was trying to hold the rifle with all my other gear on and I didn't want to have to worry about loading one from the mag then putting another round in it, so I chose to drop one in the chamber and just put the mag in after loading that one.

 

[Jack Ryan]

Sounds like those AR's really make just dandy hunting weapons

That explains a lot of those ten minutes before legal hours bangs as all the guys who get out of the truck planning on needing a couple or a dozen "quick follow up" discharges load up for the day.

 

[nighthawk80]

Sounds like those AR's really make just dandy hunting weapons

That explains a lot of those ten minutes before legal hours bangs as all the guys who get out of the truck planning on needing a couple or a dozen "quick follow up" discharges load up for the day.

Hmm.

 

[BE Mike]

Load from your magazine, then take mag out and top off with 1 more round and put mag back into gun. It's the only way I do it.

+1 That's how the pros taught me to load my pistol for carry and it works for me.

Good safety habits save a lot of sorrow and lives every year. We all need a "heads-up" every now and then to keep us from getting lax. Thanks for sharing your experience. It just might save a life.

 

[cce1302]

Did you tear your bolt apart and make sure there wasn't something that caused the firing pin to stick forward in the "firing" position and strike the primer? This seems more likely to me than the scenario that you describe. How long had it been since you had removed the bolt and firing pin? could there have been something in there?
I'm not trying to tell you that you're wrong, just trying to think of all possible scenarios.

(whatever the reason, thanks for the reminder, and good job following the rules.)

 

[clelaj]

Thanks for sharing. We all benefit from these personal reminders to always firearm safety.

 

[Kirk Freeman]

Glad you are O.K.

Remember, every time we jack with guns, loading or unloading the weapon can discharge. The Four Rules light is always on.

Country, my AD was with a Remington 870 and I still have nightmares about it. Thankfully the Four Rules were being followed and no one was hurt as the buckshot went down range.

All the more popular platforms, 1911s, ARs, 870s have inertia firing pins and can go bang when we do not want them to go bang. If we want a gun to be safe, we leave it in the holster (sling).

 

[Disposable Heart]

All the more popular platforms, 1911s, ARs, 870s have inertia firing pins and can go bang when we do not want them to go bang.

I think if a 1911 is in good working order, the firing pin won't even come close to the primer. ARs have no such spring for the firing pin.

It does pay dividends to keep the AR firing pin properly maintained (lightly lubed, no excess dirt, grime or lube to make it "stick" forward). Glad to hear of the safety!

 

[opus1776]

Countryboy,

Were you using factory ammo or reloads? If you had reloads, what primer did you use?

 

[IndyGunSafety]

I agree. And I do believe it helps prevent damage to your extractor. When you hand feed a round the extractor has to work around the case lip and could cause damage.

YES! what he said! I was going through theses posts noticing that nobody mentioned damage to the extractor. If you read your manual I'm sure it will tell you to always load from the magazine.

 

[CountryBoy19]

Sounds like those AR's really make just dandy hunting weapons

That explains a lot of those ten minutes before legal hours bangs as all the guys who get out of the truck planning on needing a couple or a dozen "quick follow up" discharges load up for the day.

Consider for a moment that some people don't get them so they have 10 follow-up shots on the deer they wounded with the first shot being bad.

The reason I got it was for the superior ballistics. I can shoot a 1.5 inch group at 100 yards, and at a 100 yard zero, I don't have to make any elevation corrections out to 150 yards and still be within 2 inches of POA (except for within 15 yards because of the 2.7" scope offset). It just so happens that the AR is the only widely available platform for this cartridge and it will then serve as a dual purpose gun.

Did you tear your bolt apart and make sure there wasn't something that caused the firing pin to stick forward in the "firing" position and strike the primer? This seems more likely to me than the scenario that you describe. How long had it been since you had removed the bolt and firing pin? could there have been something in there?
I'm not trying to tell you that you're wrong, just trying to think of all possible scenarios.

(whatever the reason, thanks for the reminder, and good job following the rules.)

Ah, this is aggravating. I had my response all typed out, then firefox did something funky and screwed it all up. So I'll try this again.

I did find the piece of brass. It wasn't the firing pin that caused this. The primer didn't have a single firing pin mark on it. What was on it though, was a small ring, left by a burr on the bolt face, right around the firing pin hole. It is my believe that this burr was always there, but because I never loaded a round and didn't fire it, or never single loaded a round, the problem never showed itself, and I never noticed the burr. So I corrected the problem with some 220 grit sand paper followed by 600 grit.

Countryboy,

Were you using factory ammo or reloads? If you had reloads, what primer did you use?

Reloads, using Wolf Magnum primers. There is no reason at all that it should've detonated from a slam-fire, but I guess it did.