Negligent Discharge......or Not?? Strange.
Frogdog
Member Posts: 3,030 ✭✭✭✭
Haven't seen this before, personally. A work friend of mine got his .22 pistol out of the safe and loaded it up. About 2-3 seconds after dropping the slide.....BOOM!!! It goes off. Luckily, he still had it pointed in a relatively safe direction (i.e. away from anyone else). That said, the round popped a hole near the base of one of his interior walls. Strangely, it did not exit. When he told me the story, I was really skeptical, and figured he inadvertently pulled the trigger, but he insisted that he had not. So, I had him show me everything. Sure enough, the fired shell casing had no firing pin mark whatsoever on the rim....not a scratch. Yet, somehow it fired anyway....but, as I said, not for 2-3 seconds after slide release.
Very fortunate nobody was hurt. I've never personally seen this happen. What do y'all make of it?
Comments
hmmmm, strange, try it again.
Check the rim round the chamber.
A round fired but there is no firing pin mark!
Cook-off! Why does he keep his gun in the stove?
Static?
RF?
Alcohol?
How old is the ammo?
What Ricci said. Is there a "dent" on the front side of the rim?
What would I be looking for - a burr on the edge of the chamber?
Definitely no marks on the casing - front or back edge of the rim.
Wasn’t a Glock.
No dent on the front side. I do believe he said the ammo was about 10 years old, though. I've shot much older ammo, though, with no troubles. Usually, if anything, the old .22s just don't fire.
I’d go with Grasshopper’s suggestion...Head outside and safely try a couple more rounds. Interesting to see if anything in the chamber held the cartridge back to where the bolt hit the back of the case. Could have cleared during ejection if it was a small piece of debris.
You should try to help him figure it out as that combination would make it suspect to carry/handle/load.
I'm guessing that's why so many police departments bought barrels when they switched to semi autos. Stuff happens.
Neal
What kind of .22 pistol? Some have a firing pin that will peen the end of the chamber and cause enough of a burr to fire the round.
I think it was one of those little Phoenix Arms ones, so not a high quality piece. His tackle-box gun, I think he said.
Had the pistol been dry fired? It's a bad idea to dry fire any rimfire because the firing pin can create a crater near the edge of the chamber with raised edges. Then, when a rimfire round is slammed home, that can act as a firing pin.
Good points all around. I think I'm going to get my hands back on it and do a bit more investigating.
Well there has to be a reason and I don't think it is the age of the ammo. I would take a close look at that pistol. The Phoenix Arms is a crappy little gun with about 14 different safeties. I would try dropping the slide on an empty chamber a bunch of times and see if it released the sear. And you might try it with your finger depressing the trigger as well. Next I would take it apart and with a bright light examine the chamber inside and out looking for anything that looks strange. Is the gun really dirty?? Does it have a lot of grease on it?? Has he replaced the short barrel with the longer :target" barrel?? There has to be a reason.
several if's
if your gun has tight head space
and if you chamber a live round with a 'thick' rim
it can 'slam' fire
I had a Erma pistol that would do this