The gun "just went off"

[Mono1]

I don't think enough people are aware of this inherent danger.

I suspect the same might be true of M1A's as well.

 

[titsonritz]

I suspect the same might be true of M1A's as well.

The same goes for a lot of guns and what ever you do, don't do it in front of Sgt Stryker.

 

[Flopsweat]

The same goes for a lot of guns and what ever you do, don't do it in front of Sgt Stryker.

Because let me tell ya, pilgrim...

 

[PORSCHE928S4]

"Dude had a set of Baldwins to think he'd get away with it." Noun.
"Dude be trippin' and went full Baldwin." Adjective.
"Byotch done Baldwined me." Verb.

"Byotch done Baldwined me."
AWESOME

 

[Cavedweller]

That's what I told my GF when she yelled at me for not pulling out in time.

 

[Mono1]

"Shove it up your Rusty Baldwin and rotate counter-clockwise" has a nice ring to it.


I heard about someone here in WA that I'd met a number of times, but didn't really know, who got into an argument with his GF and claiming that she got shot when his gun fell out of its holster and "just went off" when it hit the ground.

Adverb: "I got Screwed Baldwinly"

 

[Pete F]

I noticed that in every video with two or more people and the gun explodes, everyone looks at the gun and parts, then they look at the potentially injured party - WTF. What if the shooter just had his/her hand blown off?

 

[Flopsweat]

I noticed that in every video with two or more people and the gun explodes, everyone looks at the gun and parts, then they look at the potentially injured party - WTF. What if the shooter just had his/her hand blown off?

Loud noise. What was that? Gun exploded. Is he OK?

Makes sense to me.

 

[Koda]

I believe some older Remington 700s actually did "just went off" by themselves, at least 1 fatality iirc.

 

[Koda]

Free-floating firing pins are not inherently dangerous, per se. AR's, AK's, M1 Garands, to name just a few examples, also have free-floating firing pins. It's no difficult feat for engineers to calculate inertia and keep firing pins light enough to not set off primers unless acted upon by a fire control group.

What sets the SKS apart from the other rifles mentioned is that a significant portion of them came into the country packed in cosmoline, and were sold that way. A plugged firing pin channel results in the mass of the bolt/bolt carrier group added to firing pin, which can lead to issues like slam fires when cycling. An SKS with a clean firing pin channel is no more dangerous in this regard than an AR, AK, or Garand. That manufactures offer "solutions" is hardly proof of the problem, manufacturers also sell recoil buffers for AK's even though no properly made AK really needs one.

For what it's worth, there was even a Mythbusters episode in which they tried to induce unintended discharges from SKS's through increasingly extreme circumstances and found it surprisingly difficult to get them to go off.

I can't speak for all shotguns, though, since there are countless models and manufacturers so conceivably there could be some for which the designers/engineers didn't do their math.

I had a gunsmith warn me about cycling rounds in an AR, said a friend has a hole in his floor from the slamfire.

As for shotguns Winchester SXPs had a recall where the gun would go off as you closed the pump forward. I would call that as "just went off" and not the user.

 

[Flopsweat]

I had a gunsmith warn me about cycling rounds in an AR, said a friend has a hole in his floor from the slamfire.

As for shotguns Winchester SXPs had a recall where the gun would go off as you closed the pump forward. I would call that as "just went off" and not the user.

You'd have to have a pretty weird failure or a remarkably dirty gun to make that happen. The firing pin being stuck forward is about the only way that's going to happen unless someone's been messing with the sear.

 

[Koda]

You'd have to have a pretty weird failure or a remarkably dirty gun to make that happen. The firing pin being stuck forward is about the only way that's going to happen unless someone's been messing with the sear.

The shotgun or the AR?
Ive never had it happen, I figure the design has obviously been figured out to prevent that but it is interesting to find light strike marks on the primers of all cycled AR rounds. To me its just a reminder of rule #2.

 

[Yarome]

I know there are people with beliefs on both sides of has a Sig P320 ever self-discharged. For me personally, I would not buy one, too many other options and I do not think every law enforcement officer who claims this happened to them is lying.
Below is a video where a person claims this happened to him and there were multiple witnesses. That individual should have tried to get signed statements from any person who actually witnessed the discharge.

I have no doubt that's what he believes, however.... I take it with a grain of salt. Obviously, human nature for most is going to be to deflect any responsibility or even a hint of possible wrong doing on their part.... given a reasonable avenue of escaping it.

I'm not saying he's wrong, but I DO know that for most competitive shooters... what's the first thing they start doing with a new match gun? Yup! Tinkering and "upgrading" with "performance" parts or mods. A little polishing here, a bit of a tweak there, lighten that spring a skosh.... etc.

In my mind then, it "may" have been a mfg fluke issue... but I'm 50/50 between that and he likely "tweaked" when he shoulda "twoke" that contibuted to the assidental discharge.

Just sayin!

Bearing that in mind... it's also not unreasonable that he wouldn't have been the only within that community doing that particular mod or using the same performance part as others.... that might have contribute to repeat performances elsewhere. "Birds of a feather".... so and so swears by a specific product and pretty soon half the people you know are using it too. It wouldn't be the first time a widely purchased performance product was found to not play well within a range of specific platforms while being reliable and flawless within the vaster majority.

I also know that what Sig told him the problem was and what he chose to hear what the problem was is not guarantee to be the same thing.

Food for thought.

 

[Flopsweat]

The shotgun or the AR?
Ive never had it happen, I figure the design has obviously been figured out to prevent that but it is interesting to find light strike marks on the primers of all cycled AR rounds. To me its just a reminder of rule #2.

The AR. You're right that they've been in service for way too long to have a problem like that.

 

[po18guy]

I think we need a new award. Those shooting/killing themselves are in the running for the:
Darwin award.
Those who shoot/kill someone else "by accident" qualify for the:
Baldwin award.

It's a Win-Win.

 

[Koda]

The AR. You're right that they've been in service for way too long to have a problem like that.

One thing to consider though is all the home built ARs with a virtually unlimited number of "custom"(ie not milspec) BCG parts.
That said, outside of this one cautionary story Ive never heard of any slamfire issues. I dont think its an issue but I do know Rule #2 applies to charging ALL guns anyways.

 

[raftman]

There certainly are pistols out there that aren't drop-safe, at least by modern standards. I've heard anecdotes about things like Sterling pistols with a round chambered going off when dropped, even on soft surfaces. Would this count as "just went off" though?

 

[Flopsweat]

There certainly are pistols out there that aren't drop-safe, at least by modern standards. I've heard anecdotes about things like Sterling pistols with a round chambered going off when dropped, even on soft surfaces. Would this count as "just went off" though?

I'm not sure I'd trust a Sterling not to go off just because you looked at it funny. Or more likely just break.

 

[ilikegunspdx]

There certainly are pistols out there that aren't drop-safe, at least by modern standards. I've heard anecdotes about things like Sterling pistols with a round chambered going off when dropped, even on soft surfaces. Would this count as "just went off" though?

At the risk of posting this video way, way too many times on here, check out this Taurus that fires when shaken if you haven't seen it yet. I think they recalled around 1 million pistols due to this design flaw if I remember correctly. Don't know why this video cracks me up every time I see it, especially towards the end

 

[Flopsweat]

At the risk of posting this video way, way too many times on here, check out this Taurus that fires when shaken if you haven't seen it yet. I think they recalled around 1 million pistols due to this design flaw if I remember correctly. Don't know why this video cracks me up every time I see it, especially towards the end

Even with the safety on.