1911 Accidental Discharge

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mongo4567

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Well, it happened to me. Always wear eye protection!!! I kept the round and have included the pictures. The round discharged out of battery, the projectile landed on the bench next to me. I mistakenly thought a stovepipe case set off the round on the top of the magazine. I put several hundred rounds through it since then as everything appeared fine.

It just happened today for the second time. This time it was the top round in the magazine and it went off sliding into battery. It appears that the bottom of the slide hit the primer. Has anyone seen anything like this? Is this a problem with the gun or with the ammo? If the gun, what you think is wrong with it? I don't want to even look at it without some dummy rounds.

This is a Rock Island 1911 in 9mm. I would guess that I've put over 2000 rounds through it. It has only had a handful of jams in the time shooting, and I seldom clean it. I only use metalform/springfield mags and it has run great till now.
 

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About the only way that could happen is for the firing pin to be stuck forward far enough to hit the primer, but not far enough to keep the round from sliding up the breechface and under the extractor...and even then it would be hard to duplicate. The bullet nose would have to hit something fairly solid and stop the round at least momentarily while the slide was pushing on it with the firing pin in contact with the primer.

Check the firing pin to see if it sticks and go from there.
 
Look closely at the primer in the last picture. It has a line on it, that is from the bottom of the slide I can only surmise. The case was still in the magazine, expanding to fill it. It was nowhere near the firing pin. I'm thinking that the round hung up feeding and the primer was seated too high.


Update: I think that I may have figured it out. I was looking very closely at the magazine that this happened with. Look at the top two magazines in the picture, the front starts much lower, it could allow a round to nosedive. Both of the projectiles had a hard line in them; I assumed it was from the front of the feedramp when exploding...they might have been driven there by the slide when jamming.
 

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Is that a spacer strip I see at the rear of the magazine? If it is, it looks like it would line up with a round that was properly loaded in the mag....but, what would be present to push on the strip?
 
looking a little closer (I'm viewing this on my phone)....is the small piece at the rear of the mag a part of the follower? It sure looks like it may have been the piece that made the mark on the cartridge.
 
Fleetman - Is that a spacer strip I see at the rear of the magazine? If it is, it looks like it would line up with a round that was properly loaded in the mag....but, what would be present to push on the strip?
Click to expand...

That is a spacer strip to keep the rounds at the front of the mag, but it is very solid and well below the slide travel.
 
A (considerable) number of years back I witnessed a similar incident.
It was at a USPSA (Area 2) match in Texas.
A shooter finished a stage and was instructed to clear the pistol and holster. The shooter dropped the magazine, jacked back the slide to eject the chambered round when the detonation occurred.
The problem was identified as: the EXTENDED ejector caught the primer as the slide was jacked back causing the round to "fire".
The shooter had severe lacerations on his fingers from bits of brass-as he had his hand over the ejection port to catch the ejected round-when it fired.
This was a .45 ACP 1911.
 
I can't tell for sure from the pick due to reflection,are those aluminum?
The angle of the marking on the head matches a sharp edge from slide. It looks as though the round nose dived when it was being stripped, and with the aluminum being soft enough to allow contact across the primer as well. I have had this happen in other auto loaders only with aluminum casings. Due to set back and deformations of the aluminum.
 
I'll have to look at a magazine of that type when I get home.
I once had the plastic rear spacer in a Wilson 9mm to work up high enough to be struck by the breechface and give a monumental jam.
So I can envision a deflected metal rear spacer hitting the primer.

As I am sure Tuner will tell you, the 1911 is a .45 design and when you alter it to other calibers and configurations, compromises must be made and unintended consequences will follow. Same reason that most Glock kaBooms and other adventures happen with other than the base model 17.
 
I have never seen anything like that primer strike. I am not gonna say it is the ammo, however I never thought it was a good idea to use aluminum as a case material. The primer had to be seated out a tad or the case had to give a little.
 
I'll bet you find that the mark on the case directly corresponds to the portion of the breech face drawing the cartridges from the magazine.

The first thing I'd look for is a smooth breech face from top to bottom on the RI slide then confirm the width at the base of the breech face. The marks on the case makes me think it's a bit narrow but that's my un calibrated eye at work.

Then I'd be looking to see why the cases have been ass-uped and stopped allowing this to happen.

Also... strictly speaking, not an accidental discharge but rather a malfunction. You had every intention of the weapon being fired, mechanics conspired to fire the round out of battery/prematurely. The only affect you have on the situation is maybe not successfully addressing the issue the first time it happened.
 
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It looks more to me like the round fired in the Magazine, and the case was pushed back into the mag spacer, marking the primer. The mark on the primer is an effect of the OOB rather then the cause. As to what caused it, I have no idea.

but Mango said:

The case was still in the magazine, expanding to fill it.
Click to expand...

And tuner's right. Still in the mag, there's no way the slide could reach that low on the case.

Mango, I'll bet if you put that casing back in the mag you'll find that mark on the primer lines up pretty precisely with the spacer in the rear of the mag.

ETA: Yeah, look at the second pic in the OP, where you can see that the case has been fire formed to the mag. If you mentally move the case to where it had to be to form to the vertical creases, the case head was still under the feed lips. That puts the primer well below the slide when detonation occured.
 
Just when I thought I had seen everything...... It seems like a design problem to me. Inertial fed - magazine fired weapon. Scary stuff. Somebody get them lawyers in here, quick!.
 
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