Slam-fires have not to my knowledge been documented in properly assembled rifles in which all parts in the assembly meet the government gages, when using either NATO, US military or SAAMI specification commercial match ammunition, such as M80, L2A2, M118, M852 or Federal #308M.
What an interesting statement to put IN BOLD. Like Moses coming off the mountain with the tablets. God must have said it. But this information came from the wrong burning bush.
You have so many caveats, A: “properly assembled rifles”, b: “meet government gages”, C: “using NATO, US Military or SAAMI specification commercial match ammunition”.
Well of course slamfires occurred with LC Match, US Military ammunition. But the occurrence was very low and when was White Box last made, 79? . Is M852 even being made anymore?
And who is shooting this stuff?: basically no one, and certaintly not in enough quantities to produce a flood of reported slamfires.
But there are a few. You could not convince a denier like HugoEstupido that any meets the A:B:C of your statement, but in the first report they were shooting LC match. I assume since it was an All Army match the M14 was Government. Built by an experienced match armorer.
http://www.jouster.com/cgi-bin/reload/reload.pl?noframes;read=31870
saw this same thing happen at all army matches back in 91. the guy next to me had his match m-14 blow up during the rattle battle match at 600 yds.it blew the bolt out of the reciever and pieces of it landed 20-30 yds behind the fireing line. he had one piece go through the top of his cap and graze his scalp and he also bled like a stuck hog.they stopped the match collected all of the ammo, reissued a new lot and away we went with him shooting a different rifle. they decided it was a high primer and this was in LC match. it can happen. it is the only time i ever saw it happen and i have been shooting both 14s and garands for both the USMC and ARMYNG and as a civilian since 1975
This guy had a DCM Garand grenade with LC69.
http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=264020
“While the M1 and M14/M1A do have the "web", slam fires are still possible and can be catastrophic. I was lucky enough to come through one with a GI Springfield M1 from the DCM about 20 years ago using LC 69 issue ammo. The rifle held together for the most part, but did fire out of battery on loading a single round in slow fire. If it had been in a rapid fire string, I most likely would not be typing this right now. The rear of the receiver from just aft of the serial number was blown off and the stock cracked with a big chunk blown out of it. The bolt was jammed into the back of the receiver and would not come forward. The op rod handle ripped the palm of my hand open, and you could read the head stamp of the case in reverse on my palm. The recovered empty case was about an inch long. Never did find the rear of the receiver. The DCM took the rifle back and never did tell me what they determined went wrong. They replaced it with a brand new, and I mean, brand new, never issued H&R.
If you shoot either the M1 or M14, I would highly suggest you either use a SLED with the M1 or load single rounds from the mag on the M1A. Reloads should use the harder primers, like CCI, and I check mine with a seating gage. ”
This shooter was using a military match rifle with military issued match ammo, (was the military using commercial match ammo back in 1968?) and there were lots of in battery slamfires.
308 Garand Slamfires with Military Match Ammunition.
http://forums.accuratereloading.com/eve/forums?a=tpc&s=518103&f=2511043&m=348101466&r=615101566
“In the summer of 1968 or 69 the Atlantic Fleet Rifle Matches were plagued with slamfires using .308 Match ammo. Seems a terrible long time ago, and I still get upset about it because I lost my best and only chance to leg out on that cartridge. I was in the first relay at 500 yards (not 600 because the Annapolis range only went out to 500), and someone else popped off the first slamfire and dumped a bullet into Chesapeake Bay. I think I was the second or third to do so, and dropped my score from winner to first leather. The range officer did not allow a refire for any of us in first relay. By the second relay, the ammo malfunction was quite evident, and refires were given, but nothing was done for those of us in first relay. Slamfires popped all afternoon, was not a pretty sight. On examination, and believe me everyone was looking at ammo that day, the decision was a batch of overly sensitive primers. I guarantee, a slamfire can run your entire day!!!”
CMP Garands with Greek Ball
Re: M1 Garand / Hang fire ?
Levisdad <Send E-Mail> -- Tues 3 Jun 2008 8:54 am
Yep 1988, Lot hxp 88j001-002
I also had a slamfire out of this same lot a short time ago.
The slamfire was from closing the bolt using a two round clip. It was the second stage of rapid prone. I've fired 200 rds after that with out a problem. Until the two hangfires.
Slamfire with HXP 20 Feb 2010
http://www.thecmp.org/forums/showthread.php?t=8784&page=2
Today, 09:03 AM
chevycrazy69
Join Date: Oct 2009
Posts: 11
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I have had one slamfire with a M1 garand. I was single loading during the sighters portion of a NRA high power match. Sure scared the crap out of me. I put the garand down and finished the match with my AR. I was using HXP ball. I have no idea what caused the slam fire. It has made me much more careful in how fast I let the bolt forward during single loading. I have fired hundreds of rounds (both reloads and ball) in that garand since without a single problem. I have used CCI 34 primers in all my garand reloads since. Do I feel it is needed, no. But I am a design engineer and like to take a "belt and suspender" approach to my safety. I do use winchester small rifle primers in my AR and have for many thousands of rounds. I wish I knew if that particular HXP round had a high primer or not.
The basic assumption you make in your statement is something whith which I disagree: that the receiver bridge is an effective measure against slamfires.
It is not. It never was. The Garand always had slamfires. That is why the round Garand firing pin is such collector’s item. There is a dimple on each and every primer of every round ever chambered in a M1a or Garand. This ought to be a clue that the free floating firing pin contained within the bolt is hitting primers with force.
Given an overly sensitive primer, the only issue in question is, will the shooter have an inbattery slamfire, or an out of battery slamfire?
The basic Garand mechanism does not retract the firing pin until final cam down. That is about .006” of movement at most. And yet in battery slamfires happen. This is evidence that the receiver bridge is not working.
So the theories on which the dogma that slamfires don't happen
in properly assembled rifles in which all parts in the assembly meet the government gages, when using either NATO, US military” is based is on incorrect assumptions and incomplete knowledge.