General Geoff
Member
So an old friend of mine who joined the navy over a year ago came home on leave for a week. We decided to go shooting yesterday, and he brought two guns: a Marlin semi auto .22, and an old Remington 700 chambered for .30-06.
We were plinking for awhile with our .22s, and he decided to break out the big 700. Took it out of the case, removed the bolt, inspected the bore, put the bolt back in, cycled the bolt, and put five rounds in. Cycled the bolt again to chamber a round, and tried to pull the trigger.
It wouldn't budge.
After confirming the safety was OFF, he pulled again; the trigger stayed stationary. At that point I came over to see what was wrong. He handed the rifle to me (all the while with the rifle pointed safely downrange), and I tried pulling the trigger. It wasn't moving a millimeter. I rotated the bolt handle up about a half inch and jammed it back down stiffly, and tried pulling the trigger. Nothing. After looking at the gun quizzically for a few seconds, BOOM!
The gun had fired without so much as a finger inside the trigger guard. Freaked us both out something fierce; fortunately the round went downrange and into the hillside. Thinking it was a horrible fluke, I cycled the bolt again, jamming the bolt handle down hard like I did last time. I didn't even attempt to pull the trigger. BOOM again, maybe 4 seconds after I took my hand off the bolt handle. Again, the rifle was pointed in a safe direction (downrange). Still scared the bejeezus out of us.
I have no idea what caused these true-to-life ADs, but after we pulled the bolt out of the gun, we removed the remaining cartridges from the bottom of the mag well, and put it back in its case. He's taking it to a gunsmith this weekend, I'll let you know what it ends up being.
My hypothesis is a worn sear, but I could very well be wrong. Any other comments/questions are welcome.
We were plinking for awhile with our .22s, and he decided to break out the big 700. Took it out of the case, removed the bolt, inspected the bore, put the bolt back in, cycled the bolt, and put five rounds in. Cycled the bolt again to chamber a round, and tried to pull the trigger.
It wouldn't budge.
After confirming the safety was OFF, he pulled again; the trigger stayed stationary. At that point I came over to see what was wrong. He handed the rifle to me (all the while with the rifle pointed safely downrange), and I tried pulling the trigger. It wasn't moving a millimeter. I rotated the bolt handle up about a half inch and jammed it back down stiffly, and tried pulling the trigger. Nothing. After looking at the gun quizzically for a few seconds, BOOM!
The gun had fired without so much as a finger inside the trigger guard. Freaked us both out something fierce; fortunately the round went downrange and into the hillside. Thinking it was a horrible fluke, I cycled the bolt again, jamming the bolt handle down hard like I did last time. I didn't even attempt to pull the trigger. BOOM again, maybe 4 seconds after I took my hand off the bolt handle. Again, the rifle was pointed in a safe direction (downrange). Still scared the bejeezus out of us.
I have no idea what caused these true-to-life ADs, but after we pulled the bolt out of the gun, we removed the remaining cartridges from the bottom of the mag well, and put it back in its case. He's taking it to a gunsmith this weekend, I'll let you know what it ends up being.
My hypothesis is a worn sear, but I could very well be wrong. Any other comments/questions are welcome.