Bsbllrooster Posted June 24, 2011 Share Posted June 24, 2011 Well today at the range I had a truely accidental discharge. I had finished a mag and found a loose round in my pocket. Rather then loading the round into the empty mag, I instead dropped the round into the chamber and dropped the slide onto the live round....bam!! As soon as the slide dropped the gun discharged. Fortunately the gun was pointed safely down range, but it shook me up none the less. I'm trying to figure out why the gun went off. I know for a fact that my finger was out of the trigger guard. Any ideas? The only thing I can think of, (I know fairly little on the inter workings of my gun which is a STI edge) is like when the slide is dropped on an empty chamber and the hammer and sear bounce, something similar may happened when the slide was dropped on an loaded chamber and perhaps the hammer followed the slide. I'm just trying to figure out what happened so that if there is a problem, I can get it fixed so that this doesn't happen again. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gixxerjunky Posted June 24, 2011 Share Posted June 24, 2011 Empty the gun and the rack the slide back and forth aggressively and see if tje hammer is falling. Also pull the hammer back and use your thumb to push and pull on it to see if it falls. There is a fine line between a sweet trigger and a unsafe gun. I have seen people get unsafe equipment due to this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bsbllrooster Posted June 24, 2011 Author Share Posted June 24, 2011 Tried ^^^^^ but the hammer stayed back in both cases. However the trigger is about 2.5lbs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bsbllrooster Posted June 24, 2011 Author Share Posted June 24, 2011 I just tried to recreate the problem with a dummy round. I dropped it into the chamber and dropped the slide, and sure enough the hammer followed. Hmmmmm... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gatekeeper Posted June 24, 2011 Share Posted June 24, 2011 (edited) too slow, disregard post Edited June 24, 2011 by Gatekeeper Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimBoettcher Posted June 24, 2011 Share Posted June 24, 2011 I just tried to recreate the problem with a dummy round. I dropped it into the chamber and dropped the slide, and sure enough the hammer followed. Hmmmmm... Take it back to whomever did the trigger work and have them fix it! FYI, this will start doubling and so on the more you shoot it. Tim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
al503 Posted June 24, 2011 Share Posted June 24, 2011 Releasing the slide forward with a round in the chamber is not good for your extractor either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Powder Finger Posted June 24, 2011 Share Posted June 24, 2011 Releasing the slide forward with a round in the chamber is not good for your extractor either. +1 not good for anything Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExtremeShot Posted June 24, 2011 Share Posted June 24, 2011 +1 I'd kill anyone that did this to my gun. Releasing the slide forward with a round in the chamber is not good for your extractor either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob DuBois Posted June 24, 2011 Share Posted June 24, 2011 Best way to destroy extractor tension, the extractor is designed to feed rounds from the magazine. The speed of the slide coming forward with no resistance then hitting the round caused the firing pin to react. Not a good idea to drop the slide on an empty chamber either, effects the sear. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bsbllrooster Posted June 24, 2011 Author Share Posted June 24, 2011 Dont think it was the firing pin "reacting." When I recreated the problem with a dummy round the hammer followed the slide. This suggests some sort of hammer/sear interaction or sear spring problem. I know that dropping the slide on a chambered round isn't the best for a gun but it should in no way cause the gun to discharge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExtremeShot Posted June 24, 2011 Share Posted June 24, 2011 Dont think it was the firing pin "reacting." When I recreated the problem with a dummy round the hammer followed the slide. This suggests some sort of hammer/sear interaction or sear spring problem. I know that dropping the slide on a chambered round isn't the best for a gun but it should in no way cause the gun to discharge. The sear bounced off the hammer due to the force of the slide coming forward. This is sometimes referred to as a "slam fire". Some gunsmiths will drop the slide on an empty chamber after a trigger job in order to see if a slam fire will occur. However, as previously mentioned, dropping the slide on an empty chamber is not normally recommended. The reason why your sear bounced off is probably because you don't have enough tension on the left leg of the sear spring OR the angle of the sear is wrong OR your hammer hooks are too short OR you don't have enough travel in your trigger. D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bsbllrooster Posted June 24, 2011 Author Share Posted June 24, 2011 Well FGW did the trigger work so I would assume that the sear angle is correct and the hammer hooks are of adequate length so hopefully it's just the sear spring. Thanks extremeshot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
logman Posted June 27, 2011 Share Posted June 27, 2011 Well FGW did the trigger work so I would assume that the sear angle is correct and the hammer hooks are of adequate length so hopefully it's just the sear spring. Thanks extremeshot. What is being described is indeed trigger bounce, and would indicate insufficient tension on the center leaf. Conversely if the trigger is held back, and it follows other options are indicated. Dropping a round in the chamber, a no-no, and releasing the slide is the same as hard dropping the slide. This is to be avoided, except when checking a trigger job. LOG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IdahoMike Posted July 11, 2011 Share Posted July 11, 2011 I had close to the same problem with a Springfield 1911. With the slide in the locked back position when dropping on a fresh mag the hammer would follow. I had it fixed by Springfield, then it went the way of the great white buffalo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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