Should I have rifle checked out....

[Shell]

While sliding bolt forward on 30-06 today, had shot go off, uninvited.
This kind of dampened my enthusiasm for target practice until I could check everything out. Now I read this evening that this can be caused from not having the shell all the way down, or closing the bolt too hard. I had a little trouble with the third shell on loading, (I was firing 3 rounds at a time, 180gr), but had removed the third shell and put it back, farely certain it was down all the way, I may have slid the bolt forward a little hard, but if so, it wasn't by much compared to what I consider normal. I really didn't like this happening. 1)If this was mere carelessness on my part, say so, if there are possibilities besides operator error, I would like to know. 2)The bolt handle wasn't even back down in the groove yet when it went off, can this cause damage to the rifle? 3)Has anyone else had this happen? Shell

 

[Jseime]

Yikes

get that baby to a gunsmith FAST. do not, i repeat, dont not try to fire that gun until you get it looked at.

 

[JohnKSa]

Anytime a firearm goes off without your finger on the trigger, or fires more than once with a single trigger pull (in the case of a semi-auto), you need to unload it immediately and not load it again until you fully understand: 1. Why it happened and: 2. Why it's never going to happen again.

I would further recommend writing a short note about the malfunction and attaching it to the trigger guard of the firearm in case something happens to you before you can get it properly repaired.

 

[Smokey Joe]

Nasty surprise!

Yeeks! You don't report any mishap, so I assume that you were pointing the rifle in a safe direction, and nothing worse happened than startlement. If so, GOOD ON YOU!

Previous 2 suggestions are both good. You don't say if this was handloaded ammo--a primer not fully seated can cause this, although it is rare. Agree that not one more live round goes in that rifle before being thoroughly examined by a regular gunsmith--not your brother-in-law who is handy with tools--Pay the gunsmith for his opinion, then it is official. You might even want it in writing. If it WAS a mechanical malfunction you next need to determine if the manufacturer will give you some support in getting it corrected.

If it wasn't a mechanical malf, then you have to determine what it WAS, and correct that.

Needless to say--so of course I'm saying it anyhow--that rifle will be suspect, therefore not usable, until the problem is absolutely, positively, completely taken care of. Do whatever necessary to ensure it.

 

[Shell]

Thanks...

Thanks for the info...I'm definitely not firing it again til I find out. My uncle said it has been known to happen with rim-fire shells, but not center-fire. I never knew it could happen at all.... It's the first time I had it out since I got it back from MT.

 

[Shell]

No it wasn't hand loaded...fresh from Wal-Mart Win. 180gr power-point. No mishap that I know of, the round went up over the tree line, we were down in the hollow at the pond. Lot of startlement though!
When I was having trouble getting the bolt in last week, could I have damaged it some way? Also, I compared the first three casings, with the last one, and it had a 1/4 burn mark on one side, where the first three just had a thin line around the rim, anything unusual about that?

 

[Smokey Joe]

Further opinions

Shell--First, glad there was no mishap.

It being factory ammo just removes one possibility--I've never heard of a factory round with a less-than-perfectly seated primer.

Strongly doubt that you damaged the bolt when you had trouble getting it in; that you had trouble says to me something was already wrong, unless you were just inserting it wrong, needed to push a pin or pull a lever or something and didn't. Bolt rifles aren't normally that complicated or fussy; they either work or they don't; you can't screw 'em up by ordinary handling, unless you were putting the bolt in with a hammer. (I wouldn't call that "ordinary handling!")

The residue on the fired cases says SOMETHING, but what exactly it says, and what went wrong here, needs to be referred first-hand to a qualified expert IMHO.

 

[Crosshair]

Is the firing pin stuck in the extended position AKA, "Slamfire"? You could get some snap caps for it. That way you can experiment and possibly find the problem with it without a KABOOM But yes, whatever you do don't shoot it until you have it figured out.

 

[Shell]

Well, the first gunsmith I called had this happen with a .308 at the target range. Said its the only time he'd had it happen and he had an "after factory" trigger. I'm waiting to hear back from the other one so I can take it in. The snap caps sound like a good idea.
The trouble I was having with the bolt was because on this model, if the bolt is not cocked it won't slide over the safety.
My friends dad had removed it and done a very thorough cleaning since it would be flying and possible storage, which brings me to another question/thought my uncle had...
when I was checking it out after the big bang, it did have what I would consider excess oil coming out from the back of the bolt. My uncle thought the expansion of the oil when it got hot, may have made the firing pin stick, and he suggested I break it down and reclean it. Can too much oil cause this problem? Shell

 

[Rustic]

It may be helpful to tell us the make and model of the gun. They are supposed to be designed in a way that won't allow the pin to fall until the bolt is fully closed. Some can be reassembled improperly.

Anything that would cause the pin to seize in the forward position, disengage the sear when closing, or permit the sear to drop without pulling the trigger would be suspect. Also, your smith will check out the lugs and recesses to insure that no metal has been lost or distorted by an out of battery discharge.

 

[Shell]

It's a Ruger 30-06 Sprg M77. I'm not sure what year it was manufactured.

 

[M4A3]

Yeah, if you dont know how to fix that you're self, I'd get that thing to the smith before the next live round is chambered.

 

[horseshoe3]

factory loaded ammo...

...doesn't necessarily remove a factor. For my best friend's college graduation, his parents gave him a rifle in .300 Win Mag and I bought him a box of cartridges to go with it. They were Remington factory ammo, and one of the primers was pressed in sideways and crushed. It's a wonder it didn't go off in the loading machine. Maybe it did and no one noticed. Only bad factory round I have ever seen, but it can happen.

 

[John Glowa]

M77's

I've torn down a few m77 bolts and they are pretty straight forward units. I'm guessing something got "jimmied" around a bit by the last person to pull it apart. I have one idea about what could have happened. On an EMPTY chamber, work the bolt and see if the safety functions properly. See if you can open the bolt with the safety in full safe and see if it will fire in half safe. Also try to fire with the bolt not quite closed. If it allows the pin to fire during any of these we'll know that it wasn't the ammo and most likely a messed up bolt job.
John

 

[John Glowa]

M77's

I've torn down a few m77 bolts and they are pretty straight forward units. I'm guessing something got "jimmied" around a bit by the last person to pull it apart. I have one idea about what could have happened. On an EMPTY chamber, work the bolt and see if the safety functions properly. See if you can open the bolt with the safety in full safe and see if it will fire in half safe. Also try to fire with the bolt not quite closed. If it allows the pin to fire during any of these we'll know that it wasn't the ammo and most likely a messed up bolt job.
John

 

[impact]

Sounds like to me someone tried to mess with the trigger! I'm not saying it's you. But you need to have the trigger looked at! When you back off the trigger spring or reduce the travel on the sear this kinda thing happens. I could fix it if I had the gun but I don't. It's an easy fix if you understand how the trigger works. Take it to a gunsmith and he can fix you up in no time. If you had a Remington or Winchester I could tell you what to do but I never worked on a Ruger

I'm glad you handled the gun in a safe manner and no one was hurt! Good deal!

 

[Shell]

Okay, I can't pull the trigger with the safety on, or raise the bolt. With the safety completely off, I can slide the bolt forward, then, in slo-mo, at the first click or stop of the bolt, 1/2 " before it hits the wood groove, I can get a partial pull on the trigger, but only once. If I lower the bolt the rest of the way after this, I don't have a shot left, (won't dry fire). If I raise and lower the bolt without stopping to pull the trigger, I can dry fire.


In order to even find "half safety", the bolt has to be half up. But if I pull the trigger at this stage, the bolt goes down and the safety kicks the rest of the way off. I wasn't aware there was such a thing as half safety. I hope this answers your questions. I'm probably going to have to take it up to a larger area to find a gunsmith. I'm not having much luck around here.

 

[impact]

Shell I'm pretty sure what your problem is! the trigger! If you can't take the action off of the stock you really need to take your gun to a gunsmith.

 

[novus collectus]

I have another idea. I put a primer in an empty case and load it as if it is a live round. If the primer goes off when you are chambering it you'll know it better than if it was a snap cap. Careful though because a rifle primer can still hurt. If you don't have primers to do this then take the bullet and powder out of a live round. If you don't have a bullet puller then you can't do this any safe way that I know of.
This is just a wild guess but the burn marks you mentioned at the head of the case was probably because it fired before it was fully seated and the gasses were able to curl around the gap. You were lucky the bolt didn't fly open and spit the case in you face.

btw-gunsmith, definetly.

 

[LAK]

Shell,

You need to have a competent gunsmith look at it - or send it to Ruger. It could be any number of things causing it to discharge on closing the bolt.

Any bolt-action is designed and made to be used with fast and vigorous manipulation. Sure you should not make an effort to slam drive the bolt/cartridge home, but it should take very rapid manipulation in stride without discharging.