AR-15 missing disconnector spring = full auto?!!!

[2Bear]

My brother just pointed out this thread to me:

http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=3&f=118&t=514041

Here the OP bought a lower that is apparently missing the disconnector spring. He took it to the range to test fire and surprise! Full-auto burst.

Is this normally the case on an AR? Remove/break/lose this part and BIG TROUBLE?

Reminds me of the Olofson case with the accidental multi-burst at a Wisconsin range.

A scary thought that such a simple screw-up could land one in Federal prison...

[technique]

Yup, it happens...

[FNH5-7]

This happened to a guy once, he was on the news at a national level.

[armygunsmith]

This is why a functions check is crutial every time maintenance is performed on a firearm.

[Seesm]

It could potentially dump a 30 round mag but probably will only do 2-4 and then catch the hammer and stop it...

Kinda one of those thing you need to make sure you have the spring in there.. Fat side down... (conical spring)

Against the law to fire more than round per trigger pull....
"So get it right and keep your butt tight..."

[arsilva32]

Isn't there a grandpa in a Fed Pen who had an accidental multi-burst at a range?

A scary thought that such a simple screw-up could land one in Federal prison...

This happened to a guy once, he was on the news at a national level.

this is about the most ridiculous thing i've heard yet.what kind of chickensh$t judge would put a old man in the pen for a weapon malfunction,one quick slamfire. it would be different if he intensionally modified the weapon to fire FA,but thats just going way to extreme for a simple mistake or malfunction.there has got to be more to it than that. infact i remember a friend who had a 22 that fired FA years ago that was caused by the tip of the disconnecter chipped off.i mean firearms can malfunction,if you were to keep firing the weapon after a malfunction i could see getting busted.but a responsible shooter would tear down the weapon and repair it after the first time it burst fired.how could you expect anything more?

[2Bear]

there has got to be more to it than that.

Apparently the guy who loaned the defective rifle got busted for transfer of an automatic weapon... (When I first heard of this, I found much less info.)

Google: Olofson AR-15

http://gunowners.org/a09032009.htm

At trial, the Government had insisted that any weapon that fired more than one shot at the single pull of the trigger — “no matter what the cause” — is a machine gun and that, since Olofson knew that his AR-15 would misfire on occasion if put in the unmarked position, then he knew that the AR-15 has all the essential characteristics of a fully automatic weapon.

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2008/03/13/ldt.tucker.govt.guns.cnn

[BobLeeSwagger]

It could potentially dump a 30 round mag but probably will only do 2-4 and then catch the hammer and stop it...

Kinda one of those thing you need to make sure you have the spring in there.. Fat side down... (conical spring)

Against the law to fire more than round per trigger pull....
"So get it right and keep your butt tight..."

what's the purpose of the disc spring being flat side down? what will happen if someone was to install a disc spring with the flat side up?? just curious...

[dfletcher]

what's the purpose of the disc spring being flat side down? what will happen if someone was to install a disc spring with the flat side up?? just curious...

It's truncated - I'd say the wider bottom helps keep it sable and in place and the thinner top ensures it doesn't rub against the inner sides of the trigger.

[AJAX22]

On .22lr, 9mm, and .45 (and all other pistol cal ar's) removal or disabling the dissconector (even with a toothpick under the leading edge or a bit of gravel that is in the wrong spot) will cause controllable, reliable, full auto operation.

You still risk an out of battery detonation, but the sot's I've talked with on the subject told me they've never had a problem that couldn't be solved by racking the action.

5.56 ar's and others which use a rotating bolt are much riskier and have a high potential for jamming, out of battery detonation or, catastrophic failure.

[technique]

On .22lr, 9mm, and .45 (and all other pistol cal ar's) removal or disabling the dissconector (even with a toothpick under the leading edge or a bit of gravel that is in the wrong spot) will cause controllable, reliable, full auto operation.

You still risk an out of battery detonation, but the sot's I've talked with on the subject told me they've never had a problem that couldn't be solved by racking the action.

5.56 ar's and others which use a rotating bolt are much riskier and have a high potential for jamming, out of battery detonation or, catastrophic failure.

An AR15 will run reliably with only the trigger group and bolt being FA parts. No sear/drilling needed.

[AJAX22]

That depends on the type of ammo, and as I stated previously, the risks of jamming/ catastrophic failure are significant.

Rifle calibers that require lugs to lock the bolt in battery have enough energy todo real damage if the lugs only partially engage or if you have an out of spec firing pin which ignites the primer too soon etc.

[technique]

Interesting, I've run a lot of different ammo that way, including some of my own reloads. Only thing I noticed is the rate of fire is hectic! Real fast!

[FNH5-7]

this is about the most ridiculous thing i've heard yet.what kind of chickensh$t judge would put a old man in the pen for a weapon malfunction,one quick slamfire.

[captbilly]

I have to believe there is more to this story.

When I was a USAF pilot there was a story on 20/20, or one of those types of shows, about a B-52 pilot who got busted fro drug use when he failed a urinalysis while on nuclear alert. The way the story was presented on 20/20 they made it sound like the evil and crazy USAF just wouldn't admit that their urine test was screwy, because there is no way that a guy could have been using marijuana while on alert (there isn't a lot of opportunity for privacy while on alert). Well it just so happened that one of my buddies went to pilot training with the pilot in question and he said the guy was smoking weed all the time. In fact the main reason, in my opinion, that the USAF had us do our urinalysis while on alert is that they didn't want to have to bust too many pilots for drug use (it costs millions to train a pilot), but this guy was either so full of THC that it was still in his system while on alert, or actually had the balls to do pot while on alert, that he failed a test given near the end of a week long alert tour.

My point is that I wonder if there is more to this than just a guy with a malfunctioning gun. I have to believe that the BATF has better things to do than go after some poor shlub with a bad AR-15.

A story related to this: I took an old Ruger Mark 1 pistol to the range this past summer and had it randomly put out 1, 2 or 3 shots per trigger pull. Nobody even noticed over the noise of all the other guns, but it kind of scared me. The first time I wasn't even sure that it had really happened but over the next couple of magazines I had several doubles and triples. I got the gun in trade on an AMT backup probably 20 years ago and had never actually gotten around to shooting it, now I know why the guy wanted to trade (what a douche).