Ever seen a rimfire go off while loading it?

[spencerhut]

So I'm checking out a gun (Spikes Tactical dedicated .22LR AR-15) that will not function for a friend. I have found it is best to reproduce failures before I attempt to repair the problem so I checked function with supplied ammo and sure enough the thing would not even chamber a round of the supplied CCI ammo. My understanding is these guns often do not like CCI ammo, not sure if that is true. Not wanting to waste a trip outside until I could at least get it to chamber I grabbed some random Federal from my stash and loaded a round in the magazine to see if it would feed. Seated the mag, racked a round in the chamber and BAM!
Fudge . . .

Okay what did I just do . . . left hand is on the mag well, right hand just released charging handle and is still on the stock, safety is engaged. WTF??

Cleared the mag, triple checked chamber and cleaned out my shorts. Found the fired case, no primer strike. Near as I can figure when it went into battery the bolt and the barrel were close enough to squeeze the rim someplace enough to set it off.

Took the gun out back and was able to duplicate the failure three more times. Chamber a round with the safety on, BAM!

Since this happened I learned the gun functioned perfectly when purchased and then the owner had it camo'ed (dipped) by a guy new to the camo business. Since it was camo'ed it stopped working, feeding at all. The owner only tried CCI ammo and was never able to get it into battery to even fire.

I have not torn the gun down yet but will report back what I find. This was mostly just a warning to everyone since I've never had this happen before am sort of freaked out about it.

[arfan66]

My Spike's upper feeds & shoots CCI ammo all day long & always has. It will be interesting to see what you'll find after teardown. I would suggest marking the rear of that spent case with a sharpie, place it in the chamber and see where the bolt is making contact. Maybe there's something stuck on the outside if the chamber or a burr from dry firing and that's what is causing it to go off...

[tdaughg]

strangely enough, i just had the same thing happen this last weekend. mine was going through a 80% 10/22 that i just finished. i was at the range and had maybe 150 round through it so far. i get one that doesnt feed. i cleared it and released the bolt and BAM.

had all the same thoughts at you, was it in a safe direction(it was), anybody hurt(nope), ect. im pretty sure it was a federal from a 525 round bulk box. my only problem is that i just dump all my boxes into a bulk ammo box so i dont know what lot it came from.

the strange thing about my incident was that i found a case on the bench right after that didnt have a primer strike but looked like it was flattened with a pair of pliers.

i shot another 200+ rounds that night. some federal some cci and it never happened again. id be curious to know if its a bad batch or something.

[bob_e95482]

I had a Western Auto semi-auto that loaded through the buttstock. After cleaning, I shook it and it seemed like something was loose. I loaded 3 rounds. I pulled back and released the bolt to chamber a round, and it fired. My finger was nowhere near the triggerguard. The shell was bent, and apparently hadn't chambered fully. The bullet went through the sliding glass door.

[TKM]

Was the breech or bolt face camoed? How about the chamber?

Chucking up a brush and cleaning out the area might get things back to normal.

Be sure to take before and after pics so you can charge the camo guy for fixing his mess.

[chillincody]

see i always have worried if it was possible for this to happen now i know!!! glad your safe