hockeysew
Senior Heliman
Location: Co-USA
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| hockeysew
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| Modify an AR to "Slam Fire" and it will Kaboom due to the bolt not locking in the breech.
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Not 100% true. And it can happen on almost any semi weapon. I have seen Marlin 22's that would do it. SKS's as others have said are known to have this problem.
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| I think there is more than is being relayed in the story.
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Yes. Such info as the ATF had to use soft primers to get it to double and the Judge did not allow the safety recalls I talk about below to be brought in as evidence. In addition, the defense's witness was not allowed to actually touch the gun, he was only allowed to watch an ATF agent perform a functions check.
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| I have worked on AR's that have had many, many thousands of rounds and NONE have exhibited enough wear in the trigger, hammer or sear to cause doubling/auto fire. They are the hardest steel component on an AR.
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Then you should remember the safety recall that the ATF had on certain components from Olympic Arms about 20 years ago. It seems that Olympic might have included 4 parts that were the same as M16 parts in a few AR rifles right after the ban, and other parts were substandard in strength. Bushmaster had a related issue once due to tolerances. Olympic Arms has since had a fire that destroyed most of the documentation, but the ATF knew about this.
The ATF was only able to make the weapon slam fire when they used soft primers. The cyclic rate of an AR/M16 without the sear is going to be 1200-1400 rpm.
BTW, he was not charged with building, or even owning a MG...He was charged with *transferring* it.
Personally, the ATF is acting like an idiot IMO. But I don't have ALL the data.
It is pretty clear that he did not modify anything to get it to malfunction in that way...But they didn't charge him with that.
The ATF claimed that he *knew* it would double or slam fire and didn't fix it. So, since he didn't modify it and it was a malfunction, they could not get him for manufacture. But, they claim he knew about the malfunction and tried to sell it. Hence the transfer, not manufacture issue.
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Some good points RonHill but not quite entirely accurate.
1- The AR utilizes a closed, rotary bolt mechanism. To ensure safe operation in Selective fire (Full Auto) mode a M-16 disconnector has to be present. The purpose of the disconnector is to slightly delay the hammer fall to allow the bolt to fully close and rotate on the breech to ensure full lock up.
In a "Slam-Fire situation the bolt does not have time to close and rotate sufficiently to ensure lock up. Essentially the weapon is firing from an open bolt. A Kaboom or at least sheared locking lugs of the bolt will occur in very short order.
Some weapon systems use a different manner of locking at the breech. A FAL for example, and the SKS both use a "Ramped" bolt, meaning there is a slight change in angle onto a locking surface or "shoulder" as the bolt comes into battery to accomplish bolt lock up. Slam fire can easily occur in such weapons repeatedly as the bolt is fully closed when the ignition occurs.
Others are open bolt designs that can easily slam fire if a firing pin sticks (UZI,Thompson sub machine gun etc.)
One of the things the AR platform was designed NOT to do.......Slam fire. If it does it will only happen a couple of times before it typically blows the magazine out of it.
2- M-16 parts in semi auto AR's is not uncommon at all. I have seen many Bushmasters and DPMS plus a few Colts with select fire components from the factory. Bolt Carrier is the most common.
I am not aware of the Olympic recall that is aforementioned. I will do a bit of research on it.
Olympic is however one of the lower tier manufactures and I would not be the least bit suprised if they used and still do use out of spec MIL parts from unreliable sources. Olympic took what was the cheapest parts and put them into rifles. That is why you pay $650.00 for an Olymic AR vs. $950.00 for a Bushmaster or Rock River. The manufacture has to cut that cost somewhere.
When I bought my first AR many years ago the addage was ABC. Armalite, Bushmaster or Colt. Anything else was substandard 20 years ago. Now thankfully that is no longer true.
3- Soft primers are becoming more prevalent as shooters are having a more difficult time finding surplus military ammo. Century International recalled their Galil clone because they discovered that they would slam fire using commercial ammo. Military surplus ammo was not a problem.
4- One question I have: What did this individual do to cause the ATF to look at him in the first place? I have seen a few amatuer "Pistolsmiths" bugger up a trigger job on a 1911 only to cause "Hammer Follow" which results in a full auto 1911. The only thing that happened to them is the range officer told them that the weapon would not be allowed on the range until it was repaired by a competent gunsmith.
Why did the ATF go after this guy? Probably had more reason than the defendant is letting on.
Transferring- Did he knowingly make an improper sale? Did he knowingly sell a weapon that was capable of select fire? If he did sell the weapon how and to whom did he present it and describe it? Was it a "Straw Purchase"? Did he knowingly sell to an individual that cannot legally purchase a firearm?
I would imagine that some type of scenario similar to the above had to have happened to cause him to be charged with the "Transferring".
Go to any gunshow and you can just about pick out the ATF guys trying to make "Sting" purchases. Once you know what to look for they stick out like a sore thumb.
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