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FAL slam fire?

Norm

Private
Minuteman
Mar 13, 2004
70
0
This is on a Springfield Armory SAR 4800, Brazilian-made (Imbel?) rifle that I got several years ago and a few years later put a DSA trigger, sear, charging handle kit, etc. on it to get rid of the thumbhole stock and legally transform it into a proper-looking FAL.

Over the years it's been pretty accurate, dead reliable and has digested all types of commercial hunting .308 (not high velocity) and surplus NATO ammo without any problem.

Today I was shooting some good 1987 vintage German NATO ammo and also Federal Vital Shok 150 gr. (Barnes Triple Shock) to get ready for a pig hunt.

The NATO rounds worked fine, as usual, but when I tried the Federal .308 I fired 4 rounds as normal and then got a double shot. The next two shots cycled as normal to finish the magazine. Thinking the double was just an aberration out of the thousands of rounds I've fired through this rifle, I loaded another mag of the Federal and got a slam fire when I released the bolt.

Now I admit I've been shooting the hell out of this rifle lately, and haven't cleaned it religiously as I probably should have, but this seems like a bigger problem than a thorough cleaning would solve.

Any ideas what could cause this problem before I ship it to Springfield or DSA for repairs?

Thanks!
 
Re: FAL slam fire?

Take your bolt out of the carrier.
Push out the pin at the end of the bolt (by the protruding pin end).
Pull out your firing pin, make sure the firing pin isn't broken, the firing pin spring isn't broken and that the channel is clear.

That should give you the source of your problem.
I had a slamfire issue before, it was a broken FP that was stuck in the boltface.
 
Re: FAL slam fire?

Are the rounds reloaded? Possible slam fire from primers seated to high. Find the rounds that fired without pulling the trigger and look for a wipe mark on the primer that may indicate the firing pin sticking. Most of the military ammo also has hard primers that would hide a problem with firing concerns. Post a picture of the back of the round here. Make it a good picture. did it feel like the trigger reset? and did the hammer fall when you pulled the trigger after the concern. Obviously you need to do some single or at the most 2 rounds (one chamber one in the magazine). usual problems are.
firing pin protrusion due to many possibles
hammer followed down with action
hammer releasing when not pulled (no reset)
slam fire due to primer seating problems (errors)
cook off (not likely)
 
Re: FAL slam fire?

I've had slamfires when round in chamber and releasing bolt from BHO. Never from feeding from mag though (off of BHO or normal cycling), and NEVER with surplus ammo only commercial/hunting stuff.

Check that your firing pin isn't broken. If not it's probably the primers.
 
Re: FAL slam fire?

Federals are known to be a softer cup primer than others(ie win,cci,etc)When I reload for my battle rifles I do not use the Federal primers for that reason.Good luck!
 
Re: FAL slam fire?

Thanks, guys, for all the info!

As soon as I have time, I'm gonna tear the rifle down and see what is wrong, but the consensus seems to center on a firing pin problem or Federal primers. Fortunately, FALs are built like tanks and are pretty easy to work on.

As memory serves, mine has the original one piece firing pin, but I believe I have a couple of new DSA two-piece firing pins & springs lying around that should work if the firing pin is indeed the problem.

I recently switched from Winchester Fail Safe (discontinued a couple of years ago) to the Federal Barnes Triple Shock. I never had a problem with the Fail Safes except that they didn't group as well as I would like. Very effective bullet, though, as I'm sure the Triple Shock is.
 
Re: FAL slam fire?

OK, I removed the firing pin & spring from the bolt and saw it was a 2 piece firing pin from DSA -- still intact with no obvious deformations or cracks to the two piece firing pin. However, comparing it to a new and unused DSA 2-piece firing pin, I noticed that the old spring appeared to be compressed 1/4" compared to the new, unused spring.

So maybe the firing pin spring is the problem? If so, it would seem the DSA firing pin spring is not up to snuff, which would be irritating since DSA seems to be the premier metric FAL parts source.

Is the 2-piece firing pin supposed to be superior to the original single full-length firing pin for some reason? I don't recall ever having this slam fire problem with the original full-length firing pin & spring.

Anyway, will take it all back to the range asap and swap out the various firing pins & springs (including the original single full length firing pin set up) and try it with Federal, Winchester & NATO ammo and see if I can isolate the problem.
 
Re: FAL slam fire?

Had the same problem with a DSA FAL a few years ago. Called DSA, sent it back. Problem solved without them ever saying there was a problem with the rifle.
 
Re: FAL slam fire?

The two piece was considered an upgrade, although at this hour of the night I can't recall the specifics. I believe it was to prevent a stuck broken firing pin.

FALs can have slamfires and out of battery detonations as well. I think you're doing well to investigate this quite a bit.

If the hammer/trigger/sear engagement surfaces aren't correct, you could be running into a double, not a slamfire. FSE had a problem with their metric FAL trigger sets a while ago, and they replaced them completely. I don't believe that's the case as you had a slam fire (apparently) when the second mag was loaded.

If the firing pin swapout doesn't fix it, I'd consider swapping the hammer/trigger/sear with others and shooting the ammo to see if you can replicate what was going on at the range the first time.

There was a case of a guy getting taken to court by the alphabet boys over his FAL and they purposefully used commercial ammo in the hopes of causing a slamfire.