Had my first major gun failure in my life!

[429421Cowboy]

And it wasn't from one of my reloads either! One of our hired hands asked me to take her grandfather's rifles and clean them up, refinish the stocks and possibly touch-up some bluing, to give back to her dad for fathers day. I took the sporterised 1917 Enfield and a badly rusted Savage 6B Deluxe .22 semiauto rifle that had been neglected in a shop for many years and went to work on them. The /06 has been an easy job, standard cleaning and some rust removal. The .22 was in very rough shape, spent two nights getting things cleaned up and finally smooth enough to feed dummy's and i thought we were ready to test fire.
So yesterday as i sat waiting for a water tank to fill up so i could adjust the float i decided to give things a try. The bolt on it slides in and out to allow use as a semiauto or pushed in and used bolt-action style, so i fired it a couple round bolt action, everything works well, OK, lets try semi, first round fires and cycles fine, second does same, third trigger squeeze......................................BRAPP PPPPPPPPPPPPP!!!!! She went full-auto and ripped off 6-7 round before it jammed, pierced a case, gas warmed my left hand and left nice gas cuts in the stock on both sides of the action thanks to the funky cutouts on the left side of the action, blasted the bolt handle off which knocked my safety sunglasses off and landed next to my pickup a few steps away.
Inspection afterwards showed the firing pin not hitting the case square, i'm assuming it is also too long which caused the full-auto burst.

That is the second time a pair of safety glasses has saved my bacon, i insist on wearing them at work and now have two times to remind me why.

Funny thing is i have a vivid image in my head of seeing two rounds impact the hill in front of me above my target through the Weaver C6 scope before it climbed out of view, thus i suspect it pierced the case after it had ran through the first rounds.

Thank you Lord for looking out for me and for it being *just* a .22, i can't imagine what it would be like in a centerfire.

[LAH]

Close call for sure. I use glasses myself.

[fishhawk]

Glasses ? I don't need no stinking glasses! Says the now blind man....

[Jim]

..... Thank you Lord for looking out for me.....

Got that right!!

[Olevern]

Had one of those when I was a kid, went full auto first time I fired it after purchasing it used at a pawn shop. Didn't do anything but empty the tube magazine everytime you pulled the trigger. I wanted to keep it but my dad took it back and got me a bolt action :-(

[jh45gun]

The Savage Semi auto 22's of them models and their cousins (Springfield and Stevens) all had a reputation for going full auto. I had one that did the same. What the problem is they have a complicated spring system in the trigger assembly and when that gets out of wack the gun tends to go full auto. A lot of gunsmiths will not work on them. I would stick with using it bolt action style if it is repairable. Not all of them had that bolt knob option but even the ones that did not could still go semi auto. Not sure what you mean by hitting the case square as all 22's hit the rim of the case.

[429421Cowboy]

The Savage Semi auto 22's of them models and their cousins (Springfield and Stevens) all had a reputation for going full auto. I had one that did the same. What the problem is they have a complicated spring system in the trigger assembly and when that gets out of wack the gun tends to go full auto. A lot of gunsmiths will not work on them. I would stick with using it bolt action style if it is repairable. Not all of them had that bolt knob option but even the ones that did not could still go semi auto. Not sure what you mean by hitting the case square as all 22's hit the rim of the case.


Thank you for the background information on the guns, i was not aware of any problems inherent to the design, i do know that many rimfires can go full auto depending on the spec's of the firing pin relative to the case.

By not hitting it square i mean it had a sharp or slanted firing pin, which strikes the cases deeper towards the center of the case and leaves only a faint line at the edge of the rim, which is what i think caused the case to burst and vent gas back into the action. Recovered cases look nothing like brass out of a well functioning .22.

[357maximum]

What JH45 says is dead on. I have dealt with about 20-25 of em and they all had the same basic issue eventually. You never knew whether you were getting 1 shot, 3 shots, or all of 17 of em. I can see why alot of FFL's would not have a 87/187 series 22 in their shop when they have the ATF that far up their butt. I sold off all my parts bins for them models for the very same reason. You can tune the parts back into harmony with some parts swapping/tuning, but the issue WILL resurface sooner than later. If you find the right moron he will find that gun "desirable".:o

[Goatwhiskers]

Yep, 187 series Savage/Stevens. Sticky firing pin can cause that, main problem is the relationship between the firing sear and the safety sear which is supposed to catch and hold the bolt back until the trigger is released. If the link between the two is not straight and true the gun will go full auto every time. In your case cowboy I would completely break it down and make sure everything is clean and lubricated, then maybe check that link. Goat

[429421Cowboy]

Thanks guys, i love the help i get, i just wish i would have asked you about things to watch out for BEFORE i got into this deal, seems like i could have checked the link per Goat's direction and figured things out. I will tear it back down and look, not that i will do much, i honestly don't want to be responsible for a gun that has a history and can be counted on to eventually give the same problem.

Does anybody think a sticky about dangerous models of guns would be worth it? I know that some models have inherent dangers, i.e certain Ross rifles can launch the bolt back at your head at close to muzzle velocity if improperly re-assembled, i personally know of two Walther P-38's that can be counted on to go boom when the safety is taken off, but i had no idea that the series 187 Savage rifles will give these problems.
So is a sticky a good idea or no?

[45FP]

I fixed one that was doing that last summer it was the release plunger, while your at it replace the bolt spring, and hammer spring too.http://www.gunpartscorp.com/catalog/Products.aspx?catid=744
rifle runs like a champ now. YMMV.
I think a sticky to ID possible problem models is a good idea, but am concerned that some of that info could come back to bite the shooting community in the .......

[leadman]

I had my Garand go off on me one time, after a gunsmith had worked on the trigger. Thankfully only had 3 or 4 rounds left in the clip.
Took it back to the smith and he corrected it.