Nearly shot my friend from defective pistol...

M

Mantis

New member
Two buddies and I were out shooting our firearms yesterday evening. I was shooting my 9mm EAA witness compact (Tanfoglio). I bought it new in March and have put 700 rounds through it. As soon as I racked a round, it went full auto. My friend was standing to my right doing something with his 7mm mauser. Before I could even blink 3 rounds went off into the dirt and a jam on the 4th shell. The gun was pulling my arm right for him. After it was over, I asked him if he was shot, and thank God he said no. My other buddy was walking up behind us. He though I was going off on the ground... not exactly. If it wouldn't have jammed I think I would have hit my friend. I tried to load another round off a new magazine with different ammo. It proceeded to do the same thing, jamming on an shell. I then tried a clip with 7 bullets in it, again it shot off a round jamming on the shell. I am taking the gun to be repaired on monday, then I am selling it. I think I am going to get a reliable 9mm beretta. Any one know what could have gone wrong?
 
If the sear and hammer springs are original and unaltered, I would think the hammer hooks are possibly worn/damaged/cut at wrong angle. Send it back to EAA.
FA does happen, I have a 1911 that would go through a eight round mag faster than you can say zzzzzip.
 
1) Mantis, this incident makes my blood run cold; I am very glad all of you were uninjured.
2) I agree wholeheartedly with Sam.
3) http://www.thefiringline.com/Misc/safetyrules.html remains a simple, essential guide for safety:

RULE I: ALL GUNS ARE ALWAYS LOADED

RULE II: NEVER LET THE MUZZLE COVER ANYTHING YOU ARE NOT WILLING TO DESTROY

RULE III: KEEP YOUR FINGER OFF THE TRIGGER UNTIL YOUR SIGHTS ARE ON THE TARGET

RULE IV: BE SURE OF YOUR TARGET

4) Thank goodness, you were applying Rule II!
 
I sure hope, when you repeated the experiment twice, that you had a GOOD grip on the gun, and everybody else was behind solid cover. I probably would put only 1 or 2 rds in the mag for the repeat attempts. Glad nobody was hurt.

Another reminder to always, ALWAYS keep the muzzle pointed where an unexpected discharge will not hurt anybody or anything.
 
J.R. echoed my thoughts as soon as I read your description. You tried to repeat that failure twice?? And with full magazines??? Whenever you suspect a problem even remotely similar to that, please use only one bullet, or two at most. Your friends may have been safe if they were hiding, but you never know where wild shots are going to go.

Send it in to EAA, they will fix it, most likely no charge.

************************

(J.R. - I gotta ask, and now is as good a time as any. Are you the J.R. "Bob" Dobbs of the C of the SG? ;) )
 
Good thing that the muzzle was aimed in a safe direction, but as above posts, please try repeats with 2-4 rounds max, never know where the rest wil go!!
 
Good job on the safety rules. See, they WILL save your life or the life of others! They always apply. Always.

hk, could be, but I'd vote sear; don't know until gunsmith sez though. Get it to a gundoc and use one of the other copies that you have. This is why you should have 4 of the same pistol.

Glad everything turned out well. The first time is always the most frightful.:(
 
I have had a 1911 do the same thing on me. Was testing a new gun, knew the hammer was following because I loaded only one at a time. Loaded two, two bangs. Me and a buddy played with it full auto for a bit, but it was impossible to control over 3 rounds. Darn dangerous if you are not expecting it.
 
When you get a runaway weapon like that, it's not just a fluke. It's because there is something seriously wrong with gun. It is UNSAFE. Don't "Try it again" - Ever. Unload the gun - run a zip-tie through it, or some cord and tie it. Mark it as UNSAFE. Then as soon as you can, take it to a gunsmith or send it back to the factory. Whatever you do - don't try to shoot it again.

I had a GI 1911 run away on my once at Ft. Benning. No, it wasn't cool. It was dangerous.
 
For a pistol designed to go full auto, they are a lot of fun. For unexpected...not fun at all.

Give EAA a call. I'm interested to see what their customer service is like. I almost bought a .45 from them some time ago but decided against it until I could see how good service was.

Good Shooting
Red
 
I had that happen on my marlin m70 22 once with a 25 rd mag. At a public range on a sunday with people all around. Fired first round no prob second round and the rifle went cyclic. Even took my finger out of the trigger guard. Only thing I could do was hold it in a safe direction until it was empty. Got a lot of stares that day
Tore the rifle apart , and found a broken sear spring was the culprit, replace and 3ooords later no probs. If your pistol was uncontrolable under full auto meaning no finger on the trigg. but still cycling and you say you've fired it before with no probs. then I would look at your springs, or rather have a gunsmith look at it.
Sometimes our firearms do thing we dont want them to. Thats why its so important to keep them pointed in a safe direction at all times. Glad no injurys.:(
 
EAA has a major problem here. Taking it to anyone other than EAA is solving EAA's problem. Don't let 'em get away with it.

Same thing happened to my Kimber .45 ACP. They got it on Tuesday morning. I had it back in my hands on Thursday morning.

EAA ought o bust their b*tts fixing it. Any slide pistol is subject to the same fault.
 
My Glock 21 went full auto for two consecutive shots (i.e. hold the trigger down and it spit 2 out). Considering it had fired over 2,300 rounds prior to doing this, I think it was just a worn out part as opposed to a DEFECTIVE part. I had a Glock Armorer look at it, and he was able to diagnos and fix the problem. I agree with the others who say that this is a serious safety issue, and once a gun does this don't shoot it again until its fixed.
 
Now this, folks, is a case-book example of an accidental discharge.

Glad you had the thing pointed in a safe direction.

Years ago a friend and I were shooting .22s.

He slapped the bolt home on his a little energetically, and the round went off.

We recovered the casing, no firing pin marks or anything else.

Probably just build-up of junk on the bolt face and an overly sensitive primer.
 
Mantis,

It's not clear to me whether or not your finger was even on the trigger when these ADs happened. It sounds like you're saying that just racking the slide caused the gun to fire. Is that correct?
 
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