To whom it may concern:
Dear Whom:
Over the weekend I did some testing on my M&P 10, mainly around the firing pin spring. I usually shoot either factory brass case or my reloads through it, but occasionally I like to shoot some of the steel case surplus stuff for cheap blasting fun. Of course the firing pin spring keeps that from happening.
So I did some testing with the firing pin spring removed. I loaded up 1 round of the steel case surplus, and used the bolt release to see if I would get a slamfire. I did not and it fired without incident when I pulled the trigger. I then loaded up two rounds and repeated the process without incident. I proceeded to shoot approximately 50 rounds of surplus through it without incident. I then went to some factory brass ammo. I loaded one round and used the bolt release to see if I would get a slamfire with the softer primers. I did not. There was a very slight indentation on the primer, just like I get with every other semi-auto firearm that I have fired. I proceeded to shoot a magazine full (20 rounds) without incident.
To further test the necessity of the firing pin spring, when I got home, I loaded in a large pistol primer (thinner cup than a rifle primer) into a 308 empty case and tested it. I released the bolt 10 times with the pistol primered case in the chamber and did not get a discharge from a slamfire.
One interesting note was that after I had released the bolt that many times, the pistol primer was dented to the point that it would not fire at all, but at least I didn't get a slamfire.
Anyway, just figured that I would share my small experiment.
Dear Whom:
Over the weekend I did some testing on my M&P 10, mainly around the firing pin spring. I usually shoot either factory brass case or my reloads through it, but occasionally I like to shoot some of the steel case surplus stuff for cheap blasting fun. Of course the firing pin spring keeps that from happening.
So I did some testing with the firing pin spring removed. I loaded up 1 round of the steel case surplus, and used the bolt release to see if I would get a slamfire. I did not and it fired without incident when I pulled the trigger. I then loaded up two rounds and repeated the process without incident. I proceeded to shoot approximately 50 rounds of surplus through it without incident. I then went to some factory brass ammo. I loaded one round and used the bolt release to see if I would get a slamfire with the softer primers. I did not. There was a very slight indentation on the primer, just like I get with every other semi-auto firearm that I have fired. I proceeded to shoot a magazine full (20 rounds) without incident.
To further test the necessity of the firing pin spring, when I got home, I loaded in a large pistol primer (thinner cup than a rifle primer) into a 308 empty case and tested it. I released the bolt 10 times with the pistol primered case in the chamber and did not get a discharge from a slamfire.
One interesting note was that after I had released the bolt that many times, the pistol primer was dented to the point that it would not fire at all, but at least I didn't get a slamfire.
Anyway, just figured that I would share my small experiment.
