Yesterday's Weapons Forums

I bought a what seems to be a unissued or exellent grade Mas 49/56 about a month ago and finally decided to take 'er out and put a few rounds through it..
I loaded the mag up and put 'er in,pulled the bolt back...released..BAM!!!
Whoa!!
Scared me it did!!
Pointed in a safe direction as always and luckily no harm done, I pulled the bolt back several more times again and released the remaining rounds onto the ground but no more rounds went off but when I inspected the primers each one of them had a dimple in them.. They were only a smigeon away from firing also..
Anyone else heard or had problems with the Mas doing this?

OKC,
Were you using surplus ammo and if so what make or were you firing home rolled?

Here's a pic of the ammo I was using..not sure what make it is but sure it's surplus. A guy I work with had a mas 49/56 also and sold his but had this ammo and a few mags he gave me.
I did read a little about the primers being soft and this happening..I just hate to think I have a gun that could be dangerous to fire unless I have a certain ammo..
This is one that didn't fire

That looks like it was struck hard enough to have fired. Sounds like the sear is not catching the firing pin or hammer or whatever the system is.

Rad

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The ammo looks Syrian. For the slam fire, a dirty bolt or weak/broken spring could be the culprit. SW

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Slava Ukraini!!

I will talk with the previous owner & see if he ever encountered a slam fire situation with this rifle

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It's 5 o'clock and it's watermelon time.....................
because you can't drink beer & load rockets - TXPete

Thanks Bruce.
It may not be the gun at all, could just be the ammo I'm using. It was given to me and could just be old and bad. I'll have to pick up some Prvi and see how it funtions.
I did read on some other forums that this is sometimes a problem with the Mas.
I still love the rifle and I'll give her a couple more chances to redeem herself..

Considering the ammo it looks like that Syrian might have soft primers. I wonder if someone makes a lighter firing pin or alloy pin that does not have as much wt. IIRC the 49/56 does not have a firing pin spring to slow the inertia of the pin. Tilt to locks can be bad about slam firing --FN49- SKS--Hakim. One of my FN49s in 8mm slam fired and it had a firing pin spring and I'll be darned if I could find what caused it except sensitive primers ????

The only way to be sure is to find another make of quality ammo as you have suggested and use only one at a time to test it. You might have to reload and use CCI #34 hard primers which is made for autos.

Brian,

He only fired 2 boxes of Prvi through it never had a problem. I would take down the bolt & give it a good cleaning. Looks like a stuck pin

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It's 5 o'clock and it's watermelon time.....................
because you can't drink beer & load rockets - TXPete

This is an old post but maybe someone will find the answer useful. The 44, 49/56 are notorious for slam fire and it is due to the heavy free floating firing pin. The primers on the original French military ammo are harder than commercial ammo that is available now. The solution is,to purchase a titanium firing pin or a pin with a spring return on it. The later is the less expensive way to go. Safety first!