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SA-20 Round Fired Out of Battery, Safety On

F

FlyOverMe

Copper BB
Our 11 year old daughter has the SA-20 for trap shooting. She has been using it without issue for several months now. Today at the range she had a serious problem. She loaded a round with the safety on. She closed the action and went to raise the gun to aim and the weapon fired in her hands, but the round was out of the battery.

Some things went very right (a big thank you to the engineers who deigned the weapon) and all of the load went out the barrel. However, she had powder burns on BOTH hands - not severe, but evidence that her hands were, as we also saw, no where near the trigger. The powder burns were minor and the pattern was almost all linear, if that helps. She dropped the weapon when the incident occurred and raised her hands.

When we got to her, my husband racked the action back and found that the round was definitely out of battery, safety on. The shell brass was separated from the case. The hull was jammed in between the battery and the action, mangled. We kept it and the brass. The brass shows a strike from the firing pin dead center - at least it looks like it.

So, what do we make of this and what do we do now? I fired it another 30 times without issue, but obviously I cannot risk the safety of my daughter. She is lucky she has no injuries from this and I need to keep it that way. Since you are the experts, we are turning to you for help. Please advise.
 

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FlyOverMe said:
When we got to her, my husband racked the action back and found that the round was definitely out of battery, safety on. The shell brass was separated from the case. The hull was jammed in between the battery and the action, mangled. We kept it and the brass. The brass shows a strike from the firing pin dead center - at least it looks like it.

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This is certainly a serious issue that needs to be addressed. I apologize, but since I don't own a SA-20 I'm not as familiar with the platform but I'll do my best to help. When you say jammed between the battery and the action... Do you mean bolt and receiver/barrel? There are several malfunctions that could cause an accidental discharge. My first instinct tells me that the hammer dropped as soon as your daughter took the safety off without pulling the trigger, but wouldn't explain the case sepparation you've experienced. Does it look like the shell went off in the receiver without being fully chamberd in the barrel? Hopefully we can get to the bottom of this, and no matter what the cause, you should contact Mossberg about your malfunction as well. Contact Joe Zahker at jzakher@maverickarms.com
 
Again, I would certainly call Mossberg because Mossberg owners forum is not affiliated with them in any way. We are just a bunch of collectors and firearm enthusiasts.

With that said, I am very glad your daughter is OK, and that she was exersizing proper safety having it pointed in the right direction and away from people. I would like to thank you for teaching her right and being there to obtain control of the weapon. So for this, it sounds like you did everything you were supposed to do.

I am not an expert in legal affairs, warranty/repairs, or on the SA20.

With that said, the case separation would likely been a result of exactly what you described. Being fired out of battery.

If the shell wasn't in the chamber, it would not have been fully supported and thus it is common for the pressure to cause a rupture in the side or where the brass attaches.

And the pressure is vastly reduced when one fires like that as a result because ordinarily the chamber directs all of that pressure forward out of the barrel when firing the round, but when a case ruptures the pressure goes out in numerous directions lowering pressure which was good for your daughter and surrounding people.

The primer does appear to have been struck with the firing pin. But I do not know what could have caused that without the gun in hand and since this is a sensitive subject, I am not going to speculate as to a cause. Whether firearm related, ammunition related, or user related.

I suspect that Mossberg will want to inspect the weapon, and the shell.
 
Thank you for all the quick replies and information. I will contact Mossberg Monday morning, thanks for the contact.

To answer the questions posed:
Do you mean bolt and receiver/barrel? Yes
Does it look like the shell went off in the receiver without being fully chamberd in the barrel? Yes = no question that was the case.
"My first instinct tells me that the hammer dropped as soon as your daughter took the safety off without pulling the trigger," - she never took the safety off, it was on when we got to her.

Thanks again!
 
As John said, we don't want to speculate with such a serious malfunction, and any advice really is just that... an interpritation what what might have happened.

Since it did go off inside the receiver with the safety on my next guess is that there was a firing pin issue, either broken or sticking that had it portruding from the bolt surface with the safety engaged. As it was starting to lift a round, the primer was "struck" (forced really...) without the shell being in the chamber yet. Thats the only logical answer I can think of, but I'm willing to bet the firing pin was broken or sticking. Please don't check for this yourself, send the firearm to Mossberg in the condition it is in now!. Make sure you're not stuck with the return shipping either.

And I can only compliment you again for teaching your daughter proper firearms safety and raising her right! Firearms are only man made machines after all, that can and will malfunction as your family unfortunately had to learn the hard way.
 
SA-20 owner.
Thank God your daughter is OK. A bit shaken up I would guess.
just some questions that Mossberg may ask. I realize that at that point her condition was the only thing on anyone's mind.
Did you happen to notice if the hammer was down before you first racked the action after the incident?
Was she loading from the magazine or through the port?
How does she release the bolt or was it autoloading after a shot?
Has the gun been loading shells into the chamber all along without incident?
Was the damaged hull partially in the chamber or all in the action?
How far forward was the bolt when you first saw the gun after the incident.
Is she fairly sure that the action closed (bolt fully forward) when she raised the gun?

Having the same gun and letting my daughters (early 20s) use it concerns me and I will be very interested in Mossbergs findings.
 
I saw this post and registered just so I could reply and report on my similar experience. Hopefully I can post some pics to shed some light on what possibly happened in this incident as it seems similar to what happened to me.

I also had an out of battery detonation while at the range. Thanks God the shotgun was pointed in a safe direction and no one was hurt. When I disassembled the SA-20 I realized that my bolt broke, causing the firing pin to be held forward causing the "Kaboom". The piece on the bolt that broke is the black piece on top that seems to operate as a locking lug possibly. Here are some pics. As you can see, the piece snapper right in half and locked the firing pin/spring forward casting the out of battery detonation.

uploadfromtaptalk1395721993941.jpg
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The good news is that it went to MossBerg and the fixed it. The bad news is that I will always be paranoid that this will happen again



Sent from my SGH-M919 using Tapatalk
 
KilRoy said:
I
The bad news is that I will always be paranoid that this will happen again.
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A little paranoia about gun safety is a good thing. I've trained my son right. He doesn't even stand in the business end of a detached mossberg barrel. Paranoia prevents accidents from happening. Glad everyone's okay.
 
KilRoy said:
I saw this post and registered just so I could reply and report on my similar experience. Hopefully I can post some pics to shed some light on what possibly happened in this incident as it seems similar to what happened to me.

I also had an out of battery detonation while at the range. Thanks God the shotgun was pointed in a safe direction and no one was hurt. When I disassembled the SA-20 I realized that my bolt broke, causing the firing pin to be held forward causing the "Kaboom". The piece on the bolt that broke is the black piece on top that seems to operate as a locking lug possibly. Here are some pics. As you can see, the piece snapper right in half and locked the firing pin/spring forward casting the out of battery detonation.

View attachment 5343
View attachment 5344

The good news is that it went to MossBerg and the fixed it. The bad news is that I will always be paranoid that this will happen again



Sent from my SGH-M919 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...


Thank you for sharing and thank God nobody was hurt.
 
Thank God no-one was hurt.
How old is the gun and about how many rounds through it? slugs, shot, buck?
What was Mossbergs report on the root cause?
Did they think there might have been some indication ahead of time?
Anything to look out for or not to do?
 
Brand new gun, a couple of months old. A mix of wally worlds cheap stuff, I was on my 3rd or 4th box. Sorry, can't remember as I have both the bantam and international. There was no buck shot or heavy loads, just the standard target rounds.

MossBerg did not report on it one way or the other. They just fixed it.

Keep an eye on your bolt... That's the only advice I can give. I don't see MUCH of the Internet regarding this issue, but there are some reports.

I love both of these shotguns and plan on keeping th but will keep a close watch on both of them.

I would love to hear back from the OP to see what their outcome was.

Sent from my SGH-M919 using Tapatalk
 
I just want to update everyone and say that Joseph Zakhar at Maverick Arms is a wonderful guy! We sent my daughters gun in and despite it being tagged for his bench, it slipped by and was reviewed and sent back by another tech as "fine - no problem found". My husband sent a note to Mr. Zakhar since he had said he would review it personally - given it was an 11 year olds gun. He was very unhappy it slipped through their system and sent us an overnight label to have it returned to him at their expense. He replaced the bolt even tough they could find no apparent cause for the discharge. We have shot it many times since without issue, although our daughter has not shot again since the accident. It really scared her and even though she did everything right and safe, she is still a bit spooked, as you can imagine. So its thumbs up for us for Mossberg and Maverick Arms service. Things always can go wrong with anything mechanical, so safety has to be priority one. It certainly protected our daughter in this instance. Hopefully she will shoot again in the future. Thanks for all the help and pointing in the right direction.
 
Thank you for the follow up. Glad Joe was able to fix the problem.
 
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