Almost had out-of-battery today

Dodged a bullet, so to speak. It's my IAI M1 with all GI parts but the barreled receiver. Loaded a magazine, aimed, fired. Ok. Aimed, pulled the trigger, CLICK. Hammer fell, no BANG. I looked down, the bullet was half chambered.

I cleared the round and worked the hammer for a function check. Seemed ok. Then I held the slide back about an inch and pulled the trigger, CLICK! Hammer fell and I saw the firing pin move. Sure enough, the round that was half in had a really small dimple. Lucky today.

I don't think that it should do that, and how do I fix it?

Send it to Chuck in Denver.

I guess my others (IBM, SG) will drop the hammer when the slide is not fully closed as well. Just doesn't seem right, though. Maybe I was being over dramatic, but when the hammer falls and there is brass exposed, seems wrong. Mind you, I did pull the trigger, so it wasn't a slam fire thing. Been spending lots of time with the Mosins and missed my carbines lately. Had to re-adjust. (Looked at my M1 and briefly wondered, 'where's the cleaning rod for that one?')

Am I being over-cautious?

A GI carbine will not fire with the bolt back even a little. To check this out remove the wood and reassemble, hold the bolt back 1/8 inch and you can see the hammer will not touch the firing pin.

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Originally Posted by Homer2

I guess my others (IBM, SG) will drop the hammer when the slide is not fully closed as well. Just doesn't seem right, though. Maybe I was being over dramatic, but when the hammer falls and there is brass exposed, seems wrong. Mind you, I did pull the trigger, so it wasn't a slam fire thing. Been spending lots of time with the Mosins and missed my carbines lately. Had to re-adjust. (Looked at my M1 and briefly wondered, 'where's the cleaning rod for that one?')

Am I being over-cautious?

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Whenever the bolt moves foreward of a cocked hammer it is possible to pull the trigger and the hammer will drop.
The carbine firing pin has a tang at the rear that must align with a slot in the receiver in order for it to move foreward and hit the primer.
When the firing pin tang is aligned with the receiver slot the bolt should be fully locked and safe to fire.
The early carbines had a type 1 firing pin. It was found that this pin would sometimes allow the pin to hit the primer with a partially locked bolt , that is , only the right lug engaged.
This would result in a broken bolt and a damaged receiver.
Case length is very important with the carbine and when reloading , cases must be inspected and trimmed as needed to prevent firing from a partially locked bolt.
If your carbine has a type 1 firing pin you might want to replace with a type 2 or 3.
Jim C