Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats ULA accidental Discharge

Had a AD at the range last week.

Rifle - ULA M28 with a brand new Timney trigger installed by Mel.

Was bore sighting and loaded a round to send down range. Pulled trigger and nothing, oops safety on. Reached up with right hand and flicked it to fire, BOOM.

On this and I believe all ULA/NULA�s you can move the safety lever from fire to the middle position to unlock bolt and unload BUT���

If you move it this middle position from the fire position and try to fire the rifle you will feel the shoe move and hence the sear move, when you now push the safety forward the sear is already released and BANG the firing pin drops.

I know it seems like quite a sequence but it can happen.
To repeat--

If you move the safety from fire but don�t bring it all the way back to safe and somehow the trigger gets touched and you then move the safety to fire, it will FIRE.

Can other owners of NULA/ULA rifles try this before I do or say anything.

Thanks!

Dave

I wouldn't ask anyone to try anything. I would get it back to ULA asap.

I tried it on my two CF NULA's. Only thing I find is that it will fire in that "middle" position, and that doesn't surprise me because it ain't in the "safe" position.

I'd give Melvin a ring in the morning.

In a related situation, last week I had a local 'smith "lighten" the pull on my XP100R. No big deal I thought as he is very qualified (?) to do it.

Well, I have a problem. Once in a while when dry firing I get a discharge when flipping the safety to the "fire" position. It won't be shot again until a Rifle Basix trigger is installed by SOMEONE else.

I dont think the nula is a three position safety as in the middle position you are referring to
the safety is designed to be pushed down to release the bolt when on safe and not be put in the middle position which is or can be fire
I have three nula rifles and know what you are referring to as it does feel like a detent on the safety in the middle position
My take on this could be wrong maybe cal Melvin and ask him just to be on the safe side

Gene

Gene- I agree but the fact is there is a middle "stop" on the way back.

I will call Mel but I have a hunch I know the answer......

Although I haven't fired mine much yet, I always thought the safety was a 2-position and never thought there was a "middle position". I just thought it was similar to the old Remington where it either locked the bolt on safe or was on "fire".

The NULA safety is indeed a 3-position, but the 3rd position has nothing to do with any "middle" of the safety-movement.

When the safety is all the way to the rear (no-fire, bolt locked) you press DOWN on the safety, as if trying to push it into the stock. This keeps the mechanism on safe, but unlocks the bolt so the handle can be raised and a live round extracted WITHOUT pushing the safety forward.

WOW. Great to know since my 8-yr old son will be inheriting the 250AI ULA. Thanks for that. Now I'm going to go try it.

Damn! That is cool. It works.

Just as an aside...or actually back on topic....I tried to replicate the AD as described by Daveh and did with my old ULA 250AI (1986). But with the NULA 257AI (2003), I could not find anything that felt like a detent in between fire and safe. But on both NULA and ULA, the bolt locks in the safe position and cycles when I press the safety lever down.

Too old to learn something new every day...but today was an exception.

ETA: If I hold my mouth just right, I can stop the safety lever in between safe and fire on the NULA. But the firing pin did not drop when I moved it to the fire position. I tried it several times pulling the trigger before moving the lever and not pulling the trigger and it would not drop the pin when the lever was moved to fire position. So I guess it's a crap shoot. Also.....neither of mine will fire if the lever is in the not-supposed-to-be middle position.

Yeah, I have never had a safety-push AD with a NULA, and have fired thousands of rounds through at least a dozen of them. So something is wrong with the OP's rifle, and it should go back to be fixed.

Went thru this again tonight---
If you pull the trigger with the safety all the way in the rear position and then move the safety to fire it will not drop the FP.

If you push the safety back from the fire position it will want to hang about 2/3 back and if you don't continue the movement full back and pull the trigger than push the safety to fire it will drop the FP. In this scenario you can feel the sear move and you know (after doing this experiment 10-15 times) what is going to happen. If you move the safety back to the full rear before pushing to fire then it will not fire.
You can push it down just like Mel designed but when you do this it does move slightly forward. I have owned three of these and none have been as positive and firm as I would like.... I like concept but the examples I have seen haven't been stellar.
I'll call Mel and see what he says.

Called Mel. If you have spoken much to Mel, He knows what he knows.

He said there is no �detent� between safe and fire. I insisted you can feel resistance. He explained that you are bringing the detent ball out of the pocket and rolling it to the fire detent --AND- in between lifting the sear. This means I am feeling the sear lift as the �spot� at 2/3rds back.

He said it is just as designed.
I agree and don�t like it.
Like I said I have owned a couple of his customs, several Colts and dozens of other makes and models and �for me� I don�t like how this �feels�.
I want a safety that swings back and forth stiffly but smoothly.

I�ll probably see if I can improve it some�.

why dont you try it without the bolt locking feature and see what happens I would think it would work just like a typical remington trigger set unless you dont like that either not a gunsmith by any means but it might be worth a try or is Melvin saying that the bolt locking feature has nothing to do with the issue you are having




Gene

I read this with concern, I had the same thing happen with a ULA MZ last winter while hunting, It was very cold 15 or so degrees with wind and snow, I just chalked it up to cold wet conditions and maybe a frozen sear...I took aim at a doe thumbed the safety forward and slowly pulled the trigger what I noticed was the trigger shoe moved but the gun did not fire, OK somewhat surprised I reached up with my thumb and touched the safety to make sure it was off upon touching the safety the gun fired..thought it had broke my thumb took a nice chunk of meat off the side..I tried to replicate this several times but I couldnt get it to do it again..Oh yeah missed the deer clean.I really dont care for a sear block timmney trigger..I wonder if melvin can replace these with the newer trigger block saftey from timmney ? I have a model 28 and have shot several hundred rounds thru it without a hitch and the MZ has never repeated this situation but it is always in the back of my mind !

Tried to duplicate the firing on mine and so far it wouldn't fire. Most times I can't get it to stay in any "middle" position. It just flicks to the fire position and as yet the hammer has not dropped. Wither I pull the trigger while on safe or not.

Not a fan of the "detent" override when putting the gun on safe, so I just lift the bolt if I don't fire the round, and then bring it back to safe. No pause in the middle, it just smoothly goes to the safe position.

Addition: There is only ONE safe position on the Nula. ALL the way back.

David, I had concerns, didn't like the whole safety design against either a Jewell or new Timney or Shillen. I eliminated the whole bolt open design issue by using one of the above. Dick

This has been an interesting and informative thread. I especially appreciated everyone's acceptance that a problem could exist and should be looked into. This is a refreshing change from the usual safety "discussions" that sooner rather than later degenerate into complete condemnation of anyone who feels that a safety should be expected to perform some actual function and the indirect praise of the French MAS as the greatest rifle design of all time.

David,

One other thing. My Nula took a saltwater dumping in AK. I should have cleaned it, but didn't and three months later the hammer would fall when I pushed the safety off. Took it to Mr. Forbes and the trigger was a mess. Quite a bit of rust. Just a suggestion, take your action out of the stock and take a look if you have not already done so.

David,
my model 20 ceter file will do it if I pull the trigger when the safety is between half way and all the way forward and then move it forward

my rimfire wont duplicate it

I guess I will have to make sure it is all the way forward when pulling the trigger nice to know but have never had an issue with it util I tried it after hearing about yours

Gene

Just a FYI - this is a brand new trigger as I asked Mel to set the pull to 2.25lbs which is what all mine are and he stated that I should replace the older Timney with a new unit which is able to be safely set lower (CNC machined). Not sure about that as this one will only go 2.5. Ok but not sure it's better. I might Install a Shilen.

Point being - this a brand spanking new assembly.