Bad gun mistake, Real Bad

[tracker]

Re. rule no. 3 when I was 12 yrs. old and growing up in
rural east Texas: I had a single shot 410 that I shot on
a daily basis. My grandmother had a new '49 Pontiac and
was going to pick up my uncle at work [ a roughneck wholater became a cardiologist ]. I was in the back seat waiting for her when I decided to check the trigger pull. The result
was disastrous: all the windows were rolled up and the head
liner was destroyed with a small hole through the metal
showing daylight; My grandmother was far more interested in
her new car than she was my safety; I lost the use of the
.410 for awhile; The insurance man said he had never seen
anything like it.  

[tracker]

One more: I was 5 years old with a BB gun in Gainesville
Tx. and my mother was reading a newspaper. I asked her
if I could shoot the paper. She said "unn-huh" so I pulled the
trigger, shooting not only the newspaper but also her
abdomen--end of BB gun. Fortunately, I have become more
acutely aware of the aforementioned gun handling rules.

[R9SCarry]

[size=13] you get to smell pickles for the next two years[/size]

Steve - ROFLMAO

I am glad (in a sense) that we are all able to admit fallibility - they do say the guy who claims to have never had an ND - is actually a prime candidate!

I think we all need one safe one to reinforce the safety rules we know but - need to better employ.

[MountainMan]

In my late teens I many times went into the woods with a 22 pistol or rifle.  Pulling my 22 ruger out of my army surplus shoulder holster the holster  top secure strap got caught on the trigger and fired the gun - why and how the safety wasn't on I don't know.  The bullet hit my large western style metal belt buckel and deflected into the ground.  Besides having the air knocked out of me I learned a big lesson.

Several years ago my younger brother, a handgun competion expert, pulled his carry glock out of his belt holster and, how we have no idea, it fired.  He thought the shot missed him and was looking around the garage for a impact point.  Then he noticed a spot of blood on his shirt front.  The 9mm JHP hit his metal cross pen in his shirt pocket causing the bullet to delflect enough to miss his heart.  It went through his chest and out the back leaving a quarter size exit hole.  He didn't know all the details yet.  Walked into the house and told his son to call 911 that he thinks he may have shot himself.  It wasn't until he was on life flight to the hospital that he started to feel the pain.

In case you don't know they don't sew you up.  The wound is packed and slowly heals.  He still carrys daily and shoots all the time.  He like my R9.

[EdMan]

sslater,
I know what you mean about the pickle bucket smell. When my daughter was working at a Subway as a "Sandwich Artist" she brought a green 5 gallon bucket home. I put some ice & snow melt crystals in it. Two years later I was spreading the ice melt and it still smelled like dill pickles.

Good idea about the sand in the bucket though. I may try it.

Ed

[Michigunner]

That's a fine idea about a pail full of sand.

Of course, I can imagine my wife's response to: "Oh, that's just in case the gun goes off".

There would be fur flying all over the place.

[DDGator]

I am happy to say nothing too serious yet, but I am a bit paranoid about safety.

Closest thing to an incident was when I was 16.  I used my Dad's Dan Wesson Pistol Pack in .357 Mag for shooting with my Police Explorer Pistol Team.  At practice one day, we were shooting plate racks against others on the team for fun.  

This DW had a habit (because of the barrel that could be unscrewed) of binding up at times when the barrel would back out and scrape on the cylinder face if I wasn't meticulous about checking the gap.  In the midst of clearing the rack, the gun stopped.  I pulled it down quickly, to open the cylinder and give it a half a round rotation and put it back in service (which usually worked).  As I brought the gun down and reached for the cylinder latch with my weak hand, the gun fired into the ground a halfway between me and the rack, and the blast from the barrel cylinder gap burned my hand a bit.  Apparently I was still maintaining pressure on the trigger and it overcome the force binding it up.   Rookie mistake -- should have taken my finger off the trigger before bringing the gun down.  The good news is -- I was still pointed in a safe direction.

All in all, I was not hurt -- but it scared the hell out of me.  My coach about had a heart attack.  I lost the plate competition...  

[Rocnerd]

About ten years ago, new to handguns I thought I could put the hammer down on a 1911 with a loaded chamber like you do with a revolver.  Result was the gun went off and I ruined a nice coffee table book.  I had that adrenaline sinking feeling and my heart was beating so loud I bet it could have been heard from the other side of the house.  I quickly unloaded and locked away said 1911.  Luckily I made sure that the gun was pointed in a safe direction, unlucky for the book.  Bullet went in about 1/2" before turning and creating a furrow through the cover and pages and finally coming to rest in my wall.  After locking up the gun I made sure it hadn't penetrated the wall.  Even if it had gone all the way through the wall I was living on a farm at the time with about 70 acres behind me and nothing but trees and fields for miles in that direction.  Still the "what ifs" plague me to this day.  

A scary and formidable reinforcement that guns are not toys and should be treated with the utmost respect.  That incident goes through my mind everytime I rack a slide to load the chamber, pull the trigger on my glock to break it down, dry fire, etc.  

  

[WoodstockDoug]

My buddy wanted to try the trigger pull on my 340 PD, which I was carrying at the time, so I unloaded it, put in snap caps, handed it to him and he squeezed the trigger a few times.  When he was done, he handed it back to me, and I took out the snap caps and reloaded it with my carry ammo.  He watched me do it.

Then my wife called me, so I set the .357 on my work bench and went to talk to her.  A few seconds later, there was a loud "bang" from the garage, and I ran in to find my buddy white as a sheet, staring at a little hole in my wall.  He kept apologizing and saying it was his fault, but I take full responsibility... absolutely STUPID to leave a loaded gun on a bench and walk away.  But we certainly both learned a lesson from it, and both he and I have been fanatical about safety since then.

In a perfect world, mistakes wouldn't happen, but it obviously isn't perfect.  The next best thing is for us to learn from our mistakes and, better still, learn from others' mistakes.  This thread is hopefully going to accomplish something positive in that regard.  

[theirishguard]

I was out on a police dept., demo with H&K MP5's and H&K MP5SD's. After all the officers shot up all the ammo and they did some enteries and etc., we packed up the guns and went back to the PD to fill out an order.
When I got back home later, I was unpacking the sub machineguns and putting them in the safe, I opened each gun to check them when one of the H&K MP5SD, suppressed guns went off.
I had the gun pointed towards an outside wall by the upright piano. Kathleen and her daughter both yelled out are you OK?
Two good things happened, I had the gun pointed in a safe direction and the gun was supressed.
We looked for years trying to find the bullet hole in the wall. The wall was covered with fabric. One day Kathleen was cleaning and dusting the piano when she found the bullet hole just under the top cover in the upright area of the piano. The bullet just slipped under the top and splashed on the sound board.
The piano still has a nice and full sound.
I hope never again.
Tom

[tracker]

General rule: They are all loaded.

[R9SCarry]

My - what an honest bunch we are!!  I guess in part that is the result of maturity and ability to ''own up''

Dave - that case with your younger brother.  I am struggling to see how his discharge got anywhere near his chest!!!  It would have meant he was totally forgetting rule #2 and - why that direction anyways?

Glad I am tho he survived!

[EdMan]

Dave I'm glad your brother survived the incident.

Chris good question about shooting ones self in the chest when drawing from a belt holster. Could the FMJ round have ricocheted off the concrete or a piece of metal??