Have you ever been injured while shooting?

[jsalcedo]

Have you ever been injured during a session at the range or while hunting.

If so what kind of injury and how serious was it?

Has anyone here taken a bullet from an accidental or negligent discharge?

It seems I'm always geting bruised, cut up, burned and splattered by hot burning chunks during my range sessions.

I usually wear a long sleeve shirt and ALWAYS shooting glasses.

The worst in my case was a 38 special that hit the 15 yard target frame and came back hit me in the chest, causing a large bruise
and cut from the copper jacket.

 

[Bulldozer]

I wasn't, but one of my dates that accompanied me to the range had a spent .45 casing eject down into her cleavage. I noticed that she buttoned up the Polo shirts after that incident.

 

[foghornl]

Shooting buddy had a cheap .38Spl (RG, I think) that on 2 of 6 would throw almost as much lead sideways as downrange. After I dug the second sliver of lead outta my face, I told him that he could stay, but that cheapy .38 had to go.

 

[jsalcedo]

[Shooting buddy had a cheap .38Spl (RG, I think)]

From a young age I was always told RG is short for "Rotten Gun"

 

[Kentucky Rifle]

Yep...

Got too high a grip on my NAA Guardian one day. When the slide blew back, it took off my left thumbnail.

KR

 

[Nightcrawler]

Once, I found an old crank pencil sharpener. I couldn't figure out to do with it, until it occured to me; shoot it!

So, I took it out to our former shootin' spot and put a round of .308 through it. .30 cal hole in, BIG hole out, with lots of jagged pointy metal.

So what do I do? I go to pick it up, to show it to my shooting partner, and poke the end of my finger on the jagged metal. Bled like crazy. It's always the little ones that bleed. LOL

In additon, I've had the usual barrel burns, run-ins with hot brass, etc. Once, while shotgunning (breaking open) an M16, the upper and lower receivers pinched the web of my right hand at the front end of the magazine well. Bit me pretty good, had a nice little string of blood blisters.

Oh, yes, once, in basic training, I was crawling on my back under some barbed wire, with my M16 over me. My knee hits the buttstock, front sight post catches me in the lip. Ouch.

 

[buzz_knox]

Cuts and abrasions from guns that bite. Burns from casings gone awry (including a lovely one from a .22 that rolled into the inside of my support arm elbow. Ouch) and from getting my hand under the ejection port of a Browning .22. In other words, the usual.

I did chip a tooth once trying to retract the slide on a Glock far enough to release once. This was before I learned how to do one handed manipulations (i.e. wounded warrior drills). Yes, I was young and stupid.

 

[QuarterBoreGunner]

The usual minor cuts and burns from errant shell casings.

A couple of really good ones though; had a casing from .44 Desert Eagle fly almost straight up in the air and then land between my shooting glasses and my right eye brow.

Caught a bit of copper jacket come back from the backstop and lodge in the finger nail quick of my right thumb, didn’t go very deep but did get infected and eventually took my whole thumb nail.

That one was nasty, but BARELY shooting related.

Working an indoor range though I had opportunity to see some nasty ones:

Guy special orders a .44 Magnum Derringer (yes they exist… not sure why) and then proceeds, while shooting some hot 180 grn. Remington, to loose grip of the gun under recoil and it proceeds to come back and open up a gash on his cheek that bled like a fire hose.

Plenty of the ‘crossed thumbs’ grip while shooting semi-autos- most people only do that once.

Plenty of the, uhm, ‘female shooter catching the hot brass down the cleavage’ dance.

 

[10-Ring]

A few times The worst was when my Glock 21 blew up in my hands. The mag release took out small chunks of flesh out of both hands when it blew out of the grip. Last weekend was the most recent. While trying a buddy's newly acquired DE, I caught ejecting brass just below the bill of my cap, just above my glasses, right on the eyebrow OUCH!

 

[Mike Irwin]

Had my thumb dislocated by a .44 Mag. derringer. I took one shot. Never did take the other one.

I dropped a full box of 500 bullets on my foot while cleaning up my reloading area. That smarted.

Sliced my thumb badly while loading the magazine on a Hi Standard .22. The slot through which the floorplate retractor button fit was like a double channel razorblade. Bled EVERYWHERE.

Got a black eye from a scope jab on a heavy kicking rifle. Crept up on the scope while shooting from the bench.

Hot 9mm casing behind the glasses raised one hell of a blister on my eyelid.

That's all I can think of right now.

 

[pax]

Plenty of the standard bumps, scrapes, and bruises -- including hot brass down the cleavage. (I dunno why guys think that one's funny ... it hurts. )

Caught a .50AE brass on my upper lip a few weeks back. Had a minor fat lip for a couple of hours until the swelling went down. Didn't stop shooting, though.

A friend of mine took a ricocheted bullet to the head while I was standing next to him one afternoon. He was fine once we got the bleeding stopped, and says he will never again shoot a derringer at a tree stump.

pax

The fascination of shooting as a sport depends almost wholly on whether you are at the right or wrong end of the gun. -- P. G. Wodehouse

 

[El Tejon]

pax, not this guy. Know that must smart. I did the dance of the hot scorpion at a carbyne class before I learned to cover up (1st class, young moron).

Let's see, most seriously:

=>slammed M9 slide trapping inside of left thumb in slide of said M9;
=>bloodied mouth by smacking mouth with receiver while going to prone;
=>the ever popular brass down shirt;
=>kaboom with volk (I know, I know--I'm cheap, I know) ammo in Chinee STEN, burnt part of left hand, no metal found (thank goodness);
=>ruined Territory Ahead yuppie scum shirt on steel range;
=>hit on back of upper leg with ric (9mm) during downrange drill, I howled but no blood.

Oh, yeah, cut my hand jumping the fence at a gun skul. Late night, the waitress was cute, blah, blah, blah . . .

 

[jsalcedo]

I finally figured out why my davis .380 jams so much:

The slide doesn't move freely when its fouled with fleshy bits...

.44 mag derringer?
I have to try one now.

( tied to a tree with a length of fishing line)

 

[hksw]

I was shooting my SIG P226 one day at an indoor range. At one point, the gun had continuously failed to lock back on an empty mags 2 or 3 times. With the gun onloaded and an empty mag in place, I proceded to pull the slide back to see if the slide stop would activate. I did this a few times and each time released the slide by pressing the stop before retracting it again. I had done it a few times quickly. On one occassion, my weak hand was not fast enough and released the slide with my left index finger tip partially (a very small part of the finger) in the ejection port. It, of course, got caught between the breech face and the chmaber's indexing hood. Mashed and cut my finger pretty good. Still got the scar.

As I thought about it, I must have been trying out slightly different holds and had placed my thumb on the slide stop preventing it from functioning.

Also, a couple of times choking up on my Ruger MkII and getting a bolt bite as well as getting hammer bites from my Hi Power. Have an RWS 48 that took a small piece of my left thumb one time. When you draw back the cocking/pump lever (which is quite strong), a safety gear is suppose to engage to prevent the action from bear-trapping your fingers. Unfortunately, you are able to open the action up a tiny bit before the gear engages and if you let go with something in the action, it will be dismembered. Luckily, it was only the first couple of layers of skin that was caught when it happened to me. No scar. Blister on my chest when I was shooting a .22 lr and wearing a T-shirt with a well worn collar. Casing landed on the collar which acted like a ledge.

 

[sm]

-Sharp guns chewing my hands up.(young before I learned what "de-horned" meant)
-Hot brass.
-Cuts from busted clay targets.
'-Garand thumb'
-"1100 sliced index finger syndrome" (btw for those that don't know left inside of 1100 receiver is razor sharp)
-Stung by pellets from 10 ga shotgun, ruined coat, pellets broke skin (retreiving a downed duck and Idiot tried to pass shoot over my head, I retrieved, and waded out(opposite side of flooded timber), hiked 1.5 mi to my truck in waders and never, ever hunted with idiot again)
-Busted rib from running to stage in mud and rain, fell into stage to keep gun downrange and safe.
-busted knuckles, cut hand,face, again running into the next stage in the mud and rain.
-Broke my mustache in freezing temps during a tourney.
-Broke the other side of mustache next day in freezing temp duck hunting.
-nasty bruise from a '06, no shirt, stock broke, splintered down to the buttplate
-Hiking, didn't know dope growers in that area, splintered from tree when shot at. At least I didn't "trip the wire" in my haste to beat feet. ( I crawl real fast I learned, even backwards with a 1911 in hand)

 

[Pilgrim]

Hyper-extended my left knee while going over a four foot wall at a IPSC shoot. Tore the collateral ligaments, anterior cruciate ligament (50%), and the meniscus. Lots of pain.

Required arthoscopic surgery to remove the torn portion of the meniscus. The knee now predicts bad weather.

 

[Larry Ashcraft]

Standing thigh-deep on the edge of a lake hunting ducks, my Rem. 1100 jammed. I was trying to clear the jam with my thumb in the ejection port when WHAM!, it slammed shut. I was standing there bleeding and yelling and I noticed that in the excitement I had leaned and one of my boots had filled with water.

Later, I went back to the truck only to discover I had lost my keys. Bummed a ride home and spent 2 weeks replacing all the keys.

Sold the 1100 immediately.

 

[HerbG]

The infamous "Garand Thumb" in July 1963. I remember every detail of this event even today!

 

[QuarterBoreGunner]

Larry Ashcraft- I'm sorry, I really am, but LOL!

Sometimes you just can't win.

 

[bountyhunter]

Only psychologically.

 

[jsalcedo]

[re1973]

Big mustache I take it?

 

[JJohnston015]

Mild (is there such a thing?) Garand thumb - got me from about halfway closed. Still hurt several days later. In fact, it hurt until about the time the little blood "eyebrow" in my thumbnail grew out far enough to get trimmed off.

My 442 pounds the devil out of the base of my thumb. I don't know if that counts or not.

I was going into a shoot house at a class once, and as I opened the door and tried to step back, my foot got fouled in the brace supporting the (temporary) wall panel next to the doorway. Ended up flat on my back, but I maintained muzzle control the entire time.

I always nail myself in the lips with the fingertips of my firing hand when I shoot slugs with a short-stocked Mossberg.

I was next to a guy who put a round from his SIG right down the back of his own leg. I knew instantly something was wrong when I saw the puff of muzzle blast and dust around his feet.

 

[thumbtack]

Does hearing loss count?

 

[Bainx]

Yup....fired a 12 gage from the hip once in extreme haste to get a fleeing varmint. The barrel release lever came back into the web between my index finger and thumb. No stitches required but a really good lesson learned!

 

[coonan357]

when I was younger I was shot in the calf with a .22 by my brother rabit hunting ,(finger off the trigger Moron !!) he supossedly tripped and I got shot (and grandpas belt supposedly slipped and my brother couldn't sit down for a week and wasn't allowed to handle a gun since ) .still have bullet in leg against back of bone . 2.coonan cut from trying to rack slide with too oily hands and gotten bit by ejection port . ,3.recoil spring to the forehead (that hurt ) 4. retention plug to the cheek , (note to self stick with revolvers... ) 5.hammer to thumbnail on 1911 (Thanks Al!!!! ) trying to prevent someone from dryfiring a supposed unloaded gun ( didn't clear slide but dropped mag) 6. another spring this time from shotgun off of ceiling into top of head that hurt ...7. shoulder bruised from a Hot Load in lebel rifle ( the recipe said 38 grains not 43 ! ( don't know how i did that )8. slipped going out to repaste targets on will county clay in a rainstorm (cat Sh** is less slick than this stuff ) and did a jig before falling (just should have fell and not tried to prevent myself from falling which caused more hurt)9. got winged by tincan at range ( wasn't thrown ) al in all I think i will quit this hobby and get a safer one like playing on the interstate.