Yes. Self inflicted by total stupidity. I've never told it on here, so I might as well now. July, 2013, an elderly friend had an H and R 733 revolver in .32 SWL. Said it was his dad's, had been in his sock drawer for as long as he could remember, and was froze up. I told him I could revive it. Took it home, and about 9 that night, am sitting at my work table, spraying it full of KROIL, trying to get it to loosen up. Hammer starts cocking, cylinder turning, we're getting somewhere now. Just as I've worked it back and forth a few times, I notice a small tongue in the back of the trigger guard. I thought to myself, "I bet the trigger has to touch that tongue to make the hammer fall. I broke all four rules simultaneously. I knew better, just didn't think. Had the little snubby cradled in my two hands, and pulled the trigger. What do think happened next? Heard a loud bang, and dropped it. It landed in my trash can between my feet. My left index finger was in front of the barrel. I thought I had been powder burned at first, then realized I had just shot myself. I panicked for a second, then told myself to not panic. I wrapped an old sock around it that was used for polishing brass, and went and got dressed. Drove myself to the hospital. (I was home alone, my wife living three hours away at the time due to our jobs.) Got to the ER, still hoping that it was just broken, and a simple splint would suffice, but no. The bullet had went through the under side of my finger, forward of the middle knuckle, and came out the top, behind the middle knuckle. Called the wife, she drove down. The ER doctor gave me one dose of tramadol, and I drove home. Called in sick to work the next morning, then drove to the office and told my Corporal why I couldn't work. He was kinda dumbfounded, he called the Lieutenant, who's only concern was that "Did it happen on duty?" then she laughed her tail off. Two surgeries later, and three months out of work, and I have a plate fusion in my finger. The end knuckle will bend if I hold it with the other hand and move it, the finger will move at the first knuckle, but the middle one is now a solid bone. Honestly it doesn't affect my life much. I am right handed, so my its my support hand most of the time. When we have quals I shoot my Glock and AR with my bird finger now when we go weak hand. It's a little slow, but I concentrate and hit where I need to.
Turns out that little H and R had one round of 32 short in it. It had rotated enough for it to line up on top. I took a lot of kidding from friends and family about it. Made many excuses, but at the end of the day, it was just poor judgment on my part. I knew better than to assume it didn't have ammo in it, never did that before or since. I knew better than to have the barrel pointed at me too. When the elderly friend found out I was hurt, he took it hard. He said, "I never would have thought that gun had a shell in it." He felt so bad that he didn't want it back. Made me keep it. I still have it to this day, disassembled. I need to put it back together now that its on mind again. I did my best to try to assure him that it absolutely wasn't his fault, all mine.
