My First Accidental Discharge, I am Freaked Out.. Learning Lesson... Need Advice

[Evergreen]

Tonight was very scary for me. I had my first accidental discharge in my life.. I remember a guy who helped introduce me to firearms warned me that you will have one of these in your life and I shunned it thinking: "oh no, NOT ME!" Well, now I am smacking my head against the wall and I feel thankful to be alive, although I am abit deaf, but my hearing is recovering.

I was taking my AR-15s out of the safe and going to put them next to my bed, as I do at night. Well, I was pulling out my first AR and then took out my second. I switched the AR from my first rifle to the other rifle that had my AIMPoint site. I always check my guns to see if they are loaded and I know all firearms rae loaded. Doing all the multiple safety checks I did, perhaps saved my life.

Here is where I was stupid; I checked the chamber and it was empty. AH, ok I felt safe, then I closed the charging handle which loaded the round. For some reason, my stupid brain was not thinking when you close charging handle, that chambers the round. Even though I know this on an average day, today my stupid brain was not registering that. Anyhow, I was confident the gun was unloaded, but I always do a test fire in a safe direction, which was the ceiling of my garage in this case, then I just did a test fire to make sure it was truly empty and BOOOOOOOM. My ears are ringing and I am freaked out to death, wondering what I have done????

I cannot even go into what fear I had after this. The bullet made a small entrance into the drywall ceiling of hte garage and is not noticeable. My heart was racing and pounding and I was afraid to see where it travelled. I feared when I went upstairs that my computer, light bulbs, electrical wires, etc could have been blown to pieces and parts laying everywhere. Well, PRaise God (or whatever higher power you believe), it turns out the bullet went through the floor of my exercise room. It pierced through carpet that had no furntirue or anything on it and kept travelling at about a 30-45 degree angle (the angle I shot the gun at) to the roof. IT appears the round began to fragment when it went through the floor of my upstairs exercise room and pierced through the drywall ceiling of my upstairs roof in what I can describe is a buckshot like-manner.

The round I fired was a Hornady .223 TAP LE type ammo with the red ballistic tip. I am happy it was this round, rather than FMJ, as I couldn't tell how far a FMJ would travel, but I was told the TAP type ammo expands and loses velocity quick on impact.

I hate msyelf truly and have learned one of the most valuable lessons in my life today. The words of that gunsmith who helped introduce me to firearms has haunted me this day. For all of you, who think, cannot happen to you, IT CAN.

I have learned a lesson.. I will never be so complacent again.. This will haunt me for years to come, even though I am lucky,. I pointed the gun in a direction, when I did my testfire, that I knew there would be no civilians at close range or through walls; however, there is no guarantees when something like this happens.

Well, hnow I have a small hole in my floor and about 12 holes in my ceiling that range from 1/10 - 1/2 inch .

I am going to have to see what I can do to repair it. For various reasons, I am not sure if I feel safe to call a handyman or not to repair this. I am not very handy in these regards and don't think I could do a good enough job fixing up the damage to make it unknown from my landlord. Can anyone give me any suggestions in this regard?

Thank you.

 

[Curator]

At least you obeyed rule #1: keep the muzzle pointed in a safe direction. ADs and NDs do happen. Those who think it will never happen to them may be mistaken. Stop beating yourself up and go forth a wiser man. Most shooters who have had this happen are extra committed to muzzle control ever after.

 

[Jolly Rogers]

I agree with people that call accidental discharges mechanical failures and neglegent discharges human induced. No disrespect intended but words are important.
Glad no one was hurt.
Joe

 

[W.E.G.]

You screwed up.

Lucky nobody was hurt.

Patch up the holes, and don't do it again.

Your post sounds a bit hysterical.

 

[Armored farmer]

When you pick up a firearm, at that moment, you are responsible for the safety of those around you.
When you get behind the wheel of the family car, you are responsible for those around you.

There is a special mindset or "zone" to be in. No distractions.
The bull**** stops when the bolt drops.

The lesson you learned will serve you well the rest of your days.

 

[teumessian_fox]

I'm not sure what advice you're asking for. From your narrative, you want what, advice on how to fix your home?

From reading your post the bullet traveled through drywall on the wall and the ceiling? Are you sure nothing penetrated the roof?

If it's just drywall you're talking about, spackling and a joint knife (both available at Walmart) is all you need. But unless the spackling is the exact color of the paint, you'll have to touch it up. Sherman Williams can fix you up with that.

 

[Sauer Grapes]

Drywall repair? Go to your local paint or home improvement store and buy some LIGHT WEIGHT SPACKLE. It comes in pint or quart plastic containers in the paint dept. at Home depot. It will fill a hole up to about a 1\2 inch in diameter.

Apply with a flexably spackle knife. It's not brain surgery.

We are all human, everybody has lapses in brain function. I understand your being upset. I would be too.

 

[alohachris]

Glad you & yours are OK.

When checking any semi-auto firearm:

Step 1: REMOVE THE MAGAZINE, the source of bullets.

Step 2: Open the bolt & lock it to the rear.

Step 3: Visually & digitally inspect the condition of the chamber and MAGWELL.

Sounds like you skipped Step 1.

 

[SaxonPig]

Welcome to being human.

Don't hate yourself. Trust me, you will make far bigger mistakes in your life.

Yes, I have had an AD. About 30 years ago. Put a 22 slug through the bedroom wall.

 

[Creade]

I'm actually confused as to why you were taking 2 AR 15s out of the safe and putting them next to your bed for the night, (but I'll assume you live in a warzone) and then also why you test fire them each night?

Then i reread and what you actually said was

"I just did a test fire to make sure it was truly empty and BOOOOOOOM."

Pulling the trigger is a fairly insane way to make sure a gun is unloaded. I do not understand the logic here.

 

[shockwave]

I don't have an AR-15, so I might be wrong, but the procedure of pointing the gun in a safe direction and pulling the trigger while you have a loaded magazine in it seems odd to me. If you wanted to check the trigger operation, wouldn't the proper procedure be:

1. Remove magazine
2. Clear chamber
3. Check operation

And use a snap cap if that's better for the mechanism. A manual of arms that has you pulling the trigger on a loaded gun at home seems to be a recipe for an accident.

 

[hso]

We're happy to hear that no one was injured. The implication of such failure is truly dire so it is perfectly reasonable to be rattled because of the seriousness of the failure. Many of us here have had negligent discharges (I had one in my home) and the lesson learned is that we failed to follow one of the basic safety rules.

Sorry, but we don't do home repair advice, just firearms.

You had a negligent discharge not an accidental one. You were not handling the weapons safely because you were not pointing the weapon in a safe direction when you pulled the trigger (and we'll get to the practice of pulling the trigger later). What goes up must come down and you had plenty of valuables above your garage that could have been destroyed stopping the bullet. Does anyone else live with you in the house? If so, they were endangered by this since they could have been upstairs in the bullet's path. The only safe direction to point a weapon when you pull a trigger is where people can not be. If you're going to continue to follow the practice of pulling the trigger get a 30 gallon scrap drum and fill it with sand so that you can make a shoot drum. Better yet, change the practice of pulling the trigger with a magazine in the weapon to having no magazine in the weapon. Have no magazine around the weapon when you do this or don't do this at all after you check the chamber. Cycling springs wears them out, not leaving them in a compressed position so there's no reason to actually do this any more.

Glad to hear no one was hurt, but you need to change the way you're handling these weapons to make it not possible for this to happen.

 

[Dave P]

"I always do a test fire in a safe direction"

Shooting toward a potentially occupied second floor doesn't sound safe to me.

I always point toward my concrete floor, at the base of a block wall.

 

[Tinpig]

I checked the chamber and it was empty. AH, ok I felt safe, then I closed the charging handle which loaded the round.

Just out of interest, why do you keep the magazine in your rifle if the rifle is in your safe?

Glad everyone is OK.

Tinpig

 

[Evergreen]

Thanks everyone for your replies. I am open to anyone who is scolding me for being an iddiot, because an iddiot, I truly was today!

I would never have pulled a trigger on a gun with a loaded mag. I was very stressed out because of my job and in a rush to get the guns out of the safe. I was obviously not thinking clearly at all. I always check and double-check the chamber before pulling the trigger. Then I point the gun in a safe direction and pull to verify its empty; sadly, in this case, it was not empty, because I forget to obey the other rules!


For those who wonder why I pulled the trigger, this is my way of verifying 100% the gun is unloaded. The problem is, my memory lapsed to the fact I put a loaded magazine in the gun before switching mags in the ARs. I checked the chamber with my finger and visually and was so pleased it was empty, then I forgot the mag was loaded and pulled charging handle, thinking it was empty and when I did the final test to verify it was empty, BOOMM!! This was extremely stupid on my part!! Perhaps, I will purchase snap-caps and never again dry fire my guns, I don't know what to do at this point.. I will forever be freaked out when I dry fire a rifle, or any gun for that matter.

I cannot undertsand how something I have done over and over again and have been so careful about could slip by me. I never dry fire a gun with a loaded mag ever. This is the first time I ever done it and it was a horrible mistake. Also, seeing that my mind was not working, I pulled charging hand to check if a round was in the chamber, forgetting the mag was in the gun and then, unknowingly, thinking I checked the chamber, actually loaded a round into the chamber.

Now, I am in a world of h-e-l-l wondering how I will fix the damage. Iam thinking I am going to go in the attic (freaked out, due to possible wasp infestation), to see if I can find any fragments of the bullet there. I am praying to God the bullet did not travel through the roof. ANyone, have any ideas of the probability of a Hornady TAP .223 LE ballistic tip round travelling that far?

It went through the ceiling of the garage, the floor of my upstairs exercise room and started to frgament at the drywall ceiling of the upstairs room. How far it has travelled beyond that is still unknown. Tomorrow, I will go find out, hopefully won't get stung to death in the process.

As far as the texture, the ceiling of the room is just dry wall with some texturing. I appreciate the advice. I will see what I can do to go about texturing the patch-up and matching colors, although Iam not experienced with this. The holes are not super big and only three of them are as large as half an inch. The other holes are smaller and more sliver-like (skinny and diagonal), but it does have somewhat of a sprayed-appearance.

I'm actually confused as to why you were taking 2 AR 15s out of the safe and putting them next to your bed for the night, (but I'll assume you live in a warzone) and then also why you test fire them each night?

Dear Creade, I don't live in a warzone, but rather live in a crowded suburban neighborhood with neighbors all around. I feel more confident with AR-15s loaded with Hornady TAP red-tip ammo because I believe it would not have the potential to go through walls as easily, as with a handgun or a shotgun. THat is why I sleep with AR-15s next to my bed. I do believe in using guns for self-defense. Sadly, sometimes the tool you use to protect yourself can be used against you, if you are stupid, like I was tonight.

Just out of interest, why do you keep the magazine in your rifle if the rifle is in your safe?

To Tinping, Why shouldn't I have magainze in my rifle?? In case I have to run to my safe and grab the rifle quick and I don't have time to load a mag. Would this be a sufficient answer? Actually, the gun that I had the ND/AD with did not have a magazine loaded in it. I actually put a magazine in it right before the discharge, forgetting that I did it.

What goes up must come down and you had plenty of valuables above your garage that could have been destroyed stopping the bullet. Does anyone else live with you in the house? If so, they were endangered by this since they could have been upstairs in the bullet's path. The only safe direction to point a weapon when you pull a trigger is where people can not be. If you're going to continue to follow the practice of pulling the trigger get a 30 gallon scrap drum and fill it with sand so that you can make a shoot drum. Better yet, change the practice of pulling the trigger with a magazine in the weapon to having no magazine in the weapon. Have no magazine around the weapon when you do this or don't do this at all after you check the chamber. Cycling springs wears them out, not leaving them in a compressed position so there's no reason to actually do this any more.

Thanks for good advice. The gun was pointed in a "SAFE" direction if you want to call it that, because it was the only direction I could point it without risking the injury of human life and I knew that when I pulled the trigger. No, there is no one living in the house, I live alone and had there been someone potentially upstairs, I would have done the test fire upstairs pointing at the ceiling as I always do. The floor was out, because its concrete, richochet risk.

Anyhow, I never test dry fire with a mag that I have not fully inspected, but this time my brain slipped. From this day onward, I will never dry fire with a mag in my gun ever again ever.. You don't have to convince me about this, I am rattled and will just never do it. The only alternative maybe is getting a big drum of sand, not likely, or using snap caps.

What can I say, I screwed up! What I did tonight, I have never done before, dry firing with a loaded mag.

Anytime you fire a live round in an urban/suburban area you endanger the lives of others. I will definately not say no one's life was endangered.

I take 100% responsiblity for this and will live in regret for a long time. The #1 lesson I learned is just because you inspect a chamber, does not mean its empty. THere is a good chance when you close the bolt that a round could b chambered. So, not only should you check the chamber, but also check to see if a magazine is in the gun right before you dry fire. Probably lesson #3 is just not to dry fire your gun, Although I will have to admit dry firing did provide me with lot of practice when I didn't have time to go to the range; not sure what I will do now about that.

 

[clance]

I'm assuming from your story that you don't necessarily desire to have a round in the chamber at night, but available when you rack the bolt if you need too? Suggestion. If your intent was just check the chamber and not load it. Keep the mag out of the mag well until your ready to put it next to your bed or just keep the mag out on the nightstand if you really want to be safe.

With that said, many years ago I had a accidental discharge of a firearm myself while watching TV with my parents and siblings.

A few months before I had just turned 21 and bought my first pistol a Colt Combat Commander 70 series. Earlier in the day I went out to my family's home to target shoot with my dad where we had a small range out back of the house. When we were through we came in to eat and then get to the business of cleaning our firearms that we had used.

I was seating on the family room floor cleaning my pistol watching TV with my family. After getting it cleaned and reassembled I loaded one in the chamber as was my practice, locking the hammer with the thumb safety. Putting the mag in and like you pointing the muzzle in a safe direction (towards the ceiling), I slammed the mag home with thunderous results.

After the round went off (talk about loud) and the daze wore off, my old man was all over me about having my finger on the trigger. I swore to him that I didn't (another safety rule: never put your finger on the trigger until your ready to shoot) but just my thumb on the thumb safety which I must have click off when I slam the mag home. He didn't believe me until after emptying the gun I recreated the situation and the hammer drop again! Needless to say come Monday after work (the accident occurred on Saturday) I took the pistol to a local gunsmith to find out what happen.

Apparently the hammer/sear contact had a burr along the sear edge that broke off during target shooting, rounding the contact edge. According to the smith I was just luckily that it didn't go full auto, but the slamming home the mag and flipping the thumb safety off was just enough to allow the hammer to fall (different motion?). After having the pistol fix I never felt confindent/safe that this wouldn't happen again, so I sold the pistol (now I wish I had it back).

Approximately a month after my accident one of the local news channel had a story about a undercover police officer going in on a drug raid with a similar Commander in his back pocket shooting himself in the butt when he flip the thumb safety off . Needless to say he sued Colt and I was "totally" vindicated in my parents' eyes.

Long story short, always apply/practice the safety rules as firearms are only mechanical devices created by man and prone to their same weaknesses.

 

[SSN Vet]

Sorry to hear of your error and glad for you that the damage and consequences were minimal.

Thanks for posting...

good lessons can always be learned from these threads.

watching and reading with interest.

As the accident occurred during your "bedtime security prep. routine" I suggest you carefully re-evaluate what level of preparedness you really need and try to set up your environment such that:

1. SD firearms are maintained the exact same condition all the time.

2. Frequent handling of your SD firearms is not required.


I accomplish this by maintaining my designated SD handguns in condition 1, stowed in a quick access lock box (Gunvault), that is very close at hand (one at my bedside on the second floor and one centrally located on the ground floor).

They are always in the same condition and the only time I handle them is if I am going to take them out to shoot or maintain them.

I keep my carry piece in condition 1 all the time, in it's holster. It is either on my hip or in the night stand Gunvault (double decker).

I don't feel the need to perform press checks or other such verifications, as they are ALWAYS kept in the exact same condition.

It is my opinion that frequent and unnecessary handling of firearms is a major source of such accidents. Your' bedtime routine sounds like a set up for failure to me.

Set yourself up for success next time.

 

[esquare]

May I suggest a few things. Rule 3 is finger off the trigger until sights are on the target. This is applicable to dry firing and test firing as well. Any time the gun is not disassembled or (for handguns holstered). An interior wall/ceiling/floor is not a safe backdrop. A handgun bullet will go through many layers of drywall - so will 5.56 nato. If you have to test fire or dry fire, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE get a safe target to do it with (30gl can with sand is cheap insurance).

That being said, if this is a routine you do every night, it's very complex. I would suggest leaving the guns loaded all the time and just verifying there is a round in the chamber, or leaving the bolt open with magazine inserted and chamber empty so all you need to do is drop the bolt.

BTW, the firearm should be pointed at a SAFE target when dropping the bolt as well.

Can you come up with a solution to where you aren't moving, loading, unloading and checking these firearms every day? There are some long gun hangers that secure a gun and can be opened with a key or combo when you are at home and closed the rest of the time. Or, you could get an inexpensive safe for right beside the bed. I'd rather open and close a safe every day that have to manipulate two ARs.

 

[CHEVELLE427]

can happen to anyone any time all it takes is 1 miss thought ,

a lot of hunters get shot every year taking there gun out of the rack on the back glass, gun was loaded and finger was on the baing switch.

 

[Sky]

Used to be called "positive habit transfer" only this time it wasn't quite as positive.

Preflight Checks; checks preformed when you first arrive at the aircraft to insure its' airworthiness.


Have seen highly trained individuals turn fuel valves off "during taxi" momentarily because that was part of a preflight check on their aircraft. Big eyes and pale Ghostly appearance was to follow.

Luckily as this happened on the ground in preparation for take off the engine could be restarted if it flamed out and the fuel panel could be reset and nothing bad happened.

If the 2d officer was really fast the fuel valve did not have time to shut the fuel off and engine did not flame out. A second officer did this to me one early morning flight without the engine flaming out...He confessed his actions to me after the fact and ended up as a Captain many years later. He is retiring this year with no accidents or incidents on his record.

Think it was a TWA Boeing 727 (late 60s or early 70s) that lost all three engines passing 25,000 (not actual altitude don't remember) when the second officer was beginning the fuel cross feed but did the preflight procedure instead.

This is done to balance fuel or burn out of the center tank for landing considerations and center of gravity.

They got the engines restarted and upon landing; (the 2d probably became a great used car salesman) got a new/different 2d officer. All this happened because during preflight part of the checklist was moving switches and checking for light on light out insuring the valve you were intending to open or close did actually move; light was hooked to micro switch on valve housing.

Guys/Gals get pretty fast and next thing you know they can do a function check on the fuel panel when in actuality they are wanting to set up a simple cross feed; the cross feed procedure does not include touching the engine fuel valves at all.

All this usually happens when we are really just running on auto-pilot in our brain and not thinking of our individual actions. Do something 10,000 times and you don't even have to think about it. That's why training is so important to insure actions can be preformed with out thinking. Most of the time works pretty good; some call it muscle memory but I swear I have never seen a dead person get up and walk?.

You were tired and doing something you have done many times and probably running on partial auto-pilot/muscle memory; classic!

Depending on size of holes in the sheet rock painters putty is easy to plug holes with; dries quickly and might work for you if the texture of your ceiling and the patch blend in.

The older were get the more our auto-pilot seems to have more glitches. Lessen learned and no one was hurt. Thanks for your honesty and by you fopaw(-1 sp) maybe you saved anothers life by reading you situation.

 

[cadillacmike]

This is to clance:
I never heard of the requirement to have the thumb safety off when loading a magazine in any Colt model 1911. The manual dioesn't mention the need to take the safety off either. I'll check actual operation at home, but this sounds like an unecessary, unsafe step. What were you trying to do, stuff an extraround in the chamber? Have you EVER had to use 8 rounds without re-loading to save your life or others? That seems extreme and unecessary to me.

As to the OP, you're not following proper clearing procedures, and pulling the trigger to verify a rifle is empty is not the best way to accomplish this. A proper clearing procedure is the best way to verify this. That bolt would not have gone forward on an empty magazine because the follower would have kept it back, don't know where your though processes were, but they weren't in the right place.

 

[strambo]

The Army makes soldiers pull the trigger to verify guns are unloaded. Not for safety...but more to cover the rear end of the officers in charge. They are basically forcing an ND (if there is going to be one) in a controlled environment (a clearing barrel). Now they have a procedure to point to when the soldiers screw up that they had to have ignored if they have an ND on base after going past the clearing barrel.

I can 100% verify my firearms are unloaded by first removing the source of ammunition, then clearing (and visual + tactile verification) the chamber. Even if you couldn't determine 100% if it is unloaded by doing the above...why have the verification phase be deliberately forcing what you don't want to have happen (a gunshot) if it wasn't unloaded? Come up with a verification check that doesn't involve the trigger...now we are back to a visual and tactile verification of an empty chamber.

Or...get a clearing barrel/bullet trap and wear hearing protection.

 

[SSN Vet]

I would suggest ... leaving the bolt open with magazine inserted and chamber empty so all you need to do is drop the bolt.

I would not recommend this approach.

I don't think that I'm alone in saying that the bolt on my AR will drop when the rifle is smacked or bumped.

If you feel it is neccessary to have the AR loaded, I'd simply keep a loaded mag in the receiver, as charging the rifle is quick and easy enough.

I've altered my practices such that I NEVER chamber a live round inside a long gun in my house.

I re-load and have dummy rounds available that I primarilly use to set up my dies, but can also use to when "tinkering", as I'm a bonified "shade tree gunsmith"

 

[44Dave]

I would leave the holes in the ceiling as a reminder.

 

[esquare]

I would suggest ... leaving the bolt open with magazine inserted and chamber empty so all you need to do is drop the bolt.
I would not recommend this approach.

I don't think that I'm alone in saying that the bolt on my AR will drop when the rifle is smacked or bumped.

If you feel it is neccessary to have the AR loaded, I'd simply keep a loaded mag in the receiver, as charging the rifle is quick and easy enough.

Good point - I didn't think of that. I second just not chambering a round until you need to in your long guns. Frankly this is why I have revolvers in the house - much easier to deal with, but that's just my preference.