What's the strangest circumstance you ever found yourself in while handling a gun?

[Zaydok Allen]

Last Thursday I was on the tail end of a two week long vacation and was getting ready to drive cross country to head home on the following Sunday.

My phone rang and it was my boss who is retiring in a few months time. Two weeks earlier I had submitted my resume and application for my boss' job. Well the call was to inform me that the hiring panel wanted to interview me over the phone. I agreed to do it Monday morning from the hotel room I'd be staying at the night prior.

So as I was sitting in a recliner and going over everything in my head about 30 minutes prior, I realized my hands were really fidgety due to nervousness and needed something to do that would relax me. That's when I realized I had a few guns in a case with me.

So I grabbed my 3" 686+ with an unfluted cylinder and began working the action and dry firing the gun which was loaded with snap caps. Then the phone rang and I began answering questions.

The interview was an hour long and about half way through I realized I was still holding the gun over the side of the chair near the floor to keep it away from the phone so no annoying clicks could be heard by the interviewers. That's when the absurdity of the situation hit me. I was interviewing for a job that could be life changing and secure my retirement income and status, all while manipulating the action on a revolver.

The odd thing was, I kept doing it, because I found it relaxing and that it helped me focus on answering the questions. So I can officially say I have interviewed for a job with a gun in my hand.

What's the oddest circumstance you've ever found yourself handling a gun in? I'm not talking sitting in your living room or on your deck dry firing, or scrambling to pick up a dropped concealed weapon in public. I'm talking about a circumstance where handling a gun was an odd thing or even inappropriate thing to be doing given what was going on around you.

The twisted side of me wishes I had stripped to my underwear so I could say I interviewed for a job in my underwear while holding a gun.

 

[Trunk Monkey]

Taking a dump with an M16 across my knees?

 

[larry_minn]

You mean you didn't shoot the TV during interview?

One thing that bothered me. Do you mean you were mindlessly pulling trigger of a real gun (unloaded, with snap caps) as you talked on phone?
IMO pulling trigger should never be mindless activity. (like working a grip enhancer) Just seems a unsafe thing to get into habit of....

Dry firing is great, useful.... this?? Or likly I miss under stood?
The OP asked us to leave out many normal stories.

I guess to kinda/sorta stay with rules. Had a emergency bathroom break (thankfully at place where you can lock real door and have room to yourself)
Removed gun and dropped clip holster into stool (pre use)
So dip it out, wash hands (lots of soap) with holster in sink. (thankfully not leather holster) and do business, then wash it again, and again.
Then put holster in paper towels, gun in jacket pocket and leave. very boring.

 

[bayou5252]

"What's the oddest circumstance you've ever found yourself handling a gun in?"

That would be a hangfire situation. That is, the trigger is snapped, and you can hear something like the primer igniting, but not sounding right and no bang. However, because you heard something, you know enough to keep the firearm pointed in a safe direction. Then, after a second elapses, bang...........

That one hangfire second is the longest on record..................

bayou

 

[orionengnr]

Here I sit, turning sixty in two months, and...I got nothin'.

Waste of a life, I guess.

 

[Zaydok Allen]

You mean you didn't shoot the TV during interview?

One thing that bothered me. Do you mean you were mindlessly pulling trigger of a real gun (unloaded, with snap caps) as you talked on phone?
IMO pulling trigger should never be mindless activity. (like working a grip enhancer) Just seems a unsafe thing to get into habit of....

Dry firing is great, useful.... this?? Or likly I miss under stood?
.

Mindlessly? No, I wouldn't say that. I was aware of what I was doing, the gun had been safety checked before handling, and it was checked before being cased in the first place. I was dry firing before the interview and manipulating the action, and letting the hammer down slowly while on the phone.

Nothing I do with firearms is mindless, ever, and nothing is done before a safety check or three.

 

[Arizona_Mike]

Cleaning some guns when daughter's date showed up (not planned).

Cleaning and lubing up my sub machine gun for a match while watching a debate political debate.

Spend enough time around guns and there will be some interesting coincidences.

Mike

 

[Arizona_Mike]

Taking a dump with an M16 across my knees?

Happens so often on a hunt that it's not notable

Mike

 

[wojownik]

Trying on a new IWB holster with my 1911 while on a long Skype call with my boss, but inadvertently left the laptop camera active.

 

[Vern Humphrey]

Face to face with an 18 foot python while crawling along a game trail, looking for a VC base camp.

 

[Gladius]

Cleaning my SMLE in my living room, with the curtains open, when a door-to-door salesman shows up. He didn't stay long (no, I didn't do anything to intentionally raise alarm, and was observing the safety rules, and put it down as soon as I noticed the guy approaching, but it had the desired effect anyway....).

 

[boomeradf]

Pants down taking a dump over a log talking to my revolver when my very private father in law happened along.

 

[Arizona_Mike]

Pants down taking a dump over a log talking to my revolver when my very private father in law happened along.

I guess if you are going to be having a conversation with something while your pants are down it might be better being your revolver

Does it have a name?

Mike

 

[Happy Trails]

That would be a hangfire situation. That is, the trigger is snapped, and you can hear something like the primer igniting, but not sounding right and no bang. However, because you heard something, you know enough to keep the firearm pointed in a safe direction. Then, after a second elapses, bang...........

That one hangfire second is the longest on record..........

Take up muzzle loading side locks. You will get used to it!

 

[boomeradf]

I guess if you are going to be having a conversation with something while your pants are down it might be better being your revolver

Does it have a name?

Mike

No name sadly just to much family time in the woods. Plus it didn't talk back lol

 

[WestKentucky]

I broke my wrist as a teenager, right against the joint but thankfully not in the joint. I cut the cast off with a hacksaw blade to fight a guy at school (should have clubbed him with it, hindsight...) and rebroke the wrist. Once the cast came off the 2nd time I had trouble doing the exercises to regain strength and control of the wrist and hand. The excercise that ended up working for me was working the action on a couple of Marlin 336. They got their fair share of smoothing out that summer.

 

[Twiki357]

After a broken water pipe, I have to replace the carpet in every room in the house. My daughter was helping to pack up everything out of the dressers, night stands, office, etc. so the furniture could be moved. As she went from room to room she kept coming out of each room asking “Where do you want this one?”

 

[Art Eatman]

Guard duty when it was 17 degrees below zero, 20 mph wind blowing and knee-deep snow. And on Christmas Eve.

 

[morcey2]

Guard duty when it was 17 degrees below zero, 20 mph wind blowing and knee-deep snow. And on Christmas Eve.

Not me, but my son: He was on watch/guard duty a couple of months ago in a soft-top humvee with his rifle. I don't know how long it was that night, but he was alone in the vehicle. He befriended a turtle that was crossing the road in next to him and shared some fruit with it. He asked me if it makes him more insane to talk to the turtle he befriended or to not talk to the turtle.

Matt

 

[230RN]

Ankle holster. Detective Special in it. Standing on curb next to a large puddle in the street. Stupid anyway, but car came by and splashed me good. Got gun (and pants and socks and shoes) soaking wet.

Duh.

Squish-squished my way into the bus station across the street, got a bunch of paper towels in the bathroom and retired to a booth to dry my iron off as much as possible. Very awkward with no table.

Since holster wet, moved change, lighter, knife, etc. to my left pants pocket, put the gun in my right pocket and walked four blocks to my car. When car warm, put it on the dashboard vents to dry off on the way home. Perfectly legal in Colorado, but found I had to take turns slowly lest the gun slide off the dashboard.

Gun was kind of hot by the time I got home, so I assumed the innards were dry by then, but they couldn't have got that wet anyhow.

Cleaned it as usual, decided to re-think ankle holsters and standing by puddles near curbs and the true extent of my native intelligence.

Gun test-fired normally when I finally got to the range.

Probably illegal to bring it into the bus station, I figured later, but "that which is necessary is legal." Right?

Terry

 

[climbnjump]

I was deer hunting sitting at the top of a hill in a ground blind which consisted of 3 round hay bales facing east. The blind was open behind me and my truck was parked about 400 yards downhill and against a high dirt berm. I always hunt with Peltor electronic muffs and had them on, but had turned them off to take a short snooze before the evening action started - it was nice and quiet that way.

I woke up, stood up and picked up my rifle and turned on the muffs. First thing I heard sounded like a police radio - then I heard it again. I turned around and saw my truck boxed in against the berm by 3 sheriff cars and 2 more cop cars nearby - and 3 deputies about 150 yards away walking up the hill toward me about 20 yards apart. None of them had weapons drawn, but the guy in the middle had his hand on his gun butt and was holding it there. It almost felt like high noon at the OK Corral. Knowing that there were at least 2 cops I couldn't see that were probably watching me very closely, I very slowly put my rifle down and stepped away and waited.

The story gets very long at this point with about 20 minutes of questions and verifying my identity, but the upshot was that someone had called 911 to report that I had been shooting at them in their tree stand. They had very accurately described me, my rifle and my vehicle. But the rest of the circumstances obviously were false and I had no trouble convincing them of that.

They actually apologized for ruining my afternoon hunt and headed back down the hill leaving me in my blind with my still-loaded rifle to just watch them go. They were about halfway back to their vehicles when 3 deer came out of the woods from the other direction. They came to within 40 yards of my blind, but I decided it would have been a very poor time to fire off a shot so my unlucky day became a very lucky day for at least one of those deer...

 

[TRX]

Being shot in the head with a .44 Magnum?

I was working up some loads for a friend's Desert Eagle, which was quite picky about what it liked. I had made up ammo in batches of three to see what it liked. It didn't like the brand of primer I was using, for one thing...

So, I'm on the fifth or sixth shot and I get a "click" with no "BOOM!"

While nowadays the drill seems to be to tap-rack and shuck a dud out as quickly as possible, back then the accepted procedure was to wait 30 seconds or so to make sure you didn't have a hangfire before messing with anything.

So I carefully laid the gun on the bench, and with nothing else to do, I bent down to pick up some brass. My friend was too impatient to wait and reached over and fumbled at the gun to pick it up.

The hangfire quit hanging and the gun went off. 240 grains of lead went (fortunately) downrange and the Desert Eagle, obeying Newton's Second Law of Motion, slammed back in the opposite direction, off the bench, bounced off my head, and fell the ground.

I saw stars and tweety birds, just like in the cartoons, and sat down hard. Grew a big knot on the side of my head, too.

"Trust no one."

 

[Alte Schule]

Late 60's shooting an old bolt action .22 with a then friend now brother in law. I don't remember the make or model but it was the type where you had to pull the firing pin back at the end of the closed bolt in order for it to work. Brother in law fired five or six rounds and handed the rifle to me. I worked the bolt pulled the pin back, sighted, and puled the trigger. Next thing I knew I was on my ass seeing stars with a half moon cut on my forehead between my eyes bleeding profusely. Found that the round caused the firing pin or something in the internal action to shear sending the bolt holding the firing pin back into me.
The rifle was toast. Father in law told me later that it was his father's rifle and my father in law was born in 1917. Still have the scar today.

 

[230RN]

TRX remarked,

While nowadays the drill seems to be to tap-rack and shuck a dud out as quickly as possible, back then the accepted procedure was to wait 30 seconds or so to make sure you didn't have a hangfire before messing with anything.

I believe the former is for tactical situations and the latter is still normal practice for jes' shootin' at the range or in the field.

"Hold it, Mr. Perpetrator! I've got a hangfire. Can you wait 30 seconds, please?"

Or, "Hold it! Stop the timer for 30 seconds, please?"

Terry,

 

[Warp]

Any points for handling and loading a pistol in the bathroom of an international airport?

I agreed to do it Monday morning from the hotel room

So as I was sitting in a recliner

I'm not talking sitting in your living room

It seems that you are, though, lol.