Worst accident you've had with a firearm.

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Three for me, actually pretty minor, but good learning lessons.

1) I was still a teenager, didn't own a handgun of my own, had never fired them before (that I can remember). Bro was in the army, home for a spell and with some of his handguns. I was firing some old .380 Beretta but didn't know jack about how to hold it, really. I got the webbing of my (weak) left hand behind the slide and found out how effective it is at slicing flesh when a round is fired! Didn't cut structurally deep, just superficially, but man it stung bad!

2) I was new to my Mossberg 590 Mariner (and my friend had a 500 Mariner). We were at an outdoor range on Long Island, shooting clay discs that we were each throwing for the other (dunno if that's called trap or skeet or which, as I'm not full on into that at this point). My shotgun had come with a shoulder stock as an accessory, but mounted was the pistol grip. Yes... :rolleyes: I was trying to shoot the pigeons with the pistol grip... Duh. He was having much better results than I was, since his 500 came with the stock mounted. In an effort to be more accurate, I brought the butt end of the pistol grip closer... closer... closer to my face with each shot.

I don't have to tell you what happened after that but I will anyway. I fired one off, and the recoil sent the butt right into my upper lip. It split my lip pretty nasty, and I was VERY happy to discover that I had not loosened, cracked or knocked out any teeth. I was extremely lucky, because it was a hard enough hit that broken teeth would not have surprised me. :(

3) I was with the same friend at the same range, on the 100 yard rifle section. I thought we had gone hot and I fired a round, but we were cold and there was a guy down by the targets at the 200 yard section which was directly adjacent on my left. I was told to leave by the range officer, who was mildly pissed off.

I stopped by the bench of the guy who had been downrange, told him that I was the buffoon who had fired while not realizing he was downrange, and apologized sincerely.

I believe that no lesson is ever learned as thoroughly as one that costs you big-time. Short of that, a screwup that you realize could have cost you big time has a helluva punch, far more than just reading of a safe practice.

- I would rather not learn such lessons by accidentally shooting someone. Cost too high.
- I would rather not learn such lessons straight from a book, video, or someone's mouth. Not a strong enough impression created to really serve as a warning.
- I would rather learn such lessons from a really close call that drives the point home with a good balance of terror but low overall cost. There's no surer way of learning that lesson deep in your brain and heart both.

-Jeffrey
 
Stationed in Yuma AZ in '99 going out for my first dove hunt. My buddy and I stop at Shoney's for breakfast, and somehow my sweet custom series 70 1911 falls out of the truck and hits the asphalt. I almost cried. Not too bad though, just a wee nick, and it still shoots great today.
 
I'm glad I'm not the only one who's had a phalangical smashed by a semi auto. I caught my thumb about 2 weeks ago, at a time when I've had the rifle for about 2 years, and 5 minutes after thinking to myself about what kind of idiot people must be to carelessly get their thumb caught in the action. :eek:
 
i refuse to have an accident myself/

but my idiot employee finds a .22 on floor in trashed house we are cleaning.
i tell idiot to put it away, after i check it and unload it.
i go to the dump.
i get a call form other employee. he is now at Hosptial with Idiot.
idiot , after i trusted him to put it away, decided to load gun with bullets he found on the floor. WHY? this i will continue to wonder. absolutely no reason to load stupid thing.
well smart guy then snaps gun (derringer) shut BANG

right thru his hand. very lucky, big guy, didnt get the bone, right thru palm flesh.

thank god he had medical and sheriff called it work related, no trouble at all.

i gave the piece to an expert friend of mine for safekeeping/his collection as i didnt see the use for sometihng so small, so dangerous. (old style rounded, no guard)

actually i had one accident- tried to uncock hammer on an empty gun.
i will never try that again, don't want to find out it was loaded
 
As a kid, I shot out a window with an Anschutz bolt action .22 rifle not once but twice. :uhoh: :eek:

Worst one I've heard about happened to a guy I knew who worked for a local aerospace museum when I was in college. He was a fighter pilot in F-86's during Korea, and had just come back from a mission, and had climbed down from his plane and leaned against the fuselage just under the portside bank of three .50 caliber Brownings. The Crew Chief was up in the cockpit doing some checks, and put his hand on the joystick to help himself up out of the plane, and his finger pressed the trigger. The next thing our hero knows, he's waking up in the hospital, deaf in both ears, three days later. Evidently, either he had not made the guns safe during the after landing checks or the crew chief took them off safe during his checks and didn't re-"safe" the guns before leaving the cockpit. When I met him, he was 55 and still 50% deaf in the left ear, 80% in the right.
 
Had one the day before yesterday... "One" being a stupid moment.

I was showing some new shooters how the controls worked on a Ruger 22/45, so naturally the bolt is back, and I have it in my hands with the left side facing them open. I show the mag release, I show the safety, I show the bolt release *chunk*

The fleshy part of my right index finger was *just* a bit too far into the chamber when I released the bolt. I tried hard not to let on I'd just closed the bolt on my finger, and I *might* have been successful :) I'm still lookin' at the red stripe it left me...
 
Dead?

I killed the cornbread pan. Through kitchen cabinet. No excuses............MUTT
 
The only ND and hopefully the only one ill ever have was when I was around 18, It was hunting season and after a long day of tromping the bush and not seeing anything with horns I came home. Ate dinner and went to my room to relax, my GF that was living with me at the time decided it was a good day to complain about things that werent important (she was really good at that) so as she starts laying into me, im unloading my rifle (savage 30-06 bolt action) being distracted and being sure that I had cycled the bolt 4 times... which would mean an empty rifle.. upon closing the bolt in which I was positive didnt have a live round in its grasp... I decided to pull the trigger to let the pressure off the pin spring... **BOOM** hole thru the ceiling... and thru the roof... luckily I had been sitting on the floor with the rifle vertical pointing straight up when it happened... after a few minutes of being deaf... I called my dad over at the shop to tell him what happened... he wasnt very happy... Instead of going hunting the next morning I was on the roof at the break of dawn patching the hole..... Im just glad the only thing hurt was my pride....
 
In the firearms portion of my basic law enforcement training we were doing an exercise with empty guns in which students came in front of the class to demonstrate various stances or drills. We were lined up shoulder to shoulder and when our named was called we would walk to the instructor who was infront of us, pull the slide back to show the camber was empty, turn downrange and at an angle away from the class and demonstrate a technique while explaining it verbally. When it was my turn I went up and pulled the slide back and lost control with my right hand thus throwing the empty gun about six feet behind me. A little embarassing.
 
The worst AD experience I had involved a young PFC and an M60. He failed to clear the weapon and ripped off the belt connecting it to the ammo can when he scrambled into the bunker to avoid incoming. It went "bang" really loud when he dropped it onto the deck inside the extremely crowded bunker. It must have been through the Divine Grace that nobody went home one way or the other with a .308 round hole through them. It was amazing that nobody was hurt or killed when one figured how crowded the bunker was. He was to never make that mistake again and received much additional "training" for the next week.

I have had to replace a freezer door and also the inside freezer liner on a fridge, (forget the frozen chicken).

My old policy was "No pistols inside the house with a loaded chamber".

My newer policy is "No pistols inside the house with a loaded chamber or a loaded mag inserted".

I feel really bad about harvesting a major appliance out of season and without a tag.
 
I'm somewhat of a newbie when it comes to firearms, but my worst accident involved trying to depress a Mauser bolt sleeve in order to unscrew the cocking sleeve. Well, dang, those springs are strong, and my hand slipped (getting a little sweaty doing all this) and the bolt sleeve slammed up into the cocking sleeve with about an inch of the webbing between my index finger and thumb between the two. Suffice to say that I yelped mighty loud, but eventually managed to extract my hand from the mess. No blood thankfully, just a really deep red bruise on that sensitive webbing. Ouch, that really sucked.
 
My metric FAL blew up in my face over the winter while I was shooting it in my backyard. A round went off out-of-battery due to a broken firing pin. The upper receiver was destroyed and the dust cover blew 40 feet away. My face was covered with hundreds of small blood-dots caused by hot powder being ejected reward from the case. Thank God I was wearing my spectacles.

My face is O.K. now, but I must admit... the experience put the fear of God in me. From now on I will not shoot a gun unless I'm wearing high-quality eye protection, e.g. ESS shooting glasses or goggles.
 
My One and ONLY Negligent Discharge

Early in my shooting career (previous lifetime??) I had a little .22 pistol. One day on the range, I was having 'issues' with it not firing properly. I took out the mag and much to my amazement when I pointed it at the target and was trying to see what the problem was with the trigger, it FIRED. Immediately, I knew it was a ND due to failure (on my part) to 'chamber check' right after I took out the mag.

Thank goodness, that's the worst of it. Since that date I have never had a negligent discharge and I have never failed to 'chamber check'. I can do it in my sleep now. It made me a BELIEVER, and I consistently do the 'safety lecture' with my kids every single time without exception. Of course they always say, "Oh Dad....We KNOW that stuff, and you've told us a Million Times". I always respond with a grin "Yeah, and you're going to hear it another Million Times because I love you and I want you to be Safe with Firearms".
 
A buddy and I when we were ~22-23 years old were shooting cat-tails heads in a drain ditch with a couple of hand guns. It was a cold Feb, and while we were argueing over who had the farthest "hit" I was rapidly cocking and uncocking my 44 mag Ruger SB. Did I say it was cold? I was wearing a heavy glove and the hammer slipped while I held the gun by the cylinder/front frame with my finger on the trigger to "release" the hammer when it cocked. The gun went off in the ground a few feet in front of us and the gas escapeing from the cylinder burnt the plam out of my glove while the recoil about broke my other hands thumb. :what: :what:
Scared the crap out of both of us. The accident reinforced the habit of keeping the gun pointed in a safe direction and ones mind on what their doing like nothing else ever could have. Thankfully I had enough awareness to know where the muzzle was pointed, just not enough sense to think about what I was doing and playing with it.
 
Holy Moly Molon - if that don't help convince folks to wear eye protection nothing will!!! Glad you were OK.
Click to expand...
I assure you it was not a pleasant experience. A round would not chamber correctly, so I racked the charging handle while peering into the chamber. :eek: Boom! :eek: I dropped the rifle and stood there in shellshock. The magazine also exploded and .308 rounds (from the magazine) were littered everywhere. I couldn't see very well; though my spectacles were still intact, the lenses looked as if they had been sandblasted. My buddy came running over and asked, "What happened?" He then looked at my face and said, "Holy sh*t, your face is bleeding!" I just stood there and remained silent. Like I said, I was in shock. I was just trying to determine if I was still alive and in one piece.

A postmortem inspection of the rifle revealed the firing pin broke, which I believe happened just before the explosion. (In other words, I believe the broken firing pin was the root cause of the incident.) My best theory is that the "pointy end" of the firing pin was stuck all the way forward in the bolt (i.e. the tip was fully protruding through the hole in the bolt, and was stuck in place) and it ignited the round (before the round was in battery) as the bolt & carrier were traveling forward.

I have pics of the rifle and exploded magazine. I'll be posting them on the falfiles sometime, along with an exhaustive explanation of what happened.

But... it could have been a lot worse. As mentioned above, the dust cover flew 40 feet away. What if it had launched toward my face? Or what if I had not been wearing my spectacles? Or what if a big chunk of brass launched toward my face? Or what if rounds in the magazine were ignited via the explosion?

After this incident, I can say with utmost confidence that only an absolute fool would shoot a gun without eye protection.
 
I was shooting a friends (really it was) cheap china made semi auto in I think 380 or 32 acp. I chambered the first round and fired. the sound was hollow and didnt sound like it did when he shot it first. was about to shoot it again when happened to look at the ground a few feet ahead of me. there was the barrel laying on the ground. the chamber was still in the gun but the pipe wasnt. cleared the weapon and was glad that I still had all 10 fingers.

had a smith put on adjustable sights on my springfield 1911. he must of forgot to use locktite on the rear sight. I had put 50 rounds through it and no problems. I rested the butt on a padded bench and was going to do a group and fine tune the sight. untill this point was just having fun shooting it and was hitting plates just fine with it. I am lined up to the sight and fire. the rear sight decides to go flying off the slide and smacks me in the shooting glasses hard! put a good gouge and scratch in my brand new glasses. found all of the pieces to the sight and put it this time with locktite blue and threating it with the red stuff next time. just glad that I had glasses or I might be called ol 1 eye.
 
I don't know what to think. I don't recall every being in a firearms 'incidient'. Everything's always gone as planned and if they didn't, nothing bad happened...hrm.
The main thing that worries me is this must mean I have accidents on the way, most likely when I get to buying and owning my own guns.
 
OK, I'll play. . .2 I forgot to mention earlier

DO NOT try to disassemble an SKS with the action locked open...It is sort of like taking a Randy "Big Unit" Johnson fastball to the chest. (RJ is the guy who hit the pidgeon or sea gull a few years back during a game. The bird just sort of exploded into a pile of feathers. [Sorry, don't have the video or a link.] :cuss: :cuss: , after a lot of wheezing and hacking.

Did the hot .45ACP dance...Was wearing a 3-button "golf/polo" style shirt, tucked in. Sho 'nuff, an empty drops down the front of shirt. Place the 1911-A1 on the bench [VERY quickly], and start the shirt-tail yank. Well, brass doesn't drop free, but drops down INSIDE the front of jeans . . . :what: :what:
 
My friend Justin had an accident with a firearm one time. We were out shooting some trap, and he accidentally lined his barrel up with my head. I yelled at him, told him that crap wouldn't fly, and not to let it happen again. About 20 minutes later, he yelled, "Hey Jon!" I turned around and saw him standing there, shotty up to shoulder, finger near the trigger. He started laughing, then put down the gun. The accident he had happened right after that when i walked up to him, gave him a black eye, and kneed him square in the nuts. Justin doesn't go shooting with me anymore.

Five Cent
 
"Hand over the ejection port!"

The very first time I fired my Lahti ATR, I had my hand over the ejection port. I watched a video of the event afterwards ... my wife was yelling at me:

"Your hand is over the ejection port, Kris! Hand over the ejection port! Hand over the ejection ----" BANG.

The port is under the weapon, and of course, my hand was down there. The base of the 20mm shell wedged my hand against the big trigger guard, and then was locked in place when the 50 lb. plus bolt and bolt carrier jammed against the stuck brass.

I still have that video, showing me shaking my hand and cursing like an idiot ... in front of a huge crowd of amused onlookers at an Albany ( Oregon ) Rifle range machinegun shoot.....
 
P95Carry is totally correct.

The Hakim puts the Garand to shame when it comes to punishing fingers. A Garand will give you "M1 thumb", but a Hakim will just take the whole thumb.
 
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