Your worst injury

[Taurus 66]

What was the worst injury you have received from a gun beit finger pinched in a slide action or hammer, catching a ricochet, getting a bad burn, heavy unanticipated recoil, etc. Mine is undoubtedly minor to some others here. It was this past summer and I was at the rifle range shooting my Rem 597 22 mag. The ejector is wild and unpredictable to where it tosses shell casings. It sent one over my head where it fell inside my shirt collar and snaked down my back. It felt like the coal from a cigarette! I still have the marks 5 months later.

 

[jefnvk]

When I was little, I had a Daisy Model 25 BB gun, the one you have to pump. Well, I was small enough that I had to put the butt end on the ground, and use both hands to pump it. Got my pinky in there, and cut it up pretty bad. Still have a little mark. Mom went crazy when she heard the screaming, she thought I shot my eye out

Other than that, nothing gun related. Chopped my thumb up pretty bad with a knife, went to the ER. Ran into a tree on my sled, went to the ER. Ran into a tree on my bike (yes, I'm for cutting down the dang forest), went to the ER.

 

[PMDW]

When I was younger I pulled back the slide on an Beretta 92F, and maganed to get part of my left index finger caught between the slide and barrel. Hurt. Only a little cut, though.

 

[Sindawe]

Worst was not gun related, since I was just 8 months old. Pulled a electric coffee pot full of freshly perked coffee into my lap. 3rd degree burns on the right thigh and right abdomen, survival was iffy for a few days. I carry the scars to this day (40 years later). If you ask real nice, I might even show 'em to ya. None of the "important bits" were harmed though.

Worst gun related injury was getting the pinkie bitten by my Glock 17 shortly after I'd just purchased it. Was familiarizing myself with the field stripping and the fleshy part of the pinkie (pad, where ALL the nerves are) got pinched by the slide and the chamber. Hurt like a...well it just hurt. Blood blister resulted, but no scaring.

 

[MrTuffPaws]

Not a gun really, but when I was about 8 I took a little 22 cal starter cap and hit it with a hammer. It did not do anything other than make it flat, so I took a nail, put the tip to the flat cap, took the hammer and tap BOOOOMMMM!!!!

The casing exploded and a piece of it cut my leg. I still have the scar. I also had some pretty bad powder burns on my fingers. Man oh man, did father yell.

 

[Stickjockey]

I have a one inch scar on the heel of my left hand from the front sight of a friend's Traditions Hawken in which he'd rammed home a ball without a powder charge. We got the puller screwed into the ball, but then he couldn't get the ball to move. My turn; wrapped my hand around the rod and pulled. Nothing. Got a better grip and gave 'er a great yank; caught my hand on the sight and tore a good gash, but we finally got that sucker outta' there!

 

[jsalcedo]

I was taking my CHL class with my sistema when it started to rain.
The hammer bite was already really bad then the gun got slippery with blood and water. By the end of the qualification I had a hole in the back of my hand the size of a dime about a 1/8 inch deep.

 

[Black Majik]

Once, when I was checking the chamber on My Sig 226, I pulled out the magazine and racked the slide to engage the slide stop. Well, I didn't pull far enough and the slide slammed home, catching my pinky in there.

It hurt really really bad, but no cuts or bruises!


The incident that bugged me the most, and pretty painful in a constant sense was when I got gunpowder stuck in my eyes. After 2 days I had the eye doctor get it out with a set of SHARP, COLD, METAL TWEEZERS against my eyeballs.

Everytime I blinked, looked around, or slept I felt that piece of gunpowder floating around under my eyelids...

Theres never enough eye protection.

 

[Sleeping Dog]

M14 Thumb. Bruised, mashed, bleeding, hurt like hell. Very funny stuff to everyone in formation except this one dumb private.

Regards.

 

[joab]

21 years ago I bought my first .44 mag, a Ruger Bisley Super BlackHawk. I had been wanting the gun for 10 years and had to take a part time job to pay the $300 for it.

I bought reloads at the range which I figured to use for sighting in and general familiarization.

On my first shot I took a white knuckled death grip on the gun preparing for the awesome untamable recoil of the most powerful handgun on the planet.
Squeezed off my round, and nothing. My .38s had more rcoil. I figured it was a Underpowered mistake load but the next one, and then the next 10 did the same.

So I figured screw Dirty Harry. I eased up my stance and even shot one handed.

When I ran out of reloads I decided to shoot the reloads a friend had given me.

Again I took my favorite onehanded grip and squeezed off the round
Hot wind blew in my face, a blinding flash appeared in my eyes, Son Of A .. flew from my mouth as the gun almost flew out of my hand. The only thing that kept it from actually leaving my hand was my trigger finger, which was bent back and broken by the recoil..

The girl next to me on the range ran out to get the RO and tell him that my gun had blown up in my face.
According to her the falssh was about 2 feet long and she to could feel the hot air from the blast.

Being a macho 21 year old I had to shoot at least the rest of the cylinder even with then broken finger.

The first round was the most perfect bullseye I have ever seen, the next 5 barely hit paper.

I developed such a flinch with that gun that 2 years later I could not even dry fire it without the flinch

 

[Tamara]

M1 thumb.

Also, pieces of jacket tagged me under the left eye and in the left thumb once when shooting an old Rossi 971 I used to own. It didn't carry up on one chamber, and stupid Tamara wasn't wearing her eye protection. Always wear your eye protection, kids!

 

[Preacherman]

Oooohhh, the memories...

OK, get the picture. Dad takes 12-year-old son out to the range to start him in on the mysteries and rituals of milsurp rifle shooting. Weapon of choice is a WW2 Lee-Enfield in .303.

Dad illustrates to son how to load, aim and fire. Son follows suit. All goes well for a magazine full.

Dad asks son to reload under his supervision. Son does so, very pleased with himself (and full of it, as usual), then, without waiting for the command, chambers a round - not putting safety on, of course, as HE isn't going to make a mistake (that sort of thing only happens to others, doesn't it?).

Dad remonstrates (LOUDLY!) with son about not chambering round until muzzle is pointed safely down-range. Son duly points rifle down-range, resting butt against groin, with right hand around wrist of stock, and (you've guessed it) finger negligently resting against trigger. Son proceeds to give back-talk to Dad, something about "Lighten up", or some such thing.

Dad explodes (LOUDLY!) in son's right ear about the importance of safety and of LISTENING!!! Son jumps in response to sudden roaring in ear, and finger tightens on side of trigger.

Son's next memory is of lying in a foetal position, moaning, with certain vital parts of his anatomy feeling as if they've been through the wringer. Dad, after checking for signs of life, adds insult to injury by laughing inordinately, and telling others at the range that things like this are what make having a smart-ass, won't-listen son worthwhile at times. Son is further humiliated by hearing all present at the range join in the merriment.

On drive home, son has to lie on back seat, because he's not exactly fit to sit down on anything. On arrival home, son has to endure the sight (and sounds) mother and two sisters in fits of hysterical laughter.

And yes, since that day, son has NOT held loaded rifle in proximity to family jewels at any time!

 

[WhoKnowsWho]

All my injuries have been mild, lucky me! Though I did just get a M1 and I have been acting like a baby around it...

The only painful one was a pinched finger in the open chamber of a K40 trying to disassemble it with the slide stop pin that wouldn't move. Not really anything else.

Oh wait, I forgot about shooting my Hawes .22 Revolver, for some reason, I shot with my finger out toward the side on the left like a autoloader, and the lead shot out from the side and embedded in my finger. That hurt for a while, and took some time to finally come out.

 

[Wild Bill]

Compared to the rest of y'all (esecially Preacherman - ouch!) my tale of woe is minor.

IPSC match. Stage setup where you had to engage two baddies through a low port around a wall. Stick ye ol’ 45 near the hole, leaning way out with the gun at 90 to the ground – pop pop pop … yeow!

Brass pops back, one smacks the glasses, the other two deflect off the brim of my cover and both (yes t w o!) lodge behind the top rim of the glasses. Utter some language (removed in anticipation of Art’s Grandma’s objection). Focus Billy focus – one shot to go. Pop. Stage done. Good hits. Nice time. Sniff sniff … what’s that burning smell?

Sweetie liked it. For a while I actually had two eyebrows.

 

[Darkmind]

How come nobody ever has any pics?


I cant tell you how many time i've had my digits cought, slamed, broken, mashed, in a 240G, M2, MK 19, ect ect ect

 

[buzz_knox]

Multiple burns on my face and neck from my brother-in-law ejecting empties onto me during a tactical rifle course. In a rapid string of fire when you're trying to concentrate on your own target, nothing like getting pelted by hot, flesh melting brass.

 

[Feanaro]

The worst I've had so far, thankfully not very bad. I let the bolt of my SKS fly home and there a bit of an obstacle... my thumb! It was swollen for a bit. I also tried to disassemble the bolt on my Yugo M48A and forgot to put the safety to the middle position. While trying to fix that I got the webbing of my hand, between thumb and forefinger, caught in the bolt. I said a few, well more than a few, thing I cannot relate because Art's Grammaw would skin me alive. I also believe some of the things I said were anatomically impossible. I couldn't get the flappin' thing to move back, and frankly it was hurting like hell, so I pulled. Thankfully there wasn't much skin caught and off my hand came, with a little trickle of blood.

 

[Zach S]

While loading my thompson one day I got some skin between the charging handle and the end of the slot machined into the upper for it. Wasnt bad, but my worst. It bled like a war-wound though.

 

[Tamara]

Ejected brass...

I remember once, many years ago, shooting an HK91 at an outdoor range with a friend. He was shooting, and I was standing behind his right shoulder, spotting with a pair of binocs. There was an odd sound after one shot, and I pulled the binocs away from my eyes to see a spent .308 case quivering neck-first in the particleboard lane divider like a stubby brass arrow. Yikes. I recall thinking what a neat core sample that thing would've taken from my hand if it had hit me instead...

 

[MikeB]

I must have been about 6 or 8 years old. Dad was out with his Colt Gold Cup and of course I wanted to shoot it. I don't recall why I did what I did, and he did warn me.

Anyways I set that thing off with my thumb up near the back of the slide. Slide came back and tumb went with it. Bent my thumb straight back over. Very sore, but not broken. After a few minutes of the happy dance and some hollering I finished off the magazine and several more. Thumb hurt for several days though.

 

[PMATULEW]

injuries

Don't get careless with trigger and muzzle discipline just because there's no gun powder involved.

I highly recommed not firing a pellet gun through the top of your boot into your big toe. :banghead:

 

[Tom Servo]

Hmmm...I've got a teflon kneecap, but that's not gun-related.

I've had two gun-related injuries, but both were minor and slightly embarrassing. First was the nice little burn I had on my right nipple, which taught me never to wear an open-collar shirt to the range Darn hot brass.

Second was the infamous finger-in-the-breech one. Mine was from a Sig 226. Ironic thing is, I was teaching a friend to shoot, and I had the slide locked back showing him how to make sure the chamber was clear. While I was pontificating, I didn't realize that my left thumb was sitting on the slide-release. Wham! "Oh, #$^%&*ing $%&*!!!!"

 

[Sisco]

Had a piece of a lead bullet from a .41 mag come back at me from 25 yards. Hit me in the upper thigh, drew blood and left one of those green-black bruises about the size of a silver dollar.

Witnessed a guy with his son and and son's friend, both about 12 or 13 years old at the range shooting a variety of weapons. They brought out a Mossy 500 12ga pistol grip only. Dad showed them how to shoot it, from the hip wth a good tight grip. Everything went well until the friend decided to aim it like a pistol.
Split his lip and knocked two teeth out.

 

[CAS700850]

Still really not sure how I did this, but while polishing a Smith revolver (unloaded, thank God), I had my left hand over the topstrap, with the webbing between my trigger finder and thumb over the rear sight. Apparently, the revolver shifted a bit, and my left hand slipped a bit, and in the process my pinky came into contact with the trigger. Bad news is that the gun was cocked, the hammer fell, and the webbing of my hand was now between the hammer and the frame. Really bad news is that it was before Smith went to the in-frame firing pin, so the firing pin actually buried itself in my hand. I was bloody, purple, and swollen. Darn that smarts! No scar, though. Dumb luck.

 

[Greg L]

Gun related, the usual assortment of bolts/slides slamming home on fingers/thumb, fingers/hands ripped open by front sights/other sharp pieces, and the "off hand thumb scar" that many first time semi auto shooter manage to aquire by not listening to grip instructions .

My (then) 7 year old doesn't have a scar but it was funny at the time (he finds it amusing now). We were at the range & he had been shooting a .22 rifle for a couple of hours and wanted to try out my Ruger MkII .22 pistol (10" bull barrel, this is important). He's got good range/safety habits so I had no problem with letting him try it out. I loaded one round in the magazine, showed him how to insert it, where the slide release was, where the safety was, and handed it to him when he said that he understood. I watched him (with good muzzle control), load the magazine, drop the slide, grab the barrel with his off hand like he was holding a rifle , remove the safety, and whip the pistol up to his face like he was holding his rifle . Before I could stop him he had squeezed the trigger causing the slide (thankfully nice & flat) to come back & whack him on the bridge of his nose . To his credit he didn't drop or wave the pistol around in the half second it took for me to grab it (I was probably already moving to grab it as he fired, the whole thing happened fast), but the tears were flowing quite freely.

He still doesn't trust that pistol .

Greg