Close calls while shooting?

BMassBMore · Feb 2, 2017

When I was young and stupid, I kept a loaded S&W Model 19 Combat Magnum in my glove compartment. I thought I knew how to close the cylinder with only 5 rounds loaded in such a way that the first trigger pull would drop on an empty chamber. Yeah, this was my idea of "safety". I also thought it would be cool to show off to some coworkers how nothing would happen even if I pulled the trigger. Although I was stupid enough to pull the trigger on a loaded .357 while sitting in the driver's seat of my truck in a crowded parking garage, I was (thankfully) smart enough to keep it pointed in a (relatively) safe direction. I closed the cylinder just like I'd practiced at the range, opened the driver's side door and aimed down at the concrete floor of the parking garage, pulled the trigger and BOOM. Man, a .357 is really REALLY loud with no hearing protection and sitting in a car. My ears rang for several minutes. One friend had some minor bleeding in the lower leg from some bits of concrete shrapnel. We found the round embedded in the underside of another friend's car 20 feet away. Yeah, young and very stupid. It was a very powerful way to learn a lesson though, and lucky for me I didn't have to pay too steep a price to learn it either.

Pinecone · Feb 2, 2017

Two more.

1) Lou45 story. I was at his shop and we were just chatting. I am not sure how the subject came up, but he told me about a bunch of police surplus Rem 870 shotguns. He gets this huge box, corners torn and taped, and battered. He opens the box, and the department had just laid the shotguns in the box, layer by layer (yes more than one layer of shotguns). He picks up the first one, and it feels wrong. Like it is too heavy. So he racks the pump, and out pops a 00 buck shell. Racks it again and out pops another one. 8 rounds. They had shipped over half the shotguns, loaded, round in the chamber, safety OFF. Luckily none fired when the box was being battered in shipment.

2) AGC MANY years ago. Guy with a bolt action rifle chambers a round, but the bolt will not close. So he grabs a piece of wood and tries to hammer the bolt closed. Seriously. Finally figured out, maybe he loaded the wrong ammo. So he proceeds to try to open the bolt, and of course, it will not open. So he tries to hammer it open, and rips the rim off. So he gets some help. They pull the bolt and try to figure out how to get the stuck round out. So the owner holds the rifle, butt under his arm, while another person sticks a cleaning rod down the barrel and starts to hammer on the cleaning rod. They are carefully keeping the muzzle downrange, with the guy hammering staying out of line with the muzzle. NO ONE is thinking about the fact that the dangerous end is no longer the muzzle. So they hammer for a while, touch off the round, and the case head flies out of the breech, and embeds in the owner's shoulder.

byf43 · Feb 2, 2017

WeaponsCollector said:
One time a guy at Myrtle Grove walked down range while people were shooting.

Back in the early '80s, a neighbor and hunting buddy and I, were at Myrtle Grove.
We were the only two there, and it was before the range that is there now, existed.

We had finished shooting, and went downrange to police the area.

As we got to our targets, we heard "bang-bang-bang-bang-bang!"

We both dropped to the ground and looked back towards the firing line.
This dip_ _it was standing there, holding a carbine, laughing his head off.

I pulled my mdl 19-4 from my holster and yelled for the guy to put the rifle on the table, or I was going to start shooting back.

They guy still laughed.

That was THE last time I've been to Myrtle Grove.

GodOfVice · Feb 2, 2017

Close calls maybe, stupid shit yes that Id be too embarrassed to share.

10 fingers and toes and two eyes..... who is the patron saint of stupidity watching?

Bsmtboy2 · Feb 12, 2017

Not shooting but 2 close calls. First one in college at a party withe some friends and a soon to be famous nba star, were dancing and having fun when out of nowhere this guy puts a gun in my face and says that's my woman. He steps back and as he takes a shooters stance the ball player hit him in the jaw with a crushing right knocking him out. Second story I am living in Dallas and I decide it's time for my girlfriend to move in. I am cleaning up my walk in closet shelf where I kept a loaded .22 magnum with a hair trigger. It falls off the shelf,as it's falling I instinctively turn my head and try to get low...Bang. Bullet bounces off wall and hit me between left index and middle finger...4stitches and lots of prayers later I got rid of the magnum.

Whitey · Feb 12, 2017

My buddy was checking a rifle he had just been lent and it went off a foot from my head. Round hit the ceiling and just missed a gas line.

Also was test firing a pistol I had just done some work on and test fired a mag on a large farm. Took off my hearing protection only to hear a round zip past me. It was hunting season, but once again, I was on a large farm and there was no way the hunter was not trespassing. I take a loaded rifle with me when I go into the woods ever since then.

Sewer Rat · Feb 13, 2017

Many moons ago back in FL, oldest son just got his hunting license, and we run off to state run range in Ocala Forest to prep for rifle season... we get there, not many people.. one couple comes to lane next to us and proceeds to remove an AK, a HK91-type and some sort of bullpup style out of his case. B is amazed, cuz all I owned were bolt action rifles and the contender pistols at the time.... at least he was amazed until the male of the couple shoulders the AK and rapid fires down range, stepping back with each burst until he was almost to his car.... and B was backstepping away towards me with eyes wide open... Afterwards he asked how did an idiot like that get to own firearms like that...

Worst nightmare · Feb 19, 2017

There's some wild close call stories. Very interesting reads. I can only say that I'm very fortunate that I've haven't had any to this point in time.

dreadpirate · Feb 19, 2017

Fortunately I don't have anything dramatic to share that happened to me personally. The worst thing that I experienced was to be peppered with back spray from shooting steel plates. Not enough to break skin, but enough to cause potential eye injury. I was wearing wrap-around eye protection so it was no big deal. I will say the regular prescription glasses don't suffice in my opinion.

kraftyone · Feb 20, 2017

I had a close call pheasant hunting with two friends we had a bird on the ground and I was going to pick it up. Dog was licked on another bird and it flushed. The bird flew right between my two friends straight at me. My buddies both spin tracking the bird and I am now looking at the business end of two 12 gauges. I quickly dropped straight to the ground. Luckily for me my friends practiced good trigger discipline at let the bird live another day. Talk about scaring the shit out of you. I thought I was had that day.

cougar70 · Feb 20, 2017

One of the stories my dad shared with me was when he was a 'computer' on an M12 155mm self propelled gun in WW2. During training they had an exercise to display for visiting dignitaries.
The drill was for the spotter to give all of the pertinent details for aiming the gun, distance, windage, etc. and my dad would compute it out on aiming the gun. They were supposed to call in the numbers to a person on his team, confirm them, then pass them along to my dad and then confirm them again.
Somewhere along the line numbers got messed up and long story short, they almost took out the observation tower! If I remember correctly, the shells were about 2 foot long and weighed in around 95 lbs, not something that you want landing anywhere near you.

d33rhunt3r · Feb 20, 2017

cougar70 said:
One of the stories my dad shared with me was when he was a 'computer' on an M12 155mm self propelled gun in WW2. During training they had an exercise to display for visiting dignitaries.
The drill was for the spotter to give all of the pertinent details for aiming the gun, distance, windage, etc. and my dad would compute it out on aiming the gun. They were supposed to call in the numbers to a person on his team, confirm them, then pass them along to my dad and then confirm them again.
Somewhere along the line numbers got messed up and long story short, they almost took out the observation tower! If I remember correctly, the shells were about 2 foot long and weighed in around 95 lbs, not something that you want landing anywhere near you.

My grandfather had a similar incident. He was 29th Infantry on 105mm. During practice they had 155mm a good distance behind them. They heard the coordinates relayed to the 155 crew, heard the boom, and then....They heard the incoming round, and dove for cover as the round hit a couple hundred yards in front of their position as the elevation was incorrectly received or given. He says there was a lot of dirty underwear at the end of that day

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

Minuteman · Feb 20, 2017

I'm pretty sure I related this one elsewhere in these forums...

Many years ago while I was routinely attending run/gun shoots and participating in outdoor shoot-house events with a couple local/county swat teams stationed in Georgia; I went up on the cat-walk to watch the others. This was a customary practice back then, so after you went through the house, it was ok for participants to climb up and stand on the cat-walk with the RSO and look down on others while they did the same drills/clearing/etc. One time I caught a piece of bullet splatter that hit steel and bounced back and up, hitting me in the forehead. It was a pretty solid 'thwack!' but only a scratch. I always wear safety glasses now, especially when anyone is shooting steel.

CrazySanMan · Feb 20, 2017

When I first got my .45 XDs I went to Free State to shoot it. I got through 2 or 3 magazines, then loaded the next magazine into the gun, hit the slide release and BOOM! fired off a shot. Luckily the muzzle was pointed downrange and the bullet ended up somewhere in the backstop there.

I really beat myself up about that, thinking that I had forgotten trigger safety discipline and somehow fingered and pulled the trigger when the slide slid home. A few weeks later the recall notice was announced for XDs's firing when the slide release was hit...

Minuteman · Feb 20, 2017

CrazySanMan said:
When I first got my .45 XDs I went to Free State to shoot it. I got through 2 or 3 magazines, then loaded the next magazine into the gun, hit the slide release and BOOM! fired off a shot. Luckily the muzzle was pointed downrange and the bullet ended up somewhere in the backstop there.

I really beat myself up about that, thinking that I had forgotten trigger safety discipline and somehow fingered and pulled the trigger when the slide slid home. A few weeks later the recall notice was announced for XDs's firing when the slide release was hit...

Wow, there have been many more reporting of this initially believed rare occurrence. Thankfully you knew better and kept it pointing down range during loading.

Also its a blessing I didn't have a similar incident, I sent mine in during the recall, took about 2 months; how quick did they turn yours around?

md_al · Feb 20, 2017

I was at Freestate sometime a year ago with my wife. I was shooting 2 new rifles. There were 2 older gentlemen who arrived and were assigned a lane 2 lanes to my right. The taller fellow uncased their rifle at the wooden shelves. His companion was in front of him and was basically facing the barrel as the rifle was being uncased. I quickly pulled my wife into the booth so that we would be protected by the metal divider. I got the attention of another shooter to my left and pointed at the 2 gentlemen and he also ducked into his booth. We stayed there until their rifle was in their booth and pointed downrange. Nothing serious but it was a wakeup call for me to be aware of my surroundings.

GodOfVice · Feb 20, 2017

Sewer Rat said:
Many moons ago back in FL, oldest son just got his hunting license, and we run off to state run range in Ocala Forest to prep for rifle season... we get there, not many people.. one couple comes to lane next to us and proceeds to remove an AK, a HK91-type and some sort of bullpup style out of his case. B is amazed, cuz all I owned were bolt action rifles and the contender pistols at the time.... at least he was amazed until the male of the couple shoulders the AK and rapid fires down range, stepping back with each burst until he was almost to his car.... and B was backstepping away towards me with eyes wide open... Afterwards he asked how did an idiot like that get to own firearms like that...

And yet some MENSA members want ANYBODY and EVERYBODY to be able to own a fully automatic weapon with no training. So stupid it's funny! :lol2:

What could possibly go wrong? :innocent0

d33rhunt3r · Feb 20, 2017

md_al said:
I was at Freestate sometime a year ago with my wife. I was shooting 2 new rifles. There were 2 older gentlemen who arrived and were assigned a lane 2 lanes to my right. The taller fellow uncased their rifle at the wooden shelves. His companion was in front of him and was basically facing the barrel as the rifle was being uncased. I quickly pulled my wife into the booth so that we would be protected by the metal divider. I got the attention of another shooter to my left and pointed at the 2 gentlemen and he also ducked into his booth. We stayed there until their rifle was in their booth and pointed downrange. Nothing serious but it was a wakeup call for me to be aware of my surroundings.

Nice job being alert, and considerate enough to alert the other shooter

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

sxs · Feb 20, 2017

In the 80s, deer hunting in WV. Walked up the road, then down toward an area with dead fall and took a seat. As light dawned, I chambered a round into my Rem 700. Just a bit later, as the light started getting better, I realized I couldn't see a game trail below without moving a bit further past the deadfall. When I tried to open the action to unload before climbing over the deadfall, nothing happened. I couldnt open the action. The I realized I had my safety on. Took the safety off and BOOM! Scared the Crap out of me. Later had to have Remington replace the trigger.

Worked on BIL semi auto 22 rifle. It wasn't feeding cartridges properly. Damn thing was 1/2 wore out...or maybe 3/4 wore out. I fixed the feed mechanism, took it to him while we were camping. We went a ways into the woods and started to to shoot....ratatatatatata. it fired 3 to 5 round burst! I had to send away fore another sear as that was too worn also. Works fine now.

I wasn't there, but a guy was shooting at steel changers at my club on the 50 yd pistol range back in late 80s or early 90s. A weld failed on the swing. So instead of putting it to the side, he brought it up to the 25 yds berm a stood it against the end of a railway tie that we had helping form the 25 yd berm back then. He fired some FMJ ball at it and it came right back at him giving him a flesh wound in the shoulder. To my knowledge, he is the only person ever injured on our ranges.

rj1974 · Feb 20, 2017

https://www.mdshooters.com/showthread.php?t=113922

One I was at the range for .

Close calls while shooting?

The #1 community for Gun Owners of the Northeast

Member Benefits:

Active Member

Ultimate Member

SCSC Life/NRA Patron Life

Banned

Member

Collector and involved.

Ultimate Member

Banned

Ultimate Member

Active Member

Active Member

Pro Pizza Eater

Member

2013'er

Member

Active Member

Banned

Pro Pizza Eater

Senior Member

Ultimate Member

Users who are viewing this thread

Log in

Forum statistics