Firearm horror stories

[Roadie]

(snipped)

2) Earlier this year I was coming inside to use the rest room after working outside for a while. I had my G19 on in an IWB holster, like usual. I undid my belt, and proceded to use the bathroom. Unknown to me, the loose belt, sweat, and other factors resulted in the holster flipping upside down and dropping my glock on the floor directly on the rear of the slide. I felt it start to flip, but couldn't react quickly enough. I distinctly remember watching it in super slo-mo and the barrel was pointing right at my head.

I'm glad that the distance it fell was short, and the impact not enough to cause the striker to move and discharge a round, or I would be a gonner.

Lets just say I'm a lot more careful now about how I secure the gun prior to a bathroom break, and am wary of leather holsters that can get slick when soaked with sweat.

Had a similar incident with my Bersa 380, only it was when I was pulling my pants UP, that the gun fell out of my cheapie IWB holster flat onto the tile floor of a Kroger bathroom.

 

[No Lot Lizards]

Being robbed at gunpoint sure was a bad experience.

 

[coorslight]

About 25 years ago my friend and I went to a gun club and I was trying out some new .357 loads that I had just loaded up. I set him up to shoot while I got a few more things out of my range bag. He fired all six rounds they all went boom. he turned to me and said, I didn't even hit the target, I took the gun opened the cylinder, when I tipped it up to eject the shells I saw the bullet sticking out the end, I then looked at the forcing cone and the base of another bullet was in there. YUP they all stacked up in the barrel. And it didn't blow up. Lucky? you bet. The gun a S&W model 19 4" barrel. Just glad it wasn't a Rossi.

 

[Hoosierdood]

This happened just LAST YEAR.

I went out deer hunting with a friend and his two boys. I could see them in their "blind" about 300 yards away. The boys couldn't sit still. They even had a buck walk within 20 yards of them and never saw it. When they did, they spun around, which scared the deer away.

Anyway, we were walking out of the field and the 12 year old boy was walking behind us. He was waving his muzzleloader all over the place, sweeping me and his dad several times. I turned around and suggested that he throw the thing over his shoulder so that it wasn't pointing at me. His dad commented "Don't worry, it's not loaded." I commented that I didn't hear him shoot this morning. The dad says "Well, we tried to fire it into the ground when we left the blind, but it didn't go off." I said "So, you have a bullet and powder in it, and you have already fired the primer?" The dad answered in the affirmative like he didn't see what the big deal was. I promptly took the gun from the kid, inserted a new primer, and fired it into the ground. I spent the rest of the walk to the vehicles explaining what a hang fire was, and the 4 rules.

 

[seadoodr.]

This happened just LAST YEAR.

I went out deer hunting with a friend and his two boys. I could see them in their "blind" about 300 yards away. The boys couldn't sit still. They even had a buck walk within 20 yards of them and never saw it. When they did, they spun around, which scared the deer away.

Anyway, we were walking out of the field and the 12 year old boy was walking behind us. He was waving his muzzleloader all over the place, sweeping me and his dad several times. I turned around and suggested that he throw the thing over his shoulder so that it wasn't pointing at me. His dad commented "Don't worry, it's not loaded." I commented that I didn't hear him shoot this morning. The dad says "Well, we tried to fire it into the ground when we left the blind, but it didn't go off." I said "So, you have a bullet and powder in it, and you have already fired the primer?" The dad answered in the affirmative like he didn't see what the big deal was. I promptly took the gun from the kid, inserted a new primer, and fired it into the ground. I spent the rest of the walk to the vehicles explaining what a hang fire was, and the 4 rules.

Storys like this make the hair on the back of my neck stand up, very scary.

 

[jgreiner]

I bought a glock once...

You win...that is worse than a Sigma....

 

[greyhound47]

I wasn't there but..........

Two guys were drinking and shooting() in the back yard of a house. They fired the last rounds they had from a S&W 686 revolver in .357. One guy went into the house for more beer while the other guy noticed ONE MORE ROUND that had fallen in the grass at his feet. He loaded it into the cylinder and put it on the table. The other guy returns and they sit and enjoy the evening. The guy who went into the house to get the beer jokingly picks up the revolver and pulls the trigger while pointing the gun at his head.

He survived. He is a very simple man now but true story.

Guns are ALWAYS loaded.

 

[singlestacksig]

i was running the score clip board for an IDPA match, the shooter finished, showed gun clear , RO looked and said OK,
shooter dropped the slide, pointed gun down at table in front of him , pulled trigger to dry fire & BANG.

 

[RBrianHarless]

SCCY 9mm and a Phoenix .380. Both are horror stories.

 

[chuddly]

about 6 months ago my cousin and his friend were out shooting. Neither one have any real experience with guns but they had both decided to get Glocks because they were cool and blah blah blah. They were done shooting and got back in the car to leave and they thought the gun was empty (). The friend in the passenger seat said "the gun just went off" and he shot though his own hand and it went right past my cousins face shooting out the drivers window. The friend lived but needed a few surgery's to get his hand back to semi normal.

This story is one of the reasons i dont like dealing with new shooters with new guns. It takes me babysitting them to make sure i come out alive. But i dont mind helping a new shooter but i REALLY DONT like helping more than one new shooters at once. Too much ignorance to try to wrangle then.

 

[JetGirl]

When I was a kid, my dad (while telling everyone to treat a gun as if it's always loaded...but doing exactly the opposite of that) had an ND that ricocheted off the table and went between my cousin and me.

I spent the rest of the walk to the vehicles explaining what a hang fire was, and the 4 rules.

Holy Moly!

 

[Principal Skinr]

The truth is, ANYONE can get to a point of complacency and let their guard down, in terms of safe handling and practices, not just beginners.

I believe there are two types of gun owners. Those that have had an unintentional discharge, and those that will. If you are still breathing, you should expect at some point to have one. That's why it is so important to always point it in a safe direction and treat it as if it is loaded.

As a pilot, I liken gun safety to air safety, even though guns are mechanically simpler. That's what can make overconfident people dangerous with them. Many air accidents involve some of the most experienced pilots. Complacency can sneak up on anyone, no matter how experienced. Here's an example. My brother-in-law is a very good pilot, with thousands of hours in single engine aircraft. He flew my sister and their two daughters up to Vancouver one day. They were trying to beat a storm, and in a hurry, he forgot to do a visual inspection of the engine. He'd done this thousands of times before, and simply forgot. A hose (I'm not sure which one, or the function of the hose) had come disconnected. As they took off, the engine sputtered. He immediately declared an emergency, turned, and gained as much altitude as he could while trying to line up an approach. The engine quit as he was on short final. They landed safely. He and a mechanic opened the cowl and there it was, plain as day. Simple fix, but could have killed them all. I can tell you he now uses a check list even for the walk around.

I'm not preaching or speaking down to anyone. I've had an unintentional firearm discharge, and thank goodness, I had it pointed in a safe direction. It scared the **** out of me, and I think I'm better for it, in the long run, because of the lesson I learned.

 

[caverjamie]

Speaking of pre-flight checks - on the Cessna I rent, you can't open the cowling to check stuff like that, all you can do without a screwdriver is peer in through the access port where you check oil. That bothers me for exactly the reason your example gave.

No horror stories for me at this point...I haven't had a ND yet but I don't handle my guns real often. The ones I carry I usually leave loaded and in the holster for next time. However, my brother did have a ND when he was supposedly getting ready to clean his shotgun. No one was hurt and he was the only one in the house. I guess he managed to patch up the hole before his wife found out....

 

[Rocket]

The first time my brother let his EX wife hold a gun (Sigma) He said he cleared it. Handed it to her she pointed it at the ceiling and pow, new air hole in the ceiling. Fortunately it stopped in a joist and not in him. This is the same EX who went to jail for assault on him 2 times and assault on her best friend once. That was a couple of years after this incident. I am glad I still have my brother around. But it could have been bad

 

[Principal Skinr]

Speaking of pre-flight checks - on the Cessna I rent, you can't open the cowling to check stuff like that, all you can do without a screwdriver is peer in through the access port where you check oil. That bothers me for exactly the reason your example gave.

No horror stories for me at this point...I haven't had a ND yet but I don't handle my guns real often. The ones I carry I usually leave loaded and in the holster for next time. However, my brother did have a ND when he was supposedly getting ready to clean his shotgun. No one was hurt and he was the only one in the house. I guess he managed to patch up the hole before his wife found out....

I never understood that about Cessnas. I have most of my time in Pipers, and you can open the cowl and see everything.

 

[youngda9]

I've buggered up a few screw heads and taken off some bluing once with errant screwdriver work on a firearm. Too eager to get to work and not use the correct bits, I now have a good screwdriver set and take my time.

I once made the mistake of working on a firearm after eating salted peanuts...not a good idea. I got it cleaned up, can't tell the thing ever tried to rust.

Never had a ND. I did have a primer go off once while re-loading, that was exciting. I think it set off about 5 more in the tube waiting to be fed. I always wear my safety glasses and check the powder charge at the start of my reloading sessions.

I've had to yell at newbies at the range a few times to not touch the firearms when people are downrange. Some muzzle control issues with those types as well. Got swept once at a skeet shoot where someone was showing people how to load the firearm, I just walked away and went home.

 

[hoosierdaddy1976]

as a kid (age 11 i think) i went pheasant hunting with a group. i was using a borrowed bolt-action .410. it was a single shot, but i found that i could push the spring plate ejector down and fit another shell. if i cycled it fast enough, i could load the second shell. of course, like an idiot kid i practiced this trick in the living room. "dry-fired" and killed the tv. i knew i had to call my mom at work; that was a difficult phone call to make. the local hunter safety instructor used that example for years afterwards.

 

[backfire]

Not really a "horror story", but a sad one for me none-the-less...

Cliff notes~

About 11 years old....
floating down the creek near my farm home in a canoe....
shooting birds & stuff with my trusty Daisy BB rifle....
set my gun down in the boat...
picked up an oar to paddle myself straight...
bumped the gun with the oar as I swung it around...
watched said gun fall over the side & into the creek....
almost fell out said canoe trying to grab falling gun...
was deep water, cus' all I could do was watch in grief as it kept going down, down, down, until I couldn't see it no more....
felt like this...
then this...
leading to this....
too deep to retrieve...
Went home empty handed and never told my step-dad.

Wish I had that gun back to this day and haven't found one like it since...

 

[357 Terms]

I have been fairly lucky with guns so far....unless you count having to deal with Taurus customer service.

 

[Principal Skinr]

Not really a "horror story", but a sad one for me none-the-less...

Cliff notes~

About 11 years old....
floating down the creek near my farm home in a canoe....
shooting birds & stuff with my trusty Daisy BB rifle....
set my gun down in the boat...
picked up an oar to paddle myself straight...
bumped the gun with the oar as I swung it around...
watched said gun fall over the side & into the creek....
almost fell out said canoe trying to grab falling gun...
was deep water, cus' all I could do was watch in grief as it kept going down, down, down, until I couldn't see it no more....
felt like this...
then this...
leading to this....
too deep to retrieve...
Went home empty handed and never told my step-dad.

Wish I had that gun back to this day and haven't found one like it since...

What a coincidence! That's exactly what happened to every single one of my guns!