Under the heading of: Don't do this

[wvshooter]

I know all of you guys and gals are always very careful with your firearms. I too am always careful with my firearms. At least I thought I was.

Thanksgiving day. The wife and I are at the our daughter's house for the traditional holiday dinner. She's married and has three young sons. Great family and my son-in-law is a great guy. So dinners over and I take the son-in-law out to the car to show him my Ruger GP100 with the six inch barrel.

I reach into the car pick up the gun and eject all the rounds while holding the barrel skyward. All the rounds fall into the drivers seat. I hand the gun to him with the cylinder still open. He starts handling the gun, looking across the sight picture etc, etc. I tell him to try the trigger. He aims across the road into a broad hillside and pulls the trigger. BOOM! We look at each other in utter amazement. We both thought the gun was unloaded.

We both know all the gun handling safety rules but we both screwed up. Two adult men. I'm posting this as a big reminder to everybody to be careful out there.

 

[Cheapshooter]

You didn't actually look into the cylinder to check if all the rounds came out? You dumped the rounds onto the seat instead of into your hand? Did you learn something?

 

[redstategunnut]

1. Treat all guns as loaded all the time.
2. Do not point the gun at anything you do not want to destroy.
3. Keep your finger off the trigger until you have sights on an intended target.
4. Be sure of your target's surroundings, beside, behind and in front of it.

In this case, whether inadvertent or intentional, the potential worst case scenario for the negligent discharge was mitigated by following at least some of the other rules.

 

[spodwo]

All the rounds fall into the drivers seat.

Obviously not...

Lucky no one was hurt/killed.

 

[10Ringmagic]

I bet YOU learned a valuable lesson didn't you!

Look into all cylinders of a revolver, and look or better yet, feel with your finger the chambers of semi autos.

 

[lashlaroe]

I think this is a great reminder! Don't you think he knew that some of you would jump on his case? I believe the point here is that even if you are always careful or think you are, you can still slip up.

An extra warning cannot ever hurt.

Thanks!

 

[EarlFH]

It's been said, that everyone who handles guns, either has had, or will have, an AD eventually. Mine was with a model 97 Winchester shotgun. I was at the range, and when I shucked out an empty round, and chambered a fresh one. When the action closed the fresh round went off, because my finger was still on the trigger. That was a problem with the model 97, and I knew it, but wasn't thinking. Fortunately the gun was still pointed downrange, and the shot went into the berm.

EarlFH

 

[10Ringmagic]

I think this is a great reminder! Don't you think he knew that some of you would jump on his case? I believe the point here is that even if you are always careful or think you are, you can still slip up.

An extra warning cannot ever hurt.

Thanks!

I've had two AD's in the course of 40 years of adult firearm ownership!

I did not mean to berate anyone, safety should always be paramount in the handling of firearms. It is very easy to slip up.

 

[mete]

We went through that with an early D-W .We found that with their "combat " grips if the cylinder was turned just right one round would hang up on the grip and that round would stay in the cylinder !!

 

[jhenry]

No need to pile on the OP. It is pretty obvious what mistake was made, and that he is well aware of what it was. It is posted as a good safety reminder to folks to never let familiarity breed complacency.

Thanks for posting the incident. We all need the occasional reminder to keep safety as our first priority.

 

[Amin Parker]

It happens. I always thought i was above an AD then one day my pistol fell out of my hand. I caught it and it went off, firing a hole in the living room wall. Fortunately in both our cases, no one was hurt. Lets be grateful, it can happen to anyone and lets remember that no one is above an AD.

 

[m.p.driver]

That's like the old joke that there are two types of liars,those that don't do it,and those that say they are going to stop.If you shoot a lot the law of averages say eventually something will go wrong.
I had a Rem 870 go off in the field,finger off the trigger,while chambering a shell.Couldn't make it do it again,and it hasn't done it since.
Had an M60 start to runaway as soon as i pulled the trigger,kept it pointed downrange as my loader twisted the belt.
Was in an arms room when another person went to put an m16 in the rack,bolt back,no magazine,and swore the chamber had been checked.Hit the stock, bolt went forward ,and fired the round into the ceiling.
Was next to a Capt.who went to holster his .45 and blew the bottom out of it and furrowed all the way down his leg.
Was scuba diving down south and the air gauge said i had 800 pounds of air left,when i had none.Guy at the dive shop said oh well anything mechanical is bound to fail.
That's why you do your best to operate as safely as possible,and have a backup in case something does go wrong.At least he had it pointed at a hillside.

 

[Bigdog57]

Yep, I've had a couple too - makes us much more aware in the future. Now I have been accused of being a 'range Nazi' when I caution folks to keep their muzzles DOWN RANGE, instead of sweeping the rest of us! Hey, I can understand the occasional AD, but it's a whole lot better to have it go into the berm not into moi!!
When I tell some lunkhead to "put the gun down! We are at 'COLD RANGE'!" - he looks at me like I just cursed his momma! I'd rather NOT to have to tell the other poor guy's momma that Johnny Trigger here shot his best friend.....

 

[pax]

Just because you look, doesn't always mean you see. It's surprisingly easy to miss seeing something you didn't expect to see anyway.

Photographic evidence of how that can happen:

If you're looking merely to confirm the gun is unloaded, and you see the above, you can easily believe that you've seen the gun is unloaded.

But look again!

For the record, these photos don't cheat. The gun in the first photo is in exactly the same condition as the gun in the second photo.

Always count the holes with your fingertip to confirm you're unloaded. If the lighting is bad, if the cylinder doesn't swing out all the way, if you're a little distracted -- you can miss seeing that all important round still in the cylinder.

pax

 

[Shadi Khalil]

m.p Diver,

If I were you, I'd stay away from anyone holding a gun.

 

[Kreyzhorse]

WVShooter - thanks for posting a reminder that it can happen to any person at any time.

 

[Casimer]

It's surprisingly easy to miss seeing something you didn't expect to see anyway.

Definitely. People sometime laugh at the way I handle firearms, always looking in chambers and poking my finger in there. But it's because the one ND I've had was with a revolver that I'd inspected a second earlier. It appeared to be empty, but that's because I'd looked too quickly and saw what I expected. I was dry firing a lot and had habituated an inspection routine, to the point that I wasn't actually paying conscious attention to what I was doing. So I checked, saw an empty cylinder, and bang!

 

[Hoss Fly]

We both know all the gun handling safety rules but we both screwed up. Two adult men. I'm posting this as a big reminder to everybody to be careful out there.

I need not say the words---------

 

[geetarman]

A valuable lesson learned cheap. . .this time.

I bet there will be no second time.

Geetarman

 

[roy reali]

EarlFH

It's been said, that everyone who handles guns, either has had, or will have, an AD eventually

Nope!

When I was ten my dad invited me to see the butcher drop one of our cows. The guy used an old beat up, single shot .22 rimfire rifle. He placed a bucket of oats on the ground. The cow put her head down to eat. He pulled the trigger and an eight hundred pound cow bellied up as though she was struck by the Hammer Of Thor.

I saw what a little round like a .22 can do to a large animal. That impressed on me to never, ever touch any trigger unless the barrel is pointed at something that needs a whole in it.

re:mpdriver

That's like the old joke that there are two types of liars,those that don't do it,and those that say they are going to stop.If you shoot a lot the law of averages say eventually something will go wrong.

If that were true, we all should remove all guns from our homes. There are millions and millions of guns in homes of millions and millions of Americans. There are not millions and millions of AD's.