well. it finally happened -- A/D (accidental discharge)

[Streetstar]

This one's a tough one to admit to, but if it helps just one person from ever making a similar mistake -- here goes



Was having a good natured pistol discussion with an old Army buddy at my house a few nights ago

It ventured into a "I dont get the allure of the 1911" discussion to which i figured i would school him with a demonstration.

I retrieved a pelican case from my safe room full of examples of several different popular pistol types from the 1911 to striker fired glocks, to DA/SA Sigs

And while taking great care not to sweep the room or each other, we proceeded to drop the magazines and rack the slide on each to ensure they were clear -- i let him dry fire each one and when he came to the 1911 his eyes lit up and he said -- "Oh -- that trigger is amazing !"

At that point i picked up my former EDC/truck gun, a Sig 229 , -- and made some comment about the otherwise good trigger on the Sigs hampered by the DA first pull -- i then proceeded to drop the magazine and pull the trigger

Yep -- you guessed it -- big boom , no ear pro, and a fresh hole in my dining room window. I'm semi rural with a lot of space between houses (literally a half mile ) - so aside from the window no other harm

My first comment was "Did that just happen?" and my buddy said - "Oh yeah - that definitely just happened!"

We quickly cleared everything again and stowed the firearms and took a gentlemen's vow to never speak of this again and proceeded to go about our evening but i drew some valuable conclusions

1. Even when we think we are handling things in a safe manner -- double check and check again

2. In my case, i'm only pulling and handling one firearm at a time from here on out -- having 4 on the table and attempting to do an impromptu trigger pull comparison invites confusion

3. If the firearm is out of rotation enough to go back to the pelican case -- absolutely make sure it is not chambered and no mag is inserted

4. Alcohol? Even a single beer or highball with 2 fingers of something or other means we are altered - even if just a little bit. It might not take much - and oftentimes with old Army buddy's that is just how these conversations come into play

[4t5]

I’m glad , only your pride was hurt.

[Streetstar]

I’m glad , only your pride was hurt.

Dont forget about the window and blinds (kidding)

[Rube Burrows]

Man, that sucks. Glad it was not worse.

[Tycer]

Thanks for the reminder!

[Grizz]

Thanks for posting. It's a valuable lesson and folks will be cautioned, and safer.

[GunnyMack]

One of my gummsmiff instructors always said if you are around guns long enough you are going to have an A.D. He then proceeded to tell us about how he shot a pickup twice in one night while coyote hunting! That being said...


A very good buddy of mine was around 16 when he was dry firing his dad's model 27. Taking careful aim at a painting of a red headed woodpecker across the room. All of a sudden BOOM! His dad comes up the stairs and finds my buddy sitting there, jaw on the floor in shock. After confirming his son was not injured he asked what the boy was doing. Explaining he was dry firing and aiming at the woodpeckers head dad walks over to the painting, walks back and puts 1 click UP- the bullet hole was plumb center low.

I had a Smith 422, mag safety. Cleaned it one day while watching TV. I scattered it out completely, reassemble and function test. Duh it has a mag safety. So I insert the mag, rack the slide, point at bad guy on the television and went out to buy a new TV not long after!!! That CCI Stinger went right where I was pointing it.

I remember a guy I shot trap with, he was a FLINCHER! He had a release trigger installed on his shotgun. Ill never forget him shooting the concrete pad on the line, he forgot he had to pull the trigger and release it to fire. He called for a bird and the gun didn't go off so he pointed it down and let the pressure off and BOOM.

[Scott Tschirhart]

It happens to all of us. Glad nobody was hurt.

[pshort]

Howdy Folks,
It happened to me a couple of years ago....
I was cleaning my 1911, racking, pulling the trigger, etc ...
I don't remember doing it, but I put in a magazine and resumed....
Well, the bullet went through 3 walls and left the building.....
It also went thru my shower stall barely missing the handles...
No other damage, other than holes thru 3 walls.....
I called the bullet "Elvis", 'cause he left the building....
A neighbor came over with a metal detector, we never found the bullet.....
Anyway, now any loaded mags are forbidden in my man cave .....

Paul

[2ndovc]

I had a Smith 422, mag safety. Cleaned it one day while watching TV. I scattered it out completely, reassemble and function test. Duh it has a mag safety. So I insert the mag, rack the slide, point at bad guy on the television and went out to buy a new TV not long after!!! That CCI Stinger went right where I was pointing it.

I did something very similar.
First house, about 24 at the time, home alone an playing with a S&W model 66 police trade I'd just bought at a show. Cleaned it and was dry firing at the bad guys on the TV. Loaded some .38 Spl. JHPs and was heading to put it in my nightstand when another bad guy came on the screen. Draw and fire and BOOM! in that little living room. The dog is stuck to the ceiling and the cat is throwing up on the carpet. Ears are ringing something fierce from that little 2 1/2" barrel. There's a hole through the old CRT tube and what's left of the bullet is lying on the bottom, At least I got the bad guy. My ex gets home, catches me setting up the new tv so I had to fess up. Never lived that one down.
Hasn't happened again in 30+ years, so I guess I learned something that day.

jb

[Bill in Oregon]

Oh man. An early Model 97 corn shucker in 16 gauge. Dad, brothers and I got out of the rig, loaded up and headed to the river looking for ducks on a very frosty morning. Dropped one into the chamber and thought I was easing the hammer down. BOOM. Fortunately the muzzle was pointed down and forward and we were walking abreast. I hope I never have another.

[piller]

Glad you weren't injured.
Jeff Cooper once shot the glass window with the dials on his gas meter. It happens to everyone sometime.

[Ysabel Kid]

It happens to all of us. Glad nobody was hurt.

+1

After making everyone was okay, my immediate concern would be what would happen to me when my wife got home!

[Old No7]

Wow... Glad that nobody was hurt and that nothing irreplaceable was damaged.

Way down on the list -- but still, it is on my "scary list" -- was the comment that you store your guns in Pelican cases?!?!

Based on the experiences I've observed from friends who've done it -- is that you're just asking for trouble, and someday you just might open up a plastic foam-lined case and find a "freckled" gun. And it won't be pretty like the freckled redheaded Irish girl who was the girl next door when I was a kid. You might be sorry...

If I'm wrong, OK, but it sure sounds like those guns are being stored in the Pelican case. I think that's a mistake.

Old No7

[JBowen]

When I was about 18, I learned a valuable lesson about leaving the safety engaged and keeping my finger off of the trigger until I was ready
to shoot. There was a stray cat that kept climbing onto the screens of the house wanting in and I had run it off several times and was getting mad at it. Well I decided I would scare it off and grabbed my 190 Win. semiauto 22 and went around the house and was peeking
around the corner for it. I had the gun down by my side with my finger on the trigger and safety off ready to make that cat dance.
Well instead I accident pulled that trigger and shot the ground next to my foot. Scared the daylights out of me.
Lesson learned the hard way!

Glad none of y'all were hurt.
JBowen

[AJMD429]

.
Those are the kind of things that once it's over and nobody's hurt, I'm always actually GLAD happened, because it will have taught me a lesson.

[mickbr]

Even SF guys have them. I discharged a spas-12 in my bedroom at age 19 myself. Showing it off to buddies, loaded up the magazine and racked them out, left one in without realising so when I cleared the action.... it wasnt . luckily was buckshot not slugs, penetrated the closet but disintegrated on the cinder block wall.

[Scott Tschirhart]

I was probably 16 years old and had a military 1911 in the front seat of my car.

Really cold morning and I stopped to plug a housecat (in those days we shot every stray housecat and chicken hawk we saw). The .45 did a bang up job on him.

I arrived early at the gas station where I worked in the sleepy town of La Coste, Texas. I then shucked the round out of the chamber then pulled out the magazine, carefully pointed at the floorboard and pulled the trigger.

That may have been the loudest sound I had heard at that time in my life as the windows were rolled up.

But I haven’t done anything that foolish (with a pistol) since.

[JimT]

I have never had an accidental discharge other than into my underwear. BUT I have had a Negligent Discharge. I was 23, just out of the military about 6 months, and was living at home while I got a job and began building my life. Everyone was out of the house and I spent an hour in front of my Mom's antique dresser, drawing my .357 and snapping at the bad guy in the mirror. After an hour of practice I decided to go to the range and strapped on my 7 1/2" Ruger Blackhawk .30 Carbine. Walking past the mirror I saw the bad guy in it and made one of the fastest smoothest draws in my life and centered him. The 100 gr. bullet punched a nice hole in the mirror, radiating cracks all over. It went on through the sheetrock wall, across the living room and was stopped by the concrete block wall. As I said, no one was home, for which I was grateful. I left a note about having and accident unloading my gun and apologizing for wrecking the antique mirror and then I left for some time.

I learned from that instance to never pick up another gun after practicing dry-firing. Reading up on it later on I discovered that you should take at least one hour of doing something else before messing with a gun after dry-firing because the synapses in our brains are still carrying that "muscle memory" and need time to clear out. Over the years I have gotten a lot of other stories about similar "accidents" ...

I've never done that in all the years since, following my own advice to put the gun up and do something else for an hour or two.

[Streetstar]

If I'm wrong, OK, but it sure sounds like those guns are being stored in the Pelican case. I think that's a mistake.

Old No7

Not long term storage, but it was just glocks, sigs and Sig branded 1911’s. The finishes on those can probably survive a few years at the bottom of the sea.
My blued and nickel firearms are treated to better lodgings

[Streetstar]

Thank you gentlemen

As mentioned, I was nervous even mentioning this but thought —- I’ve been posting here for 15 years now and even met a handful of you guys’ ——-

It’s a sobering thought knowing that this is not a totally isolated incident and it’s happened to several of us also.

[.45colt]

Glad No One was hurt!!! When the Wife and I took the Concealed Carry class twenty years ago that was taught by two old cops, most of the guns brought to class were semi-autos . One of them said a smart thing to do is have a five gallon bucket of sand in the garage or a safe corner of the house. point the gun down in the bucket before doing anything to clear the pistol. He related several times He had to respond to holes in walls or floors. made sense to Me. My favorite A/D was as a Kid there was a Big Family nearby . after deer season in PA some of the boys were up in one of the bedrooms with an '06 . it went off above the dining room, the round going thru the ceiling, then Dads table saw in the corner and into the basement. I'm glad I wasn't there.

[marlinman93]

Closest thing I've had was at the gun range. I had been shooting some guns and decided to shoot my carry gun before heading home. I shot several magazine loads through it, and had loaded a fresh magazine into the grip, and racked the slide. Went to lower the hammer and had the gun pointed downrange when my thumb slipped and it fired. Caught the edge of my thumb with the slide, and made a small cut. Had to grab some tape and a paper towel and bandage up my thumb. I considered myself lucky that nobody else was there as I'm sure they would likely thought I shot myself.
Back over 30 years ago I took a concealed carry class here and sitting in the front row maybe 4 ft. from the instructor when he touched off a Mauser pistol in .380 through the ceiling while demonstrating what not to do. He was of course embarrassed and turned white as a ghost! He said he and his son in law had checked all the guns the night before. That made me ask why he'd allow someone else to check his guns, or why he wouldn't still check each before he began to handle and demonstrate with them?
There were a number of guys who left the class and didn't come back when this happened. I guess I wanted my CCL bad enough to complete the class.

[GunnyMack]

Val, the guy giving that class never should have had any of those guns in battery. They should have been open with mags out.
Sure I've seen/had/ been around for AD's and the first thing I do is open the gun and leave it open. The only time the guns are closed is in the safe or im actually shooting them. I guess some of this stems from all my time shooting trap, gummsmiff skool and teaching for 4H years ago.
If its open it can't go off!

[Walt]

And speaking of accidental (negligent) discharges, a grand jury finally indicted Alec Baldwin today.

[GunnyMack]

Best news I've heard all day-They should string up Baldwin!!!!

[1894cfan]

I hear ya. My lap top committed suicide a while back after imbibing just a little too much hooch!

[Streetstar]

I hear ya. My lap top committed suicide a while back after imbibing just a little too much hooch!

Thats not an uncommon thing either - was recently listening to a podcast with the wrestler Steve Austin (Stone Cold) - who describes the same thing. while one of his arms was in a sling after surgery -- his laptop ingested a glass of red wine also

[Scott Tschirhart]

Best news I've heard all day-They should string up Baldwin!!!!

I just pray that justice be done. I can’t tell from this distance what actually happened.

[Walt]

Of course the big question is how did the live round get in with the duds. Apparently, film crew members were shooting live rounds for fun between filming. My guess is that after the recreational shooting, live rounds were put back into a box thought to be only duds and the boxes were not marked or segregated. Or, live rounds were left in the revolver because the recreational shooting was interrupted.

Baldwin said that the cinematographer wanted him to point the gun in her direction in order to test the lighting.

Heck, he knows all about guns, after all, he's an actor and handles them all the time.

All he did was to disregard the cardinal rule of gun handling; don't point the gun at anything you don't want to destroy.

[GunnyMack]

And he is a hypocritical liberal so he shouldn't be making movies that have anything to do with firearms.
Whether or not the gun was pointed at the woman the fact remains the whole crew was negligent and irresponsible and they should have the book thrown at them.

[Walt]

I agree completely. Did you see that the armorer gal was arrested a couple of weeks later for carrying concealed in a bar? She has no business in that line of work.

[JDL]

I have never had an accidental discharge other than into my underwear. BUT I have had a Negligent Discharge. I was 23, just out of the military about 6 months, and was living at home while I got a job and began building my life. Everyone was out of the house and I spent an hour in front of my Mom's antique dresser, drawing my .357 and snapping at the bad guy in the mirror. After an hour of practice I decided to go to the range and strapped on my 7 1/2" Ruger Blackhawk .30 Carbine. Walking past the mirror I saw the bad guy in it and made one of the fastest smoothest draws in my life and centered him. The 100 gr. bullet punched a nice hole in the mirror, radiating cracks all over. It went on through the sheetrock wall, across the living room and was stopped by the concrete block wall. As I said, no one was home, for which I was grateful. I left a note about having and accident unloading my gun and apologizing for wrecking the antique mirror and then I left for some time.

I learned from that instance to never pick up another gun after practicing dry-firing. Reading up on it later on I discovered that you should take at least one hour of doing something else before messing with a gun after dry-firing because the synapses in our brains are still carrying that "muscle memory" and need time to clear out. Over the years I have gotten a lot of other stories about similar "accidents" ...

I've never done that in all the years since, following my own advice to put the gun up and do something else for an hour or two.

One of the loudest pistols I've ever heard was a .30 carbine Blackhawk. I would guess it was worse indoors too!

[Streetstar]

I have never had an accidental discharge other than into my underwear. BUT I have had a Negligent Discharge. I was 23, just out of the military about 6 months, and was living at home while I got a job and began building my life. Everyone was out of the house and I spent an hour in front of my Mom's antique dresser, drawing my .357 and snapping at the bad guy in the mirror. After an hour of practice I decided to go to the range and strapped on my 7 1/2" Ruger Blackhawk .30 Carbine. Walking past the mirror I saw the bad guy in it and made one of the fastest smoothest draws in my life and centered him. The 100 gr. bullet punched a nice hole in the mirror, radiating cracks all over. It went on through the sheetrock wall, across the living room and was stopped by the concrete block wall. As I said, no one was home, for which I was grateful. I left a note about having and accident unloading my gun and apologizing for wrecking the antique mirror and then I left for some time.

I learned from that instance to never pick up another gun after practicing dry-firing. Reading up on it later on I discovered that you should take at least one hour of doing something else before messing with a gun after dry-firing because the synapses in our brains are still carrying that "muscle memory" and need time to clear out. Over the years I have gotten a lot of other stories about similar "accidents" ...

I've never done that in all the years since, following my own advice to put the gun up and do something else for an hour or two.

One of the loudest pistols I've ever heard was a .30 carbine Blackhawk. I would guess it was worse indoors too!

Ouch - my ears! That’s my memory of a .30 Blackhawk too when some dude showed up at the range with one

[Nath]

Glad you're ok.
Never point, deliberately or not a firearm at anything you do not intend to destroy.

That's what probably saved many an accident from being a tragedy.
Best wishes....
Will a band aid fix the window, duct tape! That'll do

[JimT]

Perhaps if Mr. Baldwin would have taken an NRA Firearms Safety Course instead of spending his time trashing the NRA and pushing for more gun bans he would have checked the gun the moment it was handed to him.

[Streetstar]

Glad you're ok.
Never point, deliberately or not a firearm at anything you do not intend to destroy.

That's what probably saved many an accident from being a tragedy.
Best wishes....
Will a band aid fix the window, duct tape! That'll do

It does have some blue tape over it like a scarlet letter until I can get somebody out to replace the insert (double pane insulated glass

I’ll snap a pic of it later today. Went shootin’ last night at an indoor range and made it through without incident so a range report is due anyway - was a good time