Whats the dumbest mistake that you've ever made while handling a firearm? It can range from something funny to somethin that endangered lives or hunting.
An example...loading the wrong type of ammo into a gun.
Thats never happened to me but anyways heres mine...
I've never really made any big mistakes while handling a firearm. I've never really made any stupid ones before either.
But like I said we all make mistakes and one day...just over last weekend infact. I was shooting skeet with two of my buddies and I left when I went to shoot I noticed that I left the safety on three different times. My buddy thew the clay in the air too soon once and I didnt have the time rest the butt of the gun on my shoulder for a shot so the shotgun swung wide from the recoil and almost hit me in the chin, lol.
Another time I was shooting skeet and I was tired and it was gettin dark...I yelled pull and all of a sudden somethin orange dotted ahead of me...was expected, yes...
I shot and feathers flew everywhere, it happened to be a bird. That was not expected, lol.
I think thats it for my dumb stories...might add more later if I can think of any. I believe thats all though...

30 years ago I was shooting a single action .22 at a cut bank in a dry river bed, bank is over 20 feet tall. I was just taking aim at the cylindrical target of choice when a woman appears on top of the bank, which startled me. Started to holster the revolver and forgot it was still cocked, went off as I was inserting it in holster, which REALLY startled me! Immediately felt the heat of the discharge on the outside of my right knee ( I was kneeling at the time), lucky I didn't shoot my kneecap off.......

…a woman appears on top of the bank, which startled me...
So, what's the punch line - is she your wife today? Shall we call Tom Hanks & Meg Ryan to make the movie version?
Was she dressed like Ursula Andress in Dr. No? :p Or did she just run screaming from the bumbling moron?! :D

I was 12 -13, and was shooting .22 rifle in a jr. league. I was in sitting position getting sights on target when I got interrupted by my father for some last-second coaching. I stretched out my legs in front of me so I wouldn't get a cramp. After a while, my rifle got heavy, so I rested the muzzle on my toe.

So my father said, "do you realize the muzzle is pointed at your foot and your finger's on the trigger?"

I said, "Yeah, but it's not loaded yet." I lifted the muzzle off my foot, pointed it into the stones downrange, and pulled the trigger. Sure taught me a lesson when it fired, and stones scattered around just a couple feet from my foot.

My father was wise enough to know that that shot had taught me more than he could by a lecture. So, he just said that he shouldn't have interrupted me when I had a loaded gun, and he left the firing line.

.

After deer season one night I tried cleaning muzzleloader. Ran cleaning patch down barrel but it stuck. Thought maybe vaccum was problem, so I reached back to cock hammer to vent the barrel. The rifle was still loaded. I'd forgot to shot it before coming inside. Thumb slipped, rifle fired. Hand holding ramrod got really messed up. Smoke, blood everywhere. Ramrod left. Shot a loaf of Bunny Bread right in the Bunny's face. Ball stayed in barrel. Still have nerve damage to right hand. I got lucky. :eek:

It hasn't been my "turn" yet.

My father never advised me to not use the lever mounted safety on my old Savage mod 99 when it was snowing of freezing rain. I tried to unsafe the rifle and it went off...fortunately I was holding it in a safe mannor...

I was about 8 or 9 and my dad use to let me sit on the back porch and shoot cans with a BB gun my myself if I was shooting anything with powder or a high powered BB gun I had to be with him. One day I jammed spoons in the dirt so the bell is up and the handle in in the ground. They stood up to the pounding of the BB's plus it made a nice "pling" kind of sound that let me know it hit it. I did not realize this but the BB's where bouncing back at me fortunately for me I was laying down so they where flying over my head. My dad opend the back door and turned to say something to my mom right them I shot a BB and I hear "pling" "AHHH what the he** was that." The BB bounced back and hit my dad in his upper arm just hard enough to sting him. I told him what I did with the spoons. I got the wooped mostly because I was using my moms new spoons. Fortunately the BB's did not dammage the spoons or it would have been a real beating. I think my dad still to tis day 16-17 years later still thinks I some how shot him with the BB gun on purpose. I was still allowed to use the BB gun but I had to purchas a BB gun target you know the kind that trap the BB's

The second stupid I did was kinda a two part stupid. I was 15 ish and at the out door shooting range with my dad and grandfather. One of them pulled out a Hawkin 50 cal muzzle loader and loaded 100g of black powder in it and then realized that they forgot the balls. I happend to walk buy with the balls in hand and looked around they where at the van digging around looking for the balls. I saw the gun laying down and figgured I would get off the first shot. Grinnign because it was a bran new gun I loaded 100g of powder in the gun for a total of 200g of powder I dropped a patch and ball placed a cap on it aimed and pulled the trigger. CABOOB!!! that sun of a gun kicked like a train hit me in the shoulder. Instant bruse, probably because I failed to hold it tight enought to my shoulder. Fortunately the gun was not dammaged but it ended my day of shooting because my shoulder was too sore to shoot any more. My grandfather and dad decided to have a Smith inspect the gun to make sure nothing was dammaged. That was one lesson I will never forget :D

I was getting ready to deploy to VietNam and had a family emergency the day before I was to leave and was given a 72 hour pass to go home. The day before I was due to return to ship out, I went out and shot my Ruger black hawk, I was quick drawing when I got the bright idea to cock the hammer back in the holster for a little faster shot, Well it was a fast shot alright as I pulled the gun up and out of the holster she went off, My foot was burning in pain, I took off my boot to see how many toes I had lost and found only a blister on the tip of my middle toe. Saved myself a court martial because no one would have believed it was an accident.

The first time I shot a doe, it was with my daddys old 721 Remington 30'06

Now daddy reloaded shells and didn't like it when you lost his brass.

I chucked the shell out of the gun while standing in a tree stand 8' off the ground after I shot that doe and couldn't figure out where I went.

So when I got back to the camp, I wanted to figure out how far that gun ejected a empty shell. So I looked around and the only empties I had was out of my Uncle's Winchester model 70 - 30'06.

So I tried to chamber one of his empties. Only it was too big and when I tried to force it down into the chamber and it got stuck.

So I tried to use brute force to make the bolt pull the empty shell out of the gun.

Well the extractor clip broke and nobody made one to fit it and the only other thing you could do was send the rifle back to the factory and have a new bolt made for the gun.

Now daddy slepped not 4' from that gun every day for the last 10 years since I made him a gun rack back in the 7th grade in school.

So taking the gun out of the rack for a month or two was definately out of the question.

So I just didnt say anything and left it go.
There was no internet back then and you just couldn't look around for someplace that still had one on stock.

Well my brother took a liking to my Grandfathers old '06 that I had been using while the 721 was broke and when hunting season came the only gun for me to hunt with was that broke 721.

So I went to the hardware store and bought a wooden dowel rod and tied it to the barrel with a couple of rubber bands.

First day of hunting season came around and I went off by myself to hunt.
I loaded the gun and sat under a maple tree on the side of a mountain.
It was durn cold outside and I about froze to death.

Well the oil froze inside the bolt and the best looking buck I had ever saw in my whole life came out of the jaggers not 85 yards below me.
I pulled up and aimed and the gun went click.

Now what do you do? Do you rechamber the round and take the chance that it will hear the second click and run for the next county.

Do you take the dowel rod off the barrel and knock out the shell and put in a new round?

Or do you blow down the barrel and hope that the shell would fall out on it's own.

I pulled the dowel rod out and knocked out the shell and saw that there was just a little dimple in the primer and I knew what had happened. But it was too late. The deer saw me moving around and went back into the jing weeds.

I chambered a new round and sat as quiet as I could and not 5 minutes later a buck stepped out and I thought that it was the same deer and I had buck fever pretty bad by this time and I took aim and put a bead on it and squeezed the trigger and the gun went bang and the deer fell down.

Now I had to knock out the fired round with the dowel rod and took my eyes off the deer and when I did out stepped the BIG BUCK.
While here I am out in the middle of the woods by myself and a BIG BUCK is running up the hill beside me and what is a man to do.

I figured that I only knicked the fat on that old buck and he got back up and was going to run off and probably some other hunter was going to get my deer.

So I put another round into the gun and fired and missed.

So now what do you do? I got out the dowel rod and knocked out the fired round and put in another - by this time I looked like Daniel Boone.

I shot at that son of a gun one more time and missed.

By this time I am looking at this gun and I'm just about ready to wrap the barrel around a tree.

The deer ran down the opposite side of the hill and someone shot and got the buck. A 150 Class Boone and Crocket deer.

I was all depressed that I missed it so many times.

Well being a conscience hunter that I was, I went back down to the bottom of the hill looking for sign. Blood, hair or what have you.

I got down there and there was a deer lying down there with it's head in the deep snow.

Now I'm figuring that I done shot a doe on the first day of antlered rifle season.

I figured that I got to be a man here and tag it and report myself to the game commission and take my licks.

When I grabbed the head to make the hole to attach the tag, well it was a nice 6 point buck.

It's hanging on my wall to this day.

That was the last dam time I ever hunted with that old Remington 721!

I was in high school (hmmm, heard this somewhere before) and like many times before, headed out with friends to shoot some pigeons at a feedlot. I was using my Dad's Browning B-2000 semi-auto (Browning's attempt at replacing the Auto 5). Shooting paper reloads.

Pidgeons were in the air, swinging on them, and BOOM! The shotgun hit the ground, I was dazed and didn't know what happened. The forearm was reduced to kindling, and the right side of the receiver was peeled back to the grip. Determined that (probably) the paper reloads were leaking BB's from not-quite closed crimps and upon the shot, either the 2nd round, or 3rd round, or both discharged in the reloading process from a loose BB.

No damage but to the gun, luckily.

Was in high school. Borrowed a friend's Winchester Model 94 in .32 Special. Hunted 1/2 day with no luck. Time to go home. Came out of woods near a widows house. She was outside getting firewood. I said Hi as I started to lever out the rounds when pointed at the ground when it went off. I never found out what happened. Never used a lever again just because of that incident. That was too bad as I always liked the feel of the Winchester line.

I remember another one...
Its not really a gun mistake but its a bb gun mistake...I'll tell you guys anyways.
So this back off a few years ago.
I was 15 and I was bein an idiot and shootin a bb gun in my bedroom. I was shootin cans and paper cups. I would pump it once and shoot.
I shot it about a total of 15 times when the 15th shot went through the can, bounced off of my desk and hit my about half an inch above my right eye.
Never again did I do such a stupid thing...

The second trip to the range with a Remington blackpowder repro back about 1972 I ran out of the Remington percussion caps I had been using and switched to some Italian caps that were very tight and made of very heavy duty metal. One of them misfired, so I dutifully waited, rotated the cylinder and snapped it again. Nothing. After waiting I pointed the gun down range and tried to pry off the cap with needlenose pliers. It went Kaboom of course and might have taken my left pinkie if I had had my hand out just a tad further. As it was I just got the benefit of the concussion on my hand but it sure hurt. Nobody else was on the range so I didn't have to explain why I was soaking my throbbing paw in a cold mud puddle. I sure felt lucky and stupid.

My experiences were never life threatening, but sometimes when I am bored I start to fiddle with my guns, and take them apart. Occasionally I will pop a pin out and a spring will fly across the room. I've done this on more than one occasion, and have spent countless hours scouring the carpet for lost pieces. Luckily I have always found them and always managed to place them back properly and all my guns work :)

that is pretty much my extent of firearm mishaps.

Thats what magnet brooms are for :D

So, what's the punch line - is she your wife today? Shall we call Tom Hanks & Meg Ryan to make the movie version?
Was she dressed like Ursula Andress in Dr. No? :p Or did she just run screaming from the bumbling moron?! :D

I think the last scenario might have been pretty accurate.....

i guess the dumbest thing i've done with a firearm is shot my car....... actually a possum was in my back yard going through my garbage can...... i got my .357 and went out to take care of him..... i guess he had noticed the movement from the house and hid for a bit...... so i moved the trash can out in to yard into the light from the window.... i thought i might see him better.... i was sittng on the step off the concrete patio an i saw a movement from the corner of my eye .. he had come right over to where i was sitting... i waited until he came into view around the step and popped him..... well the bullet went though him of course and bounced off the patio and ricochetted into my car door.... it was parked across the yard in the driveway..... thank god it hit my car and didn't go down the street and into someones window or something........ that was the last time i shot a bullet in town.... i got some speer shot capsules and loaded them with #2 shot for possums and other critters that come making trouble..... the bullet wasn't traveling fast enough to go through the door so i just left the dent there as a reminder.... the town cop did show and asked if had shot something an i said "yep a possum you want to see it?" he told me no he hated possums and drove off....... nice to live in a small town sometimes....................

Lending a firearm, or letting someone else load a mag.

It was my first deer season. I was borrowing a friend's nice old 6.5 Rem Mag. The woods we walk are pretty thick, so having grapevine or a root grab one's foot is fairly common. Well, something grabbed me, and down I went. Gun went with me, barrel first. Got the thing packed with mud, 2-3 inches down the barrel. Well, I knew enough to shoulder the gun and not attempt to use before it'd been cleaned and tested.

But, I forgot 2 minor details: the safety had been tripped, and I had not unloaded. I walked around a good 10-15 min. in the woods with my party with the safety off, round chambered, unknowingly. I never bothered to check. Not too bright. Luckily, nothing came of it. But I still hear about it from my buddy. Certainly a good, lucky reminder of how to more cautiously handle a gun.

Big DUH!

jonas

I saw a coyote outside the trailer house. I loaded a round real fast in the rem .222 bolt. The round went off and blowed a hole in the wifes chest of drawers.Q

Niner:

I have about the same problem but its in my workshop. I keep losing parts out of my hands when I am using the grinder or brush to polish or work parts. I have also spent endless amounts of time looking on my cellar floor. I have been lucky except one time when I lost the side hood of the front sight on my Enfield Mark 4. My wife found it last week. This is after I had to get a replacement from Numrich. She found it in a cellar corner under an old picture frame! Niner, you are lucky that your significant other lets you play with them upstairs. My wife is not anti gun, but is "no guns upstairs, they belong in the cellar" enforcer. After 39 years I am certainly not going to test her "resolve". It's funny because when I was still working as a LEO I could hang my gun belt, etc. in our bedroom closet. I did however lock my handgun and Mace in my locker with a pad lock.

I also remember my uncle John who was an avid hunter. When we went to visit him one Sunday when I was in high school my Dad saw a hole on the passenger side front fender of his 1954 Buick. When asked uncle John said he saw a deer while driving on a dirt road, got out the car, loaded his '06, leaned across his hood and sighted through his scope and pulled the trigger after getting a good "look see". Well after firing the deer ran off and he stood dumbfounded until he saw the hole in his fender!! No deer and hefty body job bill!!

hmmmmmm......well i was out hunting with me dad when i was about 14 15 and i have the same gun listed in my signature [this thing is no joke the reverb makes stuf shake from 20 ft away] and he had never let me shoot it becuz he thot i wud 'break somthing soooo i see a nice buck POW broke me shoulder becuz i was hugging the gun to tight my dad about died laughing then we went to the hospital now i never "hug" guns and i always make sure i have experince with them now i can shoot all 12 rounds without being sore boy that sure taught me a lesson

Niner:

I have about the same problem but its in my workshop. I keep losing parts out of my hands when I am using the grinder or brush to polish or work parts. I have also spent endless amounts of time looking on my cellar floor. I have been lucky except one time when I lost the side hood of the front sight on my Enfield Mark 4. My wife found it last week. This is after I had to get a replacement from Numrich. She found it in a cellar corner under an old picture frame! Niner, you are lucky that your significant other lets you play with them upstairs. My wife is not anti gun, but is "no guns upstairs, they belong in the cellar" enforcer. After 39 years I am certainly not going to test her "resolve". It's funny because when I was still working as a LEO I could hang my gun belt, etc. in our bedroom closet. I did however lock my handgun and Mace in my locker with a pad lock.

...and I thank God that my g/f's dad was into guns.
If he wasnt then I probably wouldnt be teachin her to shoot next month! :)

Niner:
Niner, you are lucky that your significant other lets you play with them upstairs. My wife is not anti gun, but is "no guns upstairs, they belong in the cellar" enforcer. After 39 years I am certainly not going to test her "resolve". It's funny because when I was still working as a LEO I could hang my gun belt, etc. in our bedroom closet. I did however lock my handgun and Mace in my locker with a pad lock.

it helps when your house only has one floor :o, though we both want a cellar/basement so we'll have a place to allow our fermentables to ferment :D

Whats the dumbest mistake that you've ever made while handling a firearm?


I bought some new Pachmayr grips for my S&W Model 66 that does home security duty. I got out the correct screwdriver and started to unload the revolver. I said to myself, "I'm only going to take out the grip screw and replace the grips; I won't bother to unload it."

Well, when I got the new grips in place, I just had to hold the gun and see how it felt. Then, I figured I'd better dry fire it once or twice to see if the new grips helped me keep my sights on the target during a double-action trigger pull.

I only "dry fired" it once. It made my ears ring. The Glaser blue tip went through an easy chair, through the metal shield on the baseboard heat (missed the water pipe) and into the wall. Just by luck, I WASN'T aiming it out my picture window, at the TV set or cat when I pulled the trigger.

I was so upset I almost threw up.

Be safe,
desmobob

After building a nice Ruger Security Six rifle, I decided to take it out to the range and test fire it wearig a Tee Shirt. Fireing off hand with one hand on the barrel isn't too comfortable, even with minimum cylinder gap. "Blisters lasted three days."

How about lessons learned the hard way?
1. Never hand someone a loaded weapon, even if you open the action and tell them it's loaded.
2. Never assume that the night stand gun still has the safety engaged the next morning. Safety was off resulting in hole in floor. I don't buy accidental discharge, knowing finger should not have been on the trigger, I should have turned on the lights to check the gun or double checked the safety in the dark.
3. Working the range, a shooter had a problem, and in my attempt to help, while insuring safety, I reached over their grip and discharged the firearm. Down range, but still could have been dangerous. Have them unload the gun and render safe BEFORE a second party gets involved.
4. Know your safety rules and don't be afraid to tell the "experts" or instructor if they violate any of the rules. We ended a class immediately when an instructor repeatedly swung the muzzle of his rifle at the crowd of students. "It's a muzzle loader" was not a good excuse.

Dumbest thing I ever did (this was before lead shot was banned for waterfoul hunting) was station myself across a stock pond from my brother while hunting ducks on the high desert of Wyoming. We were separated by a good 150 yards at least, but those lead #4's from his 16 gauge still stung like the dickens.