[redneck2]

So what's in inexcusable sin that you've committed to a fine (or not so fine) firearm???

Saw off the barrels of a fine Parker??? Home re-blue a 1st Generation Colt??

My worst...bulged the barrel of my Springfield loaded stainless. Still don't know how I did it, but something was in the barrel...so yours???

[marauder220]

Hmm...I've done several bad things to some rather good guns...here goes.
MANY years ago, I had a Colt Commander, series 80. Parkerizd gun, carried it IWB during a very hot summer. Came home and found the entire slide had rusted from my sweat. Got out the dremel, polishing wheel and compund and figured I'd de-rust the gun. Turns out I de-finished the gun and wound up with THE WORST looking 2-tone setup ever imaginable.
Next, a friend of mine gave me 100rnds of reload .45acp ammo and asked me to try them out and tell him what I though. About 40rnds into things, my P220 went BOOM. Cracked frame, extractor gone, and badly damaged slide. Figured I may have had a squib and didn't realize it, I continued firing the rounds thru a custom Springfield 1911. Hit the 90th round and the 1911 lost its ejector, extractor and locked shut. I didn't know much about firearms at this time in life, however i examined the brass and many of them were blown to hell. Asked my friend what he did, and he said he was trying to make factory ammo "better" by "modifying them". Basically he had no clue, I took his word on things and it cost me about $2,000 to learn the lesson about backyard reloads.
Last (and most recent) I have a two-tone P220, nickel plated slide, I carried it as an LE duty weapon until recently. About 2 years ago I was assisting a local boro with a house to house search and had my weapon out. I slipped on ice and braced myself against a brick wall. Braced myself with my gun\gun hand. After work I was putting my P220 in my off-duty rig and noticed I had ground the nickel plating off the side of the gun against the brick wall. Needless to say I was peeved bad, cost $75 to get it brought back to speed. Those are the best ones I can recall...:)

[iamkris]

Back in 1987 I was walking to go get the mail in my apartment complex late at night and tucked my beautiful MkI Belgian produced Browning HP in my waistband. Tripped on an uneven sidewalk and the pistol fell out and slid down the concrete sidewalk.

Picked it up and felt sick to my stomach. HUGE scrapes all down the side, scuffed front sight. I loved that pistol and could pick off a 12x12 steel plate at 75 yards consistently.

A good gunsmith I knew did an admirable job polishing out the DEEP scraps and rebluing a deep, lusterous blue but the rollmark was forever changed.

Being a poor, recent college grad, I sold that pistol in 1989 (for $300...idiot) and to this day regret that decision.

[willyjixx]

dropped my walther P99 while it was loaded. (coming out of the holster at the end of the day an it slipped.) talk about pucker factor no damage though.


i rolled a jeep cherokee on a dirt road an had a hell of a time cleaning NV desert sand out of my S&W915 an thrashed Moss 500.

by far the worst was splitting open the barrel on my Moss 500.
it was a 20inch bbl 12 ga. what a pain to get a new one.

[lee n. field]

I didn't know much about firearms at this time in life, however i examined the brass and many of them were blown to hell. Asked my friend what he did, and he said he was trying to make factory ammo "better" by "modifying them". Basically he had no clue, I took his word on things and it cost me about $2,000 to learn the lesson about backyard reloads.

I see reloaded ammo for sale at auctions sometimes. This is one good reason I won't touch it. My own stuff I trust, Bubba's reloads, not.

[Snowdog]

My mistake was believing Pyrodex was without corrosive properties and neglecting to clean a dirty firearm in a reasonable amount of time.

My first BP rifle, a nice Hawkins-style .50cal was rusted so horrendously after letting it languish dirty in its case for nearly a week that I gave it away in disgust.
This experience did permanently overhaul my shooting/cleaning habits for the better though, assuming there's a silver lining.

[cracked butt]

I have an m44 Mosin nagant that I bought fro really cheap. It shot patterns wider than a cylinder bore shotgun. There was almost no rifling at the crown so I tried a home counterboring job. I used a power drill for this and I had to drill about 1/2" to get some good rifling. I tookmy time and drilled really straight, but on the last little bit I wanted to remove, the drill bit seized up, the rifle spun in my hand and the front sight tore my hand open. I pulled the drill out and found that the new bore became oblong and the muzzle was fubar.

Oh well, cheap lesson learned, I'll never attempt it with an expensive rifle.:o

[TheOtherOne]

On my first Romanian AK, I tack welded the hand guard to the barrel after I busted the pin that usually holds it. It was a quicker solution then waiting for a pin to be ordered in... but I won't be getting it back off again. :)

http://u.cc.utah.edu/~gmj06b50/Guns/AKPainting-XX-Oops.jpg
http://u.cc.utah.edu/~gmj06b50/Guns/AKPainting-XX-OopsWeld.jpg

[CZ-100]

Please help me I am a sick, demented and delusional individual...



and IM ashamed to say that I....


once sold a gun:neener:

[goalie]

I lost my M16 during the first gulf war. To this day I think that the helicopter crew that flew me out kept it, but who knows.

[Moparmike]

Dropped my freshly refinished Mauser on gravel.:eek:

Made a ding. I dont know if I want to remove it though. *shrug*

[MagKnightX]

I once took the trigger pack out of my 10/22 to clean it. I played with it a bit (cocking the hammer and pulling the trigger), when suddenly, parts flew EVERYWHERE. It took me a couple hours, a long look at the instruction manual, and a lot of work with probes (read: fine screwdrivers) to put it back together. It fires fine now, though.

Over the years with our little charter arms .22 revolver, my family has always pulled on the ejection rod to open it, never on the lever on the side of the reciever. Somehow, sometime, the little lever just stopped working and now the only way to use it is to pull the ejection rod.

Though not an actual firearm, I did something or other to my paintball gun (I don't know what) so that when a gas cartridge is put in, it discharges all the gas at once.

[Jack19]

Sold it.

[Browns Fan]

What Jack19 said, Ive sold/traded guns that I wish I hadn't. :(

[wingnutx]

I kept my Sig in between the mattress and frame of my waterbed, and it got leaked on and rusted a bit :|

[FPrice]

"So what's in inexcusable sin that you've committed to a fine (or not so fine) firearm???"

I let my first wife take a 1943 Remington-Rand 1911A1 in the divorce.

:banghead:

[standingbear]

took a ruger mk2 pistol to the gunshop to have the receiver tapped because i had tried different mounts and couldnt find one just right so i had it tapped.apparantly,the guy tapping it didnt use the right tools because the mount was now at an angle and the smiling guy said.."its the best i could do,its close".so i pay a different guy to fill in the boogered holes and refinish it.nice..black receiver with nice silvery solder smeared all over the top.ended up sending it back to ruger,looked great.but the color looked purplish now and a black barrel.flat out wanted to throw it in the lake.sold it for 100 bucks and got another with the holes already there(the slabside). on a beautiful antique rifle-blew the barrel in half from a gunsmiths reloads.was an old ballard/williams patent gunhanded down from a deceased relative.octagon barrel,beautiful wood.smith said he could make some light reloads for it and it was safe.instant trash.i personally ruined a gun,was a 44 cap/ball revolver.one of those 35 dollar kits sears used to sell.didnt seal the cylinder nuff and had a chainfire.threw it barrel forward the second it started and hot footed it behind a ditch.not much left.threw it in a hollow tree trunk on my way back to the car in disgust.

[Sisco]

When I was in High School I sanded all those silly stamp marks off my Dads M1 Carbine stock and refinished it for him.
Couldn't find anything to use for a stain so I used brown shoe polish. Actually, the shoe polish looks pretty good and has held up real well.

[Hot brass]

Ruger Red Label 12ga in pawn shop called to me to take it home, I did not:banghead:

[ExpatGator]

I had the misfortune of being the first person that a responding police patrol team saw upon their arrival at the front exit of my friends family's restaurant that was being burgled. I was armed with a .44 Ruger semi rifle. Small town dispatcher neglected to inform the two officers of my whereabouts so the friendly officers pointed their weapons (later determined to be a .357 and a 12 ga.) at me while demanding that I disarm. I promptly and carefully complied with their instructions while concentrating on controlling my bladder. After being allowed to stand back up and wipe the dirt out from between my lips and the boot print from the back of my neck, I was shocked to see my friends father, the restaurant owner, drive swiftly into the gravel parking lot and run right the HECK over the shiny new Ruger. The gun was trashed but still functioned. I on the other hand was not trashed, but was changed in other ways, mainly in that I would always, after that incident, try to look ahead and figure out how a situation would develop and what my best course of action would be.

[Horsesense]

Leaned my dads .22 Speed Master against a truck. It fell in the gravel driveway and split a chunk of wood from the foreend. I bought it, fixed it and made a holster for it, for my dirt bike. It worked fine except a bolt on the shock rubbed threw the holster and wore a deep grove into the receiver. Fixed it again and used a cheep do it your self-rebluing kit, it looked good for about a year but the finish didn’t hold up. I ended up painting it black; it looked good and lasted for years. I over lubed it and shot about a thousand rounds in it, until the spring fell out of the extractor, because the grit had worn a hole in the bolt. I made a new spring that lasted many years (it's still working) I decided to repaint after doing a detailed strip, clean, two cotes of paint and reassembling …I discovered that I was using baby blue paint that looked black under florescent light. That gun was a tack driver and served we well from 12 years old and up. I'm glad I got all that out of my system while I was a kid.

[Psssniper]

Tried my hand at gunsmithing. I wanted to tighten the slide on a Colt officers stainless, so I took a hammer and started "tightening" that 'ol slide.
Ended up breaking off the left rear corner of the slide! Gun still works but....... Dohhhhhhh!!!! what an idiot I am

[Zundfolge]

I sold one :(

[cool45auto]

One word...toilet. Let's just leave it at that.:uhoh:

[Preacherman]

In my younger and (more) foolish days, I bought a Remington Rand 1911A1 (1942 or '43 production) and had it customised into a carry gun... great carry gun, but ruined the collector value. (Admittedly, at the time - early '80's, in South Africa - there WAS no collector value, and these guns were selling dirt cheap. However, if I had it here, now, it would be worth bucks in its original condition...)

Also in my younger and (more) foolish days, I learned the hard way that when you clean a gun, you need to keep count of the patches that go into the gun, so as to make sure that the same number come out! I ended up a cleaning session by swabbing a .270 rifle barrel with an oiled patch, then used two dry patches to soak up any excess oil. Unfortunately ( :rolleyes: ) I didn't check to see that the last patch came out... When I next fired the rifle, I blew up the barrel about 6" from the muzzle! Very scary and sobering moment... Fortunately, I wasn't injured at all, but I've learned since then to religiously count my patches!

[Preacherman]

Cool9mm - toilet? See this thread (http://www.thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=136430) on our predecessor forum, The Firing Line.

:D

[sm]

In my younger days :uhoh: learning about the shotgun and shells, I did "load testing". I used old single shot shotguns purchased cheap...I mounted in a tire with a pull rope. Well my testing didn't begin with used ones...umm, I blew up a brand new H&R Topper, I mean the bbl went and wood separated from stock...even cracked receiver!

I did find a great Goose load tho' after I backed off a bit...ok, maybe more than a bit. ;)

H&R bbl became a cheater bar. The rest became wall hanger art.

[12 Volt Man]

Worst thing I did to a gun. 3 guns actually, when I first got married I had 3 matching Ruger 6 shooters, all stainless. A single six, a 357, and Vaquero 44 magnum. Finances got tight and I pawned them to pay the rent. Never got them back.
Oh to go back in time :mad:

[Orthonym]

My sweetie drove down here and "kidnapped" me to visit her at her place in GA, back in March. I took the revolver with me, but didn't trust the aged Daddy, or any burglars who might happen by, with the Star PD, so I took it apart and hid the barrel. (Maybe, in the garage somewhere?)


Well, a one-week trip turned into a one-month trip, mostly because we both caught some kind of horrible flu or something. It was bad. At one point I was running at about 105 degrees F and talking funny. Sweetie had to drag me to the bathtub and submerge me in cold water.


I think it's true what some people say, that every time you get the flu, a little bit of your brain dies. (Some kind of auto-immune thing or something?)
For whatever reason, I CAN'T remember where I put the barrel! Sometimes, late at night, when having trouble sleeping anyway, I think of that hollow piece of steel just rusting away and providing a comfy habitat for a black widow spider, or a fly pupa, or something. Double Aaargh!

[oogee]

I did something bad to a gun a BIG gun, it was during my first year in the army during a driving course. I was driving a M109 155MM cannon (israeli "DOHER")at night using night vision. some iidot accidently shot a flare outside and the night vision was blinded ... we ended up in a ditch with the cannon it self stuck in rock. terminal daaaammaaaaage


that was the end of the barrel.

[griz]

I left one in the safe for a while. It never saw the light of day for over two years. Poor little thing was so nervous it was shaking the first time I went to shoot it.:o

[stevelyn]

Attempted a one-step cleaning and lubing w/ WD-40.:uhoh:

[Kevlarman]

I was being stupid one day and was firing my 50lb draw crossbow at a target inside my closet. The bolt went through the shoebox and newspaper and stopped when it hit the stock of my Winchester 190. Left a small ding, and is still the only blemish on the wood.

[semf]

I sold a Ruger Bisley Blackhawk .44 mag to help pay for my first wedding (small affair, we was poor).
Some guy got a fine firearm, I got a wife. Damn stupid trade
I bet he still has the gun.

[einnor1040]

I cut the lanyard ring off of my S & W model 1917 so I could put a Hogue grip on it. Those stock grips suck.

[Labinnac]

I plan to drop test a perfectly good M240B next week!

It'll be done many times from a height of 1.5m onto nice hard concrete!

I get paid to do this, WOOT!

[DorGunR]

Worst thing you've ever done to a gun???

Sold it!:(

[Bainx]

einnor1040--
you don't have to believe this but, just today at lunch, I was talking with some buds about changing the grip on my Colt 1917. If it involves removing the lanyard ring in a destructive manner, I may have to think it over.
I agree, those stock grips suck.

[bogie]

I used to clean perfectly good rifle barrels using those screw together aluminum rods. Boy, was I stupid.

[Gunhamr]

Sold a 73 Win. in about 80% condition for $15.00.

Back in 1946 that was all it was worth. I hate to
think what it would bring now!

[Ivanimal]

I took apart a ruger MKII- 22 pistol and could not get it back in firing order. I sent it back to Ruger and they sent iback working.

Five years later................you guessed it.:banghead:

My eight year old could probably do it right.

[Pappy John]

Tried bedding a .22 magnum Marlin bolt action rifle using PC7 epoxy with Pam cooking spray as a release agent. Split the stock trying to get the dang thing back apart.:cuss: What an idiot! It DID shoot really tight groups just before I destroyed it. I should have just left it be.:rolleyes:

[WAGCEVP]

left them locked in a safe and unfired :(

[Mike Irwin]

Repeatedly threw a Charter Arms revolver out of my second floor office window onto my concrete patio to prove the point that revolvers won't immediately shatter into a billion pieces if dropped 0.5 mm or farther...

Read about it here...

http://thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=72856&highlight=charter+arms+patio

[P95Carry]

Actually ASSUMING that an Ivor Johnson, top break .... in 32 S&W ..... would actually work.

It didn't!!:p

Top strap lock-up failed miserably and after one shot it was open and ...... I gave up!!:D

[Edward429451]

Hmmm, this thread brings back memories. (bad)
Lessee, I had a pristine 870 fly out of my hands and skate down a frozen slope (unchambered) when I slipped on the ice, scarring it horribly, still worked.

I accidently touched off a 40 S&W in my Colt 45, no damage.

I accidently left a 22 auto nine wrapped in a rag in the floor of a convertable in a coffee can and it rained, rusting the slide. No biggie POS.

I drop tested a combat commander with a primed empty case in it by rolling it across the carpeted living room floor about a dozen times. Cocked & un locked, never dropped the hammer, still functioned fine.

I am not a gunsmith attempted repair on friends old POS H&R 32. Manufactured replacement part from garage junk angle bracket with file and drill and stone...It Worked! Possibly making it more dangerous than before.;) (Last I heard, still running!)

Over the years with our little charter arms .22 revolver, my family has always pulled on the ejection rod to open it, never on the lever on the side of the reciever. Somehow, sometime, the little lever just stopped working and now the only way to use it is to pull the ejection rod.

My Charter Arms Bulldog is the same way now. Whats up with that I wonder?