Rule #5....

[BrokenPaw]

...don't drop the fricking gun, BP!

So last night, I was on my way out the door to pick my wife up. I had my Beretta 96 on at 4 o'clock (BladeTech kydex IWB), chambered, hammer down, safety off. It didn't feel like it was sitting quite right on my hip; like it was not canting forward enough.

I reached down to re-adjust it, to cant it forward just a bit. I hooked my fingers under the grip, and applied a little pressure, and >flip< it leaps out of the holster and out of my hand, too.

Had one of those "oh :what:" moments. Time slowed down, and all I could do was watch the thing make a graceful arc across the room, turning in mid-air. It landed about 3 feet in front of me. The first part of the gun to hit the floor was the hammer. And it had rotated just enough, by that point, that the muzzle was pointed more or less right at my torso.

My 12-year-old daughter was standing right there, too. She heard the "thump", and said, "What was that?". Then she saw the Beretta on the floor, and she just said... "Oh". I felt like a bug.

Nothing happened, and time eventually got round to speeding back up, but the sheer amount of pucker I experienced in that less-than-one-second eternity will probably keep me jittery for about a week.

So. Now I add a 5th rule to the litany of other rules I remind myself of: "Maintain positive control of the weapon whenever you are touching it."

With an implicit, "you dumb-arse", attached.

:( I submit to judgement. What's my penance?

-BP, alive and uninjured, but embarrassed beyond rational belief.

[El Tejon]

Broken, glad you are O.K. I was unaware that Ol' Virginny had instituted drop test standards. Perhaps you are on the cutting edge?:D

Penance? Part of gun fu is making mistakes, but if you insist, how about 50 drawstrokes and mal drills every night for two weeks with eyes closed or blindfolded.

BTW, when I check seating I use my forefinger and driving finger to form an inverted "v". I come over the top of the pistol and down with the "v" to ensure pistol is seated and use my thumb to ensure the mag is seated (an inverted "crane claw"). Try it and see if it works for you. Part of your penance if you so choose.:)

[BrokenPaw]

Broken, glad you are O.K. I was unaware that Ol' Virginny had instituted drop test standards. Perhaps you are on the cutting edge? New this year in the Virginia Code: Title 18, Section 2162, Paragraph W, Item 467893: "No firearm shall be made available for sale in the Commonwealth unless a firearm of identical construction has been accidentally dropped on its hammer from a height of no less than three feet (36 inches) onto a carpet of dubious brown color, that really should be replaced with hardwood, but then the cats would constantly be having spin-outs on it, so we can't really legislate that, because watching cats skid around corners is really really funny and we're the legislature, after all, we must maintain some semblance of gravitas." There. Can VCDL get behind this law? :D

I'll try the "crane claw" thing. It sorta makes sense, but it never would have occured to me on my own...

-BP

[Pylon]

Broken Paw, haha i feel ya!

I had something like this happen to me yesterday. When i was in my garage before getting into my car, i was holstering my gun on handed. Not really thinking too hard about since i've done it a million times. Anyways, being super over confident i could it it, i somehow missed the holster (4'olock) when i tried to shove the gun in and continued by letting go of the gun.


Anyways, as you said Broken Paw, yes, time slowed down. I relaized the moment i let go fo the gun that i had missed the holster. I turned around just in time to see it take a 3 foot fall onto the muzzle of my Sig P228, loaded and chambered.

Even though i was confident of the drop safety, its still freaky ya know? No matter what gun it is. But anyways, the gun is scratch free. lol


-Pylon

[mattk]

If this happens to you, DO NOT I say again DO NOT try to catch your piece. The odds of it discharging are greatly enhanced when you start fumbling your hands all over the gun as it descends.

[Mal H]

Good rule, BP! Very glad nothing happened.

There is also an addition to that rule:

Rule 5a - If rule 5 is broken, by no means try to grab the gun in mid-air.



[added]
I was composing while mattk was posting the same advice. Great minds, and all that ... :)

[Brian Williams]

I submit to judgement. What's my penance?

Do 500 Draws from concealment and 1000 Dry fires.




She heard the "thump", and said, "What was that?". Then she saw the Beretta on the floor, and she just said... "Oh". I felt like a bug. At least you did not shoot your TV:banghead: I felt like I could walk under Whale crap with a top hat on.

[Correia]

Way back when I first got into handguns, I didn't even own a holster. I shoved a Ruger into my waistband, on the back, kind of where a SOB holster would ride. After a few minutes I felt something cold sliding down my pants, down my pant leg, and onto the ground. :p

Kind of pathetic as I think back.

[Smoke]

El T said:driving finger

I've been giggling about that for 5 full minutes. Never heard the term before. I like it.!

Smoke

[El Tejon]

driving finger, a.k.a. Hoosier turn signal.:D

[Erich]

#1 - BrokenPaw, For the last week+ I've been doing analyses of bills presently being put before our state legislature - your bill is wonderfully written.

#2 - El T: Hoosiers, believe it or not, are superb drivers (and most courteous!) compared to others I've seen in my travels. (Ah, the Hoosier Left-Hand Turn . . . who else would be so considerate?)

There is no New Mexican turn signal . . .

[dastardly-D]

Your rule # 5 had me confused a moment.I always thought rule # 5 was: Don't date nothing you can't lift.........

[WonderNine]

There Beretta has a firing pin block so it cannot discharge simply from being dropped even when the safety is off.

[Tamara]

What Mal H and mattk said.

A flying pistol is generally safe as long as the operating nut doesn't get tangled with it while in flight. :uhoh:

[orangeninja]

a newer model Beretta should not discharge just by being dropped. Most quality handguns have hammerblocks just for that reason. I have a similar story.

I was working armored with a true dumbas$$ one fine day who was wearing a duty rig for an automatic which he did not own as of yet. So he grabbed a company .38 special out of the vault and signed it out. He stuck the .38 in the automatic holster and merrily got onto the truck. The revolver was barely in the holster. At our first stop, as he was comming back to the truck the revolver fell out onto the ground. He laughed and got in the truck. Later that day as he got into the truck, it fell out again, right next to me. I was strapped in with no place to go. I watched it, in slow motion, bounce off the stell floor on its hammer while the muzzle was pointed point blank right at me. Less than 2 feet away. I crapped myself almost. He just laughed and stuffed it back into its holster. I chewed him out, he got pissed, we never worked together again.:scrutiny:

[BrokenPaw]

There Beretta has a firing pin block so it cannot discharge simply from being dropped even when the safety is off I know it does, and looking back in a rational way, now, I can be calm about the whole thing. But while the event was happening, the front half of my brain was busy saying, "Oh, darn"[0], and it was the lizard brain in the back of my skull was more or less convinced that the entire firing mechanism was lined up and ready to go when the thing hit the ground.

Drop safeties are very good things to have, for precisely such circumstances as I experienced. But I don't like the idea of having to rely on a safety, in case the thing fails once every 200,000,000 times, and I just happen to be the lucky loser... That's why I was all mad at myself; I shouldn't have allowed myself to get into the situation where I needed the drop safety to save my bacon.

-BP

[0] Or words to that effect