Learning from your mistakes. Your biggest OOPS moments.

[loaf_fan]

Could have shot my dog.

I own 30 guns and am generally very safe as I grew up knowing the 4 rules intimately. However, the other day I made an OOPS. I was out shooting my bb gun for practice. I had my dog out with me and I thought for sure she was safely away from my homemade shooting range. After I was done shooting. I called for her and she didn't answer/come. I initally thought that she had ran after a rabbit or something. So calling her I started hunting her down. Didn't find her. Then I thought "Oh dear, what if she got across my range in some of that tall grass, and I've shot her dead? It's a bb gun, but I've killed rabbits with it, I could have gotten her." So I go down range and I'm searching thinking the worst. When out of the corner of my eye I see her dart across where I started shooting from. Relieved, but learned a good lesson.
Know where your gun is pointed and that it's always loaded is a good thing. But if you don't know what it could be pointing at when you're firing, it can be just as bad. Know where people, animals, etc... are when shooting any kind of gun.

 

[colemanw]

A few years ago I bought a used 80 series Gold Cup... went to the range behind the gun shop to run a few mags... well, on shot seven I had a hang fire... at the time i thought i had finished the clip, as i turned the pistol to eject the mag the bullet fired leaving a nice .45 caliber hole in the roof... lucking I was the only one in the range to the embarrassment was kept to a minimum...

 

[ultradoc]

At an auction a rifle was left loaded.

 

[Just One Shot]

I was 15 or 16 and rabbit hunting with 2 other guys. We came upon an old rest area and decided to take a break. I went and relieved myself and when I came back to my all chrome single shot 16 ga. I noticed there was mud in the muzzle end of the barrel. To this day I don't know how it got there.

I took a long stick and pushed it out from the chamber side and removed it all but a very thin layer of moisture on the bottom. I said I was done for the day but my companions said it was okay, it wouldn't hurt anything to shoot it with the minute amount that was left.

I was reluctant but they persisted and set up 3 old cans they found in a piramid so we could do some target practice (we weren't having a good day as far as rabbits went).

I loaded a round, aimed and pulled the trigger. I saw a shinny object shoot straight up and noticed that the top can slowly teetered then fell over leaving both the other cans standing. I knew my aim was dead on as I was only standing about 10' from the cans.

My 2 friends were laughing at how bad a shot I was until I pulled the barrel up and noticed it had split right through the front sight and extended about an inch straight back.

The shinning object was the front sight being propelled skyward from the force of the blast. I was very lucky that day and learned a lesson, not only about firearms but also about peer pressure.

The good news is, I took a pipe cutter and removed the damaged portion of the barrel and used a rat tail file to remove the ridge left in the muzzle essentially going from a full choke to what I would call a modified.

From that day forward I can't recall ever missing another rabbit with that gun. It was a great shooter before the incident and just as good afterward. I now praise God for His protection in my times of stupidity!

 

[Southern Rebel]

Remember my brother in basic training and a good ole' boy from Georgia. They were lined up facing forward when the drill instructor yells "Right Face" - the only problem was the Georgia guy did a Left Face and hit my brother right between the eyebrows with the bayonet. If the guns had been loaded, there would have been one less good ole' boy from Georgia!

Same brother - Both of us teenagers and parents gone shopping. He decides to get the .22 out to clean it. I was sitting on the floor watching TV and wasn't paying any attention to him. All of a sudden, I hear a gunshot and turn around. He is whiter than a ghost and shaking. He said, "You don't know how lucky we both are. I have been aiming this rifle all around the room and just before I aimed at the picture on the wall that I just shot, I had been aiming at the TV AND the back of your head." From that day on, I managed to find some other place to be anytime he planned to handle any guns.

 

[GregZ]

my biggest boo boo

I guess I was about 16 visiting my dad on the farm. I told him I as going out back to shoot his High Standard .22. Now I knew the rule "all guns are loaded until proven otherwise". Any how I reached up on the fridge where he had it, pointed it at the floor, jacked the slide back to see if it was loaded, and BANG!!!! I shot a hole in the kitchen floor next to my friends foot. Needless to say I have never made that mistake again.

 

[snakeman]

Make sure and use the primer listed in your manual. I nearly blew up my cz 221 fireball because I used small rifle primers instead of small rifle benchrest primers. OOOPS!

 

[Stirling XD]

This didn’t happen to me, it happened to my dad when he was about 12 to 14. A friend of his from church came home with him for the afternoon. Living on a ranch, my dad was pretty familiar with guns and the discipline and responsibility that went with them. He and his friend had had talked about guns on several occasions and the friend said he “knew all about them”. As soon as they walked in the door, the friend runs back to my dad’s room and my dad follows. When my dad walked in the door of his room, he was looking straight down the barrel of his .22 rifle. Before he could say anything he heard “click”. This kid had aimed right between his eyes and pulled the trigger.

My dad grabbed the gun out of his hands and chewed him out good. Dad knew there was no way he had time to check if the gun was loaded (like that would have made it OK). He just picked it up, pointed and pulled the trigger. Dad said the only thing the friend said in his own defense was, “But you’re not supposed to keep a loaded gun in the house”. But for the grace of God…

 

[A-FIXER]

Well at my age and married over 30 yrs I would say its this..... look what I bought for me today, .... instead of saying look what I bought for you to practice with.... but it's not like if I want it I get it. But give her yet another chance to be with me for the nights we go out and I'm not working and working and working...she says.

 

[scott5]

Hello all,
Back in the early 70's one block away from where my family and I used to live
we heard a loud noise late one night. latter we heard sirens and flashing cherries.
Some of my friends and I went over to investigate and found a police officer with a water hose washing something from the gutter of the homeowners house to woods a half a block away.

The story goes that the man of the house had just come back from shotgunning and was pulling a shotgun from the bed of his PU by the barrel, and forgot to unload it, and the trigger cought on some junk in the bed.

It's not hard to imagine what a 12 guage can do at point blank range to the upper-stomack, lower-chest.

 

[eagleno49]

One time my buddy and I were shooting at this old propane tank that had the nozzle removed. I shot it with my .50 black powder pistol and that huge chunk of lead came back and hit my friend in the ankle. It didn't hurt him but it sure scared him.

 

[colemanw]

the spookiest was a few years back in college, I had started dating a gal and one night she asked to see my revolver. I went into the bedroom unloaded it and brought it out to her. the first thing she did was squeeze the trigger three times with it pointing right at me... (brownstain)

that relationship didn't last too long-

 

[jbkebert]

When I was 19 I was at a gun shop looking at the best looking M-1 Garand I had ever laid eyes on. So like any dummy with plastic money I told the owner that I would take it. The gent said sure but you do know it is for presentation only. Yeah right I thought so while he was getting a box for me to take it home in I picked up a couple boxes of shells and went back to the counter to pay. The shop owner cursed me for a moron and said you dumb### this thing is tapped. I told you it was a presentation rifle you know for parades and such. I hung my head in shame and sulked out the door to embarrased to even speak.

 

[Flea]

Not me, but a family member:

A distant cousin of mine was a rookie police officer, married about 3 years with a baby. On Halloween night, he was sitting in the living room of his house, cleaning his service pistol while watching TV. His wife came in and chastised him for doing so with Trick-or-Treaters coming to the door every few minutes. He responded by telling her the gun wasn't loaded, put it to his temple and proceeded to paint his living room walls with brain matter.

Needless to say: make sure it's not loaded, don't EVER point at something you don't intend to shoot, and DON'T let yourself be distracted while cleaning/assembling a weapon.

 

[ScotZ]

My father and I were going to test out a muzzle loader that he built. I was about 9 years old, I am 49 now. We got out in the woods and he preached safety,safety,safety. He then strapped the gun to a nice sturdy tree. Again preached safety,safety,safety especially when you are taking the first shot out of a home made muzzle loader. Blah blah blah.. He then proceeded to fire the ramrod straight into a tree about twenty yards from our test sight. It stuck "unbroken" out of the tree about 12 inches We laughed about that lesson until the day he died. I will never forget it.

 

[Trustin]

was training with my race pistol (custom 1911 in .38 super) with my dad on the AF training range. I was about 12 at the time we were using the open top building adjacent to the enclosed building.

"ARYEW REDAY.. STANBY"

*BEEP* I draw with precision, pull the trigger and... nothing. this was so bewildering I tip the gun back and point the muzzle at about 75 degrees. ONLY THEN did i re-set my grip (engaging the grip safety I had not contacted when i drew so "precisely" )

I ND'd into the open air on the grounds of an Air Force installation no more than 500 yards from the main runway. Pops quickly snagged my gun, cleared it then we cleared out of there and had a lecture for the ages on the way home.

haven't had an accident since, only because I'm always watching for that accident to happen now. before that, I was typically invincible.

 

[John828]

I was ten or eleven. My dad had purchased a little Davidson (Not sure of the brand???) .25 pocket pistol for my mom. They were divorced and she was receiving some bad phone calls. Anyway, as time passes, the phone calls go away and my mom gives the gun back to my dad.

Over at dad's one weekend, dad downstairs and me upstairs, I find the gun. I had ZERO experience with pistols but managed to remove the magazine. I thought it was "unloaded" after removing the mag. I am pointing this gun in every imaginable direction including my head. I decide to pull the trigger. I had enough doubt or sense to hold the gun pointed into the mattress.

Remember the "Bedsheet thread" well, even a .25 penetrates a bedsheet. Scared me, scared my dad and step-mom. Taught me some very deeply ingrained lessons.

 

[jpatterson]

Slide finger-pinch a few times, among others. Almost dropped a Desert Eagle when I fired it because my friggin' hands are so small!

 

[Deus Machina]

Thankfully no ND's so far.

The local shop/range has the 'no loaded guns inside' policy, and a fairly well-hidden parking lot. So I'll clear it in the car before I go in.

drop magazine, grip with thumb and finger from behind, rack to clear chamber, check, release.

Forget to disengage decocker, which leaves hammer cocked until slide is shut, leaving thumb in the path of the bobbed and sharply checkered hammer, fillet skin off and remove small chunk of flesh from middle of thumb.

Bleed, curse, bandage, proceed to shoot at the range anyway.

Fire Mosin-Nagant. Feel more pain. Revert to bleeding, repeat previous step.

 

[novaDAK]

Dumbest thing I did was making it all the way to the range, set up my target, only to realize that I had foolishly locked the hard gun case my pistol was in, and left my keys at home (didn't take my vehicle). Luckly there were a few other guns for me to shoot so I didn't feel too bad. I don't lock gun cases anymore either

 

[lukepriebe]

When I was 16 I was going hunting with my 12 ga. Went to let the hammer forward as I left the yard and it slipped and put a nice hole in the soffet of the garage. Thankfully we were getting ready to tear down that garage.

We took some friends to the local range and I was showing one how to load my Marlin 30-30. He was firing downrange and I was helping his brother when the ground exploded about 2 feet in front of me. He had decided to load it himself (behind the shooters) and the trigger slipped. He didn't shoot the rest of the day.

 

[Hungry Seagull]

Embarrased to say, my first shoot at the range... it was full of shooters banging away with a variety of weapons.

When it was time to go, we got into a rush and I trotted over from the firing line to the table at the back wall with the muzzle waving towards... but not directly at some folks.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw one person eyeball me and reach towards his holster and I froze. I knew exactly what I had done wrong and stuck that muzzle to the sky.

Lesson: Slow down, do things easy does it and watch that durn muzzle!

Second mistake... open the first door and then the armored door without closing first door. Large rifle fired and the boom just about blew me out back into the waiting/check in area.

Close one door, then open the armor door!

Small stupid mistakes, really stupid little mistakes.

I saved the third for myself. here goes.

Happily loading a weapon upside down on the firing line. This was the moss. Every time a shell went into the magazine tube the gun would sort of scoot from the force of putting the shell into the thing.

Flipping the gun upright preparing to load into chamber, that bright red dot froze me.

Mistakes? sure. But man.... gotta do better next time, every time.

Im believing it aint the weapons, it's the people that handle them.

I aint too humble, but dont mind sharing these little boo boos with others. I hope that perhaps some will not make these mistakes in future.

And lastly, watch your step when range is busy and little, big and medium brass is flying everywhere.... it wont be fun to fall onto your heiney carrying weapons....slipping on that ice, ugh, brass..

 

[theotherwaldo]

When I was about five, Dad and his brother took me to the house of a friend of his. Dad was there to see about buying his friend's old home property. I was ignored after about five minutes and promptly started exploring.

The old house was built on a slope, so I could walk under the front part easily. There was a lot of junk down there, so I was having fun for quite a while. Then I looked up.

There was this HUGE gun, hanging on a beam by a couple of nails! I fumble around and finally pull it down, then drag it out to show Dad. The gun was longer than I was, and felt almost as heavy. I finally get it out just as Uncle Chubby comes around the house. He spots the gun, grabs it, chews me out, and goes back to the discussion about buying the property. I go back to exploring.

About a half-hour later I hear a loud BOOM and a lot of screaming. Chubby had been walking around the place with that old fowling piece riding on the toe of his shoe and it went off.

He lost his big toe to the first joint and had infections all over his foot from the junk in the barrel that peppered his foot. He almost lost his leg.

I learned that guns are always loaded unless proven otherwise.

Just like Uncle Chubby.

 

[coosbaycreep]

Several years ago there was a giant sized feral cat that had rabies or something that was coming around our house and beating up our other cats, so I decided to shoot it.

It was standing in our driveway next to my dad's truck one day, so I went and got a .22. Unfortunately, I'm pretty much tied with Don Knotts for the title of being the shakiest gun in the west, and I managed to completely miss the cat and shoot a hole in the tire instead. It ended up costing me $150, and the cat lived fight another day.

 

[nyggis]

During an exercise in my days in the Swedish army we were practicing taking some high ground for an ambush with live ammo. To stay unnoticed we were crawling/slithering as low as possible between small trees, brush and grass...

The guy at the extreme right was crawling with his FN-FNC 5.56mm rifle resting between his elbows pointing left towards the rest of my group. When we reached the summit we noticed that his rifle was on full automatic the whole time. One little twig inside the trigger guard and...

We chewed his a$$ off!