Worst "oops" you made with a firearm?

[leadcounsel]

Another instance - was trying a new CCW belt and holster and shorts combo carrying OWB. Went to the bathroom at my house. While standing there and unbuckling, the belt end slide out due to the weight of the gun, and I watched helplessly over the next nanosecond as the gun fell butt first and struck the floor and I could clearly see right down the barrel, which was pointing at my face when it smacked the floor. Thank GOD for Glock and drop safeties!

 

[Sgt_R]

Worst I ever did: In the classroom portion of M-16 training, I once attempted to insert a training magazine upside down. I don't think anyone else noticed, but I felt pretty stupid when I realized (and corrected) my mistake.

Worst I ever saw: when I was a teenager my older cousin (in his 20's) showed up at my house with a .380 that he'd picked up somewhere. While unloading it so he could show off his new toy, he had a ND in the middle of our living room. Fortunately it only took a chunk out of the brick fireplace, but it could easily have been a lot worse.

R

 

[jdub3]

I shot a hole in my parents living room wall, with my XD9sc, while they were out of town. It went through the wall into a back storage space and put holes in half the framed childhood art my sister and I had made over the years.
Just stupid and distracted and forgot I had a round in the chamber. The dog and my gf haven't let me live it down.

 

[killchain]

I bought my brand new Beretta 92FS and took it to the range with my buddies.

I field stripped it to lube it. When I dropped the slide at the firing line, I forgot to flip the securing latch and my slide, barrel, and spring slung off the lower and hit the dirt.

it was my one Mulligan.

 

[welldoya]

I've always been careful and I guess lucky but I have seen a few mishaps. Saw a friend shoot the floorboard of a Jeep Cherokee with a Win 94 30/30. I don't know how it happened.
A friend brought a newbie up to our hunting camp one weekend. He was in our house trailer and BOOM !, shot thru the wall with a 30/06. Again , I don't know how it happened.
Lastly, a friend of ours wanted to sight in his rifle so he laid it across the wall of the bed of another friend's new Dodge. Blew a hole in the opposite bed wall.
I don't hang out with these guys anymore.

 

[Rio Laxas]

Another one that I had....I was jumping a fence while surveying a property and misjudged the slope on the other side and started tumbling end over end. While in mid-tumble, my Glock 20 fell out of the holster and hit me in the head. Nothing wrong with the holster, but I had failed to check the tension screws every once in a while and they had loosened up on me.

 

[Hatterasguy]

Mistake 1: I bought my FN49, didn't really inspect it to carefully and took it to the range.

Mistake 2: I loaded with soft primer hunting ammo.:banghead:

Mistake 3: I loaded up the mag with 20 rounds.

It fired the first 3 or 4 ok, than decided to go full auto slamfiring the rest out! Yeah that wasn't fun.

Turns out the firing pin spring was shot.

Lesson learned, don't assume 60 year old rifles work!

 

[Buck Snort]

I don't want to talk about it.
It was just a stupid mistake and I need not ever make it again.

Aw now C'MON CoRoMo, it couldn't have been THAT bad, tell us about it (He, He)!

 

[Buck Snort]

My best mistake involved my first M1 Garand. It was in the 90's and the M1 was a korean import. The rifle was worn, dirty, and had an interesting rattle when it was shaken. I shot it without any problems. I decided to take off the gas cylinder to clean it and I saw that the threads for the gas cylinder lock were well worn with a lot of grit in the threads. I cleaned up the threads, tightened down the cylinder lock, and took it out shooting.

My first shot launched the gas cylinder about 20 yards down field. I figure that the grit on the thread acted as some kind of locking agent.

Talk about bad luck with that rifle. I eventually managed to buy a nice late 40's replacement barrel for that M1. I had it installed and one day I decided to use some Sweet's to take out the copper. 1st time I had ever used it. The patches were dark blue and I was able to remove a lot of copper. After the last patch with Sweet's, I ran 2 dry patches through the bore, then put it in the safe.

I got around to shooting the rifle about a month later. Glanced down the barrel and found bad pitting throughout the barrel. That's the day that I learned that you're supposed to run some additional wet patches thorugh a barrel to remove every bit of Sweet's.

I now keep that M1 at my parent's place. It's used for 'blastin stuff' but it's definitely not an accurate gun anymore. Too bad that replacement barrel was quite nice.


Will

Try some fire lapping rounds and see if that does not help just a bit.

 

[ozarkgunner]

Worst I've done was with my break barrel pellet gun. the safety is right in front of the trigger, and trigger shaped. When put is "safe" mode the safety sites in front of the trigger. I had just loaded it, shooting with the kids out back, I went to put the safety on not looking at what I was doing. POP! Since the trigger and safety are almost identicle, I pulled the trigger back instead of the safety.

Fortunately the barrel was pointed down, although right next to my foot.

 

[ArtP]

trying to let the hammer down on a chambered round with a 1911. Worst part? It happened in the house. Pointed safely though, if there is a such a thing in the house.

 

[damien]

Was not getting the accuracy out of a rifle that I expected at a public range. Swore a few choice words. Looked up and there was a sweet 10 year old or so girl in the next lane with her dad. Her dad was not amused.

Fortunately I haven't made any bad mistakes.

 

[jbkebert]

I took a fairly new shooter to the range along with his buddy and my two boys. We shot and had a grand ole time for a couple hours. When we where leaving the young man got out of his truck to ask me a question about his GP100. I took possession of the gun and worked the hammer back and forth a few times. I then pulled the trigger to see how DA was operating. Bang sucker handed me a hot weapon. Stupid me did not check the gun I was being handed. This young man was standing right beside me and my sons were in the truck right behind me. I guess at least I had it pointed in a safe direction. I powder burnt my hand and wrist the was way way in front of the cylinder. I didn't know wether to cry or kick his fanny or chew him out, or just be pissed at myself. Complacitcy kills I am a NRA cert firearms instructor and a hunter education instructor. If anyone should have checked the gun it should of been me. :banghead::banghead:

 

[Arkansas Paul]

Since everybody else is admitting screwups, I guess I'll join in. I've got two.

1. When I was about fifteen, I was climbing into a permanent treestand with my Revelation Model 200, (a Marlin 336 clone), with one in the pipe. Big no no. I was almost up to the top when I dropped it, straight down, butt first. It hit the ground with the barrel pointed straight up at me. Thank God for the lever action's half cock safety keeping the hammer off the firing pin.

2. A couple of years later, I had a Ruger MKII Target in my front pants pocket. I reached for it, and stupidly put my finger in the trigger gaurd. BANG! right in my pocket. I felt a burning sensation down my thigh and my heart nearly stopped from fear. I dropped my pants, expecting the worst, and was relieved to see only a three or four inch red line down the front of my leg.

These two instances were unexcusable and irresponsible. The good thing is, that both turned out much better than they could have, and they have made me the safety nut I am today. Now, I'm absolutely anal about it, to the point of pissing people off, but I don't care. I was given two freebies, and don't plan on tempting fate again.

 

[Nick5182]

I've got an NEF pardner single-shot 20 gauge and once while hunting, I tried to lower the hammer, and it slipped causing an AD. Following safe firearm handling rules, it was pointed at the ground, so nobody was hurt...a little startled, but not hurt.

By the way, I was 14 when this happened, and haven't had any other "oops"es (knock on wood).

 

[Quilbilly]

I carried for an entire day with the take down lever on my XD40 up. DOH!

 

[Nausea]

...Okay I'll get in on this one.
I was firing my uncles .44 mag out at his cabin, and for some reason, I wasn't wearing ear protection. (I should probably curse him out for this but I havent noticed anything permanent.) One round and I was disoriented and nauseous, (oh yeah I referenced my handle!) and, from the kneeling position, laid it on the ground and walked away.

 

[RockyMtnTactical]

I had my Makarov slide back (mag removed) and noticed a little carbon that I thought I would like cleaned up, so I took a piece of tissue on the end of my index/trigger finger and stuck it in there to clean it up and the slide closed... right on my finger... OUCH! That finger was useless for a week or two...

 

[CSballer89]

This involves a Pump-action BB gun.
When I was maybe 13 or 14 My brother and I had BB guns at our dads house at one point after shooting them we were inside the porch area and I was (stupidly) pointing what I thought was an unloaded gun at him (even his head at times) just being an ******* older brother. I even thought about pulling the trigger (just to do it, not to actually shoot at him) but didn't. as it turns out it was loaded as I pointed it at the door knob and pulled; resulting in a BB lodged right underneath the door knob. Obviously I practice MUCH safer handling skills of ANY gun and would never point any firearm loaded or not at someone I didn't intend to shoot.

 

[FirearmsEnthusiast]

Worst mistake I made was to let my brother handle my 1911's cocked without a slide during cleaning. He of course pulled the trigger and put a nice dent in the frame.

 

[WCSO]

About the biggest ooops I ever had and the dumbest thing I ever did with a gun was when I was about 15 years old. I had been hunting birds with a 16 ga single barrel shotgun and was carrying 2 doves in one hand and the shotgun in the other. I steped over a big rock and about 6 feet away was one of the biggest rattlesnakes I had ever seen, all coiled up and ready to strike. I was a farm boy and had worked hard all of my life and thought I was as strong as an ox. I figured I could fire at that snake using one hand in pistol grip fashion (after all it was only a 16 ga) and I wouldn't even have to put the birds down. So I cut loose using only one hand. Well it's a good thing I killed the snake with that one shot or it might have bitten me while I lay on the ground unconscious. That 16 ga light weight shot gun came up and nailed me right between the eyes. I didn't even know when I hit the ground or how long I laid there before I came to. The only two good things about the incident was that no one was around to see me pull my stupid stunt and it sure taught me a lot about respecting a firearm and how to handle them in the future. When I got home and my family wanted to know what happened to cause the cut and knot on my head I told them I fell over a rock. It was years before I ever told anyone the ture story about my great rattlesnake adventure.

 

[vaupet]

Once fired my marlin 30-30 from the bedroom window without any kind of hearing protection. Far from ideal. My wife in the next room wasn't pleased either.
Yes, stupid can hurt.

 

[like the salt]

This involves a BB gun. And beer. Me and two friends were hanging around outside and friend #1 is playing with an empty CO2 BB gun pistol. He pulls the trigger of the empty BB gun near friend #2 who squirms and says "careful with that thing". Friend #1 reassures us that said gun is empty.

To prove his point, friend #1 points the BB gun at my bicep point blank and pulls the trigger. After I say "ow!" I'm told that it's only air. I lift my sleeve and have blood dripping down. I say "thats some strong air".

The wisdom gained after a few too many beers made friend #1 still insist that the BB gun was unloaded. How does he decide to prove once and for all that it is indeed unloaded? Well, he sticks the gun in his pants and pulls the trigger point blank to his.... stuff. Yep. He freezes, his face turns bright red then he runs to the side of the house and vomits. He finally learned that the BB gun was loaded.

I still have a small round scar on my arm to this day. Don't know about his battle wounds... he doesn't like to talk about the incident. Needless to say that everyone takes safety much more seriously now, even if it is just a BB gun.

 

[youngda9]

^^ Friend #1 needs some common sense. WOW.

 

[Kingcreek]

I was sneaking along the front porch with a single shot .410 to do damage to a feral cat hunting under the birdfeeder. as I eased the hammer back my thumb slipped off half way and I shot a hole through the porch decking right in front of the front door. Worse thing was, Wife and some garden club ladies were due here at the house any minute on a member's garden tour. I found a piece of leftover decking in the barn and had it cut and mounted and was putting the tools away when the cars pulled in. Nobody has ever asked why all the decking is 12' except for the 4' piece in front of the door.