Stupid moments of handgun ownership

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Drgong

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what was the stupid thing you done with handguns (and hopefully, not AD!)

Mine was shooting revolvers for six months before finding out that most revolvers can quickly dump the spent ammo by pressing down on the ejector rod ... :banghead:
 
When I was, about, eleven years old I learned that it is NOT a good idea to take your uncle's 1911-A1 completely apart (everything!) and, then, expect to have it all correctly back together, again, by the time he returns home from work.

Nope, not a good idea at all! :p
 
The trades I made of various handguns. I wish I would've just kept them, saved my money, and bought whatever I wanted next. First was a Beretta 92F. Traded for a Glock 21C. Traded that for a Glock 35. Sold that, and bought a Sig P226R .40. Sold that and bought a Glock 19. Hundreds of dollars circling the drain :( About the only one I bought outright was the original Beretta and my Kimber Stainless II.
 
Hahaha, not completely handgun but a couple of days ago I put a nice little holographic sight on my revolver. First one I had ever seen in person. I put it on backwards!! Was just about to take it back as defective when I happened to look in the correct side and saw the ring. Boy that would have gone over big at the gun shop!!

When I was a kid I had no idea how a revolver was loaded. I thought the bullet shaped flutes on the outside of the cylinder had something to do with it, but still wondered why they were backwards.
 
Mine was buying a Beretta Tomcat for the wife. That didn't work out too well (a mere 66 rounds), but it didn't last long, either.
 
I took the grips of a Super Blackhawk in order to fix the screws that hold the butt to the frame and never put the pin in the hole before taking it apart. Had to have a guy from Georgia phone me in the middle of the night and explain how you got that spring back in the gun. Pretty easy once you have it explained to you right.
 
One embarrassing moment. Keep in mind that my mother knows nothing about guns - caliber, action types, names, nothing. She had one rule, no guns in the living room, but otherwise didn't ever look at a gun or think about them.

On a visit to my parents' home, and before my father and I left for the range, I asked if I could borrow his 4" S&W Model 17 for a few weeks. Not a big deal, we often borrowed guns, and in fact I had bought it for him a few years earlier.

So there we were at the lunch table and before my father could say a word my mother looked up from her plate and said, "You borrowed that the last time you were here."

Oops.

John
 
The first gun I ever purchased, and the first semi-auto I'd ever fired was a S&W 469 9mm semi-auto,
I went to the range, used what I thought to be the proper 2 handed grip, and proceeded to remove a chunk from my thumb as the slide rocked from the first shot.
Haven't had that problem since.
 
Buying a gun on impulse when I couldn't afford it. Causes a fella to worry about how to pay the bills and sucks some of the fun outta the room.

tipoc
 
One embarrassing moment. Keep in mind that my mother knows nothing about guns - caliber, action types, names, nothing. She had one rule, no guns in the living room, but otherwise didn't ever look at a gun or think about them.

On a visit to my parents' home, and before my father and I left for the range, I asked if I could borrow his 4" S&W Model 17 for a few weeks. Not a big deal, we often borrowed guns, and in fact I had bought it for him a few years earlier.

So there we were at the lunch table and before my father could say a word my mother looked up from her plate and said, "You borrowed that the last time you were here."

Oops.

John

I don't get it?
 
The first gun I ever purchased, and the first semi-auto I'd ever fired was a S&W 469 9mm semi-auto,
I went to the range, used what I thought to be the proper 2 handed grip, and proceeded to remove a chunk from my thumb as the slide rocked from the first shot.
Haven't had that problem since.

Ouch, I did that with my BHP the first time I fired it. Was bleeding all over the place.
 
Buying a gun on impulse when I couldn't afford it. Causes a fella to worry about how to pay the bills and sucks some of the fun outta the room.

I have done that on more than one occasion.
 
This one is kinda off but gun related.
I shoot at a local outdoor range where you supply your target holder,and mine was shot in half by my mom before i could even shoot at it.No biggy i use some tape and put it back together.
In recent trips back to the range i still use that same target,too lazy to make a better one i suppose.But my last trip to a crowded range that was almost full my target holder kept getting blowed over by a good breeze.After my 3rd attempt to get it to stay up i swore to everyone id never ask for another cease fire and id go home.
 
I reassembled a Ruger Mark III and cycled the action a few times for a function check - forgot the grips were off and as a result the hammer pin worked loose. Complete disassembly and another reassembly to correct it.
 
B

I will have to second the stupid trade option~! :eek:

NIB S&W Texas Ranger Set (gun and knife) in mahogany box, for a NIB
Ruger M-77R in .338 Win Mag; 4 NIB Colt Python's, for I can't tell you
what? Also, 4 NIB Remington 700 BDL's (.22-250, .243, .25-06, and 7mm
mag) for cash; due too lack of work. Also, falling into this same category
was a NIB 5" Smith & Wesson factory nickel model 27-2~! :banghead:
 
a few weeks back. got a new to me S&W 22A and decided to sit outside in the nice weather and take it apart for the first time and clean it.

well when i went to put the recoil spring and rod back into place it shot acrost the yard. i was lucky to find everything but i wont do that again.
 
Practicing some oddly out of position shooting on my weak side. Without putting much (o.k...any) thought into it, I switched to a weak hand grip but two handed (basically reversed the positions of my hands) BUT, left my two thumbs in the normal grip position. As I pulled my grip tighter and pressed the trigger of my 1911, I was notified that this oddball grip I'd created placed my strong-side thumb knuckle right up in back of the slide.

It plowed a furrow you could have planted vegetables in. Bled for a good long time.

Ouch.

-S
 
Hahaha, not completely handgun but a couple of days ago I put a nice little holographic sight on my revolver. First one I had ever seen in person. I put it on backwards!! Was just about to take it back as defective when I happened to look in the correct side and saw the ring. Boy that would have gone over big at the gun shop!!

What I want to know is how you saw it from the correct side if it was on backwards.:uhoh:
 
Other than shooting my TV, I had just gotten my Systema Colt 1911 and was going to field strip it in my work van so it was not a "firearm" and I turned the bushing and the recoil plug went zinging out and pinged into the top edge of the windshield. It starred the windshield nicely and was about 4" in diameter.
 
I took apart a Taurus PT145 and for the LIFE of me, I couldn't get the takedown pin back in. After wailing on it with a hammer or something, I took it back to the dealer where I bought it. We had to send it back to Taurus because I had damaged it a little. But the last time I was in that store, wouldn'tcha know the guy behind the counter still remembered.

Asks me if I still use a hammer to reassemble my guns. ;)
 
Beretta PX-4 Subcompact .380ACP

This one wasn't my fault but being the experienced one, I feel responsible.:uhoh:

Recently took the Bro-In-Law (let's call him Dick, pun intended) who had never been shooting before to a very nice large public range. We had three of my guns, Para CCO LDA .45ACP, Beretta PX4SC 9mm, and Ruger LCP .380ACP with about 100 rounds for each. After some serious safety instructions, sight picture help, slide ops and dry fire practice, I was right behind Dick as he shot the 9, must say he did pretty well from 7 yards. Then got him on the .380 LCP, same same. As he became comfy with the process of shoot, reload 2 mags, mag in, slide release, fire, I was able to pay a little less attention to him and shoot whatever wasn't being used in the adjacent lane. I remember separating the ammo and mags, pointing them out as Small, Medium, Large and that although .380 & 9 are related, they're quite different and shall not mix.:cool:

After a few cycles of this Dick said he could handle it all himself. I kept one eye on him and soon noticed he was having FTE problems with the 9 every round and having to release, mag out, lock, release versus just release for good lockup (he wasn't riding the slide either) when loading. Since he just delved into the second box of new TBD cheapo ammo and that he knew how to safely clear problems, I chalked it up to ammo compatiblity, limp wristing, or inexperience.:scrutiny:

Long story slightly shorter, after getting him comfy with the .45 I tried the 9 and had the same problem using mags he loaded. After seeing bronze versus copper bullets and comparing the half unboxed ammo, I realized Dick was loading the 9 mags with 380! :eek:

At first it didn't register that he'd probably been doing it all along and it fed and shot fine for the first shot. It wasn't until I connected the speed .380 ammo was vanishing with the amount of time he'd been using the 9 that the light came on. Even the range rover who tried to help him missed it and blamed it on ammo, guess he was right. When loaded with 9mm bullets, the Beretta shot fine, imagine that.:rolleyes:

I my many years of shooting and typically having five calibers on the range at once, I've never made this mistake, shows how novices can be problems no matter how careful you are. Since .380 is '9mm short' I understand why these worked but don't recommend anyone else do this, (aside from obvious safety issues, 380 is more rare than 9). We both got a kick out of it later and my lesson learned is watch out for Dick's as you might be or related to one.:banghead:

Reminds me of a Saloon/Hotel sign, "Outlaws welcome, Inlaws call first" :D
 
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What if it happened to someone else?

I attended a training school a few months ago. In the classroom was a TV used for showing videos. Sitting on top of the TV was an angel like you see on top of a Christmas tree. On the last day of class, one of the instructors told a few of us to ask the owner (and chief instructor) about the angel. We did.

This was his story: It was the holiday season, and the family had all gone out shopping. All but Pop, our Chief Instructor and owner of the school. He stayed home, and while he was there, decided to do a little dry fire practice with a revolver and the TV. You know, revolver in holster.. stand in front of TV and when a new person comes on the screen... draw, and fire.

This went pretty good, and when he was done, he reloaded the revolver and headed for the room with the safe to lock it up. On the way, he passed through the living room, and there perched atop ol' Tanenbaum was... you guessed it, an angel. One more shot he thought, and then I'll put it away. He remembered he had loaded the gun just as the shot broke. He center punched the angel through the chest.

He quickly checked the outside of the house for exit wounds, and fortunately, there were none. BUT he couldn't find a new angel before the family got back, so he had to come clean about it.

The angel on top of the tv? It was a gift from the other instructors. If you look at it closely sitting there atop the tv, you can see she's wearing body armor and a helmet.
 
I've written about it in another thread, and it wasn't really my moment of stupidity, but here goes.

At the range, about age 6 or 7, with my dad, shooting up some reloads we'd done for a S&W .38 Special revolver and an M1911 .38 Army Marksman Unit given to my Dad while he was on the 5th Army Rifle Team.

The 1911 AMU was a special semi-rimmed .38 Special cartridge designed for use in automatics. It is an exclusively low pressure wadcutter round, due to an exposed portion of the cartridge in the cartridge to give the extractor room to grab.

There were two batches of .38 involved, and they were both using the same wadcutter slugs. Couple dozen rounds go down range, no problems. Dad hands me a fresh mag, rack the slide, pull the trigger, and kB! 1911 detonates in my hands, his nice custom wood grips burst, the magazine bulges, something horrible happens with the slide, and I get a face full of hot burning powder and shrapnel. Sure enough... the hotter revolver loads had been accidentally loaded into the AMU.

The recovered cartridge told the story - a 2mm high semi-circle was perfectly removed from the bottom of it. And I mean perfectly, to bulges, no sharp edges. Just a perfect half circle. That, and a very traumatized little boy. I couldn't fire a weapon for almost a year afterward. No problems handling them... just couldn't pull the trigger. To this day - 22 years later - I still reflexively react to the feeling of muzzle blast. It's not anything show stopping, but whenever I'm beside anything higher powered and I feel it hit my skin, you can probably see me jump and tighten up.

Second stupidest thing would be putting my fingers anywhere near a Hakim.
 
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