Learning from your mistakes. Your biggest OOPS moments.

These are some good stories!

Honestly though, is there anybody here who hasn't shot themselves or been shot by somebody else at one time or another with a BB gun?:banghead:

I had pretty bad 'oops' once.... I was young and dumb of course, had my little 22 out doing some 'bird hunting'... I was aiming at bird up in a tree that was on a slight rise. About 200 yards past that rise was my neighbors house. I got the bird lined up, fired, missed, hear the whine of the 22 scooting across the sky and then.... SHATTER!

I had managed to shoot out one of my neighbors garage door window panes. Luckily no one was hurt, but of course I had to replace it... and needless to say, I have ALWAYS been sure of what was behind my target after that!

BB's yes as a child. If I knew anything about fighting, I would have pounded that person into the dirt and had LEO's involved. But that was a very long time ago. I took the shot, pain and shrugged it off and there was no more about that shot.

If that was to happen today, the situation will end much differently and that includes paint guns unfortunately.

Hope this thread isn't too old to revive, but here goes nothing:

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.

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I had an even nastier experience with hammer bite after buying a "Belly Band" holster for my 1911.


I was at home testing it out with my best friend when I noticed the the only thing covering the trigger was a thin piece of leather on one side, and the elastic "band" material on the other.


So, I decided to see if it was possible to pull the trigger while wearing it.

Cleared the gun 3 times, put in snap cap (red translucent), and proceeded to pull the trigger while wearing the gun.


Well, since the belly band was on my belly, the hammer proceeded to gouge a chunk of the softest piece of my belly right out.


Ohhh, it was extremely painful.

When I was around 12 back in 1973, was hunting with my Dad an big brother, a Nam vet. We were hunting rabbits with my cocker spaniel, I had a .410. In some thick grass an brush she was on a rabbit an heading my way...couldn't see her or the rabbit..Dad yelled she was coming my way..I saw the tall grass move an yelled back I can't see..but something is coming my way...brother started yelling its the rabbit, shoot!!!!...I yelled I see the weeds moving but don't see the rabbit..brother really started yelling its the rabbit, shoot!!!!!!!...I still remember this gut feeling not to do it..Shoot!!!! yelled my brother again....I pulled the trigger at the moving weeds...an heard the scream of my dog in pain...my Dad an brother came running..I couldn't move, I thought I had just killed my dog.."Why did you shoot" asked my brother..."You kept yelling at me to shoot, I told you I couldn't see"..."I didn't tell you to shoot Pep (my dogs name)" ...I asked if she was dead....Dad said shes ok, you got her a little bit in the rear...just like you do the rabbits...I finally went over an told her I was sorry, I never felt so bad, I didn't ever want to hunt again ever..my brother chastised me again, an I got mad at him..Dad never said anymore an Pep was ready to hunt again an we continued...I didn't even put another shell in my gun the rest of the day..mad at my brother an mad at my self...an learned NEVER take the word of somebody else, an Never shoot unless you see it perfectly...PERIOD. My Faithful dog lived an hunted many more years, thank God.

I had been practicing two-to-the-chest-and-one-to-the-head with my Beretta 92. I was putting 6 rounds into each magazine and got used to swapping magazines after two sets of 3 rounds. Then I decided that it would be more interesting to put a random number of rounds in the mag, so that the slide lock would be unexpected. Fired 6 rounds, and lapsed into thinking the gun was empty despite the fact that the slide was not locked back, I brought the gun up toward my face to insert a new mag. Pushed the mag release with my finger on the trigger. Bang. The gun was pointed generally downrange, but the round may well have gone into the sidewall or ceiling of the range. Really dumb.

I shot a BHP with a high thumb once. The notch in the slide for the safety took a nice little chunk out of my thumb...

Biggest Oops moment was just like a few in here, but i might as well tell it anyways.

Went out shooting with a ton of friends, and at the end of the day we packed up everything and headed home. I put the guns away in my closet and nothing was too out of the ordinary until about a year later. I pulled out my Nagent 7.62-54r when i was moving and carried it outside to pack it in the moving truck, I racked the bolt and a live round popped out. I would have totally seen anyone grabbing it and dry firing the bolt and BOOM!

Now, every weapon gets cleared and checked by me. Something i should have learned long before that issue, but now i am good about it.

Buying a gun because I thought it looked cool. (Sigma .40.)

I have a nick of a scar in my hairline where I got bashed by scope rail on a Desert Eagle .50 as it snapped up and hit me in the head.

Nothing TOO horrific but...

1. I had several BB-gun ricochets when I was a kid. The last one (that I finally learned my lesson with) hit me directly between the eyes hard enough to draw a little blood and swell. 1" either left or right and I might have lost an eye.

2. I once loaded up a rifle to take to a friend's place, and was almost there when I realized I had forgotten to empty the magazine. The chamber was empty and it was cased, but it's still illegal to transport a loaded gun in IL.

3. Not too long after I got it, I was cleaning my 870. When I was done, I picked it up, racked the slide to function check it, and the barrel slid off slick as snot and put a big ole' crescent-shaped gouge in my hardwood floor. I had forgotten to install the mag. cap. :banghead: The barrel was fine, but I sure felt like an idiot.

4. Probably the worst just happened a couple weeks ago. I was in my backyard shooting clays over the cornfield. I took a break and when I took off my muffs, I heard a diesel running. I then realized (though I could not see) my cousin was combining beans on the other side of the cornfield (a few hundred yards directly downrange). I realize at that range 7 1/2 shot probably wouldn't do much (if it could even get there), particularly with the potential "victim" inside a combine cab, but it still scared the hell out of me. He wasn't out there when I started shooting, I couldn't see him over the corn, and I couldn't hear him through my muffs. I put the shotgun away for the day.

Otherwise, I've always been pretty darn religious about the 4 rules, and they've kept me out of trouble for the most part.

Oh, I almost forgot. Like several other posters, when I was a kid, I once took a "I'll never hit it" shot at a dove that was perched on the peak of our corn crib. I was quite a distance from the crib, and figured I'd never hit it with my BB gun. I took the shot, and the bird dropped. I couldn't believe it. It was dead by the time I got to it. I felt terrible, and since that time I've never killed anything without reason.

I let my 8 year old son take his "Airsoft" P99 to the range a few months back. I was firing on the line, he was behind me on the bench, pointing his unloaded toy in every direction. The rangemaster went nuts, screaming "cease fire" & "Muzzle! Muzzle!. It was my kid. He assumed he had reached into my rangebag & pulled out a real gun.

No more toys at the range, and now the toys must obey all 4 rules. Live & learn---

LOL! I bet that Rangemaster nearly popped a lung!

LOL! I bet that Rangemaster nearly popped a lung!

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He was actually very apologetic to me & my son for scaring him; I was mad at myself for not thinking about it. It took awhile for it to get funny, but I can chuckle about it now.

my worst oops to date was as a young man drinking with a friend at a cabin in wva.i went to bed and he stayed up i heard him get a 22 pump gun out and start shooting and i thought to myself i should go out take it away from him but the room i was in was safe so i laid there 1/2 drunk. he shot my dog by accident i heard her yelp. i damn near killed him. its made me right persnickety about drinking and shooting. i still kick myself in the tail. i hada finish the dog off he was too broken up to do it and i couldn't let her suffer. hard life lesson for me but i guess better a dog than a person

I guess likea lot of guys I've had the BB gun richocet experience.

Probably my worst thing ever was when I was cleaning my pistol after long night of studying cause I needed something to just relax me.
Well, I was pretty tired and was just going through the motions.
I usually try the trigger just to do a function check.
Turns out I was a dumb*** and had chambered a round.
BAM.
Woke up real quick and had a nice little hole in my mattress for my troubles.

When I was much younger I was cleaning a friends Single Six that he had loaned me to carry/shoot on an ATV ride. I had went over to his place to lock it back up after I returned from my trip. I cleaned the gun and loaded it. I worked the action, a little to much rem-oil on the trigger and it slipped from my thumb and my buddy was out a $300 sliding glass door in his living room. The thick double pane glass stopped the bullet, but not without completely spider-webbing from top to bottom.

I got my first gun when I was 19 (about 5 years ago). It was a Mossberg Maverick 88 from wal-mart. I was shooting off a few rounds when I noticed my butt-stock shell holder was riding up to the trigger guard. Without thinking about it I flipped the gun around with the barrel pointing behind me and down (still in a safe direction). I started to adjust the shell holder, touched the trigger, and BOOM! I turned around to see flying gravel. It scared me so bad that it was the last shot I took for a week. During that week I learned the rules and created some of my own so that would NEVER happen again. This is the first time I have told anyone..... so it would be cool if you guys wouldn't tell my wife that I did something that dumb.

I shot my brother tv as a kid, boy was he pissed, the pellet left a bullseye in the bottom corner of the glass. I had some CO2 left over in my Crossman revolver and had the pellet clip loaded. but it was OK because I "knew" it was empty. I would waste the last couple weak shots by shooting people on TV, well shot 11 or 12 sounded different, bout the time I noticed that, I saw the star on the TV, won't say that was the last stupid thing I did, heck yesterday I was at the range and walked downrange when a new guy was setting up without calling ceasefire, got my *** chewed off for it, and I deserved it.

1. I bought a Taurus revolver.
2. I bought a Beretta Tomcat.
3. I sold the first P.38 I ever bought, back in the '60s.

The first two were easy to rectify; the third one is just something that you don't easily get over.

My very first OOPS was when I was 8 or 9 years old and a adult family friend took me small game hunting ----- I had been hunting with this friend 3 or 4 times before and was always useing his Savage .22/.410 , so I was comfortable with it.

After a few hours of hunting , we start to get close to his car and some "tree rats" start to move around in a big oak tree very near the car ----- I thumb cock the hammer and try to line up for a shot --- critters run into their nest and we wait a minute or two to see if they will come back out.

He then says to me , "nope they are home for the day - lets go" ----- I had the Savage on my hipbone , pointed upwards ----- WITHOUT LOOKING, I put my thumb over the barrel release lever {thinking it was the hammer} and pulled the trigger !!! BOOM !!!
The .410 went off and scared the Liveing HeXX out of me --- he thought I got a shot off at a critter but I fessed up and told him what I'd done.

He told me that because I was honest about the AD , he would not tell my Mom and took me hunting with him many times after !!!

May you Rest In Peace, Billy and THANKS for starting a youngster out with firearms --- I still think of you 40 years later !!!

Last fall sighting in my 22-250. I was set up in the back of my truck shooting a target at 100 yards. Reloading and had the gun in my lap, happened to brush the trigger which is set real light then "BOOM!!" Shot a damn hole in the passenger side door of my truck. I consider myself a very safe shooter, but I guess I had a mental fart that day. I consider myself lucky and am more careful now because of it.:banghead:

Uh... since I guess airguns are fair game....

Once upon a time I had a few electric airsoft guns, and I liked "dry firing" them just because I liked the sound they made... well, once even though I pulled out an empty mag, when I pulled the trigger a bb flew into the wall and right back into my face, between the eyes.

Once with an M4 imitation airsoft I accidentally pressed the mag release and it fell on the floor and broke in half... fixed it with superglue.

Uh... I guess those are "toys" but still, better to learn from them than make a lethal mistake with the real thing. Safety first with everything.

Some of the lunatics I grew up with, when they were very small children, would go down into the river bottoms for a few days and have BB gun wars. They would stay and play until they ran out of food and BBs and come home. One of their mothers told me that when they were like eight years old, they came home once and she was washing them off, she was scrubbing a face, and something shiny was sticking out of his forehead. She dug with her fingernail and a BB popped out, it had been there for a few days. She asked him; "Didn't that HURT?! Why didn't you come home sooner?" He said he was afraid he would get in trouble. And no, it wasn't the last time these guys got shot. I talked to them when Cheney had his little accident, they said, "We don't even go to the ER for birdshot."

when i was 12 a friend shot me in the tail with a bb gun i beat that kids face to a bloody pulp

i was doing some dry fire practice at my homemade private range with my single action revolver, well i pulled the bullets one by one and put them in my pocket then when i thought i got them all i reached in my pocket and felt six

so i started dry firing then BAM scared the crap outa me so i reached into my pocket and mixed in with the 5 .45 long colts was a .44 mag turns out i left one in my pocket from another day so there was still a round in the cylinder.

thank fully i had it pointed at my berm so nothing happened, i still felt like an idiot

follow the rules and an ND will be as safe as it can be and just make u feel like an idiot or look stupid not hurt you or someone else

My dad shot a snake with his Ruger Single 6 revolver about 25 years ago and left it on the counter in his bathroom. We (one older and one younger brother) had all been well trained in firearms... but my little brother still picked it up and fired on through the floor in my parent's bathroom.

He also shot himself in the eye with a BB gun about five years after that. He and my cousin were shooting dimes and nickels off the end of the barrel of a BB pistol.

I dry-fired my father-in-laws BHP (after he watched me drop the mag and check the chamber clear so we both knew it was unloaded) and then I got yelled at. Now I ask if someone minds if I dry fire their gun before I just do it.

I get swept all the time by the not so muzzle disciplined security forces at work. It is bad enough now that I don't say anything, I just stare at them until they get uncomfortable.

Learning to shoot by taking the old man's guns out and shooting them when we were home alone and not wearing hearing protection. I kind of miss being able to hear mid range frequencies.

Being funny and catching just fired brass while standing behind my friends.

Not having a .308 settled into my shoulder when shooting from a rest. Went right under my arm when I fired. I had just enough presence of mind to shove the rifle away and pull my head away as I felt it. Still got a bit of a tickle on my forehead. Maybe I can find the picture and post it. Just a big ass red mark in the middle of my forehead.

My "oops moment" covers most of my youth, too many stupid actions with guns to remember, or try to explain. Then came a long period with few guns and no opportunities to shoot, until I was able to get back into it a few years ago. Guess I've grown up, I'm a lot more anal about gun safety nowadays. I think back to some of the stuff I and my friends did, and I shudder. Guess I learned from my oops moments.

We're raising a grandson, he's 12 now. Started him shooting when he was 10, he's fired everything I have except my 91/30, which is torn apart for refinishing, and my Rem. 700 .30-06. He's never seen the Mosin fired, so he wants to shoot it. But he's seen the 700 fired, and ain't too keen on it. He can shoot my M1 just fine though, and shoots it good. He's usually very good with gun handling, I'll give him that. But it really scares me to think of him and his friends doing some of the things I did.

I gotta tell at least one though.....

In about 1986-87, I took a plane trip, and my carry-on was my big camera bag full of photo equipment. That bag went through two x-rays, and one hand inspection. Once I got to my destination, I was getting stuff out of the camera bag and found the Rohm RG10 .22 short revolver that I'd put in there on a previous outing! Loaded, of course. Three inspections, and it wasn't found! I nearly **** my pants.