9 mm FMJ Point Blank Gunshot Wound (Warning - GRAPHIC PICS!!)

[kda]

Not to let "acceptableusername" (see his post below) be the only one to admit to some serious lapses of attention .. I decided to share my accident from a couple months ago. Glock 19.

I was "sure" I had cleared it. Clip was removed and empty on the table. I reached across the table aiming at the wall to drop the hammer so I could complete disassembly and was resting my left hand on top of the slide, slightly forward such that (apparently) the edge of my palm was down in front of the muzzle.

The huge loss of skin must have been from the muzzle blast. Well, the pictures speak for themselves. The wound is now closed and looks pretty good, but the nerves have not completed healing and the hand surgeon says it will be another two months before my hand and little finger feel normal again.

I share, hoping that my experience will help others realize that no matter how old you are and how many years of experience you have, it just takes a momentary lapse of concentration to do stuff like this ... or worse.

Like I told my understanding wife ... nothing anyone can say will teach me anything more than I learned the hard way. But fire away if you must. I am just hoping this helps someone else learn / re-learn the easy way ... never let anything or anyone make you lose your concentration and focus.

And no I don't blame the Glock. This is MY fault and my fault alone. The Glock is not a hard weapon to clear.

Link to first image. Warning: Graphic

Link to second image. Warning: Graphic

 

[kendradad]

WOW. thanks for sharing.

 

[tydephan]

Whew. Great reminder.

Indeed, thanks for sharing. Hope you get some feeling back soon!

 

[Towboater]

Dang, that looms like it stings a bit....
As much as I hear about flocks being good guns and easy to strip and all I find it curious that both posts involved them and in the same way. Don't know myself as they have just never felt right in my hand. Thanks for passing on what is an expierience you would rather not relive for the sake of others. I know that has always been a huge concern and fear of mine. Good to be reminded that it can happen to the best of us if we let our guard down.

 

[freakshow10mm]

In general when these things happen:

Complacency is a contributing factor to a lot of mishaps. Safety is a mindset.

Lesson learned. Everyone is going to have a mishap of some form or another. Some worse than others. I'm glad for you that was the only damage. Pain and associated costs aside, I'm glad that's all that happened.

 

[CountGlockula]

Thanks for the visual.

 

[AcceptableUserName]

Wow. Ouch. Wow

 

[NC-Mike]

You boys better be more careful out there...

Please

 

[onlymeself]

wow. Sorry for your pain, and thanks for posting. I always show my kids these injuries so that they can see what a bullet will do, and to hopefully show them you have to take extra precautions.
Thanks again for posting, and I wish you a total and speedy recovery.

 

[fireman 9731]

Good thing it wasn't a .45

 

[doc2rn]

This is why I dont shoot my Glock that much, you have to pull the trigger to disassemble it for cleaning. The moron who thought that up should be drawn and quartered!

 

[DasFriek]

Im actually very set on only having guns with manual safteys,and niether your case nor "acceptableusername" would have benifited from one.Its the only issue i have with Glocks.Hopefully i learned my lesson a few months back while i was working on a neck knife and it slipped out of the sheath and only kept from taking my finger fully off if it hadnt hit the bone and stopped.Still dont have feeling on one side.
But im glad your ok to learn from this,many wont get that chance.

 

[hso]

Thanks for letting people know that these things do happen and that they are preventable.

Perhaps folks will take the safety rules to heart more and not treat something so familiar so casually they they get badly bitten.

 

[Forklift352]

Sweet Pics......Thank you for sharing your "accident." I hope you heal up real soon.
I think with these resent posts will help....I know they help me.When I pick up
a gun I first think of the pics.....Then I focus.

 

[rogdigity]

dont feel dumb. when i was little i stuck a fork in the toaster right after my mom told me not too. i dont have many of these 'moments' and i hope non of you do either, but these kind of moments make us remember how smart we are the rest of the time and help us learn. in fact, i would lay money on it that you never do this again, and because you posted this im 100% certain that at least one person who sees this will think twice someday and prevent this from happening.

thanks for sharing

 

[peyton]

Thanks for sharing, it will certainly remind me to double check. Now having said that I will share that my Father in law got a new closet of closes. The over and under shotgun I was examining had an empty upper chamber, I did not spread it wide enough to check the lower barrel. I closed it, pulled trigger and bang. Twelve gauge at 1 yard, through the hall door through 2 sheets of sheet rock, through 4 feet of clothes hanging up and it freckled the opposite closet side sheet rock.

 

[Boba Fett]

This is why I dont shoot my Glock that much, you have to pull the trigger to disassemble it for cleaning. The moron who thought that up should be drawn and quartered!

This was mentioned by several people on the thread with the THR member who shot himself with a .45 Glock.

So, to summarize what I said in that thread, there are a number of other firearms that operate the same way, and even though I am not a fan of Glock, I just don't see how pulling the trigger on a loaded firearm you didn't check is the firearm's fault.

 

[Master<>Blaster]

man, at least it wasn't any worse. there's a lot worse places to get shot

 

[ScareyH22A]

My experienced friend advised me to get a 5 gallon bucket and fill it with sand. Then place the bucket somewhere close to where I'd work on my guns. Whenever I have to put my finger on the trigger, the muzzle is pointed at the bucket of sand. It was good advice.

Also, another friend recommended that I continually press check the chamber and be accustomed to doing it frequently because absent mindness happens to everyone.

OP, good luck with your recovery.

 

[MovedWest]

Man, you are going to have one wicked drinking story once that thing heals! Ouch... wow... dang. Good luck and hope there's no major permanent damage.

One word: Neosporin

-MW

 

[kmrcstintn]

out of curiosity (BTW: I work in a trauma hospital in the operating room as a surgical technologist)...did you miss the bone in your hand that attaches the pinky? if not, did they do a surgical repair with wires or a plate and screws?

I feel for ya...I hope you have a good recovery without complications; please be very careful in the future

 

[yongxingfreesty]

ouch, thanks for reminder! hope you get better

 

[BHP FAN]

OK,I'm headed back over to the black powder forum.Y'all scare me. Remember folks,the ''safety'' is located between the ears.

 

[Dallas Jack]

Most guns prior to the 1970s didn't even HAVE these stupid manual so called safeties.

False
Dallas Jack

 

[cottonmouth]

You could have put your eye out!!

J.B.