Accidental discharge?

[Flintknapper]

I've been shooting for over 40 years and have never had an AD/ND.

That equates to hundreds of thousands of rounds of Pistol, Rifle and Shotgun ammo. So, its doable.

I do not buy into the "if you haven't had one yet...you will" mentality.

Short of a "mechanical" failure, there should be no reason for one to occur except the person involved was inattentive or careless with their gun handling.

 

[hceptj]

yes...when i was 14, all my fault...that was about 28 years ago...does that mean I'm due for 4 in a row soon based on the 7 yr expectation...???

p.s. as for the "mechanic with all his fingertips intact" comment...i've been a maintenance/construction guy since I graduated high school and still have all of mine, but thats probably due to the time in the Navy and learning to do things safely and right the first time...

 

[Gustav]

A negligent discharge seen way to close and personal happened thanks to a "friend" showing me an empty shotgun while swinging it all around he almost took my head off when he took aim and swung at one of my moms antique plates displayed on a wall right over my head (always check the chamber).

Had a customized old Mauser go off at the range when trying it out, The safety when released allowed the striker and firing pin to go forward and discharge the chambered round, Luckily it was on sandbags and pointed downrange in a safe direction.

Most people I know have had at least one AD/ND however due to many reasons some will never admit it especially in public or an open forum which is a shame.

Better to learn from mistakes both ADs and NDs they are going to happen but by sharing we can greatly increase awareness and learn from each others mistakes so they are less likely to be repeated.

Most can be prevented with common sense and in following the basic rules of safety.
Our sport and hobby has enough enemies and gets enough bad press lets not give them any more ammunition to use against us.

 

[The Annoyed Man]

I don't buy the thinking that this is inevitable and will happen to everyone. If it does happen with me, it'll be 100% my fault and not a result of some cosmic fate.

Trempel, I think you'll find that 100% of us who said we had an NG, and not an AG, agree with you completely. Over the years, I've talked to a number of people who said they had ONE NG and ONE only. I've also talked to a couple who said they had more than one AG. I won't go shooting with them because they manifestly did not learn from their experience. Darwin Award winners in waiting.

 

[Papaster]

I agree with others here, it's called "negligent discharge." The closest I've been is squeezing off a round while pointed down range but not on my intended point of aim yet. I've never had a negligent discharge. Safety lies between the human ears.

 

[Dallas Jack]

1 ND, in the house, into the fireplace. Nothing hurt but my ego.
Dallas Jack

 

[trickyrick]

i have a rem 700 in 7mm. while elk hunting, i chambered a round as i was scoping in on a cow. i was not able to take the shot and returned to the truck to meet up w/ others. we decided to try elsewhere so i went to open the bolt to empty chamber. saftey would not allow bolt to open. w/ muzzle pointed down range (out of habit) i released the saftey and gun discharged killing the only thing we got all hunt long, a tree. 4 fingers of right hand were on grip and thumb was on saftey. came home and googled and found out rem knew about this problem and decided 25000 out of 1 million did not qualify for a recall. (their fix was to place saftey adds in major publications) now the rem 600 had similar probs and 1/2 produced were affected so there was a recall iirc. luckily i practice gun saftey and its become second nature. scared the poop out of me and friend standing in front of me, (after he realized i did not do it to startle him).

 

[MCgunner]

My uncle had a similar incident with a Savage 340 in .30-30 I sold him. He sold it, but I know the set screw probably got loose on it. My 110 had a screw that adjusts the safety engagement that you must adjust when adjusting the trigger. I never looked at that 340, but it might have had the same set up.

Anyway, it CAN happen for sure. Remington has modified the 700s. My M7 will not lock the bolt when on safe. That was the cheap way out. My Savage has a safety on, but bolt unlocked mode sorta like the old pre 64 Winchester M70s, good to have. My M7's bolt doesn't lift easily since I neck size cases and case tension keeps the bolt down, but I still think it's chicken poop they wouldn't design a safety that could unlock the bolt and still be in safe for unloading rather than just doing away with the bolt lock.

And yes, I would call this an AD, not an ND. It is hardware induced.

 

[jjminch]

Never, not once. There is nothing accidental about it, it's effin' negligent. That's what I told my soldiers (former Drill Sergeant), and that's what I tell everyone else. If it's mechanical it's a deadlined firearm. Not your fault, and hopefully the muzzle was pointed in a safe direction.

At least some of the shooters on here were man enough to admit to it.

 

[jwxspoon]

Yes I have. My best friend's new .45 ACP in my home office as he showed me his new Colt Defender. I took his weapon, unloaded it, and showed him the similarities between his new weapon and my SA Micro Compact .45

When I went to put my SA away, my friend reloaded his weapon, unknown to me. Over the next 5 minutes he asked me how to disassemble his new .45 and I went to show him how the 3" .45's need a clamp over the guide rod, etc. In the process I chambered a round in his .45 without realizing it.

13 years of Army made me reflexively point his weapon at the ground and pull the trigger. You could have knocked us both over with a feather when it went off into the carpet in my office.

 

[NorCalAl]

Never had a ND - but, I was out at a friends property with some other friends and had a new double barrel coach gun. One barrel had a bad hammer detent and while I had it pointed in a safe direction, one of the less, um, intelligent amongst us walked right in front of me after I had the hammers pulled back. As soon as he cleared in front of me, the bad hammer let loose. I would say his life was saved by less than a half-second. Needless to say, I took the gun back.
But I've never been able to shake that experience. Every time I go to the range, I'm thinking more than just about what I'M doing - I'm watching everyone else all the time. I'm getting goosebumps just thinking about it. I never asked him why he walked in between me and the targets - it doesn't really matter why.

 

[Maximum1]

Trigger Finger Discipline: is when your barrel is on the target and you intend to fire ONLY THEN is your finger placed on the trigger.


LIVE this rule and you'll elminate accidential discharges...Period.

.

 

[Maximum1]

Never, not once. There is nothing accidental about it, it's effin' negligent.


Absolutely right....NOTHING accidental about it, it's negligence..

 

[MisterPX]

I voted no, since your polling is for AD. I have had a Negligent dischsrge though.

 

[standerson]

I am 50 years old. Been handling firearms for about 40 years. Spent 20 years in the military shooting. We probably shoot 3,000 rounds a year between myself, wife and children.

Never had an AD or ND.

I also do not believe it is inevitable that it will happen to everyone.

What I find difficult to comprehend is that, basically, 1 in 3 people in this thread have had one. Some more that one. One AD/ND might or could be considered an accident. More than one leads me to believe there are some serious safety deficiencies in how that person handles a firearm.

 

[Nix]

well i voted no but i guess you can decide to change that after hearing this story.

When i was 16 years old i was using a .223 rifle doing a little prarie dog slaughtering. Now for me this was practically an art... i would go out and hide... crawl up.. yeah i was a dork but those little bastards can pick you up if your upwind... anyway.

So it was after a long day of prarie dog shooting and i had to urinate so i left the chamber of the .223 open (bolt action) and i walked a couple feet away to do my business. I heard a noise and something had knocked my rifle off of the mound it was sitting on, it rolled twice and in doing so it closed the bolt... and fired. no harm done of course but it still startled me, to this day i dont understand how that happened.

 

[annielulu]

I have had 3 when I first started shooting. All at the range, no damage.

Stupid, but I'm glad I had them and glad the way they happened.

Made me VERY safety conscious. I now am always focused upon my firearm at all times.

I got off cheap.

 

[CoRoMo]

None that I ever recall... but there is still time.

 

[GLOOB]

My one ND was with a rented SIG220. I was bringing it to bear on the target, cocked, and accidentally fired it while putting my finger on the trigger. It was pointing downrange, but the shot completely missed the paper. It was unsettling. I am always working on keeping the trigger finger on the slide until I'm really prepared for a bang, now, but still prefer a slightly heavier trigger for a defensive gun.

But damn that Sig trigger is awesome. I wonder if anyone will every make a DA/SA that decocks itself between shots, but can be manually cocked for precision shooting/hunting... so it works like a DA revolver?

 

[RNB65]

I'm not playing semantics with ND vs AD. I'll just say that I've had two occasions when a gun I was holding fired when I had no intention for it to fire.

The first time was in high school. I was loading my dad's shotgun into my car to go plinking and pulled the trigger to relieve the hammer spring pressure and it fired. Fortunately, I had it pointing straight up at the sky at the time, so the only harm was it scared the living **** of me. That shotty was always kept loaded as the home defense gun and I forgot that the 3 shot plug had been removed and it had an extra shell in the mag. I ejected 3 shells and thought it was empty. It wasn't.

The second time was just recently. The set trigger on my CZ 527 Carbine got so far out of adjustment, that when I set the trigger and released it, it immediately fired. I'm sure the bullet went over the top of the berm since I didn't have the gun shouldered when it happened. I love my CZ Carbine, but I pay very close attention to that set trigger now.

 

[HankB]

The closest I've come to an AD is putting a round downrange before I meant to because of a trigger that was unexpectedly light . . . since the round actually hit the paper - if not the X-ring - I don't feel too guilty about it.

 

[Danman8520]

"Trigger Finger Discipline: is when your barrel is on the target and you intend to fire ONLY THEN is your finger placed on the trigger.


LIVE this rule and you'll eliminate accidental discharges...Period."

So Maximum, You tell me how to safely de-cock a Winchester '94 lever action Rifle with the half cock safety feature after racking one round in the chamber? There is no target nearby, so it is impossible to put the sights on it, and you must pull that trigger for the hammer to get into the safe position.
You simply point the gun in a safe direction then de-cock it. This I AM SAFETY IT WONT HAPPEN TO ME mentality is bull. Accept the fact that it could happen to you. (BTW this scenario was my one ND when I was 11. Cold fingers de-cocking a '94. I knowingly pointed it in a safe direction because I knew that I was going to pull the trigger, but however did not know that the hammer would slip. Now I am always hyper-aware whenever lowering a hammer which will greatly reduce the chances of it happening again, not to say that is impossible.)

 

[gunmn74]

When I was 17 I had a Jennings .22 jamomatic. It came out of my holster
while pheasant hunting on a friends father's land, lost in the snow somewhere.
That next spring his dad found it and returned the rusted pile to me.
I cleaned it up and lubed it and had it cycling well. I was in that friends
Galaxi that night and was showing him how well it cycled when the well
oiled slide slipped from grip slam fireing one round directly into the glovebox.
We were both talking but neither of us could hear a thing. Then the glovebox
fell open and the bullet fell out on my shoe.
That was many years ago and a good lesson to me. The only thing I did
correctly was having the gun pointing in a safe direction.
Same friend a few years later had his Lab step on the trigger of his Deer rifle
in his work Van while pheasant hunting. It sent one round through the dog
house straight into the transmission. He and the dog had a long walk to the
nearest phone.

 

[07Lway]

I had a ND when I was 16 with a .22lr rifle. Luckily it was pointed at the floor. Since then (after months of kicking myself and not handling anything firearm related) I am so careful. I never put my finger anywhere near the trigger, and always keep it in a safe direction. I also re-check the chamber both visually and physically anytime I first pick it up, when I set it down and pick it back up agian, and when I think about setting it down.

You can't be too careful, and never let yourself stop treating firearms with the upmost respect. It only takes one F*ck up to ruin your life and tear a part a family.

 

[SilentArmy]

Had a Slam fire in my AR once while it was in a rest. scared the hell out of me but it hit the target! I was setting up a red dot when it happened. I am religiously cautious about my handguns but certainly not cocky like some of the fools I saw post on TFL! (I didn't read through all these in fear of finding the same fools) It is like a Motorcycle accident... There are those who have crashed and those who have not yet crashed. Which one is better educated? Flame on!