Airweights are sturdy. or, My friend shot his gun!

[BlackBearME]

In November I acquired a Taurus 605 for CCW. My friends was inspired by this to get his own, but was put off by the Taurus reputation, and the cylinder on mine occasionally sticking when you cock the hammer (he claims - this has never happened to me.) So he bought a S&W 360. Titanium cylinder, scandium alloy frame. Weighs 12 oz, and it seriously feels like a toy gun. We found out the other day they're a little more sturdy than we thought.

He was shooting both revolvers, mine in his right hand his in his left. He said the cylinder bound on mine, and was attempting to unbind it. He was bracing the bottom of the revo with his left hand, and attempting to work the hammer/cylinder. I'm not looking at him, and all of a sudden I hear "BANG-ting" and look over to see his gun skidding across the ground. Turns out his finger slipped and grabbed the trigger, firing a round into the back of his cylinder.

When we picked up his gun, we found about half the bullet (we were firing my LSWC reloads) splattered in amongst the shells in his cylinder. I wanted to take a picture of it but he pulled it out and threw it away before I had the chance. Upon further examination we found no problems in form or function, and he put another 100 rounds or so through it.

The downside is that I had not one but two new shooters that day who had been no closer to a gun than their TV set. I used this as an object lesson to reinforce the importance of the 4 rules.

 

[Woody174]

So he pulled the trigger while trying to free the cylinder by hand (out of time), sounds like you and him are lucky that no one was hurt...

 

[1KPerDay]

No offense to you, but your friend is a doofus.

 

[kd7nqb]

well the good thing was the muzzle was in a safe direction (mostly) and nobody got hurt this time. Bad thing is that new shooters witnessed a major error.

I might be hesitant to shoot the "shot" revolver until a good smith checks it out.

Also the two handed "gangsta" shoot rarely works out well.

 

[C-grunt]

You put a hundred rounds through a 360!!!!

Bravo, Bravo (golf clap)

more man than I

 

[Elvishead]

I would have kept that under raps, or at least use it in a third person scenario. Scary!

 

[pinkymingeo]

Actually, it's an Airlite. An Airweight might not have fared so well.

 

[S&Wfan]

What a bozo. I wouldn't go shooting with him until he gets some serious training and develops safe gun handling skills.

There's no reason to be shooting guns with two hands like that either. He's been watching too many Hollywood actors who don't know one end of the gun from the other doin' that for way too long.

Seriously . . . your friend is DANGEROUS. He could get you killed.

Guns aren't to be played with . . . they'll bite you!

Glad no one was hurt this time.

T.

 

[1KPerDay]

There's no reason to be shooting guns with two hands like that either.

Sure there is. It's fun. But if one malfunctions, put the other one down before you try to clear it.

 

[DevilDog0402]

Wow!! He's damn lucky he didn't shoot himself in the hand or wrist!

 

[BlackBearME]

Yes, he's dangerous. That's largely why I keep him around - mostly for the fact that I'd rather have him on my side, and keep him where I can see him.

For the most part he's a safe shooter, but he slips every once in a while. We had a talk about putting down the guns when dealing with things like this.

 

[spiroxlii]

I tell every new shooter I go to the range with, "If the gun jams or fails to fire or if anything unexpected happens, maintain a firm grip on the weapon and keep it pointed downrange toward the target. I will come over to take the gun off your hands and help figure out what went wrong. Don't start fiddling with it, and DO NOT turn around with the gun in your hands!"

I guess I should add, "Don't pick up a second gun and try to fix the malfunctioning one at the same time!"

 

[Caipirinha]

I hope he didn't laugh the incident off. The scary part is that a person like that at a public range can just as easily shoot the guy in the next station as he can the gun that he is holding.

 

[BlackBearME]

No, it wasn't laughed off. We all took it as a learning experience. He was ahead of everyone else, with both guns pointed dowwnrange. We weren't in a formal range per se, just a shooting pit out in the middle of nowhere.

"If the gun jams or fails to fire or if anything unexpected happens, maintain a firm grip on the weapon and keep it pointed downrange toward the target. I will come over to take the gun off your hands and help figure out what went wrong. Don't start fiddling with it, and DO NOT turn around with the gun in your hands!"

This is a good idea. Not that he was a new shooter, but it's still a great "disclaimer."

 

[esq_stu]

firing a round into the back of his cylinder.

I'm not really sure what this means. Splain it to me.

 

[spiroxlii]

He shot a bullet out of one gun, it hit the back of the gun in his other hand. Specifically, the bullet struck the back of his Airweight revolver's cylinder.

 

[IMtheNRA]

Sounds like this was your friend's and everyone else's lucky day.

He's not yet qualified to shoot without constant supervision and certainly not qualified to shoot homie-style with guns in both hands.

I hope he begins to take gun safety seriously or just gets out of this pastime before he kills someone.

 

[psyprofessor]

Let me say this one more time for emphasis...

What we do "informally" we tend to do out of habit. Your friend was not in an "formal shooting range" and decided to play around with his gun...shooting two guns at the same time. He broke the first rule of gun safety....

Rule #1: Use extreme caution when firing firearms. There should never be a time when we use "lesser" caution.

Even if alone and in the middle of nowhere....shoot your gun with the same care that you would show if you were in a shooting range surrounded by other shooters.

 

[Gibbles]

I'm glad both of you are ok, but man what an idiot.. :banghead:

I had one of my friends do something not quite as dumb with two of my 1911's, he decided he wanted to try to shoot both at the same time, before I had a chance to talk him out of it he had loaded both pistols and started at it ( I did it once and though it was unsafe.. ) While watching him shooting he started going in a V, I watches nerviously waiting for him to shoot the end off of one of my guns. After he finished I had a nice little chat with him about that.
Luckly we were out in the desert with a huge back stop.