Another Lesson on Why Rule 1 Is Important

[JBP]

Rule 1. ALWAYS keep the gun pointed in a safe direction.

I was at the range yesterday with my three 32ACP's and was starting my second box of ammo with the Manurhin Walther PP. I loaded the magazines, inserted one of them, and when I chambered a round it fired (and NO I did not have my finger on the trigger). I removed the magazine, cleared the chamber, and inspected the pistol. Everything looked OK so I reinserted the magazine and chambered a round without any incident. On inititiating the first shot a three round slamfire occured and the safety flew over my weak arm and into the wall. Needless to say the pistol will be going to the gunsmith as soon as he is back from vacation.

 

[hksw]

Huh, I thought Rule 1 was, 'Handle every gun as if it were loaded.' (Or any other similar wording.)

 

[Conju]

Umm, rule 1 is ALL firearms are ALWAYS loaded ALL the time...

Rule 2, the one you described, says Never point a firearm at anything you're not willing to see destroyed.

Rule 3 Finger off the trigger until you've made the decision to shoot

Rule 4 Be sure of your target and what is beyond it

Just FYI

 

[El Tejon]

Rule 1 and Rule 2, the Four Rules are life.

Bad incident but you handled it as well as one could. Your first unwanted full auto pistol is always exciting!

 

[migoi]

Incidents like this make me wonder if we should alter our loading procedure when we are off the range (as in loading a home defense or CCW firearm while in your house.)

I have a 5 gallon bucket of sand in my gun room that I always use when reloading my home defense firearm after it has been unloaded but I'm pretty sure I don't want to dump a full magazine of .40S&W in to it. Of course keeping the hits all on that circle during a surprise full auto might be a little difficult also.

I'm wondering if the best procedure might be to load one round into a magazine. Insert that magazine, chamber the round, pull the now empty mag, and insert a full mag. Using this procedure the most rounds that could fire in case of a slam fire inducing malfunction would be one...easy enough to handle.

For the record I've never had any of my firearms slam fire or go full auto nor have I had my supposedly inevitable ND.. just thinking on how to be safer.

migoi

 

[crankshop1000]

Rule #2... a three pound trigger pull on a modded sear will eventually fail.(Not that you did that, but it would account for the U/D-A/D.

 

[mbt2001]

Well, don't the oft quoted, semi unwritten rule....

Have your weapons inspected regularly by a competent gun smith. Helps the business of gun smithing, which is good cuz it is a dying art it seems and keeps your guns in top shape.