Have you ever had a gun break at the range?

[Ethan Verity]

Have you ever had a gun break while shooting it at the range?

I'm not talking about a simple feeding malfunction (tap, rack, and you're back), I mean something physically breaks and turns your gun into a paperweight until it can be repaired/replaced at a later time.

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I have been shooting for years, and never had this happen... until recently.
In just the last month, it has happened to me twice! I take excellent care of my guns, and inspect them thoroughly while cleaning after each range session, but these breaks still happened.

This has reinforced to me why having a backup gun is a good idea. I just know with my luck, my good'ol reliable primary sidearm will have some random critical part break exactly when I need it most!

Anyway, here are the details:
Walther PPK: Trigger bar snapped in half while shooting. This was a new production model.

NAA 22 Short. Hammer spring snapped in half while shooting.

 

[Bazoo]

I've had 2 NAA mini revolvers that broke the hammer spring. I think I was dry firing them both times. NAA was kind enough to send me replacement springs and walked me through the changing process the first time.

Had the extractor break in an sks.

I had a marlin 60 hiccup and come to find out, had one of the hammer ears broken off when I took it down for cleaning several hundred rounds later.

Had the forearm bolt shear off on a marlin 1894c shooting heavy reloads.

I had a chip come out of an 870 express bolt where the locking lug cut is. Remington, 20 years ago, replaced the bolt for me.

 

[bersaguy]

Oh yeah....I've broken the extractor on a 1911, had a Bersa 380 lose an e clip that retains the trigger bar, had taurus TCP that had a trigger that would not reset, had a Llama that was basically a paperweight before I got to the range......

 

[redcon1]

I broke the actual hammer on my DPMS Recon and the bolt catch on my Armalite AR10T. It was below zero when the hammer broke and I think it was brittle fracture caused by cold temperatures and crappy MIM. that or my load was too hot. I don't knoiw why the Armalite broke. Maybe it just broke. After that hammer broke, I think it's good to push your firearms and other critical gear to the limit in extremely cold weather so you can find their weaknesses and fix them. I have seen cold weather break other gear too.

 

[bersaguy]

Ooo, oooo, forgot about long guns.....had a single shot 12 ga of questionable lineage disassemble itself after firing, broken extractor on an Ithaca M37, had a Mossberg 500 lock up tighter than a drum after a few hundred rounds without cleaning.

 

[NIGHTLORD40K]

RFI .308 Enfield- stock broke at the lower band, sent the muzzle cap and handguard 15yd downrange.
Polish PPS43- receiver latch failed, bolt and spring flew over my shoulder, magazine fell out, spewing rounds everywhere.
Beretta M92- barrel lug broke.
Walther TPH- broken firing pin.
Bersa .380- hammer snapped in half.
Marlin 80E- bolt sleeve over rotated, jumping the trigger sear. Couldn't open the bolt or discharge the gun. Live round stuck in the chamber.....
Yugoslav SKS- gas shutoff valve blew out
Norinco SKS- safety lever snapped, jamming trigger.

 

[D.B. Cooper]

Had a Universal M1 Carbine (commercial made M1 Carbine copy receiver using a mix of copy and GI parts) throw the extractor claw across the range once. (That gun is gone.) Had a USGI Garand break a trigger pin. That's about all.

 

[Bazoo]

I had an NEF that broke the transfer bar pin. Back when marlin owned them, marlin fixed it for me through the gunshop I bought it from.

 

[unclenunzie]

Ruger lcp disassembly pin retainer spring, naa guardian trigger spring, cz75b trigger spring, hellcat striker. Others I can't recall. Small parts breakage will happen if you shoot enough, dry fire enough, or just get a bad part. I have moved toward two copies of carry guns so a vetted spare is always available.

 

[JCooperfan1911]

Twice. The hammer broke on a Bersa .380 and the next was when a Polish P64’s triggerguard snapped during firing and collapsed inwards pinning the trigger forward. Also had the trigger bar break on a brand new LCP2 in less than 80 rounds fired. Those are just the ones I can’t think of off the top of my head.

 

[WestKentucky]

Had an AR pistol that had the selector slightly off from square. The first time I took it to the range I had it stringing and running away. Not necessarily broke, but certainly not doing what I wanted it to do. An ambidextrous safety held it in proper alignment so it was an easy fix.

 

[mcb]

Several times, especially in competition.

 

[GAinKY]

Hammer mounted firing pin on a S&W.
Locking lug on a T/C Encore.
Base pin latch on a Super Blackhawk Hunter.

 

[Dirtybob]

Trigger spring tension screw backed out on a turkish single shot 12 ga. of mine.
Had a tiny piece of brass from a squib .22 round (case ruptured) make it's way underneath the trigger mechanism such that it wouldn't drop the hammer. Only took it 5 months to get down there, I think it was waiting until I didn't bring anything else to shoot...

 

[.38 Special]

My trick is making handguns go full auto. Three times over the decades. Funny how much excitement that causes, here in SoCal.

 

[entropy]

I got my start working on shotguns because the 1100 my Dad let me use was beat to heck. I usually had to fix it in the duck blind; for Trap one getting one shot off is only a problem for doubles.
M16A1- Not so much broke as way overlubed with LSA, and used on a zero degree Minnesota day. Had to pop it open and wipe the BCG on my first aid bandage (only rag I had handy.) in the middle of a BFA 'firefight'.
Not my gun, but I was shooting a friends' Mosin he'd just bought, and the JB welded scope & mount popped off and hit me in the noggin.
PT1911-Series 80 link broke, jammed the whole thing up. I put a T&S shim kit in it, haven't had a problem with it since them.
I bring a small Armorer kit with me to the range every time. I've got a lot of other people's guns shooting again with some simple work.

My trick is making handguns go full auto. Three times over the decades. Funny how much excitement that causes, here in SoCal.

Didn't happen to me, but I saw an SKS go full auto; the cosmoline had fused the firing pin sticking in the bolt, the guy let the bolt go, and to his credit, he didn't hit anyone or thing except the berm. I took it in the house and tore it apart and fixed that, after about 5 minutes of laughing.

The "biggest" one I had to work on (again, not my doing, it was the Armorer of the unit the M60's belonged to) was about a dozen M60's that the gas piston (puck) was put in backwards when assembled after they were received from Anniston. The Armorer who did that compounded his error by forgetting hit Armorer kit. I, who had just gone along to get some M60 trigger time, brought mine with, so I had to cut the wire and rewire all those gas covers after I flipped the pucks over.

 

[.38 Special]

Didn't happen to me, but I saw an SKS go full auto; the cosmoline had fused the firing pin sticking in the bolt, the guy let the bolt go, and to his credit, he didn't hit anyone or thing except the berm. I took it in the house and tore it apart and fixed that, after about 5 minutes of laughing.

You know those holes in the ceiling at the indoor range, that make you wonder how much of a dumb@ss some guys must be? That was me, with a 1911. (The first one was on paper...)

 

[Archie]

Had a case fail when fired in a H&K USP Compact. Last shot at a bowling pin match. Didn't seem odd, except the slide didn't return normally and it 'felt funny'. No over normal report. The Match official some where within 10 feet (behind me) didn't notice anything odd. The case head came off the fired case, broke the extractor and lost the extractor spring.
I did hit the bowling pin and it fell properly.

Upon examination, the barrel and chamber was not hurt or visibly scratched. Had to coax the body of the case out of the chamber, but it was not stuck. I did get a replacement extractor and spring and put it all back together myself. Shot the gun again, no problem.

Have the broken parts (both sections of the case and extractor) in a pill bottle.

 

[starling]

Too many to list. Most of the time its small parts breakage. Never Had a Kaboom. Cracked a few slides and frames but its nothing serious. I am pretty dilligent about doing complete breakdowns when cleaning so I catch things going wrong early on most of the time.

Most irritating is probably fire control springs snapping out of nowhere. Hard to spot that stuff before it happens.

Yes.. carrying a secondary is not a bad or radical thing. So many small options now its almos

 

[mokin]

I've had a few that I was sure I had broken. I got them home, took them apart, very carefully to look for the pieces, started wiping off grime, kept wiping off grime... No broken parts. They just needed a good cleaning.

 

[redneck]

Walther PK380 I bought for my girlfriend to get started on a centerfire. First time we shot it was out on a farm and it had quite a bit of extraction problems but if you made it through a whole mag it shot pretty well.
2nd time we had it out was at an indoor range- 2nd mag and it spit the extractor out. The pin and extractor were both launched into parts unknown and it was much too busy of a range to go looking for them.

 

[JohnKSa]

I don't think I've ever had a gun actually break and become non-functional while it was at the range, but I have had a gun that wouldn't shoot when I got it to the range. It was a Ruger P97. The little internal lever that pushes up on the firing pin safety was defective. It was a hair too short and it wouldn't push the block up far enough to let the firing pin pass. Ruger sent me another part at no charge, but I still wasted a range trip.

 

[AzShooter1]

More times than I'd like to remember so now I take 2 guns with me whenever I go shooting.

A few months ago the top end of my Black Mamba had a piece of metal break off. A quick trip back to Volquartsen and all was fixed.

Last match I had a round fire out of battery and my bolt fell apart with the extractor and plunger spring headed to parts unseen.

Having a spare saved me.

 

[DustyGmt]

I was running my AR particularly hard (for me) one afternoon and when I got home I discovered a busted gas ring. Not exactly sure what apecifically occurred to cause this and it didn't effect function.
in any case, now I keep pretty much a full assortment of replacement parts for many of my guns.

 

[Kevinq6]

I've had a used shotgun break on me at the range. It was a used defensive shotgun. I would say it depends on your experience and who you got it from but I think if someone or some entity decided to trade out a gun due to age, that is not something you would want to trust your life with. That and a new pump shotgun is not too expensive. I think now I would have more experience to choose a good used gun, but at the time I was just a newcomer thinking pumps were reliable etc.