Importance of having a routine status check every time!

[Deaf Smith]

Importance of having a routine status check every time!

Aways check it. To 'Assume' is to make you-know-what out of you and me.

Most people killed in gun accidents were killed with 'unloaded' guns. Check it anytime you lay it down for a while. What I do with my CCW Glock is I turn it to show the ejection port and look for the brass to show through. Then I pop the mag to verify it's loaded and then when putting it back in to the mag well, I hear the 'click' as it seats and then I pull a bit to make sure the mag is properly locked in.

Wheelguns are easier. Open cylinder, inspect, close cylinder (and yep I do like a good snubby.)

And no doubt a few have been killed cause the guns they thought were loaded, weren't!

Give you an example:

Lt. John George (became a Col. later) was in Burma part of the 5307th, and he was issued a nifty M1 Carbine. Being a gun nut he didn't like the protruding 15 shot mag so he cut one down to a 5 shot and carried it on patrol. Sure enough he got into a firefight and 'forgot' his gun only held 5, not 15.

He wrote that after that he always carried a 15 rounder in the rifle.

And then there was the case of the GI who pulled his .45 and instead of hearing a bang... he heard a click (chamber empty.)

And least we not forget, Skeeter Skelton (later to become sheriff of Deaf Smith County) was on an island in the Pacific in WW2. Approaching some Japanese he slowly reached down to his M1 Carbine and pressed the safety off (it was the push button safety type).

Well instead of a 'click' he heard a 'thunk'. That thunk was his magazine hitting the ground. He had pressed the mag release instead.

Know your weapons thoroughly. Know their status by heart but then always check after setting them down for a while to make sure the status has not changed. And also, don't modify your gun to make it 'nifty' to carry but short on ammo.

Deaf

 

[Hangingrock]

And least we not forget, Skeeter Skelton (later to become sheriff of Deaf Smith County) was on an island in the Pacific in WW2. Approaching some Japanese he slowly reached down to his M1 Carbine and pressed the safety off (it was the push button safety type).

Unless otherwise corrected Skeeter Skelton served in the USMC 1945-1946 occupation duty in China.

 

[Warp]

I carry condition one. When I get home I remove from holster, drop the mag, rack the slide, (when I'm feeling cool I catch the bullet)

Pertinent discussion from a different, recent thread:

...The proper procedure is to rack the slide or charging handle of whatever firearm and eject the last live round from the chamber. LET THE ROUND FALL. There's a non-zero chance of having it hit the ejector right on the primer and have an inadvertent discharge if you try to flip-and-catch or cover the ejection port with your hand to try to keep that round from hitting the ground...

Sam,

I'm going to quote this just so there's double the chance of a lurker reading it.

That's one of the most common mistakes I see shooters make on the line when doing RSO duties (besides having bugger picker on the bang switch when they aren't supposed to)

 

[Deaf Smith]

Well in Shooting Times he wrote about that incident I mentioned.

"And he is mentioned as having joined the Marines in World War II."

http://www.guns.com/2011/10/19/from...-skeeter-skelton-and-other-early-gun-writers/

And since the M1 carbine didn't come out to 43, he defiantly could have been issued one.

Deaf

 

[Hangingrock]

Deaf Smith I said that in my post USMC 1945-1946 occupation duty in China. Since Skelton was born in May 1, 1928 he would have been Seventeen in 1945. He would not have gotten to the Pacific until the later part of (1945 VJ Day August 15)