Learning from your mistakes. Your biggest OOPS moments.

A good buddy of mine (Sam, R.I.P.), wanted to see how much "air" his new 1000 f/s Chinese pellet rifle put out when shot. Yeah, not the brightest thing he ever did... The assembly oil cut a nice gash right in his palm when it came out at 1000 feet per second! I still can't believe he called me and told me he did it! Of course, I called him a dumb*** and asked him where his head was at.

 

It seems like a lot of have (myself included, big bird, didn't think I'd hit it) accidentally killed things and then learned a lesson as a result as to not kill everything you come across, stark contrast to negative stereotypes associated with hunters being trophy-seeking killing machines.

 

Biggest "Oops"

How about shipping a rifle thru the USPS...............fully loaded?

 

^^^^
wow, I might have to give you the win with that one.

 

Guns don't shoot themselves.

Your friend was no friend and the old man is uber paranoid.

I have gone downrange with loaded weapons pointed in my direction. Why?

Because I have never been shot by a gun that wasn't in human hands and I don't expect that to ever change.

You are feeling guilt for a non-sin.

 

i was a kid about 19 was in wva drinking with a friend had my dog with us. i went to bed heard him start shooting was drunk myself and didn't check to see where my dog was till i heard her yelp. i nearly killed him hada finish the dog off myself. i am death on drinking and shooting and hold myself responsible for what happened

 

I can recall a few.

1: Age 12 or so, shooting my BB gun into a pile of dirt, just so happened that a golf ball made it into the dirt (lived on the 15th fairway of our local golf course) and the bb can square back at me and got me right between the eye brows. Hurt like a mother and scared the piss outta me. If that had been my eye...

2: I consider this as equally a big OOPS as the mistakes I've made with a firearm in my hand. Only my friend made this mistake. I should have spoken up. I went to his place to see all his new gear on his Winchester 1300. We'd just picked up some cool stuff for it at the gun show. High power LED light, strap, shell holder for the stock, etc... He wanted to show me how bright the light was in my eyes, so he aimed the gun right at me and turned the light on. I said to him twice, don't ****ing aim that at me, and he said "check the strobe out" he turned on the strobe further making me blind and pissed off and I kept my cool and just walked out of the room. I wanted to slap the piss out of him and still kind of do. I should have raised hell about it to get the point across. We have to do this as gun owners even though a lot of the time egos will get bruised. It's important.

3: Some friends and I were out with .22's plinking in the woods. When it was my turn, I got up to the high point of the hill and fired away with my friends about 10 feet below me. They were in front of me, but down the hill. Two of them started immediately yelling after my second shot. Learned my lesson for sure.

4: The first time I shot my Mossberg 500 which was the first time shooting anything other than a .22. I put 7 rounds through it and was just in a trance. I was with a few friends and once I left the shooting area to return my gun to the case, I didn't point the barrel down as I was just dazed. The power, the excitement, etc... My friend had to walk up and put his finger on the barrel and aim down. I apologized all day on that one.

I think my biggest OOPS though is not putting that friend in his place for aiming that 20g at my damn head to show me a stupid flashlight...

 

Shot a goat with a BB gun 4 years ago or so about 50yds away thought it would just bounce off right? WRONG. Went in under the skin, never really had any major booboos since I was forced to take hunter education before I could have a real firearm but a few of my acquaintances have.
One of them was in his deer stand and it was time to come out(we all would leave at the same time) one of my friends was walking up to his stand, he decides to let his shotgun down so he has the great idea to tie a rope around the trigger while there was still one in the chamber, his defense: "The safety was on", WHO CARES!!!!! Thankfully my budd was about 20yds away when it went off, the guy who was at fault was banned from that lease.
Another incident, same lease, coming out of my stand, at the time I couldn't afford insulated camo so I just wore my brown coveralls, BAD IDEA, 15 mins or so later another guy came out said I walked by his stand and all he saw was brown and had his cross hairs on me 'til he saw my hat.
One more, same lease again, walking out 2 younger friends were ahead of me 75yds or so walking down the trail which goes around a bend well they walked around out of site and without my knowing stepped off the path in some bushes, I'm walking along rifle in hands down and to the left hammer down but saftey off I come around the bend and one makes a loud noise, I nearly sent a .44mag through both of them, thankfully I saw them and didn't pull the trigger but I cussed/chewed them out the whole way home, one thought I was over reacting and told his father thinking he'd think it was funny, he got an even bigger chewing called me up 15 mins latter appologizing.

 

Damn.

 

Only a few idiot moves. One or two where a friend had to remind me that, while the floor is a "safe direction" to point a pistol while clearing it, it stops being safe when his foot is in the way.

Once, very early in my gunny time (2-3 years ago) I was at the range with a buddy and his girlfriend. I had a gun or two at that point, and I had spent plenty of time at the range, but Sally (we'll call her) and I were chatting behind the last pistol bench, not paying much attention. I hear the range master call a cease fire, but apparently it was for the rifle line only (the two lines were parallel and the rangemaster's station was between them). I start strolling downrange on the pistol side...that got a cease fire called real quick on the pistol line. I was so embarassed. I packed up my stuff and sat well back from the line till everyone else was ready to leave.

 

Do's arriving at the range with your .38 and 350 rounds of 9mm count?

 

When I was a kid...

When I was a kid, we were at the summer cottage and my dad's .410 (the only gun we had) was there.

My folks went out for a while and my brothers and I had this "great idea" and we took the .410 out back and shot off a round or two.

Being careless, and not knowing much about guns and gun safety, I remember one of us shooting it so close to another's head that he mentioned he could feel the wind blow by his ear and almost deafened him.

Needless to say, we quickly put the gun away -- NOT TO EVER DO THAT AGAIN!

Someone was looking out for us that time!

SCARY!

Addendum:
The above happened in the 1960's when there were not warnings on everything we purchase. If any "anti-gun" people want to get on the bandwagon about this incident, they should also know that something else we did was start two cars that were on our property and which had the keys left in them while my folks were out and rev the engines, putting one in gear and tearing up the lawn. When my folks and the owner of one of the cars came back to leave in his car, he couldn't start it. My father questioned us as to whether we played around with the cars at all while they were out, and of course we didn't do anything like that. So, if guns are outlawed due to danger, so should motor vehicles be outlawed.

 

i guess my biggest goof up so far was when i was in my early twenties. i was in bed with my s&w 686 goofing around with it. i THOUGHT it was unloaded. i pointed at a fly on the ceiling, and pulled the hammer back, BANG! oh, cra9! fortuneately for me, it had those little plastic training rounds in it (you know, the ones that use a primer only to power the projectile). anyway, the fly was dead, and there was a dent in the ceiling of the house i was renting from my dads best freind! he never did ask about it, and i certainly didn't tell him about it! to this day i am still paranoid about repeating this scenario. i double, and sometimes tripple check to make certain a firearm is unloaded.

 

Twelve years old and shooting cans with a Crosman 760 at a friend's house. Brick wall backstop. The ricochet entered at the inside end of my right eyebrow and traveled under the skin down until it was right over the center of my right eyeball, between the outer layer of skin and the skin that is against the eyeball. The surgeon had to use scissors to snip my eyelid open and pluck the BB out with tweezers.

Didn't hurt much, but scary. Wish I'd had better guidance from my father about the 4 rules. He was adamant about Rule 2, but I don't recall hearing the other 4 until the HSE course when I turned 13.

I think, as a result of my misfortune, I've been very vigilant with my own son, to the point where he realizes he's not ready to shoot yet (4 years old). I tell him he's not allowed to shoot until he can recite the 4 rules beforehand.

 

Well it wasn't my oops, but the oops happened to me. During my first enlistment while stationed at Camp Pendleton, CA our entire battallion was caught up in the soft air craze. Think about it, realistic training for Marines, force on force and no one gets hurt. Long story short, one guy wouldn't buy a soft air and wanted to stick with his CO2 BB gun. (pistol) I was sitting in a chair with my green Marine Corps PT sweat pants. He pointed it at me. The gun was supposed to mimick a 1911 and he said the palm safety was broke, because when he pulled the trigger it was just supposed to make a noise and not shoot. Unfortunately for me it did. It lodged a steel BB into the head of my penis. Let me tell you if you haven't felt real pain before you dont wanna. That **it hurts!!!!!!!!!!! Needless to say he learned a good lesson that day. As did I, dont trust your friends.

 

The creeps....

When I was about 12 (in the late-sixties), I went over to a new friends house after school and was going to eat dinner there. I had been shooting NRA indooor range 50 foot .22 and had taken all the safety courses and all.

Anyway, this "friend" had just been given a double barrel 12 gauge and was showing it to me in his bedroom. He kept telling me to "look at the size of the barrel holes, how big they are."

I wasn't real impressed as I'd seen a lot of different guns after joining the NRA. I remember him aiming it right at my head telling me to "look down those barrels and see how big they are." I think he might have told me something to the effect of the gun could blow my head off.

I got so upset, I started crying and telling him he shouldn't be aiming the gun at anything he doesn't wish to shoot. His mother came in the room (suspecting that he had been bad with this new gift) and took it from him. When his father came home, I guess he really got reamed big time.

My folks had to come and pick me up and I never ate dinner there and never wanted to. The guy gave me the creeps after that incident.

 

this is only a couple of weeks ago. my dad has a high standard sentinel, and i was pulling back the hammer and checking it when the hammer slipped and sent a bullet 1/2" from my toe. i check to see if its loaded or not.

 

I was 12 or 13 and out in the woods in TN with my .22 Winchester. I came across an old abandoned outhouse and for some strange decided it would be a good idea to take a shot into the hole.
So I stuck the muzzle into the hole and pulled the trigger. The bullet ricocheted
off those "seasoned" boards and came right back out at me and glanced off my head. Scared the crap out of me. I've been careful ever since.

 

Mailing a loaded weapon thru the US mail.

 

Forgive me because I lol'ed at that. That sounds extremely painful.

 

Recovered a Norinco 213 from the Black Warrior River, on the campus of the University of Alabama. Pulled the magazine, took the round out of the chamber, and took the gun home. Called the three local police jurisdictions, reporting the model and serial number. Noticed the visibly-growing rust bloom. Disassembled gun, washed gun with dish soap, oiled it, and reassembled it. Cleaned and oiled mag.

Got stupid. Put remaining rounds in mag, put mag in pistol, racked slide. Ba-Bang! Double slamfire. Two holes in 2x8'' headboard. Realized why gun was in river. Almost tossed it back in.

 

A neighbor gave me a Mossberg .22 rifle as a thank-you for helping him move. It was missing a magazine and the bolt was locked open so I assumed it was unloaded.

I planned on pawning it since I already had two .22 rifles, but thought I'd might as well try the trigger on it. I cycled the bolt a few times and then let it slam forward. I pointed it at the floor and put my finger though the trigger guard...right as I was about to pull the trigger I had a nagging feeling that I'd better check the chamber again, just in case. Locked the bolt back, shined a flashlight in there and there was a live round stuck in the chamber. Could hardly see it it was so tarnished and covered in grime.

Now I always check the chamber/cylinder with a penlight and by feeling.

 

The stupidest thing I have done.....I felt so imbarresed and thought about it all day thgat day so I don't think it will happen again.

I was shooting my 4" .44 magnum for about an hour. I was sighting it in(new gun) I was loading it one shell at a time. load shell ,close cylinder, look foward, bring gun up, sight while pulling hammer back. BOOM. did this for maybe 20 or 30 rounds. the last time. I let someone or something break my concentration. Looked to my right, which brought my hands down slightly. Still pointing down range. As returned to what I was doing. I looked back down range bringing my arms up again. BOOM!!! Gun came back and smacked me in the jaw. Not hard but enough to startle me and remind me what an dumb### I was. I did not pull the trigger. I must have barely
brushed it and BOOM. All my S&W's have light triggers.

But that just reminds me more about paying attention to what I am doing.

 

1. I was showing a friend of mine my unloaded Walther P-22. He wasn't a gun person, so I was paying close attention to how he was handling the firearm. I stopped him from sweeping another friend of ours, and explained the firearms rules.

Then not 30 seconds later, I swept him as I was putting it back in it's case.

I made him jump yelp, jump back, and duck all at once and completely embarrased myself.

2. More recently, I came close to sweeping my feet with a live weapon during an IDPA course. If it hadn't been my first day, I would have disqualified myself from shooting for the rest of the meet.

3. This one bothers me the most. I propped my loaded Mossberg 590 up in the living room where my girlfriend and I were watching TV. I left for the bathroom briefly, and my poorly-propped shotgun fell over and scared the hell out of her when it landed with the barrel pointing towards her. There wasn't a shell chambered so she was safe but very pissed off at me with good reason. The fact that ANY of my weapons have had the business end pointed at her makes me cringe.

The important part is that every time, I've learned what not to do, and don't intend to repeat any of these mistakes ever again.

 

Years ago I was doing a little tinkering with my Kel-Tec P3AT, trying to smooth it out and fix a feeding problem. Hours after I quit that I was reading up on the trigger and learning how it worked. I racked the slide, pointed it in a safe direction, and gave the trigger a very slow deliberate pull so I could feel the different stages.

Trigger stopped short of breaking.

I looked at the pistol.

Yep... I'd inserted a loaded mag, forgot about it, and damned near chambered a round in the thing. Riding the slide home kept me from having an ND that night.

Got lucky with that one.