Most embarassing firearm purchase, experience, etc.

[ratcollector]

went to a gun show with some of my buddys decided to buy our vet (dog dr) a grad present and picked out a nice black hawk. bought a hundred rounds of 38 and and had the barrel engraved. He was excited and we all went to the range. once there we found out it had a 9mm cylinder. should learn to look closer. got him some new ammo and he has it to this day

 

[4thPointOfContact]

For me it was the purchase of a Calico M-900 carbine. It's a neat little thing that has either a 50-round or 100-round helical feed magazine on top. (Think of a single-stack magazine wrapped up like a car's coil spring). I bought it for my wife because it was the lightest 9mm carbine I could find.

It worked...mostly, but it would occasionally double; which may have been a break-in problem. I didn't have enough confidence in it for real-world use and the construction was a bit on the less-than-sturdy side. I traded it in for a Glock 23 later on.

 

[evan price]

I was at the outdoor ODNR range one drizzly late autumn say shooting one of my FALs when a guy takes the bench beside me and takes out an AK. He said he'd never seen or shot a FAL before, and wondered how hard they were to clean. I cracked it open and for some reason turned the gun upside down while it was broken open and >splat< the bolt carrier & bolt slid out and landed in a mud puddle. The rat-tail stuck in the mud straight down. Would have been funny except I didn't have anything to wipe it clean with except my shirt.

 

[WardenWolf]

Popped the top cover off my new Romak-3 while inspecting it at the dealer and couldn't get it back on. The guy showed me how to get it back on. Typically Soviet, it required a mild whack.

 

[Autopistola]

#1 I picked up a .22 revolver my Dad had left sitting by the back door to pick off rabbits from the garden. I violated the rule "assume that every gun is loaded," and fired a round into the cabinet right above the fridge. A tiny hole resides in that cabinet door next to the hinge and nobody has noticed it to this very day (good because I am rightfully embarrased).

#2 A young friend of mine fell in love with a Pheonix Arms HP22 at a gun show. The damned thing was filthy and worn out, but it sold for $160 (more than a new one) and I gifted it to him. I got nervous when he would joke about shooting people with it, but eventually got it back in my possession because he owed me money. Still a POS, but now more reliable with a cracked slide. Pheonix Arms will probably give me a free replacement should I care enought to return it.

 

[turnyourback]

One time was out at the range and i was firing my glock 27 at the time and i heard a little scream next to me, apperently my shell casing went down the girls shirt that was firing next to me.....

haha, i did the same thing, but to myself. it wasn't embarrassing as much as just funny. i still have a little scar from the .45 shell casing. i learned not to wear low cut shirts while shooting after that.

 

[dispatch55126]

Farm Stories

1. Found a box of authentic Spencer rounds in great grandma's room. Took them into the barn, popped off the bullets, poured the powder on the "straw covered" floor and lit the blackpowder. Somehow, the barn didn't burn down and now I have no rounds for the Spencer, which my father still owns.

2. 15 years ago, a friend and I build a potato gun but were running short of ammo so we started firing half a potato and cans of soup, oats, ect. 6 months later, it was still on the side of the barn and guess who had to scrub it off.

3. Use to load 10+ BB's into the chamber and try to hit barn swallows as they left the cow pens. Never hit a bird but shot out several barn windows (anyone seeing a common theme).

4. My father has never bought a gun but has several that are from the 20's (family heirlooms). Every fall, I take one home to fully strip, clean and repair as needed. I then function check them in the spring with my father standing 50 feet behind me. His thought process is eventually, one will blow up and someone needs to drive to the hospital.

This is dumb but to show a change in times, I remember walking down the highway as a kid with my rifle and passing cops would wave and sometimes sounds their sirens.

 

[CSestp]

#1 Out of all my friends I was the only hunter, so therefor I was the only "expert" in the field of guns. My buddy had just gotten a 12 gauge pistol grip w/o a stock. We went to the range and was trying out his new scatter gun. Nobody was able to hit anything with it. I told them "Let me show you how to really shoot a gun." I pulled it up like I was shooting a duck (looking down the sights) let her off, and for some reason I thought I was going to look cool if I rapid fired her, pumped another round into the chamber. Well I still have the scar above my lip to remind me to just hip fire the damn thing.

#2 I had a friend who liked to have Hunter S. Thompson moments. Well in one of his moments he let off a .357 Mag in a 750 square foot aprt. towards his TV. My ears still ring when I think of that time. It was still pretty funny seeing 5 people run out side and figure out what to do before the cops show up when non of them can hear anything.

 

[shimniok]

I'll fess up... first time on the range with the M39 Finn, many months after checking headspace... Work the bolt and chamber a round ... Line up the sights downrange... pull the trigger... <click>

I forgot the mental note I made months prior to adjust the firing pin before shooting it... I gave the cartridge a little time... the half dent in the primer never set it off.

But hey -- at least I didn't flinch!

Michael

 

[4thPointOfContact]

Boomer....or at least that became his nickname after everyone learned about the experience.

Boomer and I were working down in Mobile and staying at the Battleship Inn which I believe is a Best Western. We had finished our week's work and were going to go shooting on Saturday.
Saturday morning comes and Boomer comes down to my room where I'm playing a PC game on my laptop. As I'm defeating the minions of Darkness I observe Boomer open the gun rug, count out 6 rounds and place them into his pocket. We converse for a moment longer and then while he's practicing his sight picture -BOOM!- And I do a quick check to see if I still have all my limbs intact. Looking up, there's Boomer with the goofiest, guiltiest abso-fracking-lutely Dumbest look on his face and you can literally see the thought process going on behind his eyes. "I...put...the...shells...in...my.....p o c k e t ! ! ? ?" Yeah, apparently he HAD but he had also sorta neglected to clear his Smith & Wesson 29 .44 Magnum before waving it around.

With our ears ringing we surveyed the room and found a small chunk missing from the ceiling and a smaller chunk from a wall. We opened the window and tried to get the smoke and smell out of the room. Kinda sounds like what people do when doing a little marijuana doesn't it? We're (correction, HE's) desperate to eliminate any evidence of wrongdoing, I'm waiting for the knock on the door from the management telling us to ****.

After a quick conference, we decide the best course of action is to put the Do Not Disturb sign on the door, and to sneak out past the front desk, hiding out until it gets dark. We open the door and right in front of us is the cleaning lady. YIKES!

"Is everything okay, boys? Y'all need your room made up or clean towels?"
"Uhhhh... mm.. No Ma'am! we're good, don't need a thing, thanks, bye, see you later!"

We talked about it as soon as we made the safety of the parking lot. Why didn't anyone report gun shots, why didn't anyone Notice the loud noise?

The working theory we came up with is this. There's a loud noise that no one was expecting and it caught them by surprise. They put turn down the tv, or put down whatever they were doing and listen carefully to see what it was. Nothing further is heard. They say to themselves "What was that, a gunshot? firecracker? Did I really hear that? I don't hear any more gunshots, I don't hear any sirens.... if I don't hear anything in the next five minutes I'll just pretend not to have noticed it."

It could easily have been much worse, one of the targets he had in his sights was the screen on my laptop. We could also have been in another hotel, one that wasn't constructed with such a complete concrete shell and the bullet could have penetrated the room and into the next floor.

 

[DRZinn]

anyone seeing a common theme

So you're saying you can hit the broad side of a barn?

 

[john44402]

I walked into the gun store yesterday to purchase another 25 mag for the 10/22 and walked out with a Mosin-Nagant

That's not too bad.

Read the add yesterday for a Big 5 Sporting Goods sale. Mosin's for $99. Sheesh can't go wrong. Hey, it shoots 7.62x52R. Hmmm, that sounds like an East-Block designation for 308.

Errr...not so.

 

[scythefwd]

Hey, I saw a Mosin yesterday for 80. I almost made a mistake and bought it.... THEN I realized that there was no front sight post There was only the ramp with the dovetail missing.. hehehehehehe.

 

[subknave]

"One time was out at the range and i was firing my glock 27 at the time and i heard a little scream next to me, apperently my shell casing went down the girls shirt that was firing next to me..... "

You should have asked if you could get the casing back to reload.

I went to the gun range with my brand new never shot semiauto AK. Load up a magazine, put it in, rack the bolt. Line up the sights and pull the trigger. BAM, BAM. What the heck? did it just fire two rounds or did I just hear somebody else?? Operate the bolt and an unfired round comes out. OK, line it up and pull the trigger, BAM, BAM. WHAT THE HECK!! I take off the top cover and the hammer is all the way forward. I was like holy ****. I was just lucky it didn't just keep shooting until it ran out of ammo. Apparently the hammer had a slight ridge on it which kept the sear from fully engaging. Once I filed that off it worked fine.

 

[Grassman]

We were sitting in a duck blind at 5a.m. just got the decoys out, sitting in the blind and loading my 870. It was cold and I guess my gloves tripped the trigger, right over my buddies head sitting next to me. Not real funny at the time, but a very good lesson in gun safety. That never happened again, my buddy was deaf for an hour.

 

[Dr. Tad Hussein Winslow]

At the range one time, shooting my Kel Tec P3AT - was getting erratic accuracy. Guy next to me gets to talking with me - he points out that my ammo is .32 acp, not .380 - I had forgotten that 7.65mm is .32, not .38 -

I was looking at an RWS 34 airgun on the used gun rack. I wanted to check the trigger to see if it was metal or plastic...As I was checking it I pulled the trigger in the process...BOOM!

Who cocked it - you or someone else?

 

[Grassman]

I'll post this in place of my buddy, actually happened to him. Duck hunting again, sitting in the duck blind right about shooting time.I drew on some mallards and all I hear was "thunk". The steel shot just rolled out of the end of the barrel with the wadding stuck in the end of the gun in the choke. I borrowed my buddy's leatherman to dig the wadding out of the end of the gun, then the knife collapsed and I really cut the crap out of my hand, damn near to the bone, blood just pouring out. My buddy looked over at me, got white as a sheet and passed clean out! Ruined his whole day, we still give him hell about it. I guess I had gotten my shells wet putting out decoys because it happened again that day.

 

[Grassman]

I'm not ashamed to admit it, I own a Hi-Point .380, only paid $100 for it, and it has never jammed.

 

[steve jackson]

Only once...

Saturday after Thanksgiving, 1977 - Waldo Ohio. Two buddies from high school and I went "bird" hunting. It was like 90 bellow with the wind chill. I had an old Mossburg 16 ga. bolt action I had borrowed from my Explorer Post leader.
This was the fifth time I had been hunting - no hunter safety course in Ohio then!
Wind started to blow my hat off as we were walking down the rarilroad tracks back to the car. Put the gun between my legs - barrel pointing up - and started to fix my hat.....BOOM!!!!!! Yep - up two feet and back 10 - almost down six.
Laid on those tracks for and hour and a half while my friend ran to the car and then drove to the nearest farm house to get help and call an ambulance.
Went to Marion General hospital for 10 days.... another week in Columbus.
Funny thing.... that was 31 years ago today..... seems like it was yesterday.
Been a great ride ever since - going goose hunting in a few minutes.
Gods Blessings to all!!!!

 

[FM12]

My boss caries a Taurus...on duty. (Heavy sigh, head down)

 

[2nd 41]

I bought a Mossberg Cruiser at Sports Authority in Phila years ago. Got walked to the door....I said to the manager I need a bag to cover the box up. You're worried about me but I'm more concerned with the people in the parking lot seeing my purchase and considering robbing it from me. She gave me a large trash bag to put it in.

Most embarrassing experience: Decided to play kitchen gunsmith one rainy day and took apart a Savage Shot Gun. No instruction booklet on hand. Could not reassemble. Took it to a local gunsmith....told him it self destructed. Both got a good laugh.

 

[larrybob42]

Many years ago, I made my first gun trade. I traded 5 gunshow specials all worth less than $100 each I had been "collecting" for a beautiful nickle Colt Python. (The fellow I traded with was'nt much smarter than me) I kept it for about a month and found it could'nt hit the broadside of a barn (actually the shooter was the problem). Then I noticed a crack in the frame. I was devastated. By the time I found out the crack was really just where the frame comes apart I had myself convinced that it was a lemon. I traded it to my local gunshop even up for a Ruger P89 9mm. One of my biggest regrets. The gunshop owner was very happy with that deal. I got him back a few years later but thats another story. Larry

 

[john917v]

While hunting bushytails with a friend, we stopped a minute to look far out. We both had our .22s pointing downwards, but my finger was outside the trigger guard, and the chamber was empty, his finger was on the trigger, and the chamber had a resident. Suddenly, we heard a CRACK! and we both look down to see a pencil-sized hole in the earth about 6" from his foot! Gun safety works!

 

[Well-Armed Lamb]

4thPointOfContact: your embarrassing incident confirms Boothroyd's Conjecture. Geoffrey Boothroyd, the late gun writer who served as Ian Fleming's technical consultant after writing to point out that the .25 Beretta was an extremely poor choice of firearm for James Bond, told Fleming that he believed that it was possible to get away with a single unsuppressed gunshot in a hotel room.

I've read that Boothroyd actually tested his hypothesis by booking a hotel room in London and firing a handgun round into a log in the fireplace.

 

[Demitrios]

Long time reader, first time poster (AND JUST BOUGHT MY FIRST REVOLVER A DAN WESSON 15-2 WHOOHOO). Anyway, the local gun store/sporting goods place by me, Ramsey Outdoor Store are full of "experts" i.e. "Double action is only for cops who don't know anything!". I was around 17 and my brother was 22 and had just gotten out of the Marine Corps. He wanted to look at an AR 15. Now my brother is the resident expert in the house and the guy behind the counter is basically talking to my brother like he's an idiot. So the phone rings and the clerk excuses himself to get it. As soon as his back was turned my brother field stripped the AR 15 and left it disassembled on the counter. When the clerk came back he had a shocked look on his face while my brother said, "Dude I have no idea what I just did or how to put this thing back together.", turned on one heel and we walked right out the door. I bet the dude was futzing around with it for an hour.