negligent discharge

[taraquian]

Okay so I'm an idiot. Now that we have that out of they way I'll tell you what happened. My wife and I were talking about her shooting or lack thereof, she has fibromayalgia and has difficulty racking the slide. Upon returning home I went to my gun room and began racking slides to find the easiest one, then for comparison I picked up my HD weapon and racked the slide.

BANG! I honestly don't know what happened, my finger was on the trigger:banghead:but I do not know if I pulled it. If I didnt pull the trigger what happened? Should I change HD weapon until this is resolved? Or did my openimg statement sum it up?

Mostly I need to make sure this does NOT happen again. Any suggestions?

 

[Swing]

Yikes!

You don't mention what the HD piece was, but assuming its a quality pistol, you most likely did indeed pull the trigger and the resulting "bang" occurred. Good reason to not put your finger on the trigger until its time to put lead down range.

That aside, everyone OK? Any LEOs show up?

 

[22-rimfire]

I would take that weapon somewhere safe (like out in the woods) and repeatedly rack the slide and use various scenarios until you are convinced the gun is safe, functions correctly, and is dependable. You need to figure out what happened.

On the discharge, stuff happens. Glad nobody was hurt.

I suspect your finger was on the trigger.

 

[Mrcymstr]

I think an important detail might be what exactly the weapon in question is. Personally since your finger was on the trigger my first thought would be a run of the mill ND. But you can run a function test like I (and I assume many others) do after cleaning and reassembly.

This is the list I do on my carry 1911 so the steps may differ depending on your weapon
*** triple check unloaded and visually and manually inspect chamber ***
1) rack the slide and dry-fire (or snap cap)
2) rack the slide, apply saftey, and pull trigger
3) disengage safety move palm away from grip safety and try to pull trigger with the grip safety disengaged
4) dry-fire and hold the trigger. While holding the trigger rack the slide

A similar dry test may ease your mind.

-------

Also your not an idiot, you screwed up but no harm was done so take it as a lesson. We can learn from our mistakes or beat ourselves to death over them. The high road lies on the former rather than the latter.

 

[taraquian]

No the police never came which concerns me a bit since I live intown. The piece is a Bersa Thunder380. It was my second gun ever and has never malfunctioned in the decade I havehad it. Pretty sure it was me but I have not been able to get to therange to try and recreate the event.

 

[taraquian]

Well the dry test wont work without snapcaps. Last round hold open was one of the features I wanted in that gun, never thought it would tick me off.

I am concerned about my proceedure. Perhaps my HD gun should not be on display (in a locked walk in gun room)? The room doubles as a safe room and is easily accessible via biometric lock. The magizines grip extension is painted red to denote its a hot mag and it has always been that gun that is kept loaded yet I still fired one off.

At least I know my saferoom is bulletproof

 

[Mrcymstr]

can't you bypass the last round hold open by dropping the magazine out and leaving it out or is there something about the bersa I don't know about?

 

[taraquian]

The trigger disengages with themag out. However there was something odd, the safety seems to have developed a third position between safe and fire. I think it maybe time for her to go to a smith, I had already replaced the trigger spring and mag catch spring. I put about 50 rounds a month through it now but it was about 50/wk for the first fewyears.

 

[Mrcymstr]

The trigger disengages with themag out. However there was something odd, the safety seems to have developed a third position between safe and fire. I think it maybe time for her to go to a smith, I had already replaced the trigger spring and mag catch spring. I put about 50 rounds a month through it now but it was about 50/wk for the first fewyears.

Then I'll equip my proprietary dunce cap and sit on the corner.

On a side not maybe the new third position is 3 round burst

 

[Hunter125]

Not too sure about the Bersa, but the PPK recall that went down a few years ago was because in some odd cases the decocker would cause a round to fire. My dad's PPK automatically decocks when you rack the slide with the safety on, so in your experimentation you might try that.
Not sure if your Bersa behaves the same or not, but you might check into it.

 

[Owen Sparks]

It is a myth that the police will respond to an indoor gunshot like they do on TV. Anyone outside will not likely recognize the noise because it will sound like a dull thump. Insulation does a pretty good job of muffeling sound. I was once visiting a buddy in college who lived in a a cheap appartment when the guy next door had a ND with a .38 Special. I was physicaly no more than fifteen or twenty feet away from the shot but I did not recognize the sound and at the time I was a competitive shooter. It sounded like a kid had bounced a basketball off the wall or something. I never would have known what it was except that the neighbor came over to see if everyone was OK. He never did find where the bullet went.

 

[WALKERs210]

I have one of the Bersa 380's and thank goodness never an issue with it. I did have a semi-auto shotgun discharge once in a closed bedroom (killed an antique piece of furniture) while chambering a round turned out the firing pin was broke and it slid forward enough to set off the cap. One friend had purchased a rare .25cal semi-auto pistol when he racked the slide it went off, and he was not a run of the mill guy with a odd gun, possibley the best gunsmith I ever knew. Never did track down what caused that on to discharge. Most important is you or anyone else was injured.

 

[taraquian]

Mrcymstr, no cap required. I DID havemy finger on the trigger so I was not innocent. No one was hurt other than the fact my ear is still ringing. I think my son who was in the next room is going to be even better with his gun handling, he has in the past failed to check his chamber...don't think he will again.

 

[Warp]

What happened? You pulled the trigger on a loaded gun. That tends to happen when you use negligence in gun handling.

Keep your fingers out of the trigger guard.

 

[Serenity]

Thank you for coming in and ratting yourself out and leaving yourself open to comments; I appreciate the reminder.

 

[Warp]

Thank you for coming in and ratting yourself out and leaving yourself open to comments; I appreciate the reminder.

Also this.

Plenty of people to benefit from reminders out here on the internet.

Well, anywhere, really.

 

[Rampant_Colt]

ND aside, your wife should try using a revolver.. because there's no slide..

 

[skeeziks]

You don't need to take the gun into the woods...you don't need to recreate anything.
You didn't exactly "pull" the trigger.... Here's what happened: When you racked the slide, the recoil from the slide hitting home actually shoved the trigger into your finger.
It'll happen every time...if your finger is where it's not supposed to be.

 

[toivo]

My dad's PPK automatically decocks when you rack the slide with the safety on, so in your experimentation you might try that.

Not sure if your Bersa behaves the same or not, but you might check into it.

Yes, the Bersas will automatically decock when you rack the slide with the safety on. You might say that it never actually cocks: the hammer just follows the slide forward.

But I think skeeziks nailed it: Racking the slide is a fairly aggressive movement, and having your finger on the trigger while doing it is a recipe for ND.

 

[toivo]

dupe

 

[taraquian]

Skeeziks i think you have it. I have the gun apart and when in the "third" position the hammer wont strike. That just leaves my boogerminer as the culprit.

Thanks for the input and for not ridiculingme too much

 

[skeeziks]

Hey...we're only Human. ~

But seriously.... We must all practice safe gun-handling. And when I say "Practice" I mean Drills...over & over again until it becomes automatic.

The "keeping finger off trigger 'til ready to fire" part is already taken care of...you'll probably never do that again....

But if you can become practiced in NEVER letting the muzzle point in an unsafe direction, you should be ok.

Take Care & Good (safe) Shooting.

 

[Warp]

The rules are designed with overlap for a reason. Even though you follow rule #2, you still have to follow rule #3. All of them, all the time.

 

[coalman]

Okay so I'm an idiot. Now that we have that out of they way I'll tell you what happened. My wife and I were talking about her shooting or lack thereof, she has fibromayalgia and has difficulty racking the slide. Upon returning home I went to my gun room and began racking slides to find the easiest one, then for comparison I picked up my HD weapon and racked the slide.

BANG! I honestly don't know what happened, my finger was on the triggerbut I do not know if I pulled it. If I didnt pull the trigger what happened? Should I change HD weapon until this is resolved? Or did my openimg statement sum it up?

Mostly I need to make sure this does NOT happen again. Any suggestions?

Yes, you pulled the trigger with 99.9999999% certainty. Guns fire when the trigger is pulled. Avoid that unless desired. Keep your finger off the trigger.

An easy error some NDs make is failing to drop the mag. They cycle the slide then pull of the trigger, just as they've done many times before. But, a round is in the chamber because step 1 was not to drop the mag and step 2 was not checking the chamber. Those two steps would keep the ND from happpening. Confidence is a short step from carelessness.

One solution is a gun with a manual safety that stays on when the slide is racked. A Beretta comes to mind. The better solution is to keep your finger off the trigger though.

 

[Sav .250]

Valuable lesson learned.