Okay, I will confess a horrible sin in the hopes ...

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I had the same thing happen in a Ruger security six .22. Loading six rounds through a gate and then trying to drop the hammer is just as hard, although there is more hammer to get a grip on. Murphy's law applies to everything as we both found out.

I was just a kid in my teenage years and was reloading after some quick draw practice. Sitting down with my legs crossed I almost took out my knee. Bullet embedded itself in some molding around the furnace register 10 feet away. My thumb just slipped.

With my eyes wide open looking at the trajectory I think I missed my knee by about a half an inch. From that point forward decocking anything on a live round I think I paid more attention to this action than I think I did conceiving my kids.

Yes, I still do sometimes decock my DA/SA autos however I don't carry. I also leave them cocked and locked in the strong box I keep them in just in case. I also store them with a full magazine with no round in the chamber. It kinda just depends on the mood I'm in.

It took me something like 10 years after the fact and when my folks remodeled their home to confessing to the mysterious hole in the wall. Been wanting to share this with those that have been as embarrassed as I was, without having heinous events, for a long time. Glad no one was hurt!!
 
Don't feel that bad. Years ago when I was young and stupid, I accidentally fired a Ruger .22 auto while it was in my right pants pocket. I felt a burning on my leg and dropped my jeans to reveal a red line down my thigh where the bullet just burned the skin. I can't ever remember being that scared. It taught me a lesson though. I am now a freak about safety, to the point of pissing people off, but I don't care. We're both lucky. Sometimes you only get one mistake when it comes to a firearm.
 
i have had a simular expirence with my .22 heritage single action revolver it says right on the barrelkeep empty chamber under hammer but stupid me i didnt listen was out hunting jumped off a log and boom the dirt next to me blew up i almost took my foot off now i keep a empty chamber under the hammer
 
Years ago I was shooting a friends Marlin 44 magnum leveraction carbine in a misting rain. I was going to lower the hammer on a live round then set it to safe position. My thumb slipped on the hammer due to the rain on it. Fortunately the rifle was pointed in a safe direction. I have been gunshy (pun intended) about letting the hammer down on a loaded chamber ever since. Thanks for sharing you may save someone else some pain.
 
I don't like to lower 1911 hammers onto a loaded chamber, either, precisely for this reason. This would have been easier with the original design's short grip safety tang and long spur hammer, but with a beavertail and a rounded skeletonized hammer, not so much.
 
Well, things like that happen. We're all human.

Years and years ago, just after I'd bought two .357s and a .22LR, I had them all out working on them. I'd unloaded one of the .357s and had gotten all ready to take it apart (they were Rugers). I'd had no training in guns at that time, but thought I could be SAFE, but as I sadly learned, you have to have RULES.

I was in college at the time and President Carter had just gotten on TV and was giving one of his cum-by-yah let's unilaterally disarm our nook-ū-lĕr weapons and maybe other countries will follow suit. As I listened, I found myself getting hotter, until I picked up the wrong gun, pointed dead center on the TV screen and said, "[Expletive] you!" and pulled the trigger.

Well, the gun went off and blew the television to kingdom come. Time stood still and I thought the Earth was opening up under me. It all happened in an instant and was over. Luckily, all I lost was a television and a good deal of pride. I gave the television to a friend who said he might be able to get some parts out of it, and he was amazed at the damage the 125 gr. JHP had done. "I've seen television sets hit by other calibers, but I have never seen this much damage," he told me.

Needless to say, I later took a certification course with the NRA and now I live by the "rules." But that's why it's important to take a courses and learn agree-upon rules of safe gun handling.
 
Glad nobody was hurt.

+1 to the comment that the 1911 isn't (usually) the original design with the wide spur hammer and smaller grip safety. With the modern concerns for "bite" and a high grip, the ability to safely lower the hammer into Condition 2 has been compromised.

I go from Condition 1 to Condition 3 in a very similar method that I use for IDPA practice -

Drop the magazine into your L hand and then pocket it. With the muzzle in a safe direction, click the thumb safety off, roll the pistol 90° to the R and reach across with your L hand, being careful to not put your forearm in front of the muzzle. While supporting the pistol with your L hand, shift your R hand grip so you can reach the slide lock with your thumb.

Then, cupping your L palm over the ejection port, slowly rack the slide back and lock it. The chambered round should be in your L palm. Withdraw L hand along same path, avoiding muzzle, and "show clear" to the SO.

I have read about the danger of the round going off in your palm, from the primer hitting the ejector, and that you should just eject on the ground and pick it up. I can't say this is impossible, but I believe it is extremely unlikely if you move the slide slowly. The primers just aren't that sensitive and the round isn't held firmly by the extractor.

After that, you can release the slide, drop the hammer by pulling the trigger (with muzzle still pointed in safe direction...), replace round in magazine, and reinsert magazine for Condition 3.

Even though there is nobody around, I go through this procedure every time, showing the empty pistol to the nonexistent SO.
 
I NEVER keep a live round in a chamber until Im going to shoot at something.
My old man was a WW2 vet and told me automatic pistols are like a snake ready to bite you when I was about 8 years old...and that scared me.
To this day I will not own any gun without an external hammer.
I prefer Revolvers in all honesty.
 
I think 5 gallon bucket with sand just became part of my cleaning area.

Thank you for posting this.
Click to expand...

You're very welcome. My wise bud told me about this and I thought it was brilliant. And if it could potentially save someones life, I'm glad to share it with everyone.

I actually had a female friend die when her brother discharged his pistol in the next room and hit her. Wish I knew about the bucket-o-sand sooner.
 
I almost had a ND myself the other day. I dropped the mag in the XD...I pulled the slide and inspected the chamber--noticed it was empty, than not even noticing that I had put the loaded mag back into the gun I cycled the slide again and put my finger on the trigger.

I was inside at the time and immediately let up on the trigger and I immediately yelled at myself, "what were you thinking!" I was inside my house at the time and had no reason to place my finger inside the trigger guard. I never even pulled the trigger it still scared me to death tho. Good reminder to never pull the trigger unless you are ready to shoot.

~Norinco
 
I put a load of 12ga buckshot through my roof once.

I had unloaded the gun and was messing around with it including dry firing it. I loaded it and put it away. I decided to grab it again and play with it and shot the roof. I had forgot that I loaded it again.

This happned when I was 18-19 and I have been paranoid about such things since. I hope I never have another accident like this but I was pointing it in a safe direction. I always at least do that. If nothing else, carve that into your mind and even if the worst case happens, nobody will get hurt.
 
Get a Bucket Of Sand Only mess with it pointed in the bucket.

Glad All is ok... I'm sure it skered the crap out of ya
 
Oh and my number one rule,,, NO DRY FIRE EVER... Only time i pull the trigger is i want to kill paper.
 
My ND involved a .17 caliber Crossman pellet gun when I was around 17. It taught me a valuable lesson, and thankfully the only thing damaged was my sister's bedroom door.

The pellet gun looked like a 6 inch S&W revolver. I always (riiiiiight) kept it empty, and would dry fire it in my room. My dog would come running when he heard it (a springer spaniel) and then promptly run away when i would make it go POP again. I found it hilarious that he would be curious to see what made the sound, then the next time it would fire he'd be scared of it. Maybe instinctively he was just running to "retrieve" what i'd shot :p

Well, this particular time, I had the "revolver" out to change the air canister for some plinking later that afternoon. My dog wandered into my room, I put the new CO2 canister in, and swept my dog as I point the thing in no particular direction, and pulled the trigger to scare my dog. I promptly heard a THWACK which terrified me, and I cracked open the breech to find a full revolver...minus one pellet. Apparently I had reloaded when I was last out shooting, but didn't empty the magazine. The pellet had hit my sister's wooden bedroom door across the hall, gouged a nick into it, and fell out.

I now always treat every firearm I'm handling, or handed, as if it were loaded. I repeatedly check chambers and mindfully do this at a gun shop or gun show. I keep it pointed in a safe direction, and keep my finger off the trigger unless I intend to shoot.

I'm so thankful to this day that I didn't harm myself, someone else, or my dog, and that the only damage was to a bedroom door.

It was a valuable lesson of negligent firearm handling at an early age, thankfully with something that wouldn't do *too* much damage.

The most important thing about these situations is to learn from it and move on, and thank God something tragic didn't occur. Unfortunately for some, tragedy does strike, but thankfully I don't have a story like that to share.
 
I blame the bobbed commander style hammer It would probably wouldn't have happened with a full spur hammer
Click to expand...
No, just incorrect technique.

The proper way to do it if you must, is to use your off-hand thumb between the hammer and the rear of the slide so there is no chance of the hammer hitting the firing pin. Push a bit down with your thumb until you just feel the hammer move so it can't get a running start to pinch you. Then pull the trigger and slowly move your thumb out from between the hammer and slide, up towards the rear sight. The hammer will ease down with nothing to slip as your thumb comes up and out.

Try it a few times with an unloaded gun, once you get the hang of it, its actually harder to describe than to do, you'll never worry about it again.

I carry cocked and locked or DAO. I despise the DA/SA transition of decocker guns.

--wally.
 
Just like keeping your finger off the trigger, you should never decock using your thumb on the hammer. Do you tell someone that had their finger inside the trigger guard that had a ND, "That was improper technique." No, you tell them that they should never have had their finger on the trigger unless they're ready to fire. Just because someone is fully aware that they have their finger on the trigger doesn't make it ok for them to do it. Although someone is fully aware at the time of decocking, we should all tell them that its dangerous and is frowned upon.
 
I had an ND one time in my college apartment. I was getting ready for drill (National Guard) and so I was clearing and locking up my two pistols. Yours truly racked the slide on a Kel-Tec P32, and THEN dropped the magazine.

Then.

I.

Pulled.

The.

Trigger.

POP.

I shot a hole through my closet door (which was open) and into the wall between my apartment and my neighbor's about ten inches off the ground.

Following the James Bond truism that you can fire a shot inside and noone will notice unless you fire another (Plus almost no one was in the building, if anyone), I sat there with eyes the size of saucers. I knocked on the neighbor's, but nobody answered. So I went the whole drill weekend freaking out about it.

When I got back on Sunday, I told my neighbor that I'd had an "accident" Friday night and put a hole in my wall. I said I thought I might have damaged their wall, too. This apparently was not unusual to this girl, so she let me in and I looked at the whole wall behind her couch.

No holes.

Thank God it was just a .32... the little slug is probably buried in a stud.

Ironically when I moved out and my landlord checked the place, he didn't notice the hole from the bullet in the wall or the closet door (I spackled and painted them over), but he DID try to charge me for a big hole in the wall that I had NOT put there...
 
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