Post your firearm related injuries here!

[Floppy_D]

When I was 16 and in high school JROTC, while doing competitve trick drill, I had a buddy throw me a Garand with an accidental extra half-flip... during a state competition. The rear sight cost me 13 stitches in the crotch of my left hand. We still managed to finish the drill, with my whites slathered in blood. The bolt was welded shut, but it was firearm related.

 

[rainbowbob]

I was sighting a new scope on my .22 rifle when a guy with a beautiful flintlock replica set up at the bench to my right. On his 2nd or 3rd shot, a bunch of hot particles came flying into my face. Fortunately I was wearing eye protection and the only injury was a few small burns on my cheek. I mentioned it to him as he didn't seem to notice and he apologized. When it happened a 2nd time, I made it clear that this wasn't going to work for me. He set up a little partition that solved the problem.

 

[Samuraigg]

Luckily worst I've ever gotten is a bad case of Garand Thumb...

 

[Hanzerik]

Simunitions: Multiple bruises and scars on various parts of body, mainly on fingers/hands, legs and arms.

Ruger 10/22: sore thumbs from loading mags all day

AK47: Burn on hand after grabbing hot barrel after a firefight (Blanks and MILES Adapter)

 

[LawBot5000]

I have a Saiga-12 with an ultra-short stock. I scope burned myself in the forehead by not holding it tightly enough after I mounted a PKAS optic for squirrel hunting.

I've been burned by debris a lot of times while shooting my 22 pistol with aguila pistol match ammo.

Burned my hand by picking up an AK by the barrel the first time I took it to the range and burned off 200+ rounds in a short period.

Chewed up the web of my hand firing a few hundred rounds through my P3AT once.

 

[Regolith]

Only gun injury of any significance I can recall was way back when my thumb slipped slightly into the ejection port of a Browning Auto-5 after I fired it. The shotgun bit off part of my thumb for my troubles.

Oh, and one time I accidentally let my Remington 870 Express fall on my toes, vent rib first. Cut a nice little pattern of lacerations into a couple of my toes.

 

[BobbyQuickdraw]

All I've got is the shape of a .22LR casing burned into my arm. Was at an indoor range, standing there watching my buddy shoot. Guy next to us was rattling off a 10/22. I had my arms crossed. Not sure how or why, but all of a sudden this .22LR casing flies over the divider, somehow manages to go 3 feet behind the shooter and land against my forearm, between skin and shirt. Since he had been firing a lot, the barrel must have been hot, as that round burned.

That was like a month ago, at least, maybe more, and I still have the mark on my arm. Most of the detail has faded, can barely see the rim, but there is still a soft pink rectangle on my forearm.

 

[M1 Shooter]

I once got hit with a ricochet that left a nice red welt on my leg that turned into a nice bruise. No scar though since it didn't break the skin. Another time I had a hot .45 casing bounce off the wall at an indoor range and it lodged between my glasses and my cheek. That also left a red mark, but again, it was only temporary, no scar. In fact I've been burned several times by hot casings going down my shirt as well, but never any permanent damage. Oh yeah, I also got hit in the face by a 7.62X39 steel case empty as it was ejected from an AK, that one drew blood, but again no scar from it. But man, that really hurt, those AK's really throw their empties with a lot of velocity. I learned to stay well out of the way of an AK's ejection pattern after that.

Do any of those count?

 

[sprithitler]

Blisters and burns from hot barrels, as well as pinched skin from various parts of various guns, and of course hitting face with various parts of Assault rifles while hitting the ground or simply stumbling in exercises in the military.

 

[Mikhail Konovalov]

Lessee... Where to begin...

At 17 I got my right thumbnail cracked in half and torn all to $#!& speed-loading an Auto-5.

At 18 I learned the importance of heat-shielded AK foregrips, Romanian WASR-10, not mine.

At 19 I tore my hand open for the umpteenth time shooting my Kahr/AO 1911A1 GI, but this time I didn't stop (Too cold to feel it.) and put another 500 or so rounds through the .45 as well as about 250 through an Israeli Jericho 9mm while my range buddies looked on in horror. (Both weapons were drenched in blood by the end, as was my hand.)

At 20 I caught hot .45 brass right in the ol' rods and cones. I swear I have "WIN 45 AUTO" engraved in my retina now.

Uhh, caught a 180-degree .22 ricochet right in the liver once while shooting into a dirt berm across a creek with a pizza box resting on it. The slug completely reversed direction somehow. Just tapped me, really, felt like a twig hit me.

Then of course there was the time I was shooting a 7mm Win Mag out of a Weatherby with no recoil pad. Ow. My whole shoulder was purple for a week!

My favorite, though, has to be the one time I thought I was pulling a gun in self-defense, but was in fact pulling it on a noisy tomcat. I only noticed after my friend pointed out the blood on my shirt, but I was so hasty on the draw that I had torn open my side with my fingernails while drawing from an IWB rig. (Owch!)

And finally. the injury caused by a safety procedure... Kind of a bad idea to trip the slide release while feeling around inside the chamber of a 1911 with your pinky. Don't ask me how I did it, my thumb wasn't anywhere near the lever.

 

[10 Ring Tao]

That was the day of when I got home. It got a LOT uglier and turned some interesting colors.

Second degree burn (blistered skin), from a 5.56 case that got stuck in the collar of my sweatshirt. Dude just walked up to the line, dumped a full mag full auto, showering me with hot brass.

MAKE SURE YOUR BRASS LANDS IN FRONT OF THE FIRING LINE AND NOT ON THE GUY NEXT TO YOU, NUMBNUTS!

 

[ColinthePilot]

Garand Thumb
Pinches from various actions
burns from hot brass (usually 9mm)
Bruising from shooting the Mosin
I actually drew blood from whacking a sticky M38 bolt with my hand.
Drill rifles have drawn blood and bruised before, but If you've done exhibition rifle drill and not gotten some cuts and bruises and scars from it, you haven't really done exhibition rifle drill.

 

[shadowalker]

Nothing major, hot brass down the shirt now and then at the indoor range, pretty good case of slide bite years ago.

 

[CountGlockula]

Reloading a magazine onto a Kimber Custom 1911 and the mag butt pinched my strong hand meat. Bled.

 

[leathermanwave]

Was cleaning my brothers 870 barrel shoving a brush down the barrel when it popped out the other side my thumb slammed into the barrel and i learned the barrel is sharp.

 

[Factfind]

Just last weekend,I was at the range and was wearing a new pair of safety glasses. An ejected .45 round flew neatly over the glasses,settled on my cheek behind the glasses and just sat there sizzling until I slapped the glasses off. That ejected shell landing in there was a one in a million shot. I'll pass on a second time..yeah and the wife thinks the perfect shell sized burn mark looks good.

 

[ranger335v]

Some 45 years ago I was a cocky 21 year old. Got my DCM 03A3 to the pasture and fired carefully. Had my thumb wrapped too far back on the stock and it ran into my big nose, made it bleed like a stuck pig.

Wish I had gone on to make a fortune while I was still young enough to know everything.

Too soon old, too late smart.

Still have the old Springfield but it's a heavy barreled .308 match rifle now.

 

[MilsurpShooter]

1897 Trench Gun. Gripped too high and got a good portion of the webbing between thumb and pointer jammed between the hammer and the carrier. Bled pretty good too.

Savage Model 7, I'm a lefty, semi-auto with left side eject. Put the brass catcher on the bench, it caught all the rounds... Except for one which bounced off of it and down my jacket collar and into my shirt. I never knew .22 cases could be so hot lol

 

[Samuel Adams]

I had a perfect outline of a .223 casing burned into my back from a round fired by the guy next to me. The hot case went down the back of my shirt during M-16 training in USAF Security Police Tech School and I couldn't get it out fast enough.

 

[45Guy]

Got the .22 brass between the glasses & the cheek. Not so fun!

Worst was trap shooting with a manual thrower. I was to the left shooting, my cousin was puller to my right. Somehow the clay stayed on the thrower arm as it came around, and FLEW STRAIGHT INTO MY FACE!! Luckily, it broke before it hit me. Unluckily, I saw it out of the corner of my eye & turned towards it. That might've saved my right eye though.

Results were: right lense of my glasses was popped out, glasses were half-on, half-off my face, lots of blood from the huge cut on my forehead, and other smaller cuts on my face.

Washed orange & black dust out of my face for two weeks

 

[mekender]

tapped my nose a few times with my thumb while shooting a bolt action that i wasnt familiar with...

had some lead splatter on my face while shooting steel plate...

thought it would be neat to feel what the firing pin of my Mossberg 500 felt like... turns out if feels exactly like poking a roofing nail into your finger...

one time i got cocky and tried to fire my 500 one handed al-la Evil Dead style... please note, its not a pistol grip but a heavy solid wood stock... so i extended my right arm, could barely hold the thing up it was so heavy, so i was sure i would be fine... turns out, it wasnt quite heavy enough... the 12ga flew about two feet out of my hand... luckily, my left hand was quick enough to catch it before it hit my face... last time i get cocky with a gun in my hand

 

[HungSquirrel]

A Glock slide bit the thumb of my supporting hand because I choked up too high. :banghead: I learned from that mistake quickly.

 

[hfdcowboy]

Outside or normal cuts and bruises. My safe got hurt i went to my safe one day my safe was in the garage below the house and when i opened it i was going to get my rifles out me and my buddie where going to the range. The first gun i grabbed was my AR next i just barley touched my 30.06 and a flash of light and a shot loud ears ringing wife running downstairs when i realized i had a a.d. i started to check myself to see if i was shot. After all that me nor anyone else was hurt but my riot 12 ga. in the back i apparently did not all the way unload it had one in it the chain reaction on touching the 30.06 must have hit the trigger i don't exacally know the 30.06 was in the front the 12 ga was in the back with 15 long guns between them. So i am speaking for my safe he caught 12ga triple buck threw the top shelf and into the top and made about a one inch rise in it. ouch

 

[Vaarok]

Ever had the heel of your hand caught between the full-length guide-rib and charger-guide of a Mauser-Verguiero, or split-bridge side and bolt handle of a Carcano?

Trust me, it's special. Works kinda like a hole-punch. Being a lefty has disadvantages with certain designs.

 

[RoadkingLarry]

While trying to shoot clays from a hand thrower my borhter managed to hit me in the back of the head with the clay pigeon, twice. He decided he didn't want to shoot anymore when it was my turn to throw.