ASM826
Member
I got a reminder about the 4 rules yesterday.
I had gotten my 1911 back from the gunsmith. It is my regular gun for single stack IDPA and action pistol shooting, and gets a fair amount of use. So, I sent it in for springs, inspection, etc. While it was there, I had aNovak lo-mount rear sight installed, which involved having the slide milled. It was gone about 3 weeks.
No problems. It had been test fired, functioned fine. Except...
1911 open, at slidelock. I load a magazine. Factory 230 gr. ball. Insert the magazine, and depress the slide stop. Slide goes forward. Hammer follows.
BOOM.
My shooting buddy, who had come along to try the gun and shoot some test loads over a chrony, turns to me after a pause and says, "Sure glad you didn't do that at home."
I had done every function check, dropped the slide, checked the grip safety, checked the thumb safety, tried the trigger, everything except load ammo. In fact, it only did it if I had a round in the magazine. Drop the slide on an empty chamber (I know, I know, but it had to be tested) and it didn't happen. The trigger only followed when it was loaded.
So.
#1 All guns are always loaded
#2 Never let the muzzle cover anything you are not willing to destroy
#3 Keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on the target
#4 Always be sure of your target
I was at the range. I knew the firearm was loaded, I had loaded it.
During the entire process, the firearm was pointed downrange.
My finger was nowhere near the trigger.
I had a high berm in front and on both sides, and again, the firearm was pointed downrange.
So the gun is back in the hands of the gunsmith. He is a fine, professionally trained, smith and armorer. He feels much worse about this than I do. All of us know that these are mechanical devices and as such, they can fail. I am not even claiming it was anything he did, it's just what happened.
The gun malfunctioned. The rules worked.
I had gotten my 1911 back from the gunsmith. It is my regular gun for single stack IDPA and action pistol shooting, and gets a fair amount of use. So, I sent it in for springs, inspection, etc. While it was there, I had aNovak lo-mount rear sight installed, which involved having the slide milled. It was gone about 3 weeks.
No problems. It had been test fired, functioned fine. Except...
1911 open, at slidelock. I load a magazine. Factory 230 gr. ball. Insert the magazine, and depress the slide stop. Slide goes forward. Hammer follows.
BOOM.My shooting buddy, who had come along to try the gun and shoot some test loads over a chrony, turns to me after a pause and says, "Sure glad you didn't do that at home."
I had done every function check, dropped the slide, checked the grip safety, checked the thumb safety, tried the trigger, everything except load ammo. In fact, it only did it if I had a round in the magazine. Drop the slide on an empty chamber (I know, I know, but it had to be tested) and it didn't happen. The trigger only followed when it was loaded.
So.
#1 All guns are always loaded
#2 Never let the muzzle cover anything you are not willing to destroy
#3 Keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on the target
#4 Always be sure of your target
I was at the range. I knew the firearm was loaded, I had loaded it.
During the entire process, the firearm was pointed downrange.
My finger was nowhere near the trigger.
I had a high berm in front and on both sides, and again, the firearm was pointed downrange.
So the gun is back in the hands of the gunsmith. He is a fine, professionally trained, smith and armorer. He feels much worse about this than I do. All of us know that these are mechanical devices and as such, they can fail. I am not even claiming it was anything he did, it's just what happened.
The gun malfunctioned. The rules worked.
