Shot Myself/ Negligent Discharge

[mark_in_tx]

Not to change the subject from dry firing on an empty chamber, but has anyone ever had a ND when dropping the slide to chamber a round? That makes me nervous when loading in the house. Perhaps pointing into a 5-gallon bucket of sand might be a good idea in both situations.

Actually I think that is a very good idea. Since I have 7 kids in the house and most of my firearms are in the safe, but 3. My 1911A1, my 4" .38 special and my Tok are hidden in certain places around the house. The kids KNOW those weapons are in the house, they also KNOW that they are not to tell anyone about those weapons, nor are they to touch them. I check all of them several times a day and the kids don't touch them.

However the kids have their own weapons, Airsoft AR-15's and every night we go on the back deck and shoot at soda cans. Every once in while I'll put a full one out there and the kids are always surprised when their airsoft rifle will punch a hole in a full can of soda.

But I think I'll fill one of my buckets with sand for the monthly clean up as all of my weapons including the safe queens are loaded at all times.

Mark

 

[PavePusher]

Is there any excuse for not having a 5-gallon bucket of sand? :banghead:

 

[Stevie-Ray]

I've pretty much committed your video to memory; I won't soon forget the pictures of that wound and another particular one. Thanks for having the guts to put this on a public forum. Hopefully, I'll think about this everytime I clean a gun, put one away, place my EDC on a nightstand. Hoping you're healing well. All the best.

 

[nerfsrule2]

Thanks For Sharing.. I commend you for trying to help others...

 

[Fred_G]

I would like to thank the OP for putting this up. I had gotten a little slack with basic gun safety amongst my gun friends. The last time we all went shooting, we were a little casual with the safety aspect.

Great warning for what could happen. Or even worse.

 

[wally]

Anyway leaving the hammer back for long periods of time weakens the hammer spring and makes the gun unreliable.

Total BS.

I left a Jennings .380ACP fully loaded with the safety on in a tool box in my garage for over 10 years (re-arranged things when I got married again and the tool box was left out of sight, out of mind). When I finally figured I should remove it from the now largely inaccessible toolbox, I took it straight to the range and it fired all its rounds without incident. If even Jennings can get a striker (hammer) spring and magazine spring right, the myth of "leaving springs compressed weakens them" should finally be put to rest.

It is cycling the springs that eventually causes their demise -- but its a very large number of cycles for a well designed spring -- when was the last time you heard of someone needing to replace the springs on their car?

Some magazines are designed to essentially over-stresses the springs to get in some extra rounds (Para P-14 is my poster child here) and the spring life tens to be much shorter than normal (other .45ACP mags of similar size stop at 12 or 13 rounds) but they fail with usage, not from storage.

To the OP, prayers for a speedy and complete recovery!

 

[2WheelsGood]

when was the last time you heard of someone needing to replace the springs on their car?

I tend to agree that leaving a gun cocked shouldn't be a problem, but this doesn't actually help your argument. For one, springs on cars do actually break (yes it's happened to me), and actually if you measure the ride height on a brand new car and measure it again when it has 100K miles on it, it will indeed ride lower.

 

[CZguy]

springs on cars do actually break (yes it's happened to me), and actually if you measure the ride height on a brand new car and measure it again when it has 100K miles on it, it will indeed ride lower.

You are correct. Springs on a car will wear out in time. But they wear out because of cycles. That is to say being compressed and uncompressed many many times.

Another way of looking at it would be to buy a new car and let it sit for the same number of years that it would take you to accumulate 100,000 miles. If you were to measure the springs length, you would find no appreciable height difference.

 

[2WheelsGood]

Another way of looking at it would be to buy a new car and let it sit for the same number of years that it would take you to accumulate 100,000 miles.

Are you willing to front the money for this test?

 

[pitsmile]

Thanks for the video - get well soon.

 

[Jim Watson]

has anyone ever had a ND when dropping the slide to chamber a round?

The guy next to me at the IDPA National Championships did. Startled both of us. The Safety Officer was looking right at him and could verify that he did not finger the trigger, and so did not disqualify him from the match. A worn or excessively modified gun, most probably. Other safety rules were in force, the gun directed into a berm, so there was no harm done or likely.

 

[shooter_from_show-me]

Thanks for sharing...hope you get full range of motion back.

Bill

 

[CZguy]

Are you willing to front the money for this test?

Well.......if it weren't for the economy.

 

[2WheelsGood]

The guy next to me at the IDPA National Championships did. Startled both of us. The Safety Officer was looking right at him and could verify that he did not finger the trigger, and so did not disqualify him from the match. A worn or excessively modified gun, most probably. Other safety rules were in force, the gun directed into a berm, so there was no harm done or likely.

I've been concerned about this for a while, so I've tried very hard to see how it's even possible. The ONLY possible way I can see it happening is if the striker/hammer/firing pin let go at the very last second after the slide was fully closed. Not only does NO part of the slide touch the primer, even if it did impact the primer on initial contact the round wouldn't even be in the chamber. It would just "pop" on the top of the magazine without any terrible consequences. Again, short of the firing mechanism dropping at the end of the cycle, it just doesn't make sense.

 

[jbh13]

I wish you a speedy recovery.