Tell your funny gun story here

[Smaug]

A woman called the police about rounds landing in her yard from our local range.
When the police arrived, she showed them complete bottle neck rifle cartridge, complete with a bullet, case, unfired primer that she claimed "landed" in her yard.
She was advised that filing a false police report was an arrestable offense.
She was not charged though.

Another guy claimed his house was struck and the police found holes drilled into his wood siding, parallel to the ground.

.

I wish they WOULD make it hurt a bit for these kind of people. Maybe a $200 ticket or something.

At least the one guy wrecked his siding and the woman had to go out and spend some money on a box of ammo. :-D

 

[Smaug]

Long shot story:

My brother and I were teens. I was 15 and he was 13. We were out with our air rifles. Mine was a Pumpmaster (smoothbore, but I didn't know it) and his was a Powermaster. (rifled) He was a better saver so he got the better gun, complete with one of those garbage Tasco 4x15 scopes they packaged with them in the 80s. He has awful vision, only correctable to 20/40 or something. He's worn glasses since infancy, so the scope was required for him.

I always shot pellets, as pellets would be more accurate. (or so I thought) I got a lot of robins and sparrows, but never at more than about 10 yards.

He always shot BBs, as he was a bit of an ammo hoarder and was proud of how many he had stockpiled. (thousands) I shot BBs through that gun once and could see them corkscrew through the scope. I tried to tell him to shoot pellets and quit being so damned cheap. He refused.

Anyway, we were walking along a trail one time and I spotted a blackbird at the top of a tree probably 50 yards away. I said: "See if you can pop that blackbird." He replied: "Nah, I don't want to kill anything." I said: "Don't worry. He's 50 yards away, you' haven't got the slightest chance to actually hit him, especially shooting BBs." So he accepted, just for the heck of it. Standing, offhand, with his bad vision and a bad scope. He had the full 10 pumps in it. He sent it, and a couple seconds later we heard the meat slap. "TICK"

Bro: "I got 'im!"
Me: "No way, you must've hit a branch."

Just then, the blackbird swung around underneath the branch he was on, wings just hanging there. A second or two later, one foot let loose and then the other. In the most dramatic fashion, that blackbird fell and hit every branch on the way down.

We both looked like:

Me: "Holy @#$%, you'll never make another shot like that in your LIFE!"
Bro: "You're right, because that's the end of my hunting days. I feel kinda bad."

We bush-wacked through the brush and swamp to look for him, but never did find him.

The story is great, but I still think it's also funny that I was shooting pellets out of a smoothbore, thinking they'd be more accurate, and burning my hard-earned money, and he was shooting BBs out of his rifle saving money but generally being inaccurate except at pretty close range.

 

[Double_J]

Over the weekend my brother and I were talking about this thread. He reminded me of a time when he was shooting squirrels at a friend's house.

He shot a tree rat just behind the head, dang thing twitched as he pulled the trigger. The tree rat ended up hanging on to the branch by one foot for quite some time. My brothers friend wound up walking under that same branch a little while later, right as the last claw came loose and the squirrel fell right on top of his head. There was much flailing arms and squealing from his buddy until he realized what happened.

My brother and I ended up with a small pile of meat that weekend, and it made a pretty good stew.

 

[grampster]

I'd been hunting small game with my dads Ranger 20ga double barrel since I was about 12 or so. When I turned 18 I'd saved enough $$ to buy a new Ithaca model 37, Featherlite, 12 ga pump...first gun of my own for $65.00.

Now the Ranger had a slide thumb safety on the top of the butt stock behind the break action lever. My new Ithaca had a safety button behind the trigger guard. Compound that by noting I'm left handed and the safety was designed for righties.

So the first day out hunting pheasants with my new Ithaca, I kick up a huge rooster off to my right and he's rising and flying to the left in front of me. I track that rooster like the expert wing shooter I had become...leading him perfectly as my thumb was pushing the non existent thumb slide safety on my Ithaca. I then realized the safety was elsewhere, but wondered why the button wouldn't push, nor the shotgun fire....as I watched the King of the Roosters blithely fly off into the distance.

It took me a bit of time to train myself on the operation of the new safety, especially to me as a lefty, which made it backwards. After awhile it became 2nd nature and many a rooster filled the refrigerator.

 

[Tilos]

I wish they WOULD make it hurt a bit for these kind of people. Maybe a $200 ticket or something.

At least the one guy wrecked his siding and the woman had to go out and spend some money on a box of ammo. :-D

Yeh, giving the local police free range use can get you a lot of info, sadly, never made public.

The range impact area was the side of a hill (mountain) with no houses on that side.
There is (was) houses on either side of the range but we were an old club with lots of money, so we bought those houses when they came up for sale.
We were pressured by the new home owners in the area but the only concession we made was no shooting until 10 a.m. so our matches usually started 10:01 a.m.
Having the police presence with the town's backing went a long way in fighting off the transplants.

 

[.308 Norma]

So the first day out hunting pheasants with my new Ithaca, I kick up a huge rooster off to my right and he's rising and flying to the left in front of me. I track that rooster like the expert wing shooter I had become...leading him perfectly as my thumb was pushing the non existent thumb slide safety on my Ithaca. I then realized the safety was elsewhere, but wondered why the button wouldn't push, nor the shotgun fire....as I watched the King of the Roosters blithely fly off into the distance.

I did almost the same thing with my Model 100 Winchester (safety on the back of the trigger guard) deer rifle, and my Model 1100 Remington (safety on the front of the trigger guard) shotgun - only my mistake cost me a doe mule deer.
I'd had my Model 100 Winchester (.308) for a couple of years when mom and dad bought me a Model 1100 Remington (12 ga) for my 16th birthday, and I quickly got used to pushing that shotgun's safety off when a pheasant flushed in front of me. However, when a doe mule deer that I'd nearly stepped on jumped up in front of me, I almost pushed the danged trigger guard off my Model 100 Winchester trying to get it off "safe." On top of that, Dad was only about a hundred yards away, watching the whole thing, but he couldn't shoot because he could see both me and the deer in his scope when he brought his rifle up.
After the deer bounded away over the hill, Dad hiked over to me and asked me why I didn't shoot. I told him why - "Because the danged safety is on the wrong end of the trigger guard on this rifle!"
BTW, I'm not really sure if the safety is on the front of the trigger guard on the Model 1100, and on the back of the trigger guard on the Model 100, or if it's the other way around. I still have both guns, but it's probably been 30 years since I used either one of them. I know where the safeties are on the rifles and shotguns I use nowadays, and none of them are on the trigger guards.

 

[Hugger-4641]

Over the weekend my brother and I were talking about this thread. He reminded me of a time when he was shooting squirrels at a friend's house.

He shot a tree rat just behind the head, dang thing twitched as he pulled the trigger. The tree rat ended up hanging on to the branch by one foot for quite some time. My brothers friend wound up walking under that same branch a little while later, right as the last claw came loose and the squirrel fell right on top of his head. There was much flailing arms and squealing from his buddy until he realized what happened.

My brother and I ended up with a small pile of meat that weekend, and it made a pretty good stew.

That reminds me of another funny. I was squirrel hunting with my nephew once.This was also in my early 20's. He had a 20ga and I had a .410 bolt action, I think it was a Stevens. I shot a squirrel out of the top of a tree and it fell, still kicking a bit, and nearly knocking nephew's hat off. Before I could stop him, nephew dropped his 20ga straight down and let fly. No meal from that squirrel, there was nothing left but ears and tail.

 

[theotherwaldo]

One afternoon a long time ago, I and a bunch of my friends all gathered up some guns and ammo and trekked off to an illegal dump site to demolish some illegal junk.
Well, we demolished that junk until it was getting dark and we ran out of ammo, then started back.
One of the boys had brought his old, retired police dog, which nosed along as we wandered homeward.
The dog apparently wandered into a driveway which had a security device guarding it.
This brought the land owner out in a rage, shouting and waving a shotgun.
We didn't even look at each other.
We all cocked or cycled the guns that we were carrying.
The guy froze, then dashed for his house.
We all hurt ourselves laughing.
Yeah, it was a dumb thing to do, but what do you expect out of a bunch of kids... .

 

[Seedy Character]

I did almost the same thing with my Model 100 Winchester (safety on the back of the trigger guard) deer rifle, and my Model 1100 Remington (safety on the front of the trigger guard) shotgun - only my mistake cost me a doe mule deer.
I'd had my Model 100 Winchester (.308) for a couple of years when mom and dad bought me a Model 1100 Remington (12 ga) for my 16th birthday, and I quickly got used to pushing that shotgun's safety off when a pheasant flushed in front of me. However, when a doe mule deer that I'd nearly stepped on jumped up in front of me, I almost pushed the danged trigger guard off my Model 100 Winchester trying to get it off "safe." On top of that, Dad was only about a hundred yards away, watching the whole thing, but he couldn't shoot because he could see both me and the deer in his scope when he brought his rifle up.
After the deer bounded away over the hill, Dad hiked over to me and asked me why I didn't shoot. I told him why - "Because the danged safety is on the wrong end of the trigger guard on this rifle!"
BTW, I'm not really sure if the safety is on the front of the trigger guard on the Model 1100, and on the back of the trigger guard on the Model 100, or if it's the other way around. I still have both guns, but it's probably been 30 years since I used either one of them. I know where the safeties are on the rifles and shotguns I use nowadays, and none of them are on the trigger guards.

1100 safety is behind trigger.
Winchester is in front.

 

[22250Rem]

Back when we were all about 18, we would sometimes frequent an old dump on a dirt road for plinking. When we finished, we were walking back to our vehicles when something flushed a pheasant about 50 yards out in a field of high grass. One of my buddies swung on it with an old .22 bolt gun like he was swinging a shot gun. Fired and the bird crashed to the ground. Perfect head shot. There was about 4 of us so I have witnesses. The shooter wasn't even a gun guy, and didn't even own that 22, it was a loaner from a friend of his dad. What were the odds of hitting that bird in the head with a .22 while on the wing? I didn't even know he still had it loaded, as the rest of us had empty guns. We all stood there stunned for a couple seconds, even the shooter, who then tried to act like it was just a routine shot. Whereupon he realized we weren't going to buy it. Still amazing, though, and I'm glad there was several witnesses.

 

[Gus Chiggins]

I was probably around 10 years old and went with my older brother and his friend to go shoot the friends new BB gun at the rodeo grounds. They told me if I set up the knocked down pop cans they'd let me have a shot. I got half way to the cans and they shot me in the back of the thigh. It felt like a bee stung me. I made a big fuss and they got worried that I was going to tell Dad. I promised I wouldn't, only if I got to take three shots!

 

[Dinosaur1]

Police academy back in the wheel gun days. I’m in the lane next to the range master. Competition shooter. Best of everything. Demonstration shooting with the revolver upside down, off hand, etc.. Day before qualification we’re shooting and there is just one ragged hole in the center of his target so I take a shot at his target and it lands right of center about inch and a half. We all walk down and score and he is looking at that target amazed. We come back and he lets off a couple of shots which are good so we go back to the drill. Once again I nail his target outside the 10. He begins to fiddle with his sights. By the end of the afternoon he has the revolver disassembled on the bench when I let slip that I think I saw that idiot trainee on the other side off him shoot his target. I just stood back and watched the show. Good time.

 

[Dirtybob]

1989ish I volunteered to help with a Robin Sage https://www.army.mil/article/151795/Robin_Sage_exercise_set/
I was attached to the 20th Engr. battalion, not special forces.
I was 'lucky' enough to be given an M60 to carry and shoot loads of blanks through (I hated cleaning up after shooting blanks). One late night supply raid I shot one of the Dueces with the blank adapter, pop pop BOOM clang. Lol, suppose I should've checked it.
SF guys are screaming at me to lay down fire and it's in single shot mode...

Twice I had guys offer to carry that 60 only to give it back after 20 mins. or so.

 

[Mk-211]

I was a 60 gunner for 2 years, I loved the "pig"!

Everytime we did maneuvers and I ran through the woods shoulder firing it, guys looked at me like I was crazy.

Always found it easier to fire and maneuver that way. Trying to lay down and fire off the bipod, get up and move was way to slow.

 

[Vern Humphrey]

I had a Mechanized Rifle Company (A-1/61 IN) in Viet Nam. Each squad had 2 M60s, which were mounted on pintles in the antenna mounts, one on each side. We learned real quick to dismount the M60s when moving -- or they'd bounce up and down on the pistol grip, and you'd wind up with a pistol grip about half an inch long and six inches wide.

 

[hdbiker]

I went to the outdoor pistol range with My Ruger .44 mag, to burn up some older full power loads. thing were going well until after about a 1/2 box gone, I went to empty the cylinder and everything was gone, ejector housing, rod, spring and screw. after looking around in the sand we found everything. A range friend had a cleaning kit, and, in a few minutes, I was back shooting. Later I decided to ck grip frame screws, they were not tight either. Moral of this is CK your gun screws once in a while

 

[Smaug]

I went to the outdoor pistol range with My Ruger .44 mag, to burn up some older full power loads. thing were going well until after about a 1/2 box gone, I went to empty the cylinder and everything was gone, ejector housing, rod, spring and screw. after looking around in the sand we found everything. A range friend had a cleaning kit, and, in a few minutes, I was back shooting. Later I decided to ck grip frame screws, they were not tight either. Moral of this is CK your gun screws once in a while

I had something similar happen to my trusty Redhawk.
I bought it used. I was shooting light reloads through it one day, and after one round, the recoil felt weird and the I watched the barrel go tumbling downrange. It had broken right off.

I was worried about sending it to Ruger, as they specifically say in the manual not to shoot reloads. But I put myself on their mercy and sent the pieces of the gun in to them. I admitted I was shooting reloads and told them what was in the load that broke the gun. I assured them there was no squib or double charge. They repaired it and returned it to me without a word. I couldn't figure it out. I poked around either here or TFL and found out they had an issue where they got a new lube for the barrel threads, and the guns that were halfway through the process at the end of the shift were left with the lube on the barrel threads overnight. The lube dried up and was ineffective by the next morning, so that when they threaded the barrel in, they really strained the metal, so that eventually, those barrels WERE going to break off.

Either Ruger didn't send the memo or it was no longer in the hands of the original owner by then. But Ruger took care of me, even though this was a used gun.

Ever since then, it has been a stellar gun. Great DA trigger, OK SA trigger, accurate, rugged.

 

[Caplock]

Was Jack rabbit hunting with my cousin.
For some reason he tried to take a shot firing from the hip. His story was he had the stock on his thigh and it slid off his shorts and got him. From my point of view he shouldered it against the family jewels and let one off. Either way it ended with him rolling around on the ground. I nearly died laughing.

 

[Caplock]

Oh... 12 ga field loads.

 

[Meeks36]

Not really funny but as a couple other guys here have mentioned some funky sleep paralysis type incidents involving guns, I too have decided quite a while back not to sleep with a racked and ready firearm next to my bed and have made the gun easily accessible (if I'm conscious) and not so (when I'm alseep).
Like the other guy said about punching the wife in his sleep, I did a similar thing and she wasn't happy about it and says she sees me fighting and struggling from time to time in my sleep.....

I don't know what that's called, sleep paralysis or something, but it sure is weird.

Had something like this happen. Layed down woke up but couldn’t move. Had a feeling of evil approaching my room. But couldn’t grab my G27. Sitting next to my bed. I have felt this once before running around an abounded tree farm at night as a teen. Looked at my buddy and asked you feel that? He said “yes!” So we ran as fast as we could. Erie feeling. Couldn’t pin point what IT was but we just felt pure evil. Like the devil himself came to Ga and was watching us.

 

[DustyGmt]

I wish they WOULD make it hurt a bit for these kind of people. Maybe a $200 ticket or something.

At least the one guy wrecked his siding and the woman had to go out and spend some money on a box of ammo. :-D

Agreed. But I would take it a step further and instead of a measly fine, for filing a false report they should be sentenced to community service (gut punch in the pride department), and their community service should be at the range on weekends cleaning up and maintaining the grounds, lol.

 

[borrowedtime69]

I was sighting in and shooting at a local range, I was by myself and relaxing. This guy comes out to the benches, looking like a typical white collar guy, well dressed etc, and I give him a nod and a wave.

I notice he's pulling out what looked like a brand spanking new 9mm pistol. I would keep half an eye on him cause he seemed a little nervous and out of place.

So he's all set up and ready to go and luckily I glanced over at the right moment. I saw what he was going to do and gave a very obvious grimace. Thankfully he saw me and did a shrug and questioning look. I offered to come over and help him out.

I went over and introduced myself and asked if this was his 1st time shooting, he said yes, at least with a semiautomatic pistol. The problem was that he had his thumb up behind the slide. So I asked him how he had loaded one into the chamber, he said yes, he pulled the slide back. I told him that that action happens every time you pull the trigger and that he would be looking at a substantial thumb injury. So I showed him the best way to hold it, fired a round and then had him try it. Worked out great and I went back to shooting.

It's funny though, him watching me watching him, I think it was his way to see if he was doing it right. It's one of my "feel-good" stories cause I enjoy helping people learn to shoot, and hunt & fish.

 

[Howland937]

I was sighting in and shooting at a local range, I was by myself and relaxing

I've not shot at a public range more than 3 or 4 times but when I have it was just me, by myself, working on something specific.
On one occasion I was shooting .22's at 50 and 100 yards and a young couple claimed both lanes to my left. They had a brand new bolt rifle with scope and were taking turns shooting it at some of those hostage targets. 5 shots each at 50 yards, then hand it to the other person to shoot in the other lane.

Didn't know what rifle they were shooting but it was definitely centerfire and had had about 30 rounds put through it in roughly 15 minutes. On the next cease-fire, we all went to check and refresh targets and I asked what they were shooting. Savage in 6.5 CM.
Me "How does it shoot?"
Female "Pretty good. I haven't missed yet"

Male "Well, we're only shooting 50 yards and I've only missed twice" ...arrive at target stands.

Me "I'm glad you guys are enjoying your new rifle, but you do realize that the hostage is the person in the front?"

It hadn't dawned on either of them that their hostages didn't survive. They were resting the rifle on a backpack so I gave them a crappy rest I had, which was a little better at least... then let them shoot my .22's while they let the barrel cool on their rifle.

 

[Bull Nutria]

RC Model funny story:
I asked RC if he ever shot any shot loads in his revolvers. Of course, he had and he related this story. He and some of his buddies had converted an old grain cart into a duck blind.

They placed it by a tank (pond) in a Kansas grain field frequented by mallard ducks. Early one morning they were placing decoys and the mallards started diving into the decoys before they could get into the blind. RC took advantage of the situation and whipped out his revolver and rolled a big greenhead out of the sky. He never let on that he had used his shot loads to his buddies!!

As an aside RC Model was an expert marksman with the 45 auto and a member of the Army Marksmanship unit back during the Vietnam era. He mentioned that he trained a lot of soldiers how to shoot 45s and regretted that he was never sent overseas like the trainees!!

Bull

 

[Mk-211]

Bull, thanks for posting that, reminds me of a similar story. Other than that kid that shot the bug on my target!

We were out shooting, my dad had bought one of those helium tank and balloon kits. We filled them and set the balloons out for targets.

My dad asked one of my friends if he thought he could shoot one of the balloons out of the air. He said he would give it a try, my dad let one go, friend starts shooting and nothing.

My dad fills another and let's it go, he says "let me give it a try". He let's the balloon go kinda high, kinda aims and pop!

Friend tries a few more times and still can't hit one and everytime my dad shoots, he hits the balloons.

As we're sitting around the campfire, my friend is telling everyone about trying to hit the balloons. My dad starts laughing, pulls a shotshell out of his pocket and says "next time try one of these".

Everyone got a great laugh out of that.