What was the biggest surprise you've ever had when you pulled the trigger?

[dshimm]

I used to shoot at the Tucson Rod and Gun Club, which had 5 - 10 minute cease fires every 15 - 20 minutes to allow shooters to go downrange to change targets. During these times, I would routinely take off my earmuffs so that I could talk with others on the firing line.

One day I was shooting a 2" barrelled .357 mag, and forgot to replace my muffs. Needless to say, the gunshot was deafening, and my ears rang for days. What interested me was how fast my mind worked. As soon as I shot, I realized that there was something amiss, but didn't quite know what it was. In a fraction of a second, I first thought that I had double charged a cartridge and that the gun had exploded, but I quickly saw that the gun was intact and that I was neither bleeding nor hurting. In the next instant I realized that I was missing my muffs, and got them on in a hurry.

That unexpected unprotected .357 gunshot is the biggest surprise I've ever had.

 

[Kharn]

It wasnt on the trigger pull, but when I was preparing to fire the next round: the front sight on my MkII had canted from 12:00 to ~1:00 (barrel was loose in the reciever).
Ruger's shipping me a new one as soon as my dealer's FFL gets there.

Kharn

 

[BenW]

We went thru this awhile back and the thread was closed.

Thanks for the heads up Edward -- missed that thread. I'll forego any smart-alecky responses to keep this thread from being locked.

 

[Edward429451]

I hope Wondernines Cop never ever doublefires on him so he can say he got one of the good ones. It IS a cool little pistol, and it does carry 4 three five sevens in it (!) and realistically speaking, in a defensive scenario, who cares if you shoot him twice at once? You'd be all hopped up on adrenaline anyway so as long as it didn't burst you'd be alright!! (Never heard of one bursting from a double fire.)

 

[firestar]

How about no sound, not even a click when I expected a bang? I pulled my Kel-Tec P-32 out to shoot a mag at the range before I left (like I often do to make sure things are working) and nothing! The trigger axis had broken and I didn't even get a "click".

That gun would have gotten me killed if I had to use it in a life and death situation. I got rid of it and never looked back.

 

[jsalcedo]

Marlin camp 9

bought some cabelas 9mm reloads, mixed headstamp in a 300 round ziplock.

Loaded up the marlin's 12 round mag, pulled the trigger blam! splat scroiing!

The front sight flew off, the bolt would not open, the trigger would not reset.

Not wanting to take a loaded gun to a gunsmith, I disassembled it in my friends living room as plastic pieces, metal chunks and springs came pouring out of the action.

I hammered the bolt open and retrieved a very oddly bulged 9mm casing.

The gunsmith only charged me 25 bucks to put the gun back in working order.

I was sure the gun was a complete loss.

 

[Neal Bloom]

Had a snubby revolver go kaboom. Luckily no one was hurt.

 

[Fed168]

Shooting a .500 A Square out of an Encore. The gun flew ten feet over my head and lodged in the ground.

I was done for the day.

 

[Josey]

Hey Nothing. I was off duty and heard a gay domestic in a shopping mall. I got a bystander to call 911. I run to intervene as it is getting violent. I got to the fight and one guy picks up a metal display and hits the other. Head wound and blood everywhere. I draw my Kel-Tec 32 and order him to drop the display. He closes in on the downed victim and prepares to hit him again. I pulled the trigger. Nothing. I rack the slide and try again, nothing. The back ups had arrived and they took the guy down with mace. I will never own another Kel-Tec. The springs turned out to be bad in mine. Kel-Tec did repair the pistol under warranty. I dumped it at a gunshow.

 

[WonderNine]

Sounds like maybe you shouldn't have pulled the trigger on the guy. Er, I mean "gay". Or maybe luck WAS on your side so to speak.

 

[Smoke]

Had been shooting. Allowed others to shoot my 870. I reloaded the tube with buckshot and stowed it in the gunrack I had mounted in my cross the bed toolbox.

I always keep my shotguns "Cruiser Safe", No round in the chamber, trigger pulled to free the action.

A few days later I was in the toolbox and bumped the slide and noticed it didn't move. I tried to cycle it (still in the rack) and it didn't move. Deduced that I had forgotten to hit the trigger....so I did. :banghead:

I thought my friends had shot the gun dry but apparently there was one shot left. Hole penetrated the toolbox, and the interior bed wall. DId not exit. Barely bulged the exterrior bed wall. DIdn't hurt the paint on the outside.

 

[MoNsTeR]

That would be sunday, when my Briley doubled

 

[Edward429451]

Smoke, WOW!

I had a similar close call a few years ago. Just got back from hunting and somehow one of the .308's didn't get cleared and was set on the cleaning table in basement. Sat there two weeks or so awaiting cleaning (Busy season for work), and eventually I went to clean it and picked it up, cycled the bolt, and here comes a 308 out of it! Safety was off all that time.

Religious adherance to the 4 rules averted a tragedy on that one. Very scary.

 

[Henry Bowman]

I was about 11 or 12 years old and was feeding the stock in the barn one cold afternoon. We kept the feed in a big box that had been a shipping crate for a casket. There was what I thought to be a rat in the box when I opened it (turned out to be a medium-large mouse). I shut the lid, went to the house and got my brother's .410 single shot with a full choke.

When I returned, I opened the box and cornered the varmit. I was used to shooting a .22 rifle most of the time and nothing at a range of only 1 yard. The blast flung the rodent about 6 feet into the air, which I had not expected. It also blew a 3" hole in the corner of the box. I had just given the mice a perfect door to the perpetual smorgasboard of our feed box.

I learned about the second half of Rule 4 that day (. . . your target and what is behind it ). Fortunately, I already knew how to repair the box.

 

[OEF_VET]

My biggest surprise with a handgun was a few years ago. I had just recieved my 686 from my dad and was out shooting it at the range. It has a VERY light trigger, and I was shooting it single action. I had the weapon pointed at my target, as I was getting my breathing slowed, my finger moved ever so slightly across the trigger. BOOM! Kind of startled me, because I hadn't meant to shoot yet. Fired it again with no surprises, but when I went to shoot the third round, I did it again. I looked around kind of sheepishly, but figured no harm, no fool. It did help cement the fact that the trigger is VERY light deeply into my mind.

With a rifle, I'd say last TN THR get-together; when my muzzle brake flew off my M44. Seems the pin holding it together broke and as the round went downrange, the force took the brake off with it. There was also the time I took my former BIL shooting my old Russian SKS. I showed him how to load it and I fired 10 rounds thru it. I then reloaded it for him and handed it to him. The safety was on and the weapon stayed pointed downrange. I told him to pull the bolt back and release it, aim, take the safety off, and squeeze the trigger. He pulled the bolt back and let it go. When it slammed forward, the firing pin was evidently stuck out, as the gun went BOOM!, putting a hole in the dirt, about 3 feet from my toes. Keep in mind, the safety was on and his fingers were all WELL away from the trigger. Scared the waste material out of me.

With a shotgun, it has to be my first gun ever, although it happened to my dad, not me. I had bought a single shot 12ga for $40 from the local sporting goods store (1983, so $40 was still a good deal). He wanted to try it first, to see how bad it would recoil before letting me shoot it. He stokes the pipe, closes the action, aims, pulls the trigger, and Click! He counts to ten with the gun pointed downrange, cocks it, pulls the trigger again, and Click. Repeats the same thing, only this time it goes BOOM, and the action breaks open and the spent shell flies out. He says it's going back to the store,but he'll try it one more time to see if it was just a fluke. Same thing, pulls trigger once, Click! Second time, gun goes BOOM, and shell flies out. Took it back immediately, got my money back, went elsewhere and bought a Mossberg 20ga. bolt action for $45.

Frank

 

[vanbeast]

First time shootin' a super nice Free Pistol at the club (I think a Pardini? Not sure).

If you aren't familiar with free pistols, they are single-shot bolt action SUPER ACCURATE pistols, almost always .22lr, and used in Olympic competition. They tend to have trigger pulls measured in ounces... like, less than 4.

After jamming my hand into the too-small grip, loading the gun, and cocking it, I brought it up like I bring up my high-standard... point slightly above the target, let the muzzle float down, line up the sights, fire.

The motion of bringing the gun up from the bench and pointing it above level caused the gun to fire. Some dire words crossed my lips and the other guys at the range looked at me like I had just shot myself. Nobody had thought to warn me about the trigger... my finger wasn't even NEAR it.

I've since learned to bring the gun up, cock, then sight and fire... helps a bit

 

[Joe Demko]

That would have been when I had the entire cylinder chain fire in a Spanish-made replica of a Remington blackpowder revolver. It was loud and surprising, but both the gun and I were unharmed.

 

[Jesse H]

Winchester Wildcat instead of an Aguila Colibri

And one time at the range about 3 rounds of Corbons in one mag went click instead of bang. I don't carry those anymore.

 

[Quartus]

Bang instead of click. Dry fire practice with a .38 Diamondback that resulted in a brand new sliding glass door. Never did find the slug. There was a cinder block wall just 4 fee outside that had to have stopped it, but I could never find a mark on it nor the slug.



Oh, that and shooting my best friend in the belly. That was kind of a bummer.

 

[BenW]

That would have been when I had the entire cylinder chain fire in a Spanish-made replica of a Remington blackpowder

That must have been a shocker! Out of everything I do with blackpowder, the only fear I have ever had has been chain firing. I pack the heck out of my 1851 cylinder with Crisco so it hasn't happened yet, and hopefully never will!

 

[JJohnston015]

The first time I fired a .375 H&H (and pretty much every time since ), never having fired anything bigger than a .30-06.

 

[BerettaNut92]

When my gun went bang instead of click.



My Beretta didn't break the wings off the locking block, and the gun didn't blow up because of the exposed barrel, bla bla X number of moving parts bla bla like Twoblink said it would

 

[Trempel]

No surprises here, thank G-D! I've seen a couple though. My buddy and I took his dad to teach him shooting. Rented a Taurus 44 Mag and after a lecture on safety rules and showing him how to do it, we let him loose. Half an hour into it, he goes "I don't remember if I fired 5 or 6" and squeezes the trigger one more time, while holding the gun sideways, palm up at hip level. Thankfully the muzzle was pointed downrange. It'd be funny if it wasn't so dumb.

 

[PawDaddy]

I was shooting my Ruger Super Blackhawk and on one shot, parts went flying. The screw holding the ejector rod broke. I had fired the gun several times and do not believe that it was my first outing with it. I guess that the screw was weak.

 

[goon]

I have had a couple.
One was my own stupid fault.
I had a S&W 686 that was getting out of time (but I was still too inexperienced to know that). It would occasionally misfire, but the round would always go off the second time.
After I had "emptied" the gun, I was dryfiring at the dirt bank where my target was. A click became a bang.
I could have sworn that I had fired all six, but physics says I didn't.
The other was more minor.
I had just bought my new CZ-75BD and I was shooting if for the first time. I was no stranger to handguns by then, having already gone through about a half-dozen in search of "the one".
I was accustomed to DA trigger pulls and to the smooth but slightly heavy pull of my SIG.
I accidentally bumpfired three rounds through it before I figured out what was going on.
The trigger pull is light and usable, but it really isn't that light.
Don't know what happened, but I felt the trigger engage and release for them all.
The last was the first time I shot my flintlock. The damn thing actually went off.