A very LOUD lesson!
The worst (and only) accident I've ever had was an accidental discharge indoors (and I don't mean an indoor range, either). I just thank God no one was around when it happened!
I had gone out to the range for a practice session with my carry gun, an EAA Windicator .38 Spl. 2" bbl. revolver. As I always do, I reached for the cleaning kit as soon as I came home and stripped down the gun and cleaned it. After cleaning and installing a couple home-made cardboard "washers" for the grip-set screw to keep it from over-traveling after tightening and causing the mainspring guide to "hang up" and cause cylinder binding (Yes, I'm ordering a new grip to take permanent care of this problem), I proceeded to reload and re-holster my weapon.
I loaded 6 rounds of Hornady Custom 158-gr. JHP/XTP into the chambers when the gun slipped. It seemed that some lubricating oil got back on my hands from handling a thoroughly cleaned and oiled gun. I quickly reached for the gun to keep it from slamming into my kitchen floor. When I grabbed it with both hands, the cylinder shut with my left hand, with my left ring finger in the trigger guard. The webbing of my right hand caught the hammer and pulled it back to "cocked position". Before I even realized what I did, my left ring finger pulled the hammer to full rear, thus dropping the hammer into sear engagement. I ended up with a very loud BANG!
, immediately followed by my ears ringing, my heart in my throat, and the thought of "oh sh*t, what did I just destroy?" :banghead:
I immediately unloaded my weapon and reholstered. After my ears stopped ringing about 30 seconds later, I looked around my kitchen window screen and walls, expecting to find a nice-sized hole in something, possibly an appliance. I then found a small hole in the face of one of the cabinet drawers. I opened the cabinet to find a nice chunk of waferboard taken out of the back of the drawer face, "wood" fragments all over the inside of the drawer, with a small dent in the backing and my spent bullet, still hot, laying inside.
I then washed and dried my hands again, and used a dry cloth to pick up the excess residue from my gun. After re-gaining my composure (still a little miffed from the new decoration to my kitchen cabinetry!
) I checked the gun for proper function, reloaded, reholstered, and left to pick up my girlfriend from work. When I went outside to my car, my neighbor and friend, Scott, said, "Did you see those kids who threw firecrackers in the dumpster? They also shot off a gun right before that!" I told him, "Yeah, it woke me up! I thought shots had been fired." Some local teen pranksters actually had set off fireworks in our dumpster at the same time the AD occured. Talk about good timing! I'll leave Scott to believe his version of the story.
Upon picking up my girlfriend from work, I told her about the bad news to our kitchen. She was just glad I didn't get hurt and the cops didn't get called out on me. I showed her the damage to the cabinet and the bullet that partially expanded in the kitchen cabinet. She was quite suprised when she got the idea of what a HP can do to a human being, and laughed when I said, "Now my landlord will actually have to get off his a** and fix something around this building when I move out!" He probably won't fix that hole anyway.
I've learned two things from this accident:
1. Make sure your hands and your gun are dry and "slippery stuff" free before handling or loading them.
2. If for some reason the gun should fall from your grasp, let it fall! It may require adjustment or repair afterwards, but at least the firing pin safety will do its job and not fire because YOU grabbed the gun improperly being more worried about it hitting the floor.
3. If I ever need to fire a round indoors in a self-defense situation, I'm now (unfortunately) fully aware of just how loud it's going to be.
The spent bullet and empty cartridge sit on the corner of my kitchen counter as a reminder, as my girlfriend will laugh every time she sees it to remind me of my really stupid moment! I hope this post educates and saves the rest of you from such an embarassing situation such as this.
Sincerely,
MW