Worst "oops" you made with a firearm?

[FIVETWOSEVEN]

What is the biggest mistake you made with a firearm?




Side note: 60,000th Thread!

 

[highorder]

I once tore an AR upper apart torquing the barrel nut on... My fixture came out of the vise.

Another time, I shot a 1911 reverse plug into orbit during reassembly.

The worst would probably be the time I fired a .357 revolver in the test tunnel without my ear protection. That one caused damage that lasts to this day.

 

[MisterMike]

I wouldn't call it a mistake, but I once went to the Army CID lab to prep a firearms examiner to testify in a murder trial. He took me to the range to illustrate that the weapon was working perfectly. After going through a few rounds, he handed it to me. I shot it a couple times and it jammed up (don't recall the exact malfunction). Anyway, he had to rewrite his report as a result of my jamming up the gun.

 

[Chemist]

I almost followed a bird with my sights right over my fiances head.

I dropped my gun and started laughing while he screamed, "No bird, no bird!"

Funny, I have to stay out of his way but he walks right into mine.

 

[CoRoMo]

I don't want to talk about it.
It was just a stupid mistake and I need not ever make it again.

 

[FatPants]

Deer hunting when I was a kid. Chambered a round into my winchester 94, and my thumb slipped when I went to let the hammer down. Gun fired into the ground. Didn't see a deer the rest of the day.

 

[FIVETWOSEVEN]

Oh come on CoRoMo, lets hear it! Don't post like that and leave us hanging!

Mine was destroying the single action function on a old .32 top break revolver. I swung it shut with the hammer cocked and bam! the sear was destroyed. I think...

 

[XxWINxX94]

I've damaged numerous stocks trying to get certain guns out of the safe.

 

[Ruger Redhawk]

I hate to admit this because I'm very careful. I've been handling and shooting all kinds of firearms for well over 30 years.The worst part I know better and tell people never do this. I was sighting in a couple rifles. I shot the one let it cool. I had a 270 win and a 7 mag. I can see pretty good without my Rx glasses. My mistake was having both rifle calibers of ammo on the bench.Not looking at the ammo I just grabbed the wrong one.I slipped a 270 in my 7 mag.When that thing went off what a different sound and felt like everything came right back in my face.

Now here's the worst part. I looked the rifle over no damage. Stupid me it still doesn't dawn on me what I did.I blamed the ammo. I took a second round and did the same thing. I can assure you that will never happen again. Only one ammo on the bench that I'm shooting. I need to practice what I preach. I feel very fortunate I didn't get hurt bad from my stupid mistake.

Please learn from my experience don't make the same mistake.

I'm a big boy and I know there will be some comments.I can take them. At least I'm here to read them LOL.

 

[halfded]

I polished the trigger group of a 10/22 a little too far once.

BRRRAAPPP!! Dumped a ten round mag in no time! Took the parts out and threw them straight in the trash on my way to the computer to order a new set.

 

[kayak-man]

My 870 has one of those safeties that you can rotate with a wrench (It's little more than a screwdriver) to lock it in safe. I locked it in safe one day, and it wouldn't unlock. Somehow, I managed to bend the cheap wrench that came with it, and my dad was able to get it unlocked, somehow. Then I did it again about a month or two later.

Today, I tried shooting my BB gun while riding my bike. It was really fun. I quit after I flipped over the handlebars.

 

[JoeMal]

My first time pheasant hunting, I was probably 12, I jumped out of the back of the truck with my shiny new 12 gauge pointing at the ground. When I hit, apparently my barrel had pressed into the ground, shoving thick mud down the barrel as it had rained the previous night. With the impact from hitting the ground, I didn't realize this had happened. Luckily, my dad did, and we cleaned the mud and gunk out before I managed to squeeze the trigger that day. May not have been a big deal, but it may have been a big deal

 

[sonier]

I didnt seat primers in my 38 special cases all the way, pulled it hard in .double action seized the revolver and tore the falling block bar out. WORST PART IT WAS A COLT PYTHON :banghead:

 

[Ruger Redhawk]

I don't want to talk about it.
It was just a stupid mistake and I need not ever make it again.

Come on it's can't be as bad as my screw up.

 

[BLACKHAWKNJ]

I created a new pistol cartridge-a 9MM necked up to 40. Bought a used Browning High Power barrel at a gunsmith's, first shooting session I wondered why accuracy was so poor, then I found an ejected case. Duhhh!

 

[Rio Laxas]

I wasn't paying enough attention and put a 10mm into a .45 acp 1911 magazine. I did not figure out that I had done something wrong until I pulled the trigger and the whole cartridge (case and all) shot out of the end of the barrel and fell on the bench in front of me!

 

[Will-Seattle]

My best mistake involved my first M1 Garand. It was in the 90's and the M1 was a korean import. The rifle was worn, dirty, and had an interesting rattle when it was shaken. I shot it without any problems. I decided to take off the gas cylinder to clean it and I saw that the threads for the gas cylinder lock were well worn with a lot of grit in the threads. I cleaned up the threads, tightened down the cylinder lock, and took it out shooting.

My first shot launched the gas cylinder about 20 yards down field. I figure that the grit on the thread acted as some kind of locking agent.

Talk about bad luck with that rifle. I eventually managed to buy a nice late 40's replacement barrel for that M1. I had it installed and one day I decided to use some Sweet's to take out the copper. 1st time I had ever used it. The patches were dark blue and I was able to remove a lot of copper. After the last patch with Sweet's, I ran 2 dry patches through the bore, then put it in the safe.

I got around to shooting the rifle about a month later. Glanced down the barrel and found bad pitting throughout the barrel. That's the day that I learned that you're supposed to run some additional wet patches thorugh a barrel to remove every bit of Sweet's.

I now keep that M1 at my parent's place. It's used for 'blastin stuff' but it's definitely not an accurate gun anymore. Too bad that replacement barrel was quite nice.


Will

 

[MIgunguy]

Gunsmith once told me that with the 1911, pulling the trigger on an empty gun THEN hitting the slide release to load the first round of a new mag would save wear and tear on the sear / hammer engagement surfaces. Got to doing that the next time I was at the range and got pretty quick with it... once I got a little TOO quick with it and sent a round way over the backstop. Quickly figured that parts are easy enough to replace so why take the chance on doing THAT again

 

[SalchaketJoe]

Fired a 270 Win through a 30-06. Or, as I like to put it, fire formed some 270 cases into 30-06.

 

[Zoidberg523]

One time when I was a kid (had just started hunting), my old man was letting me borrow a 22 of his, and on it was mounted an old Redfield (I believe it was a 1958 or 59) with high see-thru scope mounts. I went to cross a large downed log, and my over-sized boot was a bit longer than I thought it was. I tripped, falling forward, and the barrel of the rifle slammed dead into my cousin's foot (luckily I practice safe gun handling and did not have my finger near the trigger). I continued forward, and my shoulder caught the scope and tore it off of the guns integral dovetail!

Needless to say, the gun's mount was ruined. The scope rings - bent. The scope's lenses - shattered. My old man (quite rightfully) never lets me live that down. On the positive side, he decided he no longer wanted me using his guns, and gave me one for that Christmas.

 

[smhbbag1]

I took my CC holster and gun off in one piece from my pants as I was going to bed. The wife was in bed already, so it was dark.

I grabbed the wrong end, and bumped into something at the same time. Gun fell to the ground from 4.5 ft while loaded +1.

Nothing happened, but good gracious, I'm never handling a gun in the dark again unless there is a bad guy.

 

[searcher451]

The worst "opps" ever? That would be actually buying a Beretta Tomcat with cold, hard cash. As to the rest of it, well, following basic, fundamental rules for the safe handling of firearms has served me well for more than 50 years.

 

[jnyork]

I took both a .30-30 and a .303 Brit to the range for a good time. Got the ammo mixed up!

 

[youngun38]

no not me but yes my brother-in-law was using my 30-30 win. when he chabered and started to let the hammer down just like FatPants said and "BOOM!" unfortunately for him his hunting partner had parked his brand new at the time silverado in the wrong place. yep! right through the roof.

 

[leadcounsel]

Took a girl shooting. We had 9x19mm ammo and 7.62x25 ammo for respective pistols. I allowed her to load Tokarev mags unsupervised. Then she loaded the mag in the pistol and tried to fire. Nothing. I went over and opened the slide and she had loaded 9x19mm rounds into the Tokarev. Thank GOD it didn't fire!