You Ever Forget Your Gun Somewhere and Someone Else Finds It?

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I left my 642 in a hotel once. We left early around 5:00 AM. I remembered about 100 miles in. I called the hotel and the manager says “ honey, this is Tennessee....we’re not afraid of guns”. She held it in her office until I picked it up a few hours later.

that just added about 3 hours to our drive home. I was in big trouble with my wife. Not happy.
 
l left my rifle in the crook of a tree after dragging a couple deer to the road when I was I highschool. By the time I remembered it, it was dark, so went back the next morning and got it
 
Not one I left but one I found.

During my time as an aircraft ordnance mechanic with what will remain an unnamed AF/ANG flying unit, I reported to work one morning to the hangar and found an M4 carbine leaned up against the water fountain in the hallway outside the men's restroom. There was no one anywhere as it was still very early. I removed the magazine and saw it was fully loaded. There was no round in the chamber.

To make a long story short (and as I found out later), the SF guy who left it was on his shift with the flu, and was so out of it due to being sick he managed to forget his rifle there when visiting the bathroom during routine overnight patrol. My shop chief came in a little while later and I handed him the rifle. He promptly called over to the SF headquarters and he returned to pick it up, profusely apologizing. He was later reduced from SSgt to SrA.
 
Our 750+ member gun club has had it happen about once a year. Someone will leave rifles at the range....or a trap & skeet shooter forgets and leaves their shotgun in the rack.
 
Hasn't happened to me but I fear leaving it in a bathroom stall like one of the stories earlier or something similar.

I did find one when I was younger, 13 or so. I was walking over to the neighbors house and saw a Ruger 22 Mark pistol (not sure if Mark I, II or III etc.) Sitting on top of a wooden fencepost. Dropped the mag, had rounds.

I hit the target sitting out that whoever had been shooting at with the remaining 3 or 4 rounds.

Handed it to him when he answered the door and let him know I emptied it, with a smile. At first there was shock, then maybe relief and said something along the lines of glad you found it! Not sure how long it had been out there.
 
No...but that is a fear that is always present. My EDC is with me 24/7. I've made it a habit to always be aware of its whereabouts. The only time it is not on my person is when I'm in the shower or in bed. Even then it's within an arms reach.
 
bdickens said:
I'm pretty sure I heard about that when I was over there.
Click to expand...

It was in late Summer. The firing point was right over the hill from some German town. The guy who lost the weapon was an E6 and treated his crew like crap. The last day of the field problem the supposedly left his LBE, Kevlar and rifle leaning against a tree and didn't realize it until he got to the wash rack.

He told the Battery Commander, they went back to the point and found the LBE and Kevlar but no rifle. There were some German nationals wandering around the firing point but they left almost immediately.

EVERYTHING STOPPED

All the vehicles went into a motor pool where they were searched and put under guard and the entire battery went back to the firing point where we spent the next 3 weeks searching for the weapon from dawn to dark, getting rousted out of our beds at all hours of the night and searched and questioned by CID.

No shower runs, no PX runs, no laundry runs and no hot food (not that we ever got hot food in the field anyway) just MREs twice a day.

After three week they sent us to Camp Aachen for another 2 week of the same treatment except we got to do laundry and take showers.

After that they sent us back to Peden Barracks. The working theory was that one of three people in his section disassembled the weapon and scattered it along the tank trail. Those three guys were split up and sent to other posts where they were interrogated for 6 months. The E6 was reduced to E5 and the Platoon leader was passed over for promotion which effectively ended his career.

The weapon was never found. I still think it's in so German's attic.
 
No, thank God.
If I use a hotel lobby restroom to "surf the Internet", the compact handgun in its Remora IWB holster (-classic Remoras have No Clip-) is then squeezed partway into my pants pocket, Never placed anywhere else.

Your other option? Keep a small gun safe ($35?) in the car for such times while you go inside. A cable loops through the seat frame.
It's also extremely handy to secure your gun in case you must go into a federal building etc. I never said "totally secure", but far better than in a glovebox.

Spend the small amount of cash (for a car safe), or be cheap and risk Major panic later, many miles away?
 
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I had one get away once. We were on a camping trip in the cascades way up and around the fire that night I stuffed my helwan 9mm in the pocket on the folding chair I was sitting in. Went to bed that night and completely forgot where I had set it. I remembered pulling it out of the holster where it was digging into my side, but had no Idea where the pistol was. Well after the next two days of searching, including redoing a 6 mile hike three times "in case" I gave up. Harassed all my buddies that were there for a few years about hiding my pistol until my bud Kevin called me on day. "Remember that 9mm you lost? Well my dad found it in his chair".... I still get crap about that. That gun was just bad luck though, it caused me all sorts of problems. Good shooter though.
 
My wife left her purse with her handgun in it in a shopping cart in a grocery store parking lot. We live about 15 mins away and when she got home and went to grab her purse it wasnt there and she came running into the house, pale faced, eyes bugged.

I was very disappointed but she got it back because somebody turned it into the store and turned it over to local police. They gave her a good dressing down before returning it so I think she learned her lesson...
 
There is a guy on our range who is very strange. He makes me nervous and doesnt have good control and is very jittery. Anyway, he left his AR at the range and it took a while to reach him to let him know and he didnt even realize he'd left it. Couple weeks.
 
Found a M16A4 in a port a John in Kuwait and later that same year a M9 in one in Iraq. Port a John's and Joe just didn't get along. Both found there way back to the rightful owners eventually.
 
One afternoon went to my members-only range. Came home. Ate dinner. Lounged around. About 10:00 had this lightning bolt of thought:. I left my pistol on the bench.

I was so sure I grabbed my car keys and was about to get in the car. I was freaking out.

Figured I should double check.....just to be sure. Opened the safe:. There it sat.

Good lesson. I still remember that event when I'm packing up.
 
I have worried about that when I first started carrying, which is why I made a concerted effort to make sure it was always with me.
Over many years, I have never left my gun anywhere.
At the risk of being condescending, if someone forgets a a gun somewhere, they are not being a safe or resposible gun owner.
 
Not me (yet... but theres still time) but my sister in law left hers at the beach house we all rented together. I posted here for advice(to pass on to her). They mailed it back to her FFL guy.
 
I left pistol in a rental car once. I went back to get it and they had already called the police. Just so happened that the officer arrived while I was still there. I explained what happened and she asked me to wait. She came back and handed me my pistol and said have a nice day.
 
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