On the old Sixgunner site we were discussing guns going off ... still some good reading today.

Accidental / Negligent Discharges

Lancer
(only wanna know!)A question for the masses.
Not that this has EVER personally happened to the distinguished habitants of this board, but what is the best (bad choice of words) example of unintentional discharge of a weapon of which you are familiar? I once heard of two young guys visiting New Orleans wherein one of them cleared his 1911 by dropping the mag and then dropping the hammer, which cleared the barrel I mean FAST...this was followed by frantic finger pointing, even more frantic furniture rearrangement, and what was reported to be a most nerve-racking room-to-room search by N.O.'s finest...fortunately for these two young idiots, critical powers of observation were entirely absent, and they were able to leave town without visiting a place far more interesting than the French Quarter. This story is entirely secondhand, you understand.

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John F.
Two biggies
My two older brothers and Dad were dove hunting. One brother and Dad were walking side by side. Other brother was behind. He reloaded his double and closed it up. Both barrels went of and hit the dirt between and just forward of the pair. I was shooting Starlings out of my bird feeder with a Ruger Single six. When I was done, I pulled back from the open window and held the gun in my left hand (left handed), finger on the trigger, right thumb trying to open the gate, which wouldn’t open because the hammer was back. All the while, I’m absent-mindedly staring out the window at the feeder. My continue horsing with the loading gate and trigger finger being where it was caused the gun to go off. Slug went through a picture, the 1" wood cabinet wall, through a coffee mug and buried itself in a 1" wood shelf. No one else was home at the time.

I read somewhere something to this effect. "Rule # 1; never point the gun at anything you do not want to destroy. Rule #2; never put your finger on the trigger until you are ready to fire. If you make a point of never violating Rule #1, when you violate Rule #2 you will only be very embarrassed instead of very sorry."

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KevinA
My brother borrowed my Bearcat to use while hunting. He brought it back to me and one day several weeks later I was messing around with it, pointed the gun out a window, thumbed the hammer back, and promptly shot a hole through it. I still cannot believe a .22 could be that loud. I was shocked (I had kept it unloaded) and shaken to say the least. No one was hurt nor any property damaged (other than the window) for which I am eternally grateful. Now, I check, double check, and then check again (and maybe once again) every time I dry fire.

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James Thomas
A good friend and neighbor was killed by a loaded Bearcat flopping around in a suitcase, he was moving some stuff around in the trunk of his car when it went off, brained him.----

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Guilty, shot the refrigerator with a .45 derringer. nt — lee

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Doc Hudson
I'm innocent of these, but....Two cops in Troy, AL had spectacular AD's. One who is now a Captain on the Troy PD was a patrolman at the time. One of the cops brought his brand new hard to find M-29 (this was in the later '70's when N-frames were hard to find.) in to show-off to the guys. It was passed from hand to hand and finally came to Grady. He pointed and aimed and thumbed back the hammer as he ask, "This thang loaded?" He also pulled the trigger as he asked. It was loaded and it blew a big hole through the base radio set and the radio room wall. Grady and the M-29 owner both got suspensions for that one.

A few years later, one of the cops tried to lower the bolt on a M-1927-A1 Thompson SMG. There were three slugs in the ceiling before he could get his finger off the trigger. The cop got three days for each bullet hole.

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Paul
So far, so good. But.... I handed my brother the old Stevens Favorite into which I'd slipped a cartridge. He assumed that I, being a known tightwad, wouldn't have handed him a precious .22 shell in the rifle. He placed the muzzle on the toe of his sandle and proceded to punch a .22 caliber hole in it. Fortunately he didn't put it right over his toe, only the sandal got punched.

My other brother put a hole in my aunt's floor. A nice .410 size hole. Our cousin was showing him his guns and that one had a shell in it. Wasn't there so am not sure of all the particulars, but it got folks woken up.

My grandpa shot the leg off a chair his mother was sitting in. My mom's cousin shot herself in the mirror (scared her mom half to death to hear her screaming "I shot myself, I shot myself!")

I guess it runs in the family to a certain extent.

ALWAYS keep your gun pointed in a safe direction. Just remembered, it wasn't a negligent discharge, it was a ricochet. I shot at a lizard on the back wall with my Daisy 880 loaded with a BB. It bounced back and put a nice little dimple in one of the back door's window panes. Try explaining THAT one to your dad after he's taught you to be sure of your back stop.

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LAH
While groundhog hunting it started to rain so I walked a short distance to the truck. I pointed the M-70 Winchester safely away though a little high and let the safety off. I will never disengage a safety passively again. Enough said.

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Cheyenne
Took my inlaws to the desert for some shootin fun! After I let my mother in law shoot my sixgun, I took the gun and showed them what fanning the gun was all about. Pointing the gun in a safe direction as always, and knowing the gun was empty after she finished firing, I began to fan the gun western style. BLAM, off went the gun. Scary thing right! What had happened was that she must have double cocked the gun leaving a live round in the chamber. Rule #3 point the gun in a safe direction at all times until ready to fire paid off!

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At least with mine, no witnesses! nt — Lancer

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Ron R.
chambered a round on a CZ-52 only to have it go off (my finger was NOT on the trigger). Also, I once watched a guy at a range in NV shoot himself in the arm when he tried to fire his licensed M10 SMG full-auto one-handed! I warned him to hold onto the forward strap (or a barrel extension) just minutes before it happened.

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James Thomas
The year was 1978, the place was 3 miles out of Back River in the Chesapeake bay, middle of Nov., colder than the proverbial witch's you know what. We were running off shore to pick up some gill nets in a wood diamond stern work boat. Capt Bill was at the wheel when he seen some sea ducks he wanted to shoot so he reached down and grabbed an old Italian double barrel 20 Ga. , he dropped two shells in it and closed her up and yep both barrels discharged, blew a softball size hole about 10 inches below the waterline, old Bill looked at the water pouring in at his feet and then looked at the gun and then just quietly dropped it over board, we stuffed some rags in the hole and turned on the bilge pump and continued on our way.-----

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DMann
Yes, "dry-fired" a M10 into the trunk... of a 1985 Cadillac DeVille. That is all I have to say about it, although the statute of limitations has run.

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A K Church, Earth Shattering Kaboomist
Model 10 S&W or Model 10 Ingram submachinegun? The latter could make life Repo Man intense.

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Lewis Ballard
Bounced .45 hardball off the floor (twice) and have a whole new understanding of firearms safety since that time. Check, double check, and then double check again. I hope this one is apocryphal: when I was out at CAX 9/10, '95, at the Stumps, a platoon sergeant from LAR was telling me about a kid from CAX 9/10 '94, who was disassembling Ma Deuce.

Unscrewed the barrel (standing in front of it), bolt slams home, 650 grains point blank. The SSgt. said he didn't technically die for about ten minutes. . .

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Mac
Negligent Discharges, Have seen several The closest that came to being a tragedy was when a group of us was on a camping trip. Most of us were in our teens. One guy has a single barrel 20 Ga., There are several of us walking across a mowed lot. I see that the shotgun is pointed at the back of a guy in front of the idiot holding it. I point this out, the gun is lowered. A few seconds later, the gun fires, the shot strikes the ground two feet behind the almost victim. Many heated words are exchanged. Another time I'm talking to a gunners mate on the flightdeck of our ship. We were setting up to shoot clay birds. He is fiddling with a Mossberg 12 Ga. pump. It fires and the shot strikes the frame of one of the nets that surrounds the flightdeck. Two times on the same ship, at the end of their watch, two of my buddies pull the mag and clear the pistol without cycling the slide. 45 ball ammo fired inside a small, all steel compartment will get your attention quick, they tell me. One more in which I was involved. Picture a Colt Lightning with a 22 short stuck in the chamber. One kid has it in his lap, two others( me being one of these) trying to show him how to remove it. The rifle fires, the bullet goes through a wall and drills the furnace. The hole is still there, my friend now lives in his parents house, and that was the first thing we looked for. Lessons learned.

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Slim Badger
Have seen several. The Remington 721 -722 series and 700 series have a nasty habit of firing when lifting the bolt to open the action. Worst case was a fellow who was going to unload his 700 BDL 7mm Mag. The rifle discharged approximately 4" from my head. The concussion knocked me to the ground like a roundhouse sucker punch and I could not do anything for at least 15 minutes. The fellow thought he had shot me and burst into tears. I could not hear anything for three days and I'm sure added to the degeneration of my ear drums - huh. Also have observed Bubba loading their 94 Winchesters, 97 Winchesters and 336 Marlins who could not keep their fingers off the triggers and the weapon discharge when the action was closed.

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Ken G.
Security Guard
It had been a matter of debate for a couple of years, whether the security guards at the corporate office really needed firearms. After much wrangling, a VP was able to make a policy of armed security guards stick, and the guards all were furnished new .357 magnums. The corporate office was remodeled and the new security office was built adjacent to the spacious and luxurious new lobby. The guards could sit in the security office and monitor a number of closed circuit TV's, and be readily available if there was trouble.

A few months after the remodel was finished, a group of us were sitting in the lobby, discussing a new project, when we all bolted out of our chairs at the sound of cannon going off. It was so loud and so bone jarring that it was difficult at first to tell where it came from, but there was a cloud of powder smoke and brick dust hanging around a large hole in the wall.

When I smelled the powder, I knew what had happened and I looked across the lobby to see if anyone had been shot. I saw a perfectly round hole in the wall of the lobby which was in back of the very VP's office who had ram-rodded the armed guards. I ran back thru the hallway and around to the office to see the VP and his secretary staring at a hole in the window. They had heard the boom, but had not quite related the two events.....and you can be sure that I did not want to be the one to tell them.

The guard had put his feet up on the desk and had been twirling his revolver. He had apparently done this on other occasions, when the gun was unloaded, and then dry fired it. ( You will do what you practice !!?? ) The FMJ bullet went through a 1" thick wood shelf, through a composite panel, through a cinder block, through another panel, across the lobby, through a porcelain tile, through another cinder block wall, through a panel, angled 1/2 way through a 8" wide shelf board, through a double paned window, and out into the parking lot, leaving a crease in the roof of a 1967 Volkswagen Beetle.

No one was injured, but the receptionist, whose head was about six feet from the hole in the wall, said that she had started her period and that she was going home.

After word got out, we never had any trouble with salesmen hanging around the lobby.

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bj
amazing penetration!!!
The FMJ bullet went through a 1" thick wood shelf, through a composite panel, through a cinder block, through another panel, across the lobby, through a porcelain tile, through another cinder block wall, through a panel, angled 1/2 way through a 8" wide shelf board, through a double paned window, and out into the parking lot, leaving a crease in the roof of a 1967 Volkswagen Beetle.

I remember when one of my friends got a .357 long ago. I was about 16 and he was a little older. We shot it at a concrete block wall and only got a hole through one side of one block. I wouldn't have believed a FMJ could go through all of the things listed in that post.

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Lancer
.357 penetration
I sure remember being impressed by old test articles on .357 penetration back before the hollowpoint craze...I know some were designed as penetrators, but others were fairly standard fare, and these guys were blasting thru iron plate, stacks of 1" boards, sandbags,etc...yes,.357 aint what it used to be.

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Tinker
Shotgunned ceiling - Doubled
I do remember my father blowing a hole in the ceiling with a shotgun once when I was about 4 or 5. My mother was pretty upset, but he smoothed it over, accidents happen, blah, blah, blah. Replastered the ceiling. Plaster still wet, one of my brothers comes in, slams butt of shotgun down on floor, and blows a hole in the same spot. My father DESPERATELY wanted to chew him out good, but the song and dance he gave mom protected the brother as well. He seethed for a week.

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TERRY MURBACH
YEP, SURE DID...GEESH...IT WAS FROM A STEVEN'S FAVORITE 22, A STANDARD VELOCITY FEDERAL 22LR...DANG...I HAD BEEN HAVING A BIT OF TROUBLE WITH THE RIFLE BEING HARD TO CLOSE...DIDN'T REALIZE THE FIRING PIN WAS BROKEN...IT STUCK OUT THE FRONT OF THE BREECHBLOCK A TINY BIT...I PUT THE ROUND IN THE RIFLE AND VERY SLOWLY CLOSED THE ACTION...BOOM!...THE BULLET WENT THROUGH MY BOOKCASE'S END...THROUGH MY BEDROOM WALL...THROUGH MY MOMMA AND DADDY'S BEDROOM WALL...DOWN THROUGH THEIR CLOTHES CLOSET...NAILED EVERY ONE OF MY DADDY'S PAIRS OF SLACKS EXACTLY KNEE HIGH...ON INTO THE CLOSET DOOR SPLINTERING IT AS IT STOPPED ON THE WAY OUT OF THE DOOR...TO THIS VERY DAY MY DADDY HAS NEVER MENTIONED IT...HE FIXED ALL THE HOLES...THAT FEDERAL CASE DID NOT HAVE SO MUCH AS A SCRATCH ON IT EITHER...STILL HAVE IT MY JUNK SOMEWHERE...I DON'T KNOW HOW I LIVED THROUGH THAT...I GOT SOME THUMPINGS FOR A DAMSITE LESS...THE LORD WORKS IN MYSTERIOUS WAYS.

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Crooked-eye
Two different ceilings have fallen prey to my guns. One was a 2 1/2" Md. 19 .357 and the other was a Winchester Md. 97 16 ga. with a defective hammer (no, my finger wasn't on the trigger!). Both were my fault and no one was injured. Have been witness to 3 more, two more ceilings and one stereo. Hard to tell whether you feel more stupid or scared, ...a lot of both. Just goes to show, don't point at anything you don't want to shoot.
RKBA!

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A K Church
1897 Winchesters will have the sear as 1st part to go. Hammer notches can frag, but sears do so oftenly indeed. It is about as easy to replace as overhauling a transmission. Pay your gunsmith to do it.

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whiskey
I seen several... Saw at least 4 on a UN mission in Haiti, everyone, soldier and civilian, had to clear their weapons when entering the gate. Luckily we had a drum of sand that you had to point into. 3 of the ND's were civilians with pistols, drop the mag, pull the trigger, BOOM. The forth was a 2nd LT that simply pulled the trigger into the barrel, scared him so bad, he droped the mag and fired it again! I was the company armorer for several years and twice had ND's into my arms room (both blanks).

Both times the soldier pulled the trigger before handing me the M16. Scared the hell out of me, scared the shooter even more (as he waited for the 1SG).

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Lancer
Kinda hard to feel sorry butterbars, sometimes.
My Dad told me of an inebriated looey who returned to camp after protecting the democratic way in a local hooch during the KW. Dad was pullin' sentry, and the eltee produced his pistola with great flair, dropped the mag, racked the slide, and slammed her home in the holster...the extractor didn't, and the gun did...clipped the side of his boot and removed large part of same, creating the wonder of the ages, a clear headed 2ndLt..

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TL in OR
Witnessed an "ND" in a gun store a few years back and living in a different state, a local cop, off-duty and out of uniform, came in to the gun shop to possibly trade in his Glock 22. Our hero preceded to "unload" his Glock by simply removing the magazine, pointing the gun at the floor, and pulling the trigger. What followed was a large, deafening noise followed by complete silence. Thankfully, no one was hurt. Came to find out later that he had previously let one fly in the police station's locker room, hitting the wall mounted clock. (different gun, same doofus) The joke around the PD was "What's Joe (name changed to protect the guilty) up to? Oh, he's just killing time!" Funny but not really.

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Glen
yeah, I've had one......it involved a bolt-action single-shot .410 shotgun back in Texas in 1973 and resulted in no property damage or injury and helped to make me severely anal compulsive about safe firearm handling. A friend (we'll call him "Tim", not his real name), came back from trip back east. He had taken along a small cheap .22 pocket auto as a last ditch carry gun. The trip was uneventful. When he got back to Oregon and was unpacking, he came across the pocket auto and realized that he had never even fired the gun, so decided to dry fire it to see what the trigger was like. "Tim" is an accomplished IPSC shooter, intimately familiar with handgun mechanics, so he dropped the loaded magazine and looked around the room for a suitable dry fire target while he racked the slide to clear the chamber. On the coffee table in front of him was his Nikon 35 mm camera, with its black, round lens cap in place. Images of pepper-poppers came to mind, highly honed reflexes took over, the gun came up, sights aligned, center hold, trigger squeeze...

...when the muzzle-blast subsided, the Nikon was junk and "Tim" abruptly realized that the little pocket auto had a busted extractor. He visually inspects every chamber he handles nowadays.

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John K.
Unintentional discharge - don't like "accidental"
Anyways, Friend of mine works for the "gubmint" - came home one day, stripped off his expensive three-piece, put on jeans & tee-shirt. Carefully arranged the suit on the bed. Dumped the mag on the 1911 .45, forgot to rack the slide before he dropped the hammer. Being a serious advocate of dryfiring, he took carefull aim at the middle button on the suit coat...

The .45 hardball went through the suit, bed, carpet, took a divot out of the concrete floor, reversed direction, back through the bed, & exited the wall of his house. What was impressed on his mind was how LOUD a .45 indoors can be!

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THE PROPER WORDING IS "NEGLIGENT DISCHARGE" — JT

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Rich in ND
JT, Seems To Me I heard that same term years ago when a person got his girlfriend in trouble!!!!

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JT
I DON'T THINK YOU CAN CALL THAT accidental or negligent. If you don't intend to shoot don't cock and place your piece in firing position!!!

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That's it! Thanks, JT! John K.

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Doc Hudson
I will confess to four in the last twenty years Three were the result of the "Just one more try Syndrome" following a session of draw and dryfire practice. All three hit the intended target, and no one was endangered. Scared hell of me, and two witnesses on one occasion. The fourth was the result of fat fingers and rapid lever work in unloading a leveraction rifle. Result, hole in roof. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

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Lancer (penitant at large)
The Confessional is Now Open!
In the above story, your's truly's role was as chief finger pointer and head furniture rearranger...but so's you don't feel like the Lone Ranger, I done it,too, 255grSWC thru the livingroom window into the fireant bed at which I was aiming with great deliberation...after getting over the jumbled "MYGAWDWHAT'VEIDUN?/DROPTHISANDRUN!" feeling, I gave a quick heartfelt prayer of thanks that at the least, the gun was pointing at something deserving of destruction (of course, the ants may disagree)...chain of events- dry fire, load to put away, phone rings, hole appears...talk about feeling rock solid bone stupid!

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John K.
Well, it wasn't accidental, but I did shoot a feral housecat that was relieving himself in my front flowerbed from my living room w/45 auto. Been trying to get him for a while. My wife said afterward she was just glad the window was open, don't worry about the screen!

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burt
accidental discharge
1975 - the firing range at Vieques (spelling) off Puerto Rico- the gunner's mate squeezed a little too hard and we let one go from the forward 5" before we had permission to fire. Needless to say the CO was not impressed. Almost got thrown off the firing range. He did a really quick song and dance with a lot of begging thrown in and placated the range officer. I was very happy I was not the gunnery officer.

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DonSikes
unintentional shooting

I was stationed at Davis-Monthan AZ back in the 70's... I think it was around the Christmas holidays in '76. We had an "incident" at one of the gates where two of our "brighter" boys in blue (USAF Security) were playing quickdraw... the result was tragic... one of the "contestants" pulled the trigger on his draw and shot the other point blank.

I think PACO might be able to either verify or discount my ailing memory of this event, since it was discussed fairly heavily within the D-M community at the time and I'm sure with the local Tucson Law Enforcement community.

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BE SAFE!!!

mcump
overkill
a few decades ago, a friend managed to vaporize his sister's Chihuahua with a 150 grain 30-06 loaded to the max. Range was approximately three feet. The tissue damage was profound.

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Deaf Smith
American handgunner story?
Didnt that story appear in american handgunner a while back?

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AaronB Not an '06

In that story, it wasn't an '06 that vaporized Pepe... it was a .300 Mag. I don't know if it was of the Norma, Winchester, or Weatherby flavors, but it was a .300 Mag if I recall correctly. I seem to recall some line about a red mist hanging in the air, and undigested dog food sprayed on the ceiling.

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Anonymous
D Smith and Aaron B.
Thats the one. The article said Brevet (sp) Magnum because the load was one of those listed for the 30-06 back when the handbooks let you get into the 55,000 psi realm and pretty closely duplicate H&H performance.

" What wasn't converted instantly into energy coalesced on the ceilings, walls and refrigerator in an irridescent brown and crimson fractile that even Picasso's mother couldn'love." forgot to sign the above nt — mcump,

I remain in contact with, some even here on this forum. There are a few who have crossed the river and some have just kind of faded away.

Still remember the M70 going off to this day. It has a 3 position safety to boot.