The "Weirdest things you ever shot" veered a little into ADs. What's your favorite AD story? When I was a kid (and home alone) I was playing around with Dad's old model '97 and chambered a round. I didn't know about the slide release but I knew if the hammer was down you could work the slide. I stuffed a Kleenex between the hammer and firing pin "it seemed like a good idea at the time" and pulled the trigger. Fortunately it was pointed at an old dresser in my room. It put a 3/4" hole halfway on the edge of a drawer and Mom and Dad never noticed.

I dont want to talk about it! No one was hurt and nothing destroyed. Oh, did I mention I dont want to talk about it? Seriously, if you handle firearm's long enough most everyone will have one. The point is that your training allows it to be an embarisment rather than a disaster.

Mine was a long time ago with a buddy on a very cold day at the range. I was testing a load for a Colt SAA. Knowing I was going to fire six rounds without delay, I loaded six rounds, while lowering the hammer on the live round my very cold thumb slipped off the hammer and boom it went. Now it was pointed down range at a downward angle and just made a nice divet about fifteen yards out, but was a shock to my system. My buddy just gave me the look and asked if that sixgun was too compicated for me to operate safely. Holy shame Batman! Even though I knew about the hole in HIS kitchen floor! It was a learning experiance!

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Stay safe people!

I shot a wall at my parents house with my 9mm XDsc. Thought the gun was unloaded and was taking it down for cleaning. Pulled the trigger to release the slide and BANG. It went through the plaster into a storage room and through about 4 framed paintings my sister and I had done as kids.

The Hydra-Shok JHP was stuffed with plaster, didn't expand but was deformed when I found it between the last two destroyed paintings.

My dog and GF were both freaked out and all our ears rang. I learned a very valuable lesson and thank God no one was hurt. I repaired the wall and just confessed to my parents a couple of months ago (the original incident happened 7 yrs ago).

I purchased my first (and only) Glock a few years after they became popular. I was living in an apartment at the time. One day after I had come home (and already in the house) I noticed a broken window in my kitchen. I drew my nice new Glock (which I was of course carrying since it was new) and started to clear the house. I worked my way to my bedroom and it came down to checking out the closet. I opened the door and as I did I accidently fired. Nobody was in there.. nobody got hurt. Of course I was embarrassed and everything. Strangely nobody heard the shot (or at least didn't report it). I never found out how the window was broken. Nothing was stolen.

Even though I knew better... I had my finger on that trigger

I do not believe in "accidental" discharge I believe the correct term should be "Negligent" discharge.

I had one (at the range thank goodness) I was done shooting and thought I had clear my 1911, I really do not recall how it happened but I dropped the mag out pulled the slide back to check, pushed the mag back in and must have had a rd in the mag and finger on the trigger and BAM off it went, scared the **** out of me. Pistol was straight up so it went over the berm into the woods somewhere

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Still Running Against the Wind

OK...I tell one on myself. I was about 22.

Ruger Security Six, I was removing wood from the left grip, so a speedloader would fit. After getting it right, I ejected the rounds onto my work bench, but failed to notice that only 5 came out.

I reattached the grip screw, pointed the gun at a movie poster of a cowboy flick on my basement door, and promptly drilled him right in the chest....and the 158gr LSWC went through the door, though the wall behind it, and killed our hot water heater dead.

I told this one on myself to the guys at the local gun shop back then, and now 20 years later, one of them is my next door neighbor, so I still here "killed any water heaters lately" as recent as last week!

A guy a worked with (for real) had his hoodlum cousin living with him at the extremely kind invitation of his Father. Well the hoodlum was into bad things and had a .40 Cal. Semi Auto.

The guy I worked with asked him to keep the gun locked up in his car and NOT to bring it into the house.(Of course he never told his Father about it)

You know what happens next. The guy I worked with, his friend and the hoodlum were all in the same room and the hoodlum produces the firearm and proceeds to fool with it, then BANG!!!

The guy I worked with, who was sitting across the room, was shot through the left ankle and right foot.

The injuries were serious but he made an amazing recovery.

You're not going to believe this but about two years after the incident the guy I worked with got a phone call from the local sheriffs department. Apparently his cousin put him down as as a CCW reference. Crazy!!!!!!!!!!

There are only two kinds of shooters in this world. Those that have had a negligent discharge and those that will.

I'm one of the former. As a kid, I worked the action on my Model 69A Winchester rifle, thinking it was empty (it wasn't, I had somehow decided to put a loaded magazine in it). Sitting on the bed in my bedroom, I put a round through the big wooden 1939 Silvertone console radio/record player that was in that room. The bullet just missed the guts of the radio. I pushed out the wood fibers from the other side of the hole and painted the outside of the slight depression there with brown Testor's airplane dope which I had handy. I covered up the hole in the wall with toothpaste.

My mother still had that radio, and before her death last year, in a fit of contrition, I pointed out the hole to her. She had never noticed it.

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- Cogito, ergo armatus sum -

I fall into the former category as well and my wife's Trailblazer has the .45 calibre hole in the floorboard to show for it. Still sends shivers down my spine even thinking about it

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Forum consigliere

I shot myself in the leg ... with a BB gun. Hardly did any damage, didn't break the skin, and I don't even remember if it left a bruise; probably shouldn't have said anything to the parents.

Mom & Dad never said anything about it, but the BB gun mysteriously "disappeared" for several months.

Fortunately, I haven't had an ND with anything more potent, and I sure plan on keeping it that way!

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Don't need no stinkin' sigline

I swear this is true. I cleared a Ruger 10-22 after a afternoon shoot, and pointed it at the back wall and snapped the trigger. For some reason I pulled the bolt back, and out came a dud Fed Walmart Value Pack with a big notch in the rim. What are the odds?

I've had two. One was a mechanical failure of some sort on a Colt Series '70 with French MilSurp ammo. Lowered the hammer on a live round and it fired. Did not let the hammer slip, gently lowered it and the gun went gang. Hole in carpet. Gunsmith suggested a sensitized primer on the old ammo.

Second was flat out stupidity with a 22 semi-auto pistol. Made the classic mistake of not clearing the chamber and thinking it was unloaded. Shot a hole through two interior walls.

My late father was a party to or a witness of an AD involving a semi-auto shotgun falling over and firing when it hit the ground until it ran dry. Can you imagine a 3 round burst from a self-loading 12 gauge flopping around in the middle of a group of hunters in camp? My mother mentioned this one day but would not elaborate on details. I think she hinted that there was a fatality involved but she would never discuss it again and my dad never talked about it.

I was present at 2 other ADS. One involved my gun and car. A buddy got in my car, opened the glove box (I never asked why) and he spotted my 1911. For reasons I will never understand he grabbed the gun, cocked the hammer and pulled the trigger. The pistol was in Condition 2 meaning it went off when he pulled the trigger. In fact, he was so startled by the discharge he flinched a second pull of the trigger. First round went through the windshield. Second one went straight up through the roof of my 1976 Chrysler.

He never paid me for the damages.

The other AD occurred at a friend's house. We were all young guys hanging out at a buddy's place and somebody was showing around a cheap 22 SA revolver he had picked up. For some reason he had loaded it after all had looked at it and left it on the counter separating the kitchen and living room. Another guy (a future police officer, BTW) came in and grabbed the gun as he entered the room. Again, I don't get it but he pointed it at the floor, cocked the hammer and pulled the trigger. Bang!

Of the 6 guys in the room, nobody said a word or moved an inch as he shot the floor. After plugging the shag carpet, he just set the gun down, turned around and left the house. We heard him drive away. As far as I know he never brought it up and nobody ever mentioned the incident to him. I think he has blocked it from his memory.

When I was 13 or 14 I shot a hole in the ceiling of my bedroom with a 12 gage. When I came into the room my older brother asked if I had unloaded it I sarcastically said Yes pointed it at the ceiling pulled the trigger. Patched the hole and never told my parents. My brother rated me out 15 years later.

My neighbor who is normally very careful went home after a trip to the range and was unpacking his pistols when he noticed the hammer back on his Kimber 1911. No mag in the gun safety on. He took the safety off pointed at the bedroom wall and pulled the trigger. He wife ran into the room thinking he had shot himself. Since he was OK and their bedroom is adjacent the carport she told him if he shot her brand new car she would shoot him. luckily the round went under the car and hit the floor and is still plastered in the opposite wall.

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SC Army National Guard

I had to knock on wood first, I never have and hope I never do. My buddy shot his big screen with his 45 auto.

Is your buddy's name Elvis?

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Don't need no stinkin' sigline

Not really an AD or ND but funny.

YouTube - When the Wife Won't Listen

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SC Army National Guard

My first, and so far only ND was with my privately owned Colt Government Model. I was an "Expert" as I had qualified as same with one in the Army. I was shooting my new Government Model at the range and carefully sighting it in when I had to get some dust out of my eyes. Instead of just putting the piece on safe and laying it down on the bench, I chose to lower the hammer on a live round as I thought this would be "safer". Right, my thumb slipped off the hammer, as did 2 rounds slipped down range. Luckily, no one got hurt. My first, and so far only AD was when my Walther PPKs decided to go full auto on me one day at the range. It was very surprising, and thankfully, no one was hurt. The gunsmith asked if I wanted a Class III License or if I wanted him to ship it back to the factory for repair. I opted for the trip back to the factory where they repaired the piece for free.

Best of luck,

Dave

From the "Weirdest things you ever shot" thread:
I'll explain because maybe then someone won't repeat the mistake I made.
At the time I was shooting Colt single actions quite a bit. The 'safe' loading procedure is familiar to most people here. Open the loading gate, bring the hammer to half cock, load the first chamber, skip one chamber, load four chambers, close the loading gate, bring the hammer to full cock, release the hammer and lower it on the empty chamber. I had been doing this so often that the process had become automatic. I just did it without really thinking.
That day I was loading a safer 'New Model', and in hindsight, wasn't really focusing on what I was doing. I opened the loading gate, loaded all six chambers, closed the gate, and reflexively started to bring the hammer off half cock. Thirty years later, I'm still not sure if my thumb accidentally slipped off the hammer, or I subconsciously tried to abort the process when the hammer position didn't feel like half cock.
I got very lucky, even the fish survived the incident, and I learned a very valuable lesson. 'Practicing' safe handling is not enough. I must be thinking about the firearm every time one is in my hand.

.....other than to agree there is ample reason to 'load 5' on a SAA, I will say no more....

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Dum vivimus Vivamas

OK guys and gals go to this link and click "my account" highlighted in the paragraph of what happened (no, not me, the guy who wrote this)

Warning! some graphic photos but ones that should be seen.

Negligent Discharge

A direct link if you dare.

http://negligentdischarge.com/leg.html

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Still Running Against the Wind

Similar to mine. Only I shot the living room floor of my parent's house. I spent hours looking for where the slug came out in the basement but never found any evidence. I can only surmise that I was lucky enough that the bullet buried itself in the top of a floor joist.

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All Rights Reserved

Rule number one: always point the muzzle in a safe direction! By adhering strictly and absolutely to this rule I was able to have a very embrassing moment rather than a tragic one. Never say never, I learned the hard way. I try and recall this often.

So much to be said.....


Ken

Trying to master the operation of a 1897 Winchester riot gun, I missed the half cock and blew a huge F-ing hole in my ManCave couch. I don't know if I was more embarrassed or scared. Federal 9 pellet tactical 12 ga 00 really does in upholstery.

See, it wasn't us, it was the gun!!

My AD involved an older version of the Browning Lever Rifle, which, whether it was loaded by racking the lever to strip a round from the magazine, or single-loaded by racking the bolt open and then feeding a round into the chamber, left the hammer in full-cock position. In this instance I'd single-loaded a round, then inserted a mag, then attempted to drop the hammer, controlled by my thumb, while pulling the trigger --- the only possible way to "decock" this rifle. Trouble was, I was wearing fairly slick-surfaced mesh camo gloves, (on a bear calling stand, in very remote, unoccupied country...). The hammer slipped beneath my gloved thumb, and a .308 Nosler Partition was launched into oblivion, i.e., into the forest below my cliff edge perch.

Some smugly say that there are no "accidental" discharges, only "negligent" discharges. I think this example refutes that allegation --- this was an accident, not the result of negligence, and I suspect that there are many more similar examples...

Never had one, and the good lord willing and the creeks don't rise I never will. I did see a guy shoot himself in the calf at the local indoor range, if that counts.

About forty years ago, I was handling a revolver inside a car, and thought I had unloaded all five rounds. I didn't have the revolver pointed in a safe direction. I was VERY lucky.

I have an eleventh (now fifth) safe handling rule. I never handle a gun unless I am standing on two feet and handling it the same way I do on a range. That ESPECIALLY includes concealed carry. I don't get to check anything or look at anything unless it's out in the open with no safety rules compromised for privacy. If I really think I have to check something, I can do it on two feet, following all the rules, in the bathroom.

I was inspecting a new-to-me Federal Ordnance M14. I noticed thet the bolt was a bit wobbly, and wondered if it was wobbly when a round was in the chamber. I had some Remington 180 gr. SP's handy, and dropped one in the chamber. I was pretty young at the time and had never heard of a slam fire, so I hit the bolt release. The next thing I knew there was a reddish cloud in the air and I couldn't hear anything (a .308 in a 10x10 brick room is LOUD). The primer was dimpled in reverse...sort of like a little nipple. The bullet had passd through my pilow and taken a 2" deep divot out of the brick wall of my bedroom.

Fortunately, the SP deformed enough that it didn't go bouncing around the room.

Scared me half to death.

Ah, yes.

My two happened, fortunately, on the range.

Unfortunately, it was during the first registered 2700 I had ever participated in, and there were some nationally ranked shooters present in front of whom I got the opportunity to thoroughly embarrass myself, and identify myself as a total noob.

Centerfire match, rapid fire stage. Command to load with five rounds given and executed. Gun in the low ready position in condition zero. . ."ready on the right, ready on the. . ." BANG!

What was that about keeping your finger off the trigger until you have aligned the sights on the target?

Everyone stops, of course, to see if they are still in possession of all their bodily parts. The rangemaster, who was also my coach comes over to see what has happened, gives me the look, and then announces that the match will continue, with the errant shot counting as a zero.

No problem then. Everyone settles down and the command is given, resuming from where I had interrupted the proceedings, "Ready of the right, ready on the left, ready. . .BANG!

Yes, I did it again.

To tell you the truth, everyone was most kind about it, telling me, "hey, it's your first match, etc." But I suppose if I had to have a negligent discharge, this was the right place to do it--on a range, the other rules followed (muzzle pointed in a safe direction), and enough earned humiliation in front of the skilled shooters around me to assure I that have never again suffered a lapse of attention when handling a firearm.

There is a pretty graphic photo of a self-inflicted foot wound (not me) caused by the ND of a .45 caliber 1911 during some routine maintenance, here:

demotivational posters - Gun Safety - Your doing it wrong gun, safety, foot, toes, shot, gunshot, wounded, self inflicted, idiot, shot himself 24555



Bullseye

My first and only (hopefully) ND was also with an 1897 Winchester.

I remember that day as though it was yesterday...but it was many, many moons ago when I was 18.

Two friends and I were going bear hunting up a little cove of the mountain. I brought along my old trusty 16 gauge '97.

That morning was so cold, I couldn't feel my fingers once I got out of the car, and if I remember correctly, that old jalopy didn't have any heat in it.

I remember them having a couple of '94 Winchesters, and I was loading slugs and buckshot in my '97 as we went into the woods.

I loaded one into the chamber, and must have not been thinking because of the coldness in my hands, but I failed to take the hammer to the half cock position after loading it (ip was still fully cocked) and I turned it upside down to load the magazibe with four more rounds*

I gop the third round into t`e magazane and while reaching ifto my pocket of my coat for a shug, *BANG* the gun fired when I stuck my thumb into the trigger guard, the slug went straight up and hit a good size limb on a frozen tree sending it crashing into my friends while the butt of my '97 went into a part of anatomy that doesn't like to be hit.

I went down on the ground from having the wind knocked out of me. It was awful to face my friends- who looked up to me as the "safe" guy- I just told them I was showing them what not to do.

We loaded up and decided it was too cold to hunt anyway.

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Lost it all in a boat accident

This wasn't me, it was my dear, late cousin who was 2 years older than me. Back around 1981 as I recall, he had been out shooting that day and after returning to his ground floor apartment, had cleaned his Government Model .45 and loaded it, cocked and locked it and put it in a pistol rug. He then laid it next to his chair and settled into watching the tube. I believe that he did partake of the illegal herb while watching Magnum P.I. Well, this was the episode where they were dealing with a ninja, who always blinked before he struck. My cousin, with his imagination enhanced, pulled the .45 out of the rug, and plum forgot that it was loaded. At the end of the show, Magnum puts his .45 to the head of the ninja and says "Don't even try it, nobody's that fast." Of course, he blinks, you hear the report of the .45 and the screen goes blank and they roll the credits. At the instant of the blink, my cousin blows his Sony Trinitron TV to smithereens. He sits there stunned, dumbfounded at his stupidity. He goes to the apartment window, and peeks outside. At the curbside of the 4 lane road, not 50 feet from his apartment is a cop writing a ticket to someone he pulled over. The cop never looks up. There is a hole in the sheetrock, but not in the bricks outside. He is lucky, but he doesn't feel lucky, just very, very dumb.

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Wayne
Torn & Frayed

I was 14 and it was a 624.

Had dumped the cylinder into my lap, and pointed at a target on the wall of my bedroom. Click, click, click, BOOOOOMMM!!!

Luckily, I was home alone. The round went through the wall of my bedroom and into the spare bedroom closet where Mom stored her fur coats. Center punched her coyote coat, traveled through another wall and lodged behind the brick exterior.

Two years later, my mother remarked about the "moth hole" in her coat...

About 5 years later, I was helping her remodel the room, and when we took the target down I had to fess up. She just thought it was another match target that I had hung up!

See, it was John Browning's fault, not ours!

Was cleaning my Lorcin 9mm (1st gun long time ago ...ehhh). I was in my apt in college and was cleaning it and talking to a girl on the phone at the same time. While talking on the phone I put it back together and at some point inserted the clip and chambered it. I remember twirling the gun around and just messing around while chatting away (not thinking that it was loaded) and pulled the trigger...BOOM!!!!

Dropped the phone and tried to figure out what happend and noticed I blew a whole in the floor. The bullet bounced off the floor into the bathroom and took out some of the tiling above the tub. Despite the fact of how absolutely retarded everything I did leading up to that moment was, I was also surprised that my roomate who was in the living room never came to see what happen, what the noise was, made sure I was ok or nothing...crazy.

Lets just say im alot safer with fire arms now