What is the dumbest thing you ever did to a gun?

When I was a teenager (a long, long, time ago) I
bought a Winchester .22 rifle. I don't remember the
model number. But it was used and old when I got it.

It was pump action, octagon barrel, and it had a beautiful
stock with gold leaf scenes on both sides.

I was out by Minidoka (that's Indian for desert) shooting
jack rabbits. I just winged the last one. I was out of ammo.

He was limping along and I caught up with him and gave
him the coup de grace, using my rifle as a club.

That was dumb. I broke that beautiful stock. My Dad
glued it back together, but it was never as pretty as it
was before my dumb stunt.

I gave it to my Grandson about 15 years ago.

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In Omnia Paratus

My first rifle was a Remington 582 .22 that I kept behind the seat of my van during my first small game season.On my way home from a hunt a water bottle rolled off the seat and ended up back there somewhere.I promptly forgot about it.Remembering it a few days later,I found the water had soaked through the soft case rusting the barrel.I cleaned it up with naval jelly
I've still got that rifle

CRAZYPHIL, did you really live this or just watch me, (a smiley face goes here). I did the exact same thing but using my dads browning 22 auto, and my coup de gras was done to a coyote. Broke that little browning stock into little pieces along with the internal magazine tube. But dang I was 12 years old and had my first coyote.

I have done some REAL dumb things from playing with dynamite as a kid, to hitting a big bull moose in the nose with a snowball, to putting a live rattlesnake in the refrigerator, to name just a few but when the subject is dumb things with guns I recall pulling the bullets from 22 lr cartridge and stuffing .224 caliber jacketed bullets in their place and trying to shoot them. Trying is the key word. It took some doing to get them into the case and get them to chamber and a lot of grinding. It was a 22 caliber rifle and they were 22 caliber bullets so nothing could go wrong.

The dumbest thing by far I ever did with a gun was to shoot a glass out of my wife's hand, using a BB gun, inside the house why she was doing dishes. It was also the best shot I ever made. I had to compensate for trajectory as the kitchen was 2 rooms away, and also windage as the wall furnace was blowing. I broke the bottom out of the glass she was reaching for without touching her. That was 42 years ago and she brings it up quite often and she has never complimented me on my fine shooting. Women.

Worst thing I ever did to a gun was to my little Bersa Thunder .380. My vehicle has a recessed storage bin under the front passenger seat. I used to put the Bersa in there while driving. One road trip I had placed an ice cooler on the backseat. I forgot to close the drain plug. You can guess where much of the water wound up. Yes, in the bin with my pistol.

It gets worse. I was really tired when we got home, so I left everything in the car overnight. Next morning I discovered the wet seats, and left the car outside with the windows down to dry them out. Later that evening it hit me that the pistol was in the bin under the floor. Yes, it was sitting in water and had been for more than a day by that time.

I used a shop vac to suck the water out of the bin. Took the pistol inside to clean it up. Found a few rust spots, but they buffed right off. Next time we shot I shot off the rounds that were loaded in it. They all fired just fine, and the pistol itself suffered no lasting effects.

Now that bin contains only a first aid kit and a couple boxes of 22LR.

Dumbest thing I ever saw-
Once saw a young man shoot a shotgun slug.
Oops! There was several inches of mud in the muzzle.
It sounded kind of different.
Then it looked kind of different.
The barrel did not split.
The muzzle just belled out like an old fashioned blunderbuss.

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NRA LIFE MEMBER

I can't tell the absolute dumbest thing but one I will admit to is that at a gun show one time I bought a front site tool for my SKS on a whim. I still don't know why I did that because I was pretty good with it out to 100yds. it was very consistent and I could usually keep my grouping to 3 1/2 or 4" through open sights.

Next time I took it to the range I thought I'd tighten that up a bit with a little tweaking.

Well I tweaked it alright. I never made another hole in a piece of paper or anything else. I even tried to put it back the way it was but after 3 more trips to the range and many more rounds wasted I gave it up I gave it to my BIL and he still has it but he has not been able to get it back into adjustment. He hasn't had it out of the closet in 12 years...Still claims he'll get around to it "someday".

I wish him luck.

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Real men love cats!

Not to a gun, but with a gun.... When Glock first came out they were pretty exciting; light weight, high capacity and my agency had authorized their carry, so I ran right out and bought one and started carrying off duty (no duty holster had been decided). Every one wanted to see it, so I had to keep taking it out, making it safe, getting it back. loading it up....... on and on. It was asked for a second time by the same person over a few minutes and to my regret and embarrassment, I handed it over loaded with the simple caution, "its hot". He took it, remarked on how light it was and promptly shot out a sliding glass door..... What's worse.... I was am academy firearms instructor....

I have few regrets in my life.... this is one.

We all make mistakes. I'm not telling mine.

They should have a program like AA or something for firearm blunder people to get absolution...

In the winter of 1974 the wife and I headed to Alaska to do our part for the pipeline project. The Al-Can highway was still 800 miles of dirt roads with hundreds of miles between towns. When I crossed into Canada the authorities bagged and tagged all of my guns. The bags had to still be sealed when we exited the Yukon into Alaska. I stashed away from sight of the border guards, an Ithica model 49 22 caliber single shot rifle. I was near the Yukon-British Columbia border when I saw a wolf cross the road ahead of me and stop on a frozen river 100 yards distance. I grabbed the 22 rifle and went after him. He watched me coming and crossed to the opposite bank and was in the willows. I was about half way across the frozen river and tried to get a shot. I could see him darting in and out of the brush not offering a clear shot. He then stopped, looked at me, and then past me to the left. I turned to see other wolves in the willows on the bank behind me. I then heard from my brain for the first time that day. Here I was hundreds of miles from any town, wolves all around me, and I have a single shot 22 rifle. I could see my wife in the truck checking my life insurance policy. The wolves just melted away into the woods and I retreated to my truck.

Yup, I can't say what mine was either but I deep sixed it a LONG time ago.

Dumbest thing I ever did to one of mine was sell it.

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Ukraine -- now more than ever

My second of three marriages has to figure somewhere.

But when it comes to guns, it dates from my long-ago drinking days. Needing money (guess why), I sold a wonderfully accurate Remington 700 ADL in .243 Winchester with 3X9 variable scope, and worse, a gorgeous Browning Auto 5 Light 20 that had been given to me as a gift by a volunteer fire department on which I had served as firefighter and chaplain.

I've had to sell guns sober due to fiscal hemorrhage, and regretted some; but selling the .243 and the lovely Browniing was alcoholic stupidity.

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Oh well, what the hell.

Worst thing I have done is mounting scopes on pre 64 Winchesters.

I'll see yr scope on a mod 94 and raise you one on a garand.
I was buying them out of the shotgun news delivered to the door.
they were cheep, but we screwed up a few.
Ahhhh regrets

The dumbest thing I ever did was to let my son use my Beretta A400 trap gun. He has claimed it as his own. Similar story with my wife and my 9mm Shield. I now have to ask her to use it.

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paws for friendship

I bought a nice S&W 17-3 in its original box. I can't legally own a 4" pistol here, so I figured the next best thing was to have a 4.25". I shouldn't be allowed to own a hacksaw.

Its still a great shooter but its basically worthless to anyone other than me now.

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I also sold a very nice 5" 27-2 a few years ago, regret that one. My dad won't sell it back to me no matter how hard I try.

Dumbest thing i ever did, was to take them on a boat trip.

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Jamie wants big boom

Dang! Thought that only happened in the USA.

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Reg. Magnum wants/Rossi wallet

Dumbest thing I ever did....Does it count that I was 8? I'd seen shiny guns in some western movie and decided I wanted a shiny gun too. My dad had passed away and left two rifles. A .32 caliber Winchester lever action, and a .22 Winchester bolt action. I found that if you used a Brillo pad on the barrel they got shiny just like the ones in the movie! I cold blued them when I got older, but the damage was done.

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Support Israel!

Mine was painfully similar to your story.
As a dumb teenager i was squirrel hunting and knocked a big
old fox squirrel out of the tree and he took off running.
I had instinctively pumped another round into the chamber
of my old Mossberg 20 and was now chasing the thing
thru the woods. Caught up to it and used the butt of the
shotgun to smash its head. Kaboom !!!
Scared some sense into me !!
Don't use a gun as a club.


Chuck

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They hold no Quarter

My mother had a Winchester .22 of some kind--which had a retractable red sling on it too. The dumb thing I did was to allow my friend Greg to shoot it one time at the range. I didnt see what the idiot was doing at first--as I was firing Allison's dads 9 shot .22 revolver. I kept hearing these firecracker-like bangs and strange whizzes near me. That idiot was placing live .22 rounds on the shooting table-placing the rifle against the back side-and firing it. As I noticed it--(last shot) Greg fired the rifle again before I could take it away-and a tiny sliver of brass from the bullet he shot hit one of my thumbs leaving a scar just past the "web" section of the thumb. Greg never touched any other fire arm I had then.

I got sent away to a boarding school for part of high school, and a kid one day used his slingshot to launch .22s down the dorm hallway (concrete block walls). Got everybody's attention for sure! Don't remember if his name was Greg but they might have been related....

Could have been one of Greg's half-brothers: Edward or Rodney. Those two were famous for doing stupid things and Edward did a stint in prison for one of his special doings.

Not my most brilliant moment, I shot my gun safe. I was putting a S&M model 60 3in. barrel in the safe, I opened the cylinder and dumped the shells in to my hand and shut the cylinder, pulled the trigger, just I realized there were only 4 shells in my hand, and the gun went boom. the bullet went into the cement broad and lodged in the cement and putting a dent in the outside steel plate.

I have no explanation for why I did what I did, and have not placed a gun in my safe loaded or double checking the chamber.

I did learn if I have to be in a fire fight in my home I want to behind my safe.

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Carpriver.

A S&M model 60, man that must be a .500 mag at least.

Not a gun, but when I was about 12 a family friend gave me an unissued model of 1917 Remington bayonet. It was in close to perfect condition.

I went straight home to hang it on the wall in my bedroom. I found a couple nails but didn't take time to get a hammer. You guessed it, I beat the nails into the wall with the butt of the bayonet.

I still have it and it still looks pretty good, but every time I look at the butt end I slap myself.

Wingmaster

I have ND'd a couple times...one was loading a round into a 1911 by dropping it into the chamber then dropping the slide...fired right into the floor. Another was handling an "unloaded" gun at the range....aimed it safely and dry fired it....putting a round into the dirt in front of the bench. Hard lessons well learned.

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Even older, even crankier....

I just got done telling some senile old nutter the other day...he whips out a Ruger GP100 to show me, and I more or less batted the muzzle away from my face. Finger on the trigger, to boot.

I take the gun off him, check it's empty, and he tells me to "Calm down! It's unloaded."

I tell him it's the unloaded ones people are always having accidents with.

I've managed to sell far too many handguns over the years that I now wish I owned But to the thread question, the dumbest thing I ever did to a firearm was try to refinish the stock on a beautiful Perazzi I owned in my trap shooting days; a complete disaster, but $400 later had the work professionally fixed

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John

Back in my IPSC (club level) days, the hot setup became modifying a 1911 magazine to hold 8 rounds instead of the standard 7.

I came home from the range one evening, and went to unload the gun. I dropped the magazine and stripped out the rounds. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. That's all of them.

I pointed the pistol at the bookcase and pulled the trigger.

Need I say more?

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John 3:16 .

My first handgun purchased was a model 27-2 in my youth. Prior to this I had only shot .22 rifles. One day sitting in my first apartment I decided to shoot the .357 at a wood floor lamp in my living room. I assumed that the projectile would get lodged in the 2" thick wood pole of the lamp.

Needless to say, it cut the floor lamp in half, went through the living room wall and lodged in the opposite wall of the next room.

Luckily, my guardian angel was there again and no one got hurt. The lesson was learned and I have since treated every gun as being loaded and never point in an unsafe direction or pull any trigger unless I plan to shoot something.

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James Redfield
LM #497

Too bad there was no magazine safety disconnector on that
1911. That is something I always talk about in my classes.
Many times the gun will just be put in the drawer in that
condition and it is a disaster waiting to happen.

My granddaughter's boyfriend took her to his Dad's house
to see his gun collection. He handed her an "unloaded"
semi-automatic "magazine out". She pointed it at the
floor and pulled the trigger. Nice hole in the floor.
Dumb boyfriend.

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In Omnia Paratus

Sorry Phil. While I'm not opposed to magazine disconnects, in this case the blame is on me and me alone.

I probably should not have modified the magazine. A silly thing to do really, just to shave a couple of seconds off by skipping a reload at some point. But since I had done it, that magazine should have been clearly marked and not used anywhere but on the range.

But most importantly I didn't follow the manual of arms for the gun (drop the magazine/rack the slide/clear) and I let my attention wander. I dropped the magazine, then set the gun down and did something else and came back to it. That's where the "chain of custody" broke.

Even then I should have realized that eight rounds out of the magazine wasn't right. That should have set off alarm bells in my head. It didn't.

Then I DIDN'T check to make sure the chamber was empty before I dropped the hammer.

The only thing I did right was point it in a more or less safe direction so the only thing that got damaged was a couple of books. It scared me death when I realized that anywhere else and I might have killed my wife, a kid, my MIL, or my wife's uncle, who was just in the next room. Praise GOD he protected me from myself.

A magazine disconnect might have stopped it. But ME paying attention to what I was doing would have too.

I've been beating myself up for twenty-years or more over this one. It's all on ME.

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John 3:16 .

Very fortunately the only ones hurt were the books. Don't be so hard
on yourself. You learned a valuable lesson.
That mag safety disconnector is a double edged sword. I remember an
incident down in California where a young man hit a cop over the head
with something, knocking him down and semi-unconcious. The cop
pulled his service pistol and article said the mag fell out. I would guess
he hit the mag release instead of the safety.
Anyway, he had a safety disconnector so was unable to fire the one
in the barrel at the perp. Fortunately for him he had a bug on his
ankle that he used to stop the beating.

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In Omnia Paratus