5906 discharge ith magazine removed

[wthur]

Last Saturday at 5:30 or there about PM, I was telling a friend about my 5906 being one of the safest pistols because it would not fire if the magazine was removed well, he said prove it so, I removed the magazine and thought I had cleared the chamber, I held the pistol down and touched the trigger. I don't need any smart remarks, I know I should have triple checked the chamber at any rate, it fired through my left arm, pretty bad wound. got home from hospital last night.
Just wanting to warn everyone about this defect.

 

[shotgun693]

All safeties can fail. All devices can malfunction. Nothing mechanical works correctly forever.

 

[Odinkar]

From what I understand with the 3rd generation Smith auto's they are made to do that. If you have pressure on the trigger and drop the mag it will still fire. I'm not sure the reason, but I believe it's the way they are made. If there is no pressure on the trigger and the mag is dropped and then you pull the trigger it won't fire. If as I said you have pressure on the trigger then drop the mag it will fire. I know it works that way on my S&W 457 as well as the 6906 I had. When I first started being a cop I carried a S&W 6906 and was told by the training Lt. that in the event of a gun grab as a last resort drop the mag and it wouldn't fire. About a year later I went to Street Survival and they showed us that it would fire. Glad your OK.

 

[Sevens]

You don't need any smart remarks?!

There is absolutely a defect, no doubt about that. Your hole in the arm is likely a bigger problem then the ancillary damage you have done to gun owners, although I'm sure that is not on your radar.

I hope you make a full recovery and never handle firearms again.

 

[jimmyj]

I am not familiar with the mechanics of the pistol, but could a previous owner had removed the magazine safety ?

 

[jag22]

What jimmy said.
I had a Browning Hipower, it was well known that the magazine safety made for a bad trigger pull. I removed it and sure enough it was much better. I saved the parts and when I traded the gun at a gun show I told them it was removed and gave them the parts. You need to look at a parts diagram and see if anything is missing.

 

[Erich]

Last Saturday at 5:30 or there about PM, I was telling a friend about my 5906 being one of the safest pistols because it would not fire if the magazine was removed well, he said prove it so, I removed the magazine and thought I had cleared the chamber, I held the pistol down and touched the trigger. I don't need any smart remarks, I know I should have triple checked the chamber at any rate, it fired through my left arm, pretty bad wound. got home from hospital last night.
Just wanting to warn everyone about this defect.

Welcome to the forum - tough subject for a first post. Sorry to hear of your travails and very glad your negligence didn't have even more heinous consequences.

It's easy to take the magazine disconnect out of these pistols (and the Hi-Powers!), and some owners do that. The "pencil test" can show whether a given used gun still has the magazine disconnect.

Thank you for the reminder of the importance of observing the Four Rules. Again, very glad things didn't go worse for you, but sorry this had to be the subject of your first post on the forum.

 

[srsmyth]

I knew somebody personally that used to defeat that safety feature because he didn't like it.
Steve

 

[BMCM]

In single action mode with the hammer cocked you can still defeat the magazine disconnect if your finger in the trigger guard holding rearward pressure on the trigger. (exactly where your finger should not be when not engaging a target)

The magazine disconnect is easily disabled by removing a small plastic plunger & spring from under the rear sight.

The single most important safety feature on any weapon resides between your ears.

Any mechanical safety feature can fail or be defeated

Col. Cooper's four rules:
1. All guns are always loaded.
2. Never let the muzzle cover anything you are not willing to destroy.
3. Keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on the target.
4. Be sure of your target and what is beyond it.

I'm sorry you were injured and wish you a full recovery.
That being said... I do not view your 5906 as having a defect in this case.
In my view, the fault lies with unsafe weapon handling practices and failure to abide by the four rules.

Cheers
Bill

 

[tbgunner88]

Just wanting to warn everyone about this defect.

The "defect" responsible for this doesn't lie within the gun.

 

[TercGen]

An unfortunate reminder of what can happen when people 'cut corners' with gun safety. Thanks for sharing, and glad that it didn't turn out any worse than it did for you, Wthur.

 

[John R]

Never point a gun at anything your not willing to destroy.
Tough way to learn this lesson, just be glad you weren't pointing at someone else.

 

[0849]

You don't need any smart remarks?!

There is absolutely a defect, no doubt about that. Your hole in the arm is likely a bigger problem then the ancillary damage you have done to gun owners, although I'm sure that is not on your radar.

I hope you make a full recovery and never handle firearms again.

As a former LE Firearms Instructor I have been very fortunate in never experiencing an unintended discharge by myself or anyone in any of the classes I had instructed. I always ensured that safety was the first lesson taught.

It is important and extremely helpful for those that may have not had an opportunity to receive the right training, and have had unintended discharge, to share their experiences so that others can hopefully benefit. It is a mistake to needlessly slam and make someone feel like they did something wrong by sharing their experiences, they already know they did something wrong. The original poster obviously knows he made a big mistake and seems to me he was just trying to do the right thing now by sharing his experience in the interest of helping others stay safe.

 

[0849]

BMCM,

Thank you, Good Post, and definitely worth repeating:


1. Treat all firearms as if they are always loaded.
2. Never let the muzzle cover anything you are not willing to destroy.
3. Keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on the target.
4. Be sure of your target and what is beyond it.

 

[jimbo728]

I believe it is likely that a previous owner may have not liked the magazine disconnect in your 5906 and disabled it.
Too bad you had to find out the hard way.
Jim

 

[flagman1776]

I am sorry that this happened to you but applaud your courage in coming forward. I hope your recovery is uneventful.
I hope you will eventually test the decocker in a safe place with an empty chamber to determine if your gun is defective or modified. We can all benifit from knowing this.
I eagerly read the most advanced writing of our time & was trained by the best I could find. On safety I was taught that there are multiple redundant layers of safety. In safer gun handling, not only does one keep the trigger finger off the trigger until the sights are roughly on the target... I was taught the "straight finger technique" where the tip of the trigger finger feels for the end of the takedown lever on the side of the frame (so your finger can not be in contact with the trigger). And through out all handling the muzzle does not cross any part of your person or other innocent persons. Even if all else fails, this alone will prevent personal injury.
Another redundant safety are the various features built into a pistol or revolver.
Still another redundant safety are retention devises & the covered trigger guard on holsters (keeping your finger from contacting the trigger when the piece is holstered). In the early days of revolvers, exposed triggers could allow fingers on the trigger... which sometimes resulted in ADs.
(A buddy reported the crusty old cop who never had to use his gun & did not care for it properly. The result was an AD which blew the bottom off his holster & put a round into the ground inches from his foot. The range officer used the PA system in his squad car to give the range commands... from the parking lot! Vetran officer or not, they never let him forget it!)
When on a firing line... guns are left pointed down range & open... nobody even touches guns while anyone is forward of the line.

Rarely, a defective decocker type pistol will fire when being decocked. I have never experienced it myself. But I always point this type of pistol in a safe direction to decock. It is the redundant safety concept again. Some officers have a sandbag in their locker bottom as a safe place... more recently other depts have dedicated safe place to load & decock (depending on weapon type).
Mechanisms fail... humans fail... but if we train safety redundancy, no one gets hurt.

I hope you take this in the spirit it is offered. Be safe.

 

[Sevens]

The original poster obviously knows he made a big mistake and seems to me he was just trying to do the right thing now by sharing his experience in the interest of helping others stay safe.

I don't share your opinion on any level. There is no martyr here and zero to be applauded nor appreciated.

He put his arm (and who knows what else) in front of a loaded handgun to prove a point to his pal... what, I cannot imagine. He summed up this fiasco with a fantastic warning to us about the "defect."

I find nothing else to gain from the OP except his introduction that he's a gun owner that is absolutely no friend to gun owners.

What you very politely dubbed an "unintended discharge" is absolutely a NEGLIGENT DISCHARGE and if the OP's new found experience and quite awesome physical wound is the experience that he needed to prevent him from shooting someone INNOCENT, then I would love to buy him a beer.

 

[suckersrus]

....
Just wanting to warn everyone about this defect.

Who are you going to sue?

 

[loeman]

I don't share your opinion on any level. There is no martyr here and zero to be applauded nor appreciated.

He put his arm (and who knows what else) in front of a loaded handgun to prove a point to his pal... what, I cannot imagine. He summed up this fiasco with a fantastic warning to us about the "defect."

I find nothing else to gain from the OP except his introduction that he's a gun owner that is absolutely no friend to gun owners.

What you very politely dubbed an "unintended discharge" is absolutely a NEGLIGENT DISCHARGE and if the OP's new found experience and quite awesome physical wound is the experience that he needed to prevent him from shooting someone INNOCENT, then I would love to buy him a beer.

And of course, you have never made a mistake.

 

[Arik]

There are 3rd gen S&W that come from the FACTORY WITHOUT a mag safety. I usually try to find those. Sometimes people have been known to take the safety out. There are 2 perfectly good reasons without any defects