My bad, and yes, it was stupid!!

[ralph7]

Sorry that it happened, but you are a lot better off than a friend of mine a few years ago. He accidently shot himself in the chest with a Ruger .22 automatic pistol while supposedly cleaning it.

He never got another chance to be more careful the next time.

 

[Eagle223usa]

That says it all Ralph. Blackbird, glad it turned out for you.

 

[Rangerpat]

I cannot add anything that hasn't already been said.
We are only human and make mistakes, glad it wasn't any worse than it is.
Thank you for sharing your unfortunate experience as a safety reminder for the rest of us.
May you heal quickly and make a full recovery from your accident.

 

[acco40]

Head on over to thegunzone.com and look for "Negligent Discharge with Serious Personal Injury" if you want to see the damage that can be inflicted in the hand with a .45 ACP by accidental discharge. Glad it was only a .22 cal.

 

[dcxplant]

What a bummer, and thanks for sharing.

I own one of those, and it needs a cleaning too!

I'll think of you and be extra careful.

Get well soon bro.

 

[kamloops67]

one day youll look back and laugh..

i touched the headers on my running 383 once ,when i was talking to my engine builder. little puff of smoke and smelled like bad bar-b-que right away.
its easy to do something dumb when we are "running on auto-pilot", its just that some mistakes hurt more than others.
lucky the injury was to yourself ,and not a child or your dog .
thanks for sharing-took guts to admit to what you did, and NOT try to shift the blame

 

[steamloco76]

Thank you for the post to remind everyone to be fully diligent about all safety procedures regarding firearms. Glad your injury isn't more serious. I had a negligent discharge about twenty years ago.
I had finished an indoor .22 rifle 'milk bottle cap' shooting match and was in the clubhouse packing my rifle. The last event of the match is the only one where more than one round is loaded in the rifle. We shot a five round rapid fire group. I had loaded my last five rounds of ammo from my bench-block into the magazine and then fired all five during the match, so I KNEW my rifle was empty. I capped the scope, pulled the magazine out, opened the bolt, looked at the chamber, put the magazine back in and then closed the bolt while holding the trigger to release tension on the firing pin. BANG! a divot in the concrete floor just in front of my left foot. I felt like a complete moron. Thank God I had the muzzle aimed at the floor, as there were ten other shooters still in the clublhouse. I looked at the empty casing when I ejected it, it was the ammo I use for plinking, not the RWS Target I used in the match. Apparently there had been one round stuck on the mag follower that I didn't see when I loaded my five rounds for the last round of the match. I took a lot a razzing about the ND, but did get praised for having the muzzle pointed in a safe direction.

 

[feralmerril]

I once came close to a real embarrassing and dangerous situation. The company issued our guns and we generally gave them to our relieving guard.
I probley had been on the job over 30 years at the time. I think I had just done a 12 hour or double shift. I was tired. I started to pull my gun out of the holster and a bell rang, I think I just cocked it! As there were probley about 6 of us in the shack, all were talking to each other I stepped out to ostensibly spit out my chaw of copenhagen. I got out and corrected things, no one the wiser but it sure woke me up!
Once I was qualifying and the range officer told of the same thing happening. He said he saw a deputy had a cocked revolver in his holster. He told the guy dont make a move! Walked over and took his revolver out of the holster and decocked it.
If some old shooter tells you they never made a mistake I think you can believe they are fibbing. We made them and were lucky.

 

[july1952]

As everyone has said, glad you are okay. Thanks for sharing your experience as a reminder to all of us, "You can never be to safe."

 

[A10]

Gutsy of you to talk about it, and a valuable lesson for us all. I have ND'd in the house too. I had a habit of dropping a round in the chamber of my 1911 then dropping the slide. Bad juju. It was a Winchester SXT round I sent into the floor. There wasn't even a mark on the primer! Scary, scary, scary.

 

[old bear]

blackbird94, I'm glad that you were not hurt any worse than you were. You learned a painful lesson, and THANKS for being man enough to share it with the rest of us.

The only N/D I ever had was putting away an unloaded gun, after cleaning it. Ever since then I unload my firearms in one room and clean in another room.

Wishing you a speedy and full recovery.

 

[jgh4445]

Yep, the title says it all. Been there, didn't hit any flesh thank God. Awesome of you to man up and tell ( warn) us about it. It may save one of us from doing the same. So glad you didn't have it in your lap....just sayin'.

 

[tops]

If some old shooter tells you they never made a mistake I think you can believe they are fibbing. We made them and were lucky.

And the young ones just haven't been around long enough. Larry

 

[UncaGrunny]

Back in the 70's I watched a salesman in a polyester suit trying to be chummy with the techs in the lab drop his full weight on his right ham down on the workbench to chat.

Right on a fully-heated soldering iron.

Spot-welded those sanzabelts deep into his derriere and left about a half-inch deep impression nearly three inches long.

Time to be most cautious is when you are deep in your comfort zone.

 

[Hapworth]

Little to say that hasn't already been said: glad it wasn't worse; it was an ND not an AD; I commend you for sharing; it's a reminder to us all to double-down on safety -- drift in focus can happen to anyone.

The only thing new I'll add is, despite owning and enjoying many semiautos...

...this is one of the many reasons why I really like revolvers.

 

[Brian41]

Thanks for sharing and hope you heal up fast. I had my ND a couple years ago and put a couple holes in the sheet metal above the furnace, a .223 is pretty loud in the house too. It was caused by my own stupidity and felt like an idiot afterwards but at least I had the rifle pointed in a safe direction. I only load my hunting guns outside of the house now too. Sometimes we get a little lax and that's when it's going to bite you in the butt.
I worked with electricity my whole working career and did get bit on a few occasions but fortunately nothing serious. It was always when I got too familiar and lax at the same time.

 

[BigCityChief]

It is admirable of you IMO to share this experience. I hope you fully recover from your injury and thank you for reminding all of us of the need for constant vigilance relative to firearms safety. Stay safe.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[goldenlight]

Wow. I'm glad it was 'just' a .22LR. A 40 or 45 cal would have done a lot more damage.

I hope you make a complete recovery, with no problems from your wound.

It sure makes me cringe to think about it!

 

[yeti]

Glad you received good medical care. Getting shot with a .22 is no joke. While it may be better than a larger caliber it is still nasty.
It took guts to tell us about it on the forum. Thank you.
You are helping us all by reminding everyone to be more cautious when performing what has become a fairly mundane task for many of us. Repetition can breed complacency and it could happen to anyone not 100% focused. It can happen so fast. Be safe folks.

I hope that hand heals quickly and fully, Blackbird.

 

[blackbird94]

the surgeon said if it had been my 40, I probably would have lost 1/2 my hand and the destroyed my left knee. that's where the round ended up. No knee damage now thank God. Glad everyone understands, this was just a reminder to BE CAREFUL. every time. At least I did have the muzzle pointed in a safe direction.