My stupid, drunk roommate's stupid, drunk girlfriend got mad because he was passed out drunk on the kitchen floor. So she pulled a .38 out of her purse and murdered our refrigerator. then she put one through the window which hit our neighbor's house. then she put one through the living room wall right over my seat.
My other roommate yelled down the hall to keep the noise down and I ran out the front door and called the cops. I know she was arrested but I moved out before the case went to trial. never saw any of them again.
This doesn't qualify as self-defense but it is without question the scariest thing that has ever happened to me.
Before I tell the story a word of explanation is required. Artillery ammunition is classified as separate loading. The fuse, the round, the powder charge and the primer are all separate components.
The fuse is placed on the round and set, then the round is loaded into the cannon. The powder charge is placed into the breech behind the round. The breech is closed and the primer is inserted into the firing lock. The powder charge is Nitro cellulose and on the back end of the powder charge there's a bag of black powder that is used to ignite the nitrocellulose.
So, during an FTX in Germany we get a fire mission the round is loaded and the loader inserts the powder charge into the breach
BACKWARDS. The breech is closed and the primer is inserted into the firing lock. The command fire is given and the loader gets a misfire. He has no idea what to do. So the sergeant in charge tells me to take over for the loader.
So if the gun doesn't fire the procedure is to attempt to fire it two additional times. If it still doesn't fire you wait 5 minutes to ensure it's not a Hang Fire and then you drop the tube open the breach pull out the powder and find out what's wrong.
By this time the platoon Sergeant has come down to our gun to find out why we're not firing and things are getting tense. So they tell me to open the breach and when I did it started to smoke.
The Platoon Sergeant told me to close the breach (Ya Think?) But I couldn't because when the primer went off it blew a hole in the powder bag and the powder had fouled the breach.
Then the platoon Sergeant told me that I had to open the breach grab the powder bag and throw it into the water bucket where we kept the swab we used to clean out the breach between rounds. He told me I had to open the breach, grab the powder and get it into that bucket before it ignited or we were all going to die.
I was absolutely convinced that as soon as I opened that breach fully the powder (50 pounds worth) was going to ignite. I slammed over the breech, grabbed the powder and threw it into the bucket and we were done.
It turned out later that with the powder charge inserted backwards into the breach all the primer are done was blown a hole in the bag. The smoke was from the primer. There was no place for it to go so it was trapped in the breach. The primer on an 8-inch howitzer is about the size of a 45-70 shell casing.
That was without a doubt the scariest thing that has ever happened to me in my life