Have you ever accidentally discharged a rifle or pistol?

[westwall]

I had a Remington 700 that had the famous malfunctioning safety.

Yup. The same. I repaired it and traded it for a Mauser.

 

[WinterBorn]

Yup. The same. I repaired it and traded it for a Mauser.

Smart man. I sold mine. Olny gun I ever took a loss on when I sold it. But I was honest and told them about the safety.

That was years ago. Shortly after I found my dream rifle. A Ruger No. 1 Light Sporter in .270.

 

[Remodeling Maidiac]

My story ...

I grew up shooting rifles and shotguns while hunting small game starting at age 10
So when I was in the Army I was a crack shot with my M-16. But I never carried a pistol nor did I receive training with one, and only shot a military issue .45 a few times.

When I completed my 2 year Army conscription, my wife and I rented a small house out in the country. I bought a Colt 1911 .45 pistol to keep around the house since we lived a ways off the main road. Being Mr firearm safety, I kept the pistol unload, safety on, with the clip out, in a holster between the mattress and box springs of my bed.

One night about 2am I heard something, or someone prowling around outside. Still half asleep, I got the pistol, put the clip in, chambered a round, and walked around the outside of the house. Finding nothing, I figured it was just an animal and went back inside. Priding myself as being very safety conscious. I took the clip out of the pistol and placed them both back under the mattress.

(did you catch my mistake?)

A few weeks later a friend come over to the house. I was a cool crisp fall day, so we started a fire in the brick fireplace and pushed the couch up close to take advantage of the heat. I mentioned the new pistol I'd purchased and wanted to show him. Being Mr safety, I only brought out the pistol, and left the clip full of bullets still under the mattress.

I set down in the middle of the couch with my wife on one side and my friend on the other. I took the pistol, pointed it at the fireplace, to show my friend how smooth the trigger action was, and pulled the trigger.

Boom!!! The wife and my friend jumped straight up into the air, and my wife was hysterically screaming her brains out. Between the loud discharge and her screaming, my ears were ringing. I went completely limp and couldn't move a muscle. I just knew I'd been hit by a ricochet bullet. I just set there and slowly moved my eyes scanning myself for a bloody bullet hole.

I had forgotten about chambering the bullet that night looking for a prowler and put the pistol away loaded!!

When everything calmed down, and thankfully no one was hurt. I looked at the fire place to see where the bullet struck it.
By pure luck, the bullet had embedded itself in the soft mortar between two bricks and didn't ricochet.

Just the one in my pants

 

[JGalt]

Make that four accidental discharges, I just remembered another. I was shooting a .58 caliber muzzleloader at the public range a couple years ago. After I swabbed the bore from the last shot, poured the powder charge down the barrel and rammed the bullet down, I set the butt end down on the table, pulled the hammer back, and put a percussion cap on the nipple. As I was letting the hammer down to half-cock, the hammer spur slipped on my thumb that was slippery from the bullet lube. It went off while it was pointed straight up, and blew a nice, round 58 caliber hole in the tin roof of the range. Luckily nobody else was there to see that. There were already 20-something other holes in the roof that others had accidentally made, though, so I didn't feel so stupid.

 

[whitehall]

If you are showing a kid or an adult without experience how to handle a firearm you have to do what ever is necessary to force them to focus on what they are doing. Yell at them or embarrass them into keeping the weapon down range and not pointing at something else. An old single shot bolt action .22 is great for training a kid how to shoot. They have to put the bullet in the chamber and work the bolt to shoot. Likewise a revolver is simple and straight forward. You have a cylinder that holds the bullets and there is no safety.