Dumbest thing you have ever done with a gun and learned a lesson?

[bonkers1919]

I was 17 or 18 and started cleaning a semi-auto with a round in the chamber.

Lesson learned, people can be killed with an "unloaded" gun.

 

[Beemer]

Is any gun unloaded?

 

[Tactically Fat]

I put a .355" hole in my dad's dining area window. Definitely old enough to have known better. Stupid & idiotic mistake. Really really stupid and really really idiotic. And careless. Really really careless.

 

[possum_128]

I thought about buying a Hi-Point once, for about 2 seconds and then realized how dumb that was. I had never done anything dumb with a gun up to that point and not after.

 

[jamil]

Thankfully about the worst misshap I've had is I forgot the recoil spring when I reassembled my P99 once. It was a ***** getting the slide off.

 

[churchmouse]

AD through the work bench in my shop in the mid 90's.
Stupid stupid stupid mistake.
Hole is still there as a reminder.
I have the bullet in a pic-a-nut drawer on the bench as a reminder.
I am occasionally reminded of this by those who were present at the time.

 

[bradmedic04]

My biggest mistake was probably picking one up for the first time. It's been a costly one.

 

[Que]

Discovered that I was riding around with my 1911's safety off. It was holstered and placed in the luggage case on my bike.

 

[Springer]

I guess mine is an almost mistake. I had just started shooting handguns and headed over to a buddies to shoot. His glock 21 was laying out, no mag, all the rounds from the mag were laying on the table. I picked up up and was looking if over, racked the slide, and out flew a round. That drove home the point to really check every firearm I handle even when you "know" one isn't in the chamber.

 

[rob63]

Young, 14-16, first time shooting a pistol, used a hold that put part of my hand in the way of the recoiling slide. I quite literally did not know how the gun worked. It's a wonder that I ever picked up a gun again! Needless to say, I am much more thorough in my instructions when introducing a new person to shooting than the people who taught me!

 

[churchmouse]

I guess mine is an almost mistake. I had just started shooting handguns and headed over to a buddies to shoot. His glock 21 was laying out, no mag, all the rounds from the mag were laying on the table. I picked up up and was looking if over, racked the slide, and out flew a round. That drove home the point to really check every firearm I handle even when you "know" one isn't in the chamber.

It is so common with me and those I shoot with to rack a slide even as they watch me check for clear they will repeat the process. No snarky comments follow such actions just an approval smile.

 

[THE BIG SITT]

Well I guess this thread is as good as any. I may have hinted at this in the past, but I'll spill the beans here:

Like OP, I tried cleaning a gun with a round in the chamber. My dad had just died roughly a month prior, and my mom and I were going through some of his firearms. It was a Glock 17, so you have to pull the trigger to take apart the slide. I racked the slide, ejected a round, pulled the trigger, and BOOM! The shot went off, and my mother yelled "I've been shot!" I shot my own mother in the effing leg. Blood was pouring out, my sister and wife were in full panic mode, and the paramedics were on the way. Needless to say, S had HTF. To make a long story much shorter, she ended up not being shot, and instead, she was hit by the round as it ricocheted off the concrete floor. It hit her in two different spots on opposite sides of her shin, making it look like it was threw and threw. But after examining her leg in relation to where she was standing, the floor with the bullet mark, and the shrapnel from the round, there was no way it could have gone through and through.

Now, you're wondering how a round managed to go off, even though I racked the slide. Well, stupid me forgot to drop the mag. It was the gun my dad kept loaded in the safe, so it had a magazine full of Hornady CD HPs. THANKFULLY there were HPs in the gun when it went off. I believe if there would have been FMJ, the wouldn't have fragmented, and the chance of her taking the full brunt of the 9mm would have been much higher. Instead, she got hit with a couple pieces of shrapnel.

She was able to workout a couple of days later, and the week after we went to Cedar Point. She was about as well off as you can expect for having been shot. She still have a scar on either side of her leg, a couple pieces of shrapnel left in her leg, and a hole in her basement floor. I have the constant jabs from my entire family that I shot my mom. Seriously, they make fun of me all the time. But, lesson learned. I now check every gun multiple times before pulling the trigger, and if someone else is in the room, I show them an empty chamber as well.

Do I win/lose this thread?

 

[Dead Duck]

My wife convinced me to get rid of a few guns for rent money and I've regretted that every day since.....Never Again......

Later I got rid of that nagging ***** and it's the best thing I've ever done.

 

[findingZzero]

When I first started carrying my pistola to the range with a mag loaded, when I got to the range, I racked the slide to check for a round. The gun went off pointing down and down range. If yer gonna forget one of the rules, remember the one about pointing, and don't forget any of the 4 rules ever again. Drop the mag. Drop the mag. Drop the mag.

 

[churchmouse]

Well I guess this thread is as good as any. I may have hinted at this in the past, but I'll spill the beans here:

Like OP, I tried cleaning a gun with a round in the chamber. My dad had just died roughly a month prior, and my mom and I were going through some of his firearms. It was a Glock 17, so you have to pull the trigger to take apart the slide. I racked the slide, ejected a round, pulled the trigger, and BOOM! The shot went off, and my mother yelled "I've been shot!" I shot my own mother in the effing leg. Blood was pouring out, my sister and wife were in full panic mode, and the paramedics were on the way. Needless to say, S had HTF. To make a long story much shorter, she ended up not being shot, and instead, she was hit by the round as it ricocheted off the concrete floor. It hit her in two different spots on opposite sides of her shin, making it look like it was threw and threw. But after examining her leg in relation to where she was standing, the floor with the bullet mark, and the shrapnel from the round, there was no way it could have gone through and through.

Now, you're wondering how a round managed to go off, even though I racked the slide. Well, stupid me forgot to drop the mag. It was the gun my dad kept loaded in the safe, so it had a magazine full of Hornady CD HPs. THANKFULLY there were HPs in the gun when it went off. I believe if there would have been FMJ, the wouldn't have fragmented, and the chance of her taking the full brunt of the 9mm would have been much higher. Instead, she got hit with a couple pieces of shrapnel.

She was able to workout a couple of days later, and the week after we went to Cedar Point. She was about as well off as you can expect for having been shot. She still have a scar on either side of her leg, a couple pieces of shrapnel left in her leg, and a hole in her basement floor. I have the constant jabs from my entire family that I shot my mom. Seriously, they make fun of me all the time. But, lesson learned. I now check every gun multiple times before pulling the trigger, and if someone else is in the room, I show them an empty chamber as well.

Do I win this thread?

Uh.....so far.

 

[THE BIG SITT]

Uh.....so far.

Yay. Hey, lesson learned. ANYONE with a ND could have had the same thing happen, most just end up shooting a hole through an inanimate object. Mine took a turn for the worse.

 

[churchmouse]

Yay. Hey, lesson learned. ANYONE with a ND could have had the same thing happen, most just end up shooting a hole through an inanimate object. Mine took a turn for the worse.

When I punched the hole in my bench there were 2 guys working on bikes behind me and my wife standing next to me. I was froze solid non-moving waiting to feel warm liquid oozing from some part of my body or worse yet, hearing one of those people start moaning and hit the floor.
I was lucky. So very lucky.

 

[THE BIG SITT]

Tried to teach my wife how to shoot.

Three years. THREE YEARS you have waited to make you first post. And that's what you went with?!

 

[gregkl]

Sold one.

 

[churchmouse]

Three years. THREE YEARS you have waited to make you first post. And that's what you went with?!

He just made a run to 50 yesterday, got whacked and he is on another 1 line tear.......