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Negligent discharge

Gene LGene L Posts: 12,817 Senior Member
No excuses.  At least the gun was pointed in a safe direction.  PPK...hit the metal door at an angle, low down about 6" from the floor, ricocheted off, hit the side of the fireplace and ricocheted off again and is now in my wall, point out.  FMJ.

I won't do that again.  Severely damaging to my self-confidence. 
Concealed carry is for protection, open carry is for attention.

Replies

  • ZeeZee Posts: 28,403 Senior Member
    edited October 2020 #2
    How did it happen (circumstances)?
    "To Hell with efficiency, it's performance we want!" - Elmer Keith
  • PFDPFD Posts: 1,898 Senior Member
    Sorry to hear that Gene.
    Glad it wasn't worse.
    If it makes you feel any better, Bart Skelton once wrote about the time he shot his waterbed. :O
    That's all I got.

    Paul
  • NNNN Posts: 25,236 Senior Member
     o:)  glad nobody was shot
  • zorbazorba Posts: 25,282 Senior Member
    Pictures?
    -Zorba, "The Veiled Male"

    "If you get it and didn't work for it, someone else worked for it and didn't get it..."
    )O(
  • shotgunshooter3shotgunshooter3 Posts: 6,112 Senior Member
    Sounds like nobody was hurt, so the most damage is to your wall and your hearing. Sounds like a lesson learned.
    - I am a rifleman with a poorly chosen screen name. -
    "Slow is smooth, smooth is fast, and speed is the economy of motion" - Scott Jedlinski
  • LinefinderLinefinder Posts: 7,856 Senior Member
    Alleged ND (not really sure about that)  but at ~13 YO my .410 pump quit feeding reliably and it was a couple days before dove opener. Dad worked on it after I'd gone to bed, and the next morning as he was walking out the door told me he'd fixed it.

    I decided to rack a couple shells through it as a check, and when I closed the bolt on the first one, BAM!

    3 things I learned that morning.....

    #1) A .410 at 8 feet will blow a hole through practically any wall in your house. It leaves a thumb-sized hole in sheetrock, but a fist sized exit hole in exterior wood siding.

    #2) A .410 going off in your bedroom will leave you deaf long enough that you start to wonder if it's permanent.

    #3) It's amazing how much smoke a single dose of "smokeless" powder gives off when fired indoors.

    Stuff happens.

    Mike


    "Walking away seems to be a lost art form."
    N454casull
  • pjames777pjames777 Posts: 1,421 Senior Member
    Years ago I failed to check chamber on my 9mm.  Dropped magazine, dry fired, bullet went off bathroom cabinet hit bottom of wall went into kitchen and plopped off the metal trash can.   Felt so stupid.
  • JayhawkerJayhawker Posts: 18,359 Senior Member
    edited October 2020 #9
    PFD said:
    Sorry to hear that Gene.
    Glad it wasn't worse.
    If it makes you feel any better, Bart Skelton once wrote about the time he shot his waterbed. :O
    And his Dad. Skeeter, once took a shot at a rat running across some feed sacks and killed a horse standing on the other side of the barn wall in the corral
    Sharps Model 1874 - "The rifle that made the west safe for Winchester"
  • Gene LGene L Posts: 12,817 Senior Member
    I can't remember exactly how it happened, (about a week ago) but I believe I thought I'd cleared the pistol before, but hadn't.  I pulled the trigger on a loaded weapon. It's got a loaded chamber indicator but at the time, it wasn't working...oh, it still poked out like it was supposed to, but since it was broken, I didn't trust it and ignored it, as it would poke out always.  I said the round hit the door at 6" from the floor, but it's more like 2". Ended up after ricocheting off the fireplace about 6" in the wall.  It had turned around 180 degrees.  A dent in the door, not noticeable unless you look for it.  Nothing on the stone fireplace I've seen.
    Concealed carry is for protection, open carry is for attention.
  • GunNutGunNut Posts: 7,642 Senior Member
    Glad you’re ok.
  • Lt.Lt. Posts: 66 Member
    Glad the only thing hurt was your self confidence!
  • JustsomedudeJustsomedude Posts: 1,465 Senior Member
    Been there and done that about 15 years ago. It actually made me super leery around guns for years after. Kinda how an OCD person continually checks the door locks and oven knobs, I was like that around any firearm in my reach. Id keep checking the chamber like the bullet fairy was gonna secretly sneak one in there when i wasnt looking. Glad youre okay.
    We've been conditioned to believe that obedience is virtuous and voting is freedom- 
  • SpkSpk Posts: 4,834 Senior Member
    edited October 2020 #14
    Gene L said:
    No excuses.  At least the gun was pointed in a safe direction.
    ...

    I won't do that again.  Severely damaging to my self-confidence. 

    No excuses.

    Really glad you're alright and nobody got hurt. I think we've all been there at some time, I know I have. Like Mike, I had my experience when I was young, maybe, fifteen and already thought I knew everything I needed to know about guns, boy was I wrong, nearly blew my left foot off with a 12 gauge double. Back then I could roll out of bed before dawn and venture into the backyard and wait for the doves to come in during dove season. My brother and I would bring lawn chairs and wait for them to come as the sun barely started creeping over the horizon. Well, my brother and I started yaking about, who knows what but we weren't paying attention, I had that double across my lap and both fingers on the triggers....

    Well, three fast movers came in low and obscured by the sun we didn't notice them until they were just about fifteen yards or so. They scared the crap out of us and you can guess the rest. Suddenly startled, fingers on the triggers and then BOOM!

    I was lucky as hell that day, missed my foot by inches! My brother and I laughed about it afterwards but I was still quaking in my boots on the inside. Really, really, really dumb. Almost gave myself a Darwin Award.

    Anyway, glad you're alright but you now have to wear The Cone Of Shame. 😁

    Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience -- Mark Twain
    How easy it is to make people believe a lie, and [how] hard it is to undo that work again! -- Mark Twain

  • AntonioAntonio Posts: 2,986 Senior Member
    Glad you're OK and only things damaged were your stuff and your pride.

    Seems like once you have a ND like that you might learn the lesson and not have another one ever.

    I had 2 in fact, but I think the 1st. one wasn't actually a ND. Was shooting a 92F at the range and with the last round in the chamber while pointing downrange I tried to lower the hammer by easing it down while pulling the trigger, apparently not the proper feat for small-handed in these pistols since the hammer slip from my thumb and off it went the round against my shooting lane floor, embedding in it like 15 feet ahead of me. Lesson learned and never tried that stunt again.

    The actual ND I had was with a 10/22. It had a loaded mag and while sitting on the bed with the rifle pointed upwards I failed to unload it in the proper order: Racked the bolt, dropped the mag and then pulled the trigger. The blast left my ears ringing despite only being a .22; HVHP round desintegrated against the concrete ceiling leaving a ½" crater. A dab of cement and some paint and no traces of it. 
  • RaftermanRafterman Posts: 401 Member
    I've never had a ND... but.....after coming home from hunting around forty years or so ago I racked a live round out of a 12G shotgun in the house.     :# I would have sworn that the gun was empty. Scared the poo out of me. Have never forgotten that and it has probably helped me be more aware since.
  • bellcatbellcat Posts: 2,040 Senior Member
    Glad you’re ok
    "Kindness is the language the deaf can hear and the blind can see." Mark Twain
  • 1965Jeff1965Jeff Posts: 1,650 Senior Member
    Mine was in the field, I thought the rifle was empty and muzzle pointed straight up - a marlin 3030 so the muzzle was at ear height and very loud. Was put off carrying it and bought a bolt action which was easier to Verify all ammo was removed.
  • 10canyon5310canyon53 Posts: 2,122 Senior Member
    Id keep checking the chamber like the bullet fairy was gonna secretly sneak one in there when i wasnt looking.
    Ya really gotta watch them bullet fairies, they're sneaky little buggers.  Call me OCD but every morning I check the chamber of my EDC just to make sure they didn't take the bullet out when I wasn't looking.  :D

  • BigslugBigslug Posts: 9,860 Senior Member
    Some things I try to keep on the brain's top shelf:

    1. As somebody who is handling guns, teaching guns, and working on guns on a pretty much daily basis, I try to maintain the mindset that I am probably the most likely kid on the block to have an N.D., simply due to the law of averages.  You only have to get complacent ONCE.

    2.  Safety Rule #2 - Never point it at anything you are unwilling to destroy; and Safety Rule #4 - Be sure of where a bullet will end up - need to be inviolable.  There have been a number of N.D.'s in my circle in which nobody got hurt because THESE rules at least were followed.  

    3.In cases where you NEED to pull a trigger, such as disassembly of a Glock, for example, my mantra is this:

    *Check it
    *Check it again
    *Have your friend check it.
    *Have your friend's dog check it
    *Check it one more time.

    4.  If you're doing dry fire practice, leave all the ammo in a completely different room. Tell yourself firmly "I'm dry firing", and then later tell yourself EVEN MORE FIRMLY "I'm done dry firing"

    It's not a bad practice to sign and date the impact marks your N.D. made.  It's those subtle reminders that keep you honest in the future.

    WWJMBD?

    "Nothing is safe from stupid." - Zee
  • GunNutGunNut Posts: 7,642 Senior Member
    Check the chamber twice, hopefully by two different folks.  Then check again.  

    AND most important,

    NEVER press ANY trigger unless you actually intend to SHOOT the gun in your hand.  No trigger press, no ND.
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