Ever hurt yourself or have any close calls while shooting?

[88E30M50]

I have not had anything serious, but have had a couple of close calls. One weekend, I was shooting when it started raining really heavily. I packed everything up and went home and then the next weekend went shooting again. I was finishing up shooting the box of .380 I had been shooting the weekend before and the first round fired fine, but the second felt odd. It only felt slightly different than the first, but different enough that I paused before pulling the trigger a third time. I'm glad I checked since the second round was a squib and that third round would have ruined a nice new Bersa .380CC and maybe me as well.

When I was a kid, me and my buddies took our .22s down to the woods for a bit of plinking. After shooting what little ammo we had, we headed home. On the way, a buddy sees a crotchety old neighbor about 75 yards away. That guy was always yelling about kids in his yard and this friend raises his rifle, points at the guy and pulls the trigger. We yelled at him and he lowered the rifle yelling that it was unloaded. He then demonstrates that it was unloaded by opening the bolt, only to have a dud .22lr fall out. That still gives me chills almost 40 years later.

 

[danielson]

I was standing on the line at atturbury range with my glock 23, focused on the target and my trigger control, my buddy says HEY, I clear the weapon, apparently, I had ejected several hot casings into the cheek and forehead of the girl in the lane right beside me. My buddy was like, when the first one hit her it knocked her head sideways.. I felt bad, but that damn glock throws those casing hard.. Thats about it.. Shot an 8ga slug gun once.. That was pretty painful...

 

[BiscuitNaBasket]

There was one time I was taking out a Mossberg 500 from from the trunk of my old car after a day of skeet shooting. I thought it was unloaded but ended up discharging a round of bird shot into the side of the trunk. I learned a lot from that mistake. Always always always check to be sure the chamber is empty and then check again. I felt, and still feel like a jacka$$ for doing that.

 

[Sniper 79]

When I was a kid I shot a pellet gun at a coffee cup down by the river and it bounced back and hit me in the ear lobe. I think it was the lord saying put some darn glasses on dummy.

I didnt learn my lesson and was much older when I took a shot at a squirl in the back yard. By the time I got the gun pumped up and ready to fire the rodent was way at the top of the tree darn near streight up. I took the shot and was still looking up to see if I had hit him. The BB came down and went right behind my glasses and into my lower lid pocket. It did not do anything but scratch the surface of my eye. It took a day to surface before I could get it out along with a bunch of puss. I got extremly lucky and got rid of all the low velocity bb and pelet guns.

My darn in-laws just brought over a red ryder for my daughter. I dont think there is anything more dangerous you can hand a kid. I guess I will have to make sure she is shooting that turd at cardboard only. I am sure they will be after the neighbors cat before long.

 

[jamil]

When I was a kid I shot a pellet gun at a coffee cup down by the river and it bounced back and hit me in the ear lobe. I think it was the lord saying put some darn glasses on dummy.

Well, if we're bringing childhood into it....

When I was 10 I learned the hard way a sliding glass door doesn't make a good backstop even for a BB gun. Everything went well until I missed once. The painful part came after picking out a "switch" from the weeping willow tree.

 

[CombatRex]

Had a close call in the army...

Me and a buddy were on a tank range. We were behind a "truck target" trying to fix the thing so it would move on it's little track.

Kept hearing buzzing sounds and a split second later the "pop-pop-pop" of an M2 .50 cal. I remember thinking "I hate bees". "Hmm, seems like they are getting closer too."


Reminds me of being on the live fire movement to contact at Fort Irwin, (NTC). I was up in the copula of an M113 when I heard what sounded like 40 pound bumble bees buzzing past my head, then fountains of dirt were erupting around my track. I started yelling in the radio "check fire check fire"..it stopped. Never found who it came from. I assume somebody on a track behind me grab the butterfly s of their M2 as they were hitting bumps on the ground and were discharging rounds into the element in from of them.......me.

 

[CombatRex]

Also shot a .36 blackpowder Colt into a tree, the ball bounced off flew back past my head and hit my dog in the butt. It did not penetrate but the dog sure ran off yelping.

 

[dieselman]

One of the first times I ever shot trap with my dad we had some pros waiting behind us, older people who were clearly peeved a few novices were keeping them from walking right onto the trap range. I was probably 11-12 years old at the time. We went to change positions and I did what i was taught: check the chamber, safety on, finger off the trigger and start to move to the next station. Next thing I know this old lady is running after me screaming that I had a loaded gun (she was at least 20 yards away prior to her starting after me) I about pee my young self as she grabs me and starts shouting at me for walking with a loaded gun (despite taking all the safety precautions). I looked over at her, pumped open my shotgun, revealed to her an unloaded firearm and walked away.

 

[weenpeen]

Worst I've ever had is getting hit with ejected casings (from a Glock). Other than that, nothing.

 

[achilles]

I have had 2 VERY close calls. The first was when I was a teenager. My buddy was showing the the Armalite AR15 that his father had recently passed down to him. I was sitting on his bed with him showing off his gun in front of me. Sure enough he sweeps me with the gun and it goes off. The bullet went through his bed about 6 inches from my thigh, into the floor and ricocheted up through his dresser. It was a solid wood dresser so the bullet lodged in the thick top on it. From that day on I ALWAYS pay attention to not only where my own gun is pointed but those of all others around me. The second happened to me at the San Bernadino Sheriff's training complex. We had all of our movie prop guns out for the deputy's to play with and I happened to grab an old STEN gun...the kind with the mag sticking out parallel with the ground that they had in their armory of confiscated guns. First shot the dam thing just kind of blew apart. Metal bits came blowing back in my face along with dirt and other crap. Fortunately, I had good eye protection on but a lot of the crap still got behind there and burned me pretty good all over my face. They had a medic on site and got my eyes flushed out and things ended up fine but it was a little too close for comfort. Needless to say, I am now a bit more careful about shooting oooooold guns unless I know the armorer that has maintained them.

 

[danielson]

Worst I've ever had is getting hit with ejected casings (from a Glock). Other than that, nothing.

Sorry. Lol

 

[Lost Californian]

'nuff said.

 

[Shelly1582]

Only getting "bit" while trying to prove I was strong enough to rack the slide on my husbands old sigma 40. Point not proven.

 

[FMJ]

Got lucky last summer filming a Browning 1919 rock and rolling...richochet came back and took out the screen on my high dollar video camera.

Considering that if the view finder wouldnt have caught that ricochet...I would have caught squarely in the throat!!

It was a noble sacrifice....

 

[Grunt]

When I was stationed with the 25th Infantry Division in the late 1970's we were doing a M72A2 LAW (Light Antitank Weapon) live fire on the Big Island (Hawaii) at PTA (Pohakoloa Training Area). This is an area in the middle of the island in lava fields. The astronauts trained here for the moon landings. The LAW is a 66 mm shoulder-fired rocket.

On the LAW range 3 of us were standing about 3 feet part and 2 feet behind a wall of lava rocks that came up to the middle of my chest. Two of us fired our LAWs successfully, these were the HEAT (High Explosive Anti-Tank) rounds. The last soldier to fire was the shortest one of us and when he depressed the trigger he pulled the front of the weapon down and there was a impressive explosion as the rocket struck the top of the lava wall. I can still see the sparks and ball of dust and lava fragments. We were all stunned and speechless as we were about 2 feet back from the wall, but still about 3 feet apart. I didn't know what happened and was still trying to decide whether I should defecate in my panties or not. (I eventually decided not to).

I stood there running my hands over my body looking for blood as were the two others. Even the Vietnam Vets who saw what happened were suitably impressed. If the rocket would have exploded we could have been in trouble, but the rocket has to travel 10 meters before it arms, this is what protected us. The rocket ricocheted off the top of the wall and exploded down range on impact.

If you're not familiar with a M72A2 LAW here is a link: M72 LAW - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

And a video: http://www.military.com/video/opera...-fired-at-taliban-in-firefight/2127358112001/

 

[richardraw316]

yes. i was at an indoor range and was practicing with my pistol when my dad said hey you forgot your glasses, they were hanging from my shirt, i had forgotten to put them on. so i did. and on the very next mag, a spent casing bounced of the wall hit my forhead and got stuck between my glasses and eyebrow. Burned the crap out of my eyebrow. ironically, if i had not been wearing the safety glasses the casing would have just fallen on the ground.
even though this time i got hurt because of my glasses, i would rather still wear them and hope that they are never needed.

 

[maxmayhem]

do you guys really think that this is the time to have this thread? There is proposed anti 2a legislation but lets start a thread where we 1up each other where we almost killed ourselves or someone else

 

[djl02]

My stupid brother n law ,bout blow my head off with my 1100,one day.He took a shot and throw it over his shoulder and pulled the trigger ,and it discharged about a foot ftom my head. Said he didnt know it was an automatic.Last time he had shot with me. He had to know,he watched me shoot it several times. He was around 30 years old.

 

[richardraw316]

do you guys really think that this is the time to have this thread? There is proposed anti 2a legislation but lets start a thread where we 1up each other where we almost killed ourselves or someone else

Why do we make mystakes? To learn from them.
Why do we talk about our mistakes? So others can learn from them.
Lighten up. the same thread can also be done about stupid things done in cars.

 

[Excalibur]

When I stood behind someone, the shooting glasses I wore at the time had a gap at the top and hot brass flew into the gap and hit my eye.

When I first loaded my shotgun after I got it, I accidentally touched the trigger, BUT lucky for me the safety was ON