Gun Safety... real stories...

A

Andrew

Well-known member
So... spent the holidays with the inlaws... great people.

Told Mother in law that I bought a .22 for the youngest (10 in January) and that I will have it under lock and key, blah...

She brought me to a room in the house where her oldest son used to live about 35 years ago and he still keeps some stuff there....she showed me this huge hole in the floor.

Her oldest grandson found a shotgun in the closet, and found a shell and decided to see how the whole program worked - let's face it any red blooded American kid is going to be curious about weapons - any weapon.

My Mother in law was in the kitchen at the time and heard a gun go off... she walked into the room and saw her stunned grandson. Thank God it hit the floor and not his foot.

Lesson... lock guns

Lesson #2: My buddy (remember the one who was shot a few years ago?) was showing his wife how to shoot a shotgun. He has a 16 gauge pump shotgun. When he went to put the safety on... it shot.

He was in shock. Just to be sure, he tried it again... put the safety on and it shot again... now that's scary.

Anyway, thought I'd share these true stories if anyone has any others... please share.
 
Here's one from my younger days. There were some stray dogs chasing our dairy cattle right up towards the house so dad grabbed his trusty rusty '97 Winchester corn picker gun and stuffed a couple in the mag. As he headed out the door he pumped one in the chamber. Any of you who know about '97s know that the hammer is easy to bump and or they wear enough so the hammer follows the slide forward when closing. I just about choked on my cornflakes. A small hole appeared in the screen door right at the bottom and a divot in the step outside. To my folks credit they left those reminders there untill all of us had left home. Listen and learn!!!!! Now I have that gun and some day will order some parts to make it safe again. It would be fun to hunt with it but not until I am confident in its safety.
 
Used to use an old 97...got my first buck with it. I think I was 14 when my buds and I did a walk about one day. The hammer was worn smooth of the striations and after shooting a rabbit and pumping a new round in...I was letting the hammer down and it slipped from my thumb. The recoil slid that hammer up alongside my thumbnail all the way past my knuckle...slicing me lake a razor. Bled like a stuck hog until the snow pack froze it shut. Glad my dad drilled barrel control into me from day one.
 
had an old ithaca 37--bought it well used--partners and i reloaded--pretty stiff waterfowl loads,
occasionally, when pumping the second or third round, the damn thing would go off--always aimed downrange-sear and safet;y were in need of replacement--got an 870, then moved to berettas--
Gotta retire the oldies before they do some serious damage to persons or equipment!
 
Andrew ,

The whole key to the story is ( Grandson found a shotgun) my two cent on the subject is to show the kids all about the guns, I let my kids look at and shoot all the guns I have that they can handle. Any time I have free time we go shoot, from bb guns, 22's and shot gun's.

It has killed there curiosity about the guns and they know what they are and what they can do.

Just my .02

Craig
 
Andrew ,

The whole key to the story is ( Grandson found a shotgun) my two cent on the subject is to show the kids all about the guns, I let my kids look at and shoot all the guns I have that they can handle. Any time I have free time we go shoot, from bb guns, 22's and shot gun's.

It has killed there curiosity about the guns and they know what they are and what they can do.

Just my .02

Craig
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Not me, I was gun crazy. I could take the Garand down and put it back together when I was 7. I knew where the guns were and what they could do long before that but what kept me away from them was what my dad would do if he found out...and he always found out about everything. I can only remember a couple spankings that I got when I deserved them (never got one I didn't deserve) and a leather belt on tender ass skin is better than a shock collar on a dog for education. But, I never touched a gun without Dad's permission because I was told he would go to Grampas and get his leather strop if I did...never saw that but gramps always said he was going to get it out when all us grandsons (8 all the same age) were at his house raising hell.
 
Craig, I agree. Thankfully my boys are well trained on gun safety already... but I still keep the guns and ammo locked up - I'm more concerned about the old friend coming over routine...

Lee, I was brought up by the "belt"... God forbid I touched anything I wasn't supposed to... little different today.
 
I have Gun safety story about an accidental discharge and not the one I had in my pants when Kim Seaversen took off her shirt in the woods behind my parent’s house when I was 13 and said I could touch her breast if I wanted to. She later posed in playboy in the 1986 or 1987 Ivy League issue, talk about missed opportunities!!

I got really lucky a couple years ago. I crawled across a muddy field in North Dakota after some snow geese. I just started hunting and purchased a benelli sbe semi auto. I had the shotgun for a good three months and shot a lot of sporting clays and skeet. I was familiar with this shotgun plus I had been hunting ducks and pheasants all season. I had load unloaded and fired this shotgun a lot and was confident with its operation. I had never killed a goose and we found a large flock of 300+ feeding in a field on our way back from hunting a pothole in the morning. After driving around the quarter my buddies decide we would try a sneak. My buddies dropped me off on one side and sent me across this field. They drove around the other side of the quarter and were going do the same thing one guy would get out and try to get close enough for a shot or push the bird to me. The third was going to stay in the truck. The plan was to sneak on the geese start shooting and hope the geese spooked in one direction or the other to enable some one to get some geese. I waited in the ditch and then started across the field, first crawling on all fours then on my belly my trying to get as close as possible. My buddies coming from the other side spooked the geese first not long after I got started. The geese were flying over the top of me pretty high although there were a couple of three packs a little lower I decided to take a shot at them. I stood up and picked a goose that was the closest, took aim pull the trigger nothing click -what the hell my gun didn’t go off I wasn’t far into the field and my buddy was already around the quarter pulling up to pick me up. I walk up on to the road and my buddy was standing there next to the truck and are like hell “ why didn’t you shoot “I said my gun didn’t go off when I pulled the trigger mean while I was in the process of pulling the bolt back to unload the round in the chamber. As soon as I touch the bolt the gun goes off with a 3 ½ heavy shot B load. The gun flies out of my hand from the recoil, the butt hits the truck and the gun bounces off and lands across the road reloaded with a new round in the chamber. I just about shit my pants- this could have been bad in so many ways some one could have been in the way, a car could have been coming the dog could have been in the way. Luckily the muzzle was pointed in a safe direction and the only injury sustained was my thumb from the bolt handle coming back. I still to this day have no idea what happened to make that gun go off. When I picked up the gun I swear the safety was on. I know when I loaded it I did not drop the bolt into battery, instead I pushed the release and slid it slowly to avoid making any noise. This cause the rotary bolt to not rotate into battery resulting in the gun not going off when the trigger was pulled. We tried to make it happen again but couldn’t. I send the gun back to benelli and they sent it back saying there was nothing wrong with it. I was pretty shook up. I put that gun away for a while and hunted with an over under the rest of the year. I learn to always watch my muzzle and always, always keep that gun pointed in a safe direction I am so lucky nobody got killed

Did you know Chuck Yeager had a bad deal with guns at an early age I believe he and his brother where really young 3 or 4 years old. They were messing around with a shotgun. His brother found some shot ammunition and loaded some how it went off it hit their sister killing her.
 
Lee, There are always the few "special" exceptions in any case, ;)

That was just my thoughts, I agree they should be stored properly and securely.

Several years ago we had a BB gun issue that ended with the belt to the oldest boys butt, a week before the custody battle court date. Her lawyer talked about it all day. The judge said did not sound out of line, kids need discipline,

I won
 
Rob-

Your story reminds me about one that happened to a buddy of mine who guides on the Eastern Shore of MD. He's actually a world champ and tied in with Sean Mann. They were hunting on a freezing rain, miserable cold day, and had just finished up. My buddy jacks the shells out of his SP-10 and throws it in the truck, barrel down. Here the gun was so frozen that the last shell stuck in the barrel, and he never counted the shells he took out (don't quite understand that part). In the process he must have also hit the trigger but the bolt was also frozen. Well they're driving through downtown Easton, MD with the heater blasting, and the action thaws out and the gun goes off and shoots a 10 ga. size hole in the floor and takes out the transfer case. The cab was full of smoke and they all bailed out in the middle of Route 50.

It's funny now, but it could have really turned out bad.
 
[font=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica]"Several years ago we had a BB gun issue that ended with the belt to the oldest boys butt, a week before the custody battle court date. Her lawyer talked about it all day. The judge said did not sound out of line, kids need discipline,"


Oh.... the BB gun stories. I was walking into our yard from school and my brother was on the porch with his BB gun. He lets one fly and it hit me in the ear. Instant blood so I was going to kill him....he pumped another round in and held me off so I work up a tear(it hurt like hell) and went in the house. Dad was home for lunch or something and asked what was wrong. I told him Mark shot me with his BB gun..he looked at my ear, which looked like it was pierced and tore out the front door. He grabbed Marks BB gun and wrapped it around a porch post then proceeded to boot his ass around the yard. I always wondered what people driving by thought of that scene. Mark straightened out the gun and used it for a while. I shot him in the big toe one day and pretty much got the same results. We had BB gun wars in the woods and fields around the house where there may have been 25 wild assed kids involved.....until the kid with the gun that would shoot through a can showed up...
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I know it and am sad to say it is my generations fault. Peace Love Dove and we aren't going to make our parents mistakes. Most of the Hippies have become Lawyers, politicians and investment bankers. And, for the first time in my life, the next President is younger than I am.....
 
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Me, my dad, his neighbor, and my friend go down to a local lake last year on Thanksgiving morning. Ten minutes to shooting time we begin to load up...as we are all looking down going through our bags....a loud bang comes from my friend, who was positioned on the left end of us....scares the s*** out of us...so after a moment of silence I say what the hell are you shooting at its ten minutes early...no answer and by the look on his face I could tell he was loading the gun with the safety off and it went off...I think he did s*** himself...luckily he was on the end with his muzzle pointing out over the decoys...nobody was hurt but everybody was awake and aware after that.... needless to say the first thing out of my mouth before loading and after every shot now is check your safeties...lesson learned on Thanksgiving...and oh yeah he gets positioned on the far end every time now mostly for ball busting purposes and never hears the end of it....Dave
 
Rob and all,
When I teach firearms safety the state DNR book teaches three rules of gun safety but I go out on a limb and tell the kids all you have to do is keep the muzzle pointed in a safe direction and everything else will take care of its self. Muzzle control, miuzzle control, muzzle control and if you didn't hear me "MUZZLE CONTROL". Keep the stories coming!!. Listen and learn!
 
You got it first, middle and last on that Tom. My buddy and I came out of the woods at dark after Elk hunting. We were unloading our guns and it was quiet. All of the sudden, there was a blinding flash and a concussion wave as my buds 338/378 Weatherby went off and into the ditch. I think I pee'd a little and a bit of puke in the back of my throat got swallowed down quickly. He was white as a ghost and it peeled his hand pretty good too. Sent it back to Weatherby and they said "nothing wrong". He wouldn't even sell it..just retired it to his safe. I had a model 70 in 270 that I "lightened" the trigger pull on. I was unloading it one day and it went off...muzzle control baby.
 
I appreciate these stories very much. I will have my boys read these posts... valuable stuff.

I don't know if anyone else on this site actually saw a man after he was shot (except for veterans and police officers of course), but it's scary and gun safety is top of mind for me.
 
Closest I've been is when I had to pull a plastic driver out of my leg from a Ramset shot. We didn't know that we had the pellet driver shots and were horsing around.Bullet wounds are ugly and a close range shot wound is fricken nasty looking. You can google up pics if you need to see.
 
Been there for couple of close ones:
Dad was teaching me to shoot a Mod 94 30-30. He was closing the action & his finger must have hit the trigger as it closed. BOOM! Like others have said: muzzle control. He had it point down & away from us, made a big hole in the ground instead of a big hole in his foot.

Years later, I was closing the action on a Savage 308 levergun and it did the same thing to me. I had it point up & down range, so not problem other than scaring the crap out of me. I've been leery of lever guns ever since.

About 4 years ago, we were sitting in the duck boat. My buddy had the gun leanign against the blind, barrel pointed up & out with the butt stock between his feet. He was wearing knee boots with straps on the inside. One of the straps some how got into the trigger guard and got tangled up with the trigger. AND he had forgot to put his safety back on. He shifted his feet, the strap pulled the trigger and it went off 1' from his face. He turned white, scared to death. Could easily have taken his face off if the gun fell backwards before it went off. Scariest gun safety moment I have ever had.
 
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