Lets hear it- Gun related close calls.

[elk hunter]

A friend and I were deer/elk hunting one day and we got onto some deer he wanted a big fat do and so he parks and bails out of the jeep. He messes around while the deer were walking away so he changes his mind about taking a shot. He turns around and starts back to the jeep and of course I'm watching and wham the rifle goes off. I was lucky as much as the jeep was, so off we go in the jeep again. Later that day we get onto some nice big does and small bucks and he wants a doe. He parks the jeep bails out and again he is working around to get a shot again he doesn't get a shot and walking back to the jeep and wham the rifle goes off again. By now I'm as nervous as a whore in church and I suggest to him to use my rifle. It's late now so we head home. He likes to home gunsmith and this Swede Mauser has one of his custom trigger jobs, yep. I took his rifle and took a look at the trigger on it and then took it to another friend who is a real gunsmith and had the trigger fixed, I even paid for it.

[oddball]

in the early 90s at Chabot, my wife and I were at the 25 yard line and a guy in the next lane opened the slide on a handgun, pointed at a 45 degree angle upwards, and fired it, hitting the ceiling above our bench. ROs shut down the line for awhile as he was yelled at by staff and my wife. Decades later at Chabot, my son and I were walking downrange at the 50yd line to change targets during a ceasefire and we all heard Curt screaming "get away from the bench!!" and we turned around and hit the ground after seeing a guy near our lane, sitting and messing with his bolt action rifle. After that, we both always walked backwards to our targets, keeping an eye on the benches.

[filthy phil]

Illegally carrying iwb mexican style in a convenience store and a cop was there

[r8dr rider]

I shot my load in 2 minutes once.

[RandyD]

In 1979, I was friends with a group of Marines, and we all worked together as Drill Instructors. One night we were over at one of the Marine's apartment, and he pulled out a new Colt .45 that he just bought, and he fired a round into the ceiling. He blamed the handgun, and sold it to another one of the Marines. We were over at his apartment, and he pulled out the Colt .45 to show it to us. He intended to dry fire it, but a round was in the chamber, and he shot a round into a walk in closet, and that round damaged/destroyed a number of his dress uniforms. He blamed the .45 and sold it to another Marine in our group. That Marine was at home and he was sitting in a chair and was going to dry fire the .45, again it was loaded and the round hit his leg and pulled him across the room. Fortunately, the round went between his bone and artery, but he spent some time at Balboa hospital recovering. He sold the .45. Forty years later, I am still friends with the last Marine who shot himself.

[TFA777]

Went to Target Masters in Milpitas thinking one indoor range must be as safe as any other.

In so many ways, you know they had to close the adjoining businesses down because the lead contamination was that bad

[Mojaveman]

Many years ago we were shooting M-203s on the range and the foreign trooper a few yards to my right dipped the muzzle of his weapon just before firing. The 40mm round detonated about 15 yards downrange and I got peppered with shrapnel and gravel. No serious wounds but it did sting!

[Jimi Jah]

What? When, Where, What happened?

Years ago, wrong place, wrong time. It was in that bastion of civility, LA. I cooperated and I'm still here, but no longer in LA.

I followed Snake Pliskin's advice.

[joepamjohn]

Drunk ex-cop Neighbor of a friend of mine took 3 three shots at us from his front balcony with his 9mm while we were moving a pool table. Cops came and he said was just joking around. Bullet marks in driveway sure didn’t seem like a joke to me. Somehow we did not drop the big piece of slate when we all scattered.

[FalconLair]

I have a good lesson learned.....

Was shooting my WWI M1917 in 30-06 with several other people. End of the day I always check to make sure weapons are unloaded before I put them in the car. I cycled the bolt on the 1917, no round ejected and I noted internal mag was empty, so placed rifle in car. At home I load all guns into the safe. Weeks later I take rifle out to clean it; cycle the action, no rounds in mag, so drop a cleaning rod down bore....and pop a live 30-06 round out of the chamber.

Unbeknownst to me the extractor broke, and so while I was cycling the weapon, it wasn't grabbing the live round in the chamber. And because I half assed the safety check by not actually putting an eyeball in the chamber, I never realized the weapon was loaded the entire time.

Which is why; 'all guns always loaded', and never get complacent with safety checks.

im gonna remember this post every time i check my firearms, and im gonna share it with anyone who will listen if that's ok by you

something like that could happen to any of us

[boattail]

Once I handed my 357 Black Hawk to an older friend of mine to shoot. He took a semi auto grip on that gun and had his fingers in front of the cylinder. He had already cocked the gun and it is my revolver that has a trigger job on it so I knew once he touched that trigger it was going to get ugly fast. I yelled "freeze, don't touch anything" and that got his attention and that of the others. I quickly told him to take his left hand off the gun. He did what I said to do and then I took the gun from him with my finger under the hammer.

He was slightly embarrassed and did not realize what he was doing. He ended up shooting that gun after he took a break and shot it for about 20 minutes. I asked him first if he had shot revolvers before as I had never seen him shoot one.....felt kinda dumb asking this old timer if he knew revolvers but even though he said yes he had been shooting semi's all day and just forgot what was in his hand.

That same day a friends son was trying to take pictures of us shooting and got 90* to me and my revolver....I looked at his dad and said " this could be a really good teachable moment, you want me to give him the fast lesson or do you want to explain it to him first?"

[phroggunner]

I have a good lesson learned.....

Was shooting my WWI M1917 in 30-06 with several other people. End of the day I always check to make sure weapons are unloaded before I put them in the car. I cycled the bolt on the 1917, no round ejected and I noted internal mag was empty, so placed rifle in car. At home I load all guns into the safe. Weeks later I take rifle out to clean it; cycle the action, no rounds in mag, so drop a cleaning rod down bore....and pop a live 30-06 round out of the chamber.

Unbeknownst to me the extractor broke, and so while I was cycling the weapon, it wasn't grabbing the live round in the chamber. And because I half assed the safety check by not actually putting an eyeball in the chamber, I never realized the weapon was loaded the entire time.

Which is why; 'all guns always loaded', and never get complacent with safety checks.

Opposite experience for me.

I unloaded my M2 prior to landing and confirmed unloaded by feeling the empty chamber after stripping the belt off the feed tray.

The next day I was quietly pulled aside by another crew chief who told me he had found a round in the chamber of my weapon (guns stayed on the helicopters as we were on constant casevac standby).

At first I didn't believe him because I distinctly remembered checking the gun was empty. As I thought a little more about the mechanics of the gun, however, it made complete sense that I failed to recognize the bullet was being held in the t-slot of the bolt face as I blindly felt the empty chamber of the barrel.

Thankfully that lesson was cheap, and from then on I felt the bolt face and chamber, then another physical and visual inspection after landing.

[17+1]

[Jwalt]

I was 14 and staying with a friend's family. All the adults went to town. We got his Arisaka out and went and shot up an old outhouse from about 400 yards. There was a nice steep bluff just 15-20 yards behind the derelict outhouse, so we did have a backstop. This was in South Dakota and their property was 400 acres. There were no roads between us and "the target" or anything, seemed generally safe.

We went back to the house to make some sandwiches and his approx. 90 y/o great-grandfather came out of the back room. Turns out he didn't go to town. As we went to eat sandwiches and watch TV, his great grandfather went to use the toilet, found it clogged, and went to hike out to the outhouse my friend told me "No one ever uses anymore".

It wasn't a close call, except it was. I have never fired at/toward a structure again.

[deckhandmike]

Too embarrased. Almost shot my girlfriend's cat with a .45 in an Anaheim apartment.

Well, work on your aim.