AD in my garage

[bruss01]

Glad no one was hurt. Another example of why "There is no such thing as an unloaded gun." The exception being one that is PRESENTLY without a magazine and has the action open, empty chamber visible.

I've never understood putting guns in storage (vault, safe, etc.) with a loaded mag - the idea being that if it's a defensive gun, it needs to be available in a defensive time frame, i.e. 10 seconds or less. That means unlocked, within easy reach and already loaded. At my home, anything outside the safe is RELIGIOUSLY loaded, anything inside the safe is religiously unloaded. Whenever we handle guns in the home, for purpose of display (not defense), cleaning, etc. it is our practice to remove magazine, lock action open, and carry the gun in our palm, not by the grip so it is obvious to one and all that an unloaded pistol is being handled.

No such thing as an unloaded gun. Doesn't exist. If you aren't looking at an open, empty chamber and a vacant mag well, IT IS BLOODY WELL LOADED AND NEEDS TO BE TREATED AS SUCH. Even if it was unloaded half a second ago, if the chamber went closed then it's loaded NOW. A round got teleported in there, don't you see. This is one of those true-falsehoods that will save lives and embarassment if followed.

Kudos again to the OP who had the stones to post this, a great reminder for all of us.

[M. Sage]

With regards to the bullet, it's highly unlikely that it disintegrated. If anything, the jacket sheared from the lead core and they are in separate pieces.

I dunno. Bullets fly into a lot of tiny pieces when they hit something hard (like thick steel or concrete) at full speed. I'm sure that if he finds anything, it'll be in a lot more than two pieces.

[tenpercentfirearms]

Honestly, if I were you, I would not store my guns unloaded as this will just happen again. I would store them all loaded. That way the next time you hand a firearm to someone, you know it is loaded and you will be sure to completely unload it and lock back the slide before handing it over.

I think the semi-loaded state directly led to this incident and if all of your guns were loaded, you would have been more careful.

Actually, having a ND when I was 21 with an M1 Carbine was the best thing that ever happened to me. I most certainly don't assume anything anymore. A very humbling experience.

[sloguy]

accidents happen. the important thing is no one was hurt. the other important thing is that you wont make the same mistake as easily. everyone has an accident sometime. hopefully they are small ones where no one gets hurt.

my worst accident story is kinda funny. we were out squirrel hunting and it was slow, so, i was positive the rifle was empty with no round in the chamber and took a practice pull sighted on a bird way the heck off in the distance sitting on a wood fence post. "BOOM" and we see a cloud of what looks like feathers. luckily for the bird he was out of my zeroed range and i didnt compensate by aiming high. knocked a hole in the fence post a few inches below the birds feet. we were seeing fence dust and splinters, not feathers. the bird didnt even fly away, he shakes off and i swear, birds can have mad faces.

anyway, i learned. no serious harm done.

[762cavalier]

Wes- That is what I do. ALL handguns in my house are loaded. I have told my family members that ALL handguns are loaded. When one is picked up it is picked up and made safe before handling.

I had a ND/AD when I was about 22 with a shotgun. was unloading it by racking the slide,chambering a round, racking the slide,etc. On the last round as I chambered the shell the gun went off. Scared the crap out of me. After that I just went to bed. When my roommate got home all he saw was the shotgun sitting on the ground a hole in the ceiling and white powder everywhere.
I dug the shotgun slug out of the ceiling the next day. It went through the plastered wall, clipped through a 2x4, clipped another 2x4, and was kept from leaving the house by the asphalt shingle, which had a good dent in it.
Since then I have been WAY more careful with guns.

[ivanimal]

My dad used to say it's the unloaded gun that will kill you.. Isnt there anyone you can sue, its just not American to admit your mistake and learn from it. We need more warnings printed on our firearms.

Glad you are safe. I am going to make my son read this thread. Thanks for being honest and posting this.

[TimG]

I crawled around on my hands & knees last night and found several very small pieces of lead and copper, most were like 1/16 of an inch or smaller. Around where the bullet hit the floor there were pieces of lead that were like sand. I found a piece on the other side of the garage that was about as big and as flat as a pinky nail. I'll have to post some pics if I can figure out the camera but you can see where it grazed the door of the safe (the door was open), hit the very bottom corner then the floor. That dent on the bottom of the safe is going to stay there as a reminder.

None of my nieghbors heard the shot as far as I know.

[M. Sage]

None of my nieghbors heard the shot as far as I know.

They're probably assuming it was something else. Most people don't think they've heard a gun shot when they hear one.

[R_P_Rizzo]

AD in my garage

If you want to know where the bullet went, just wait for the next time it rains.

[Soldier415]

Most people don't think they've heard a gun shot when they hear one.

That's because they have only heard gunshots on TV shows and in movies

[Turbinator]

Let me just say... hooray for Glocks.

Let me just say...

This has nothing to do with the gun in question being a Glock. There was also a 1911 mentioned in this thread.

The reality is that it comes down to the people handling the guns, just as everyone else has mentioned. Without people, guns are useless inanimate objects, regardless of the inclusion or exclusion of features, the maker, or the quality (or lack thereof) of the item in question.

Thanks for your useful insight and contribution to this thread.

Turby

[psriley]

Thanks for posting, and I'll add my relief that no one was hurt.

My procedure for handing someone one of my firearms:

Insist the other person observes, regardless of their experience level.

Retrieve firearm from safe, eject mag, if present (not usually, since I store all but one of my guns dry).

Rack slide three or four times, which would clear a
chambered round, and the next three "magic rounds".

Lock slide open.

Visually verify empty chamber, and that I can see all the way through the magwell.

Hand firearm to the other person butt-first, muzzle down.

Watch while other person points firearm in a safe direction, drops slide and repeats multiple slide rack. Anyone who is going to handle one of my firearms will know to do this.

Same procedure to hand firearm back to me.

I repeat this procedure myself prior to placing firearm back in safe.

No exceptions ever.

[U2BassAce]

Yep. When I hand someone a semi auto handgun my procedure is.

Point HG in safe direction
Drop mag
Cycle slide and with slide stop lock lever, lock back slide
Visually and physically check that firearm is unloaded
Hand to person with slide still locked back and no mag in HG

[GenLee]

+1

Kudos again to the OP who had the stones to post this, a great reminder for all of us.[/QUOTE]

Thanx for the post, A great reminder to us all. Safety is never practiced enough.

[duenor]

Please post a pic. I'd like to see what kind of damage an RSC can take.

I do have a few pieces of useful information I'd like to share.

1. Some guns you have to have loaded to be useful. Shotguns, for example, that use tube magazines. Thus it all guns should be considered loaded, and clearing a weapon each time is of importance. Many people dont properly clear a semiauto handgun because it is difficult to visually and physically inspect that a gun is indeed empty - a certain amount of strength is necessary to pull the slide back. What is suggest is this (and for semiauto handguns only)

a. drop the magazine
b. pull the hammer back (again applies only to hammer models), lock
c. pull the slide back with your weak side fingers so that you can examine the chamber. this is easy now because the hammer is already back. do it 3x to be sure. you should be able to see right through the mag well each time.

if you really want to be sure that it is empty, lock the slide back and stick a pinky inside the chamber. that said, if you do ever find a round in there you have not been servicing / observing your gun properly and you will need to replace that extractor at least at that point.

The hammer-back, chamber-check method is used by several instructors these days as a means of checking the chamber in a gun that is already loaded as well. it also allows the user to see if he has a round chambered so that if he gets into a fight he wont pull on an empty chamber.

Finally, this is why all my semi-auto guns have decockers (even the CZ52 and Mak). I hate having to worry about finger slip when thumbing down. do ensure that your decocker actually works, though. the CZ and Maks have had reports of click-bang decockers before.