Posted on 08/14/2011 10:37:32 PM PDT by West Texas Chuck
Even when they are out of ammo.
We had been shooting our 1911s, he has Kimber and me a Springer. After a mag full from his gun the slide locked open. He hit the slide release and pointed said Kimber at the ground and pulled the trigger to drop the hammer.
BOOM! Big hole in the ground. I saw the whole thing, he jumped back like he saw a snake. Apparently, there was still one in the mag, and when he let the slide close it was loaded.
This has happened to me, at least the slide locking open on the NEXT TO THE LAST ROUND instead of the last. Not sure what causes it, but my Springfield has done this, twice, last time I shot at the local range.
Me, I only load 5 rounds, that is easy to count when shooting, but he always puts the full 7 in there. I'm just glad he didn't shoot his foot or me. It was pointed in a safe direction, but that was a wakeup call for old Catman. I think he'll count his shots from now on, and check what is in the chamber when he thinks the pistol is empty, before dropping the hammer.
No alcohol was involved, just a trust of what usually happens and not being quite careful enough.
Every gun is loaded, even when you think it isn't.
Amen
Well said. Like so many safety rules/guidelines/practices they are written in the blood of tragedies. “Treat every weapon as if it were loaded...” was drilled into me by my father from the time I was old enough to pick up a firearm. Glad all you guys got was a good scare.
Wheeeew, we put the handguns up after than and went back to the scatter guns.
I think I have made my point to my pal about “load 5, count 5 bangs.”
It is prolly not a good idea to dry fire one of those, but a man gets lazy some times. It takes both hands to ease the hammer down after the mag is empty, so lots of people just point it down and pull the trigger.
I’d sure like to figure out what causes a 1911 to do that. It ain’t right.
I blame Cooper (god rest him) for the “all guns are always loaded” hyperbole...but it’s a lot better than finding out the hard way.
Been 20 or so years ago, never forgot that lesson.
I was shooting at the CO State USPSA Championship match in the early 1990s (I think), and I remember this gorgeous competitor who was an incredible shot, and she had pretty much wiped up the range with all the women and about 95% of the men. I think she was slated to take 4th overall and #1 female shooter.
Once the course of fire was complete, the standard USPSA procedure takes place. The shooter is supposed to drop the magazine, check to make sure the chamber's clear, showing it to be clear to the range safety officer who shadows the shooter through the course, drop the hammer (with the barrel pointed downrange), and then holster the weapon, at which point the range is declared safe. If for any reason the gun fires, the shooter is disqualified, not just from the stage, but from the entire match. Well, it seems that both she AND the RSO missed the round in the chamber, and when she dropped the hammer, the weapon discharged. She was DQ'd from the match.
Just goes to show you that you have to be constantly vigilant about safety.
Mark
Dang, that’s harsh. But, rules are rules, and for a reason.
From now on, if we shoot the sidearms, we will follow that rule, along with a cycle of the action, followed by a hammer drop pointed downrange.
You just can’t be too safe. Those things can kill you or seriously ruin your day. I learned that lesson a long time ago. Loaded a mag for my Browning HP, put it in the pistol and cycled the action. Somewhere I forgot to drop the hammer and when I pointed it and put my finger on the trigger it went off. Right next to my little brother’s head. Prolly should have not put one in the pipe, that was stupid enough, but to “forget” to either put it on SAFE or drop the hammer nearly cost me the life of my brother.
I don’t do stuff like that no more. But, you never know about the person standing in the lane next to you at the range. That is why I usually prefer to go when the place is empty, or shoot outdoors with just one or two people.
I was at a range here in Dallas one time, y’all would know the name, it is over by the river on the west side. We had been shooting for a while when some other guys showed up and took the lane next to us. This guy put a few rounds downrange with his 1911 and it jammed. The stoopid bastid started banging it on the shooting bench, trying to get the mag out. We were crawling under our bench, just sure somebody was going to die. They didn’t have an RSO back then, it was a free-for-all. And I’m not sure the idjit spoke English, so I went up to the office and raised hell about this behavior. Nowdays, they have a guy standing there to make sure such idiocy does not take place again.
The Mk 112 ASROC (antisubmarine rocket) launcher’s eight cells were stuffed with Mk 46 rocket-thrown torpedoes and at least one Mk 17 nuclear depth charge called “Lulu.”
When the security alert went off, the sentry chambered a round into his M1911A1. If any unauthorized person approached the launcher, he was to challenge them and stop them. If they crossed the 6-inch red line, representing the launcher's working circle painted on the deck, he was to shoot them dead.
Fortunately, the security alert was a drill and our sentry unloaded his pistol. He jacked the slide back to eject the live round, dropped the loaded magazine, pointed the pistol at the ASROC cell above his head, and squeezed the trigger. BOOM! and a .45 caliber hole appeared in the cell with the Mk 17 “Lulu” depth charge.
There was no blinding white flash, mushroom cloud, and crater where Mayport, FL used to be . . . fortunately. Instead, Explosive Ordnance Disposal was called and made record time getting to the scene. The missile with the Mk 17 depth charge was extracted from its cell, the detonator removed, and the missile was off-loaded to be taken to a safety area.
The poor security guard never stood watch on the launcher again and his annual personnel evaluation was less than stellar.
My 9mm semi-auto handgun has a supposedly safe decocking function on the safety lever. To decock you press that lever. No need to pull the trigger and/or hold the hammer with your thumb. Still, I never do that until I looked through the handgun, verified that it is unloaded and pointed in a safe direction. It's a small price to pay, considering alternatives.
Springer? I think you mean Springfield.
Always look first.
Weak spring in an old mag?
My Sig, to my di$may, doesn’t like aftermarket mags. I get stove pipe jams on hollow points. No issue with ball/ target rounds.
I want to thank you for passing this story along. I passed it to all the people I know shoot.
There are two types of people - those who have had accidental discharges, and those will have accidental discharges.
The object is to be in second category as long as possible...
I always cycle and fire downrange one last time just to be sure.
Something similar happened to me with my .223, lost in a boating accident, but fortunately it was pointed downrange during my clearing cycle.
You have two eyes to look into the chamber. We had a coach on our unit pistol team who would routinely bring in a pistol and ask us to look at it. We learned very quickly that he wanted us to LOOK into the chamber and make sure there were no rounds in the chamber. He even loaded dummy rounds into the magazine at times.
While playing OPFOR at Fort Drum, I got chased into a thicket and over a small hill by the BLUFOR. On the reverse side of the hill, I turned with the intention of getting my opponents when they crested the little hillock. Somehow during the 'action' my blank-firing adapter (BFA) worked it's way loose. Thank GOD I was following the ROE of firing over the head of opponents within 20 yds, because when I pulled the trigger, that blank launched that BFA in a long arc. If it had hit somebody in the face, it would have killed them.
My lesson was, even with blanks, and in a situation where it's theoretically impossible for any projectile to leave the weapon, you can very well have a projectile leave the weapon.
I have kimber .45 as well, but I fully load it, I haven’t had the problem of the slide locking to the rear with one round left yet though. Old saying.. a good soldier always knows the state of his weapon.
won’t hurt a good 1911 to dry fire.
similar situation, but in this case some live had found it’s way into the blank ammo cans, and they followed protocol too (aimed over), in this case ahead as the person they were shooting was sitting in a truck... put a bullet through passenger window and through driver’s window, passing in front of driver’s face...needless to say it was stop ex after that.
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