There's a shooting cliché which goes, "There are two kinds of shooters: those who have had an ND, and those who will."
My first handgun was a stainless Tokarev 213 in 9mm. It was 100% reliable, if eccentric (like the backwards safety). Yesterday, I found a blued 213 at the same dealer. Oh joy!
I took it home, cleaned it, and loaded the magazine with Speer GDHPs (147gr). I had locked the slide back manually after dropping the mag.
I inserted the mag, and the slide went forward on its own. Ordinarily, this would be a minor bug. Ordinarily, I wouldn't have minded too much. Ordinarily, I wouldn't have got a slam-fire.
There's now a nice 9mm-diameter hole in the wall, about 6 inches up from the floor. My ears still occasionally ring, 24 hours later. Fortunately, the bullet expanded enough to not penetrate the outer wall. Blew off a nice chunk of stucco, though. The landlord was more concerned about my safety than the hole. No wires or pipes were harmed, and the neighbors, oddly enough, didn't call the police.
After I calmed down (thousands upon thousands of shots fired in over 10 years, and this was my first ND), I took the 213 to the range to see if I could duplicate the problem. Got no more slam-fires, but I managed to run 2 magazines with no failures, out of 116 shots. Stovepipes, extractor failures, double-feeds galore. Oh yeah, the slide went forward on every mag.
POS went back to the dealer, who offered me a .380 and a .22 derringer in exchange. These two perform flawlessly.
Looking back, I suppose I was lucky. Having loaded up with 147s, the bullet was subsonic, thus quieter than a 115 or a 124. If the bullet had been an FMJ instead of HP, it would have gone all the way through, and probably bounced off the rocks outside. And if I hadn't followed Rule 2, I'd have likely taken out the neighbors.
The moral? WATCH THAT MUZZLE!
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"America needs additional gun laws like a giraffe needs snow tires."
--Rabbi Mermelstein, JPFO
My first handgun was a stainless Tokarev 213 in 9mm. It was 100% reliable, if eccentric (like the backwards safety). Yesterday, I found a blued 213 at the same dealer. Oh joy!
I took it home, cleaned it, and loaded the magazine with Speer GDHPs (147gr). I had locked the slide back manually after dropping the mag.
I inserted the mag, and the slide went forward on its own. Ordinarily, this would be a minor bug. Ordinarily, I wouldn't have minded too much. Ordinarily, I wouldn't have got a slam-fire.
There's now a nice 9mm-diameter hole in the wall, about 6 inches up from the floor. My ears still occasionally ring, 24 hours later. Fortunately, the bullet expanded enough to not penetrate the outer wall. Blew off a nice chunk of stucco, though. The landlord was more concerned about my safety than the hole. No wires or pipes were harmed, and the neighbors, oddly enough, didn't call the police.
After I calmed down (thousands upon thousands of shots fired in over 10 years, and this was my first ND), I took the 213 to the range to see if I could duplicate the problem. Got no more slam-fires, but I managed to run 2 magazines with no failures, out of 116 shots. Stovepipes, extractor failures, double-feeds galore. Oh yeah, the slide went forward on every mag.
POS went back to the dealer, who offered me a .380 and a .22 derringer in exchange. These two perform flawlessly.
Looking back, I suppose I was lucky. Having loaded up with 147s, the bullet was subsonic, thus quieter than a 115 or a 124. If the bullet had been an FMJ instead of HP, it would have gone all the way through, and probably bounced off the rocks outside. And if I hadn't followed Rule 2, I'd have likely taken out the neighbors.
The moral? WATCH THAT MUZZLE!
------------------
"America needs additional gun laws like a giraffe needs snow tires."
--Rabbi Mermelstein, JPFO