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Coinneach

Staff Alumnus
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
 
Nothing like a ND or, in your case, an AD to get the heart rate up. Been there and seen it happen before. Glad all are safe.



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Ne Conjuge Nobiscum
"If there be treachery, let there be jehad!"
 
Glad everything worked out as best as could be hoped for :(. I had a similar event with a Beretta 951 many years ago. My landlord wasn't so kind hearted. Because of that, I will never chamber a round in a new gun until it's had it's day at the range. If there's a problem with the gun, I don't want to find out in my living room. Hope your ears quit ringing soon.
 
JJR,

That policy is going up on my wall right next to "Metal and Wood." Guess I should have known that the previous owner sold it for a reason, eh?

My landlord is an old (retired) Marine. He and I have talked about and compared guns for hours. He knows the difference between negligence and accident, so he didn't chew my ass to a bloody rag, although if he had, he wouldn't have gotten an argument from me.

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"America needs additional gun laws like a giraffe needs snow tires."
--Rabbi Mermelstein, JPFO
 
Wow, Coinneach, that lesson was relatively cheap, only a little spackling and paint. And you will be thrilled to pay the cost of the repairs. But, I guarantee you'll think about it a lot in the coming days and years.

I would add a third type of person to the two you listed - those who prepare for an ND instead of being surprised by it. Anyone who works with/plays with/lives with guns like most everyone on this board will load their guns at home and cycle ammo through them no matter what they say around others. My preparation for the eventual ND I will have is a stack of 2x6's about 2 feet thick against a concrete wall in my basement. Whenever I test a slide or ammo to see if it will cycle properly, the gun is always pointed at the wood and nothing else. You have just reinforced my paranoia about continuing to do this. Thank you, and thank God no one got hurt.
 
Hello, sir. As another poster wisely noted, you had an AD vs the much more frequent ND!
Because of your muzzle control, minor problems followed the shot. Allow me, speaking from experience, to say that this type thing is a very, very good teacher and I'll wager that it never happens again. Best and always be careful. That goes for us all!
 
Thanks for sharing that with us, I know it will serve as a reminder to me of the importance of all the gun safety rules. You sharing this with us will no doubt help prevent at least one more of these accidents from occurring in the future.

Its brave of you to share such a humiliating personal experience with us. Thanks again, and I'm really happy for you that everything turned out okay. I hope my AD/ND will end the same way.
 
Several years ago, I had a rather whimsical ND. I mean, they're all very serious, but looking back at it, it was rather whimsical all things considered.

Basically, it had to do with me learning to load/unload a 9mm Glock as well as dry-fire practice. I'll uh let you folks fill in the rest. :)

But this is the funny part. On this fateful night, I was watching Star Trek: TNG. Every time the commercial comes on, they keep showing the Psychic Friends Network. This campy commercial had a large black woman who, upon hearing the wonderful features for calling up the PFN, would say, "Oooooh, for real?!" For dry firing, I tried to shoot everyone on that commercial, especially the large, black lady. In fact, she was so campy, I said to my wife, "You know what? I'm gonna get her good next time around."

So while watching Star Trek, I was sitting there practicing loading and unloading my magazine with Speer Gold Dots. Star Trek finally ends, and guess what comes on TV? So, I slammed in my magazine not realizing it was still loaded. As the commercial droned on, I started picking people off with my Glock. Incidentally, for dry fire, I racked the slide back only enough to prime the trigger, but not chamber a round. So first time around, click. Second time around, click. Third time, click. On the fourth time, just as as the lady said, "Oooooh for r..." *BLAM!* On the fourth one, I racked my slide far back enough to chamber a round.

My ear rang. I was in full shock. After a few seconds, I recovered and immediately cleared my firearm. Then went to check to see if the everyone was fine. Everyone was fine. In fact, they all slept through it! The only damage done was the poor TV set, to which I had to go and dispose of the "body" later that night.

To this day, we still laugh about it. The PFN, as you may or may not know, went out of business. But, everyone around me says it was because I "killed" them. Subsequently, my Glock 26 earned the nickname, "The TV buster". My Glock 27s have earned the nickname, "The toilet buster", but that's a different story for another time. :)

But that's the first and only ND I've ever had (no ADs). I can guarantee you that since then, I've experienced a quantum leap in safety consciousness. While we still laugh about it, it still haunts me. If I was any more careless, I may not be laughing about it now.
 
SB, sorry bud but LMPAO ! :D
Coinneach, at least you didn't have one of those hand in front of the muzzle A/D's you hear of....urrggghhh :(
Glad to hear it turned out ok :)

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"The Gun from Down Under !"
http://www.para1911fanclub.w3.to/
Alternate E-mail
hs2k@email.com
 
Coinneach:

Glad you and your neighbors are OK...it eventually happens to everyone, whether AD or ND.

Mine was in 1970 while in Vietnam...had returned to our base (River Gunboats) and was trying to clear a jam on a MK 14 40mm Grenade launcher (Mod 1 variant...the first ones made and they didn't work worth a darn). Luckily, I had the gunmount elevated to the max...I was inside the mount working with a wrench and screwdriver to clear the jammed round. Suddenly, the bolt released (surprise as the weapon normally fired via electronic solenoid) and the jammed round was stipped into the chamber and fired. The good news was that the HE round impacted 1200 meters away in the jungle, that it did not hit the EM Club Hootch (we were tied up directly in front of it), and that I did not lose a finger in the process when the bolt slammed forward. The bad news was that our unit XO (not a popular guy..a prissy, lard-butted Annapolis grad) was walking by right in front of the boat at that time...it scared him almost as much as it did me...let's just say he wasn't very happy. Later when I was calm enough to suck down a cool one with my buds, they advised me to point jammed weapons at the Officer Country hootch whenever clearing them...sound wisdom indeed.

Luckily, our training and unit SOP paid off...all weapons were cleared AND cranked up to max elevation when coming into base.

Mike
 
I had a similar incident like coinneach, Cleaning an older Browning High-Power. I slapped in the mag after stripping and cleaning the weapon, the slide slammed forward, and BOOM! I lived on the second floor of an apartment building, so whenever I was loading/unloading a weapon I would stand in the kitchen and point it out the window toward an open field. The round put a nice hole in the glass and I came real close to having a stroke. I cleared and then actually FIELD STRIPPED the weapon all in about 1.3 seconds. I lived on military bases until I was 19 (25 now) and had never dealt with civilian police, so I did what I would have done on base and called the PD to report a firearm discharge.(NO-ONE else called!) I was immediately charged with Endangering safety by use of a firearm. The only way I stayed out of jail, except for that first night, was explaining to the judge that I was moving to Las Vegas the next week, so the D.A. agreed to just a hefty fine. The lesson I learned, (aside from you can never be too safe) is that the police are not your friends. That was the first thing my lawyer said, and she couldn't BELIEVE I called them myself. Now I have a criminal record. Misdemeanor, but still a record. BTW, does anyone know if that will affect my getting a CCW in Nevada?

[This message has been edited by Dave AA (edited September 20, 1999).]
 
I heard this one as a lesson on how not to write manuals for military equipment.

Sailor on a destroyer checking out the missle launcher, by the book.

"1. To test connection xx, connect jumper cable from pin A to pin B..."

KERSWOOSH!!!!!.....BOOOOM!!!!!

"...after setting switch C to the off position."

"Fortunately," said the guy who told me the story, "that part of the Puerto Rican coast is not inhabited."

Jim
 
"that part of the Puerto Rican coast is not inhabited."

Not now, anyway.

Thanks to all of you for not flaming me to a little glowing charcoal briquette. When I posted my story, I was fully prepared to be chastised. The lack of hostility here is sort of a relief; if I'd posted this in, say, rec.guns, G*d only knows what the reaction would have been.

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"America needs additional gun laws like a giraffe needs snow tires."
--Rabbi Mermelstein, JPFO
 
I had a similar incident years and years ago with an LC Smith 12 gauge double barrel. The safety on the thing didn't work that well and I was out walking with my friends looking for pheasents.
We were walking along and boom it went. I was about 15 at the time and probably not obeying rule #1 about the finger off the trigger. But I was aware enough not to have it pointing at anything but the ground.
We all about pooped are pants and gun safey has been burned in my brain ever since.
And yea, I think we all about cycle ammo thru our automatics to see how they'll feed.
 
They say confession is good for the soul. I too have had a ND and fetl like selling all of my firearms because of my outright carelessness.

Was at the range with my AK shooting Winchester 7.62. I don't know if anyone else has had trouble with brass cased ammo in an AK, because this was not the first time the AK had pushed the bullet into the case, jamming the round in the chamber(ONLY ON BRASS AMMO) The round will not fire(Tried a BUNCH of times) and it takes a cleaning rod to forcefully knock it out. Daren did not have a cleaning rod at the range. Transportred AK home with hammer down. Get home and wife is in big hurry to go eat. I broke my hard and fast rule, I PUT A LOADED FIREARM IN MY GUNSAFE. A week later I pulled the gun out of the safe, dropped the mag, Racked the slide ( DID NOT VISUALLY INSPECT CHAMBER-LESSON LEARNED)and preceded to tear down rifle. I was paying with the hammer. click, click,click, BOOM!! 1 fan dead, hole in wall, dog outside scared sh@#less along with owner. Nobodt was hurt the muzzel was in a safe direction, and I repaired the wall. Now you guys can flame me


Later
Daren
 
Daren:

No one is gonna flame you cuz we've all been guilty ourselves at some point...those of you who haven't had ND/AD...don't be smug...it WILL happen.

Mike
 
I haven't had an ND/AD, but I ALWAYS read these posts... Just trying to keep from getting too cocky. Thanks for the dose of reality guys!
 
Long Long time ago just after I turned 21 and purchased my first pistol a S&W 66 I had my 1st and only (so far) ND. Was carying 125gr Federal 357 ammo in the revolver and just got a spiffy new (Jackass) holster. Started practicing wepon presentation from the holster trying to break in the holster and learning how it worked best for me. After working with the revolver for a while I went and loaded it and was wearing it to get us to the feel and weight. Stupid me watching Bonanza and got involved with the show and a gun fight went and tried shooting the bad guy on TV. I fired one round right between the TV and VCR cutting the TV cable clean in 1/2.

Inspecting the bullet hole I discovered It went through the wall board and was stuck in the concrete behind (basement appartment) Went and cleaned my shorts and wated for sombody to call the cops who never were called. Fixed up the hole and found some new cable for the TV.

After this I've been extremly conscious of weapons safety and have drilled it into the wife's head till she is ready to shoot/strangle me!!!!! Best thing though is when the 6 year old sees me pick up a pistol she starts telling me what I've drilled into her about safety.
 
Now Joey, nobody here has flamed anyone for their ND. But I've gotta give you one - you missed the TV from, what?, 3 or 4 yards??? You need more TV practice! :) :D
 
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