Tell us about your "closest call"......

I've never had a close call with a bad guy -- had a few nearly violent run ins with people, of course, but always managed to use my size and voice to get out of the situation. In some I didn't have a gun; in one I decided that I was probably facing a heavily armed group of drunks (it was in the woods) and the gun was best left in the 4x4. Left the area feeling like the worlds biggest coward, but neither me or my wife was hurt and I didn't have to kill anyone.

But way back when I was in college ...

Some friends and I used to go into a field and shoot up everything we had; a pistol, some shotguns, throw some skeet, etc. We were all well beyond our years in safety, being careful all the time.

One time, however ... when I had my turn on the spring skeet thrower my arm was sore from firing the 12 gauge and I just couldn't get the #@! thing to work right. I kept trying to throw, but the pigeon kept rolling off the thrower and rolling front of my friends -- standing ready to shoot with their shotguns.

Everyone had a good laugh at this.

Then my turn came to shoot. I put my shoulder to the shotgun, my finger on the trugger, yelled "pull" ... and suddenly there were stars exploding in my eyes and my legs turned to rubber. Totally dazed and not able to control my body, I remember watching the sight picture change on my safety-off shotgun:

First the road to the left ... then the car ... then the face of my friend appeared above the front sight. Although totally dazed, I still remember how his eyes widened as he looked down the barrel of the gun :eek: and then suddenlly dropped out of sight (he hit the ground).

I came back to my senses as I was again pointing downrange with a WHOLE lot of pain on the side of my head, and realized I had just done a full 360 degree spin and had moved back against the car.

Turned out my friend had decided to be funny and throw the skeet right in front of me. Trouble was he missed and smashed me in the side of the head. Didn't seem humorous when he was looking straight down the barrel of my shotgun with my finger tight against trigger.

For months I got shakey as I remembered seeing my friends face over the barrel of a shotgun that I was too dazed to be in control of. That gun could have taken my friend's head off as easy as not.
 
I've actually put lead in someone
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Someone put "lead" into me once. :eek:

I was sitting in 11th grade trigonometry class taking a test when the guy behind me tried to sneak a peak at my paper over my shoulder. I covered up my paper with my hand so he couldn't see it, and this pissed him off so he stabbed me in the calf with his pencil. I had to go to the hospital to have the broken off lead point of his pencil removed from my leg and the wound stitched up.

The guy was the son of a teacher at the school, so he got off scot-free. :barf:
 
Nearly shot Brotherinlaw when he came into the house unannounced and wandered upstairs where I was working.
 
Lets see... I Jumped out of bed to grab the muzzle of the rifle pointed at me and it went click...... I grabbed the muzzle and did not allow the bolt to be pulled back again. Every time he tried I yanked it. That was after three rounds were fired at the headboard to wake us up.


The rifle was loaded and the cartridge had a firing pin hit.
He did seven.

That's all I'm sayin about it.


There were others but the military was different.
 
Near mugging in Philadelphia

I lived in Philly for a few months and found it to be a very rough town. Back in my anti-gun youth (20) I had walked a girl home at 1am and was returning to my apartment through a shady area of the city, and had about 15 blocks to walk. In hindsite I should have taken a taxi... anyway, as I was walking a very shady fellow doubled my pace and was following me, and we were about the only foot traffic at that hour. He walked past me at twice my speed and looked over his shoulder, began pulling up his shirt and reaching toward his waistband as he ducked into the alley 5' ahead of me.

Using my best weapon, my brain, I immediately darted across the street and began jogging. The perp began taunting me by saying, "Why you runnin' white boy, I wasn't gonna hurt you."

I get chills thinking back on that near brush with a almost certain robbery and possibly death on the dark streets of Philadelphia. Had he drawn on me that night, I realize that I was completely at his mercy and that will never happen again. It was terrifying.

Now that I am completely pro-gun, have a CCW and an impressive gun collection and am quite familiar with guns and am a good shot, carry regularly and even wear a threat level IIA vest, I think that leaving would still be the right action (except now I'd be inclined to take a taxi). Although part of me would love to run into that perp again sometime on my terms!

As my judo coach always said: "The top 5 rules of self defense: 1. Don't be there; 2. If you're there, leave; 3. Put something like distance or an object between you and your attacker; 4. Yell "fire" instead of "help" to draw attention; and 5. If you must fight, show no mercy.

My other close calls were also in Philadelphia.

I was walking home from kickboxing and was just exhausted and in no condition to defend myself. A group of 4 rugged teenages were walking toward me on the sidewalk and they spread out on the sidewalk and one of them really "shoulder checked" me quite hard, clearly trying to start a fight. I really did not want any trouble, swallowed my pride, and kept walking. Luckily I avoided any further conflict.

The third incident occured when I was working for the District Attorney and doing a "ride along" with the police in Kensington, a very poor, drug laced, violent and crime riddled suburb of Philly. The police officer I was with saw a criminal take off on foot out of a stolen car, leaving his car running and the radio and baton in the car. In a moment they disappeared down an alley. I dutifully turned off and locked up the car and grabbed the radio and baton. I'm ashamed to admit it, but I was too scared to think clearly at the time and failed to call for backup, which I should have immediately done. When I located the officer, he had lost a struggle with the perp and had gotten his butt kicked very badly and his hand broken and nearly had his gun taken from him. The perp was juiced on something. Someone had called the police and they arrived and after a significant foot chase the cops caught the perp. Meanwhile, I was standing in the middle of a very hostile area with nothing more than the image of being a cop to protect me (as I had a vest and a radio). I could have easily been a big target. It was really a very bad situation which could have easily resulted in more than just the cop getting his butt kicked.
 
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a few close calls:

In VA we have some honor fee shootin ranges. the ranges usually attract a lot of people. the one near me has 20 rifle / pistol benches, but only one skeet range. it's not uncommon for people to spread out on the skeet range and have up to 3 or 4 people shotting. Well a couple winters ago i was at the range (near virginia Tech) and there was a bout 3 or 4 inches of snow on the ground. this is great for skeet shootin b/c my friends missed skeet (i don't miss haha) don't break when they fall. well from all the foot traffic, it was pretty slick ice in the shooting area. i moved into some deeper snow and was fine. about 10 mins into shooting, a group of about 20 other students roll up to the SINGLE position SHOTGUN range with a shotgun, an FAL, a garand, and an AR.well they set a TV out in the middle of the range and proceed to shoot the hell out of it (which was pretty entertaining mind you). well i get back to shootin skeet when i hear to my left, "here, try shootin this. be careful though it's cocked and the safety's off." i look over and one guy was handing the rifle to his buddy whose eyes were about as wide open as can be. the guy grabs the AR by the pistol grip with his finger inside the gaurd and.... you guessed it, slipped on the ice. the guy fell straight backwards and his armed AR with a nervous finger on the trigger was pointed right at my head. I hit the deck and swung my shotgun around telling them to get the expletive away b/c i was puttin up with that explitive anymore. might not have been the best reaction but damn if they didn't clear the hell out.

also twice while bowhunting by myself on public land i was "informed i was hunting in someone else's spot" and told to leave less something bad happend. I was under 21 at the time so no sidearm was available, but i wouldn't have used it anyways. it will be with me this fall though.
 
Was doing some deer scouting last fall in the woods before opening season, a few houses were about 50-60 yards to my left when I hear gun shots on my left. Now anyone who's been shot at knows that sound I'm talking about when you hear those bullets zinging by your head. Military training kicked in and I hit the deck and crawled behind a big oak tree. One bullet whacked the tree next me. Pulled my .45 Auto and was able to radio into my buddy that I was under fire. Long story short. Peered around the tree with my .45 pointing in the direction I thought the fire was coming from and all went silent. Sat there for a bit. Luckily it stayed quiet and we walked away unharmed, never found out who was shooting at me though........
 
Wife,and I went to a casino in Vegas, I put my cocked & locked Colt Commander in the trunk of the car.
Upon leaving i noticed 4 or 5 young punks come out of the shadows, and start following us, spreading out as they came, and Gaining.
I told my wife get in the car and lock the doors NOW!!! I opened the trunk and made sure they saw what I had in my hand, when I closed it.
They suddenly remembered a previous commitment on the other end of the parking lot. :eek:
 
I was in NJ visiting with my brother-in-law. Coming back from a soccer game we parked out in front of his house near a grocery store. I got out of his van and I heard what I thought was a firecracker. I hit the deck, then I turned to him and said that he wasn't very funny because when I hit the ground I had got wet in a puddle. He told me that he thought that I had been the one that threw the firecracker. We went into his house and later on, a patrol car pulled up, so we went outside to see what was up. The grocery's storefront window had been shot. My brother-in-law and I looked at each other and told the cops what had recently happened when we were parking. We went to the van and lined up the bullet hole with any place that a shot could of come from. The police went to the homes that looked the most likely to have been the one involved. Twenty minutes or so later the police came back and told us that they had found out where the shot had come from, it was a young teen, but they had no proof so...no arrest. I asked where had the shot come from? When I was shown I could not believe it, the shot that hit the window missed my head by only inches!
 
Used to deliver newspapers. Wife would help now and then. stopped to deliver to a 7-11 one night and wife took the papers in while I sat in the van getting set up for the next drop. She comes out the door, get in the van and says "Is that a gun?" I look up and watched the store get robbed. Next day I went and bought my first handgun. I never felt so weak in my life. I will never feel that way again. Since then I have accuired my ccw, and now carry all the time. I also changed jobs.
 
I have shed blood and drawn blood. Funniest one was when I walked into the pit-stop just in time to see a perp in the process of reaching for his gun. I pulled mine and spoke to him sharply, He turned his head to look at me and the clerk hit him with a coffee urn. He had to be treated for heavy burns before being locked up for awhile. :D

Pops
 
In Vegas about two years ago I was at on of the parties that my fraternity throws every week or so at the house near campus. At about 1 am we had some uninvited guests, from the ghetto of the neighborhood that both the school and the fraternity happen to be in, come into the party and immediately start trouble with several of the members as well as some of the random guys that we were trying to recruit. We tried to ask them nicely several times to leave and then shortly thereafter all hell broke loose. Needless to say the ghetto children were on the loosing end of that fight. But, about 15 minutes later we heard what we thought were firecrackers until they really started pulling the trigger fast right into the party. Thank god no one was hit, but there were quite a few holes in the house and one of the rounds came about a foot next to my roomates brother. The cops came in force, but never found the punks.
 
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I'm new to TFL and this is my first post!!!!!

I was at my girlfriends parents house one night about 5 years ago. (I believe i was around 17) Her parents own their own business and had (still do) a very nice house in a garbage neighborhood (was once nice i'm told, but they refuse to move because they raised thier kids there and now 26 years later they can't leave all the memories, especially since the recent loss of their oldest son in 2006)

Anyway, one night my girlfriend and i are sharing a classy meal of Mac and Cheese which i slaved over for 7 minutes, and we heard shouting out front so being the nosy (sp?) kids that we were, we walked over the window to watch. There was a man wearing clothes that were 8 sizes too big, and while he hobbled down the street with one hand holding up his pants, the other hand was shaped in an obvious "bird" aimed at his screaming female friend who was revving up the engine on her neon green '64 Impala with gold wire rims. As she peeled out, she got sideways and plowed into his fence, so i instructed my girlfriend to call the police while i locked the doors... (Knowing things were about to come unraveled). To my surprise she backed out casually and left...

About 8 minutes later we are treated to the sound of gunshots hitting the side of her house... I tackled her as glass comes pouring down, and got out my cell phone and dialed 911 as the police still hadn't showed up. After telling the dispatcher that 9 shots were fired, no more than 2 minutes later i watched 6 Fully armed LEO's swarm the block. They came out of no-where! One of them came to my back door and made sure we were ok. After about 20 minutes of sitting in my living room (per his instructions) they came back and informed us that they had caught the suspect. It turned out that the girl had driven home and told her gang member boyfriend to shoot up her dealers house... but much to my dismay, they shooter didn't know his left from his right, and therefore shot up my GF's house and not the Dealer across the street.

I am now a proud owner of a H&K USP .40 and a Washington State CCW.
 
My closest call approx 0215 burglary in progress gas station. Upon arrival bad guys yelled "cops" & fired shots at us. Thank God ,as usual. most bad guys are bad shots. We caught them they went to jail we went home:)
 
My Quiet, Settled Life

Have been on the giving and receiving end of barrel-launch projectiles. I still have flashbacks and nightmares from time to time. I have not really talked about them to anyone, except my father once; and a 20-plus year friend who is active LEO/weapons trainer and my best man at each of my weddings.

My father was in the Pacific from 41 to 45 on McArthur's Cruise Tour. My best friend has been in half a dozen shoot-outs and was in the Marines during Gulf One.

Both times, the two of us sipped whiskeys and beers as we exchanged stories and learned much about each other. This eposide changed my relationship with my father. It fundamentally changed our relationship during his final years of life. When my father passed in '02, I stood bed vigil over him for his final 48 hours and did not leave his side. It felt oddly comforting for both of us to have shared that level of closeness. We spoke of it briefly as he lay dying. It was the second time in our lives that we shared tears together. He died with dignity and honor. I hope that I end up half the man he was.

To this day, my threat radar is very attuned. My lifestyle and career has drastically changed since my 20s. The circles I move in these days are worlds away from the violence I crawled out of.

To keep a sense of just how lucky I am -- I keep a bullet on my desk at work. It is a mushroomed JHP, and it tells me that no matter how crappy a day I have now in the corporate world, it is nothing compared to what I have lived through. People look at it and don't even know what it is. I just nod and smile and say it's a much needed sense of perspective.
 
Bulldozer;

I constantly find myself wondering if i should have taken different steps in my life. I'm not a druggie or anything, i've never been in trouble and have always had two loving parents. But i hear people like you talking about your experiences and i can't help but wonder if i'm missing out on invaluable knowledge that you can only get by going through tough situations that i quite frankly probably can't even fathom (having never been in any kind of military or police forces) And being 22 years old, i find myself at a crossroads... Do i join and learn those lessons? Or do i continue with my Education and learn my own lessons? I've talked to Vet's (including my father and grandfather and have been given mixed answers... Some say join, others say don't...) But i must say that i envy your clarity.
 
My closest

My brother in law lives out west. I had actually never met him until just a few years ago (my wife and I were married for 5 years at that point-they did not grow up together as they share a birth father but not their moms). So he decided to come out to Ohio to visit and look around the area to see if we could find where their ancestors actually lived. So we find ourselves outside of Jackson, Ohio driving around looking for these places my brother in law had researched and found to be the land that his great grandfather had once farmed. We stumble upon a gentleman standing out in his yard at the end of a long dirt road. In talking with this extremely polite but also apparently equally intoxicated (at 11am!!!) he told us that he knew all about their families property and his house indeed sat on it. He then pointed us in the direction of the well that the ancestors drew their water from. It sat on his sisters property about 50 yards from her house at the bottom of the hill that he had built his house on. We walked down to the wood pile that the well was under and he looked at me, looked at the woodpile, looked my way again and said, "I'm gonna see that well". At this point I got to see a new side of my brother in law. He began chucking pieces of wood to the side in a frantic fashion. Being a good brother in law, I joined in. After all, the nice (drunk) guy had told us his sister would not mind and that she was a very nice older lady. During all the wood tossing a Jack Russell Terrier came outside to greet us and kept walking circles around us. Then we heard the older lady talking to a man in the house. One of them must have had bad hearing, I thought to myself, as they were almost yelling at one another.
So here we are in some stranger's side yard staring down into this well, admiring the stonework that once laid below the wood pile and skid we had just thrown off to the side. Suddenly the man pops from around the side of the house wielding a rifle :eek:, waiving it at my wife, my niece, my brother in law, and I. He's yelling at us and asking who gave us permission to be there. My brother in law starts talking with the older man, explaining that Mr. So and So over there on the hill said it would be OK if we came down here to have a look at the well, explaining that his ancestors had once lived on this land before moving out west. I was not at all used to someone pointing a rifle in my direction, much less the direction of my wife and niece (the daughter of my brother in law). I had my concealed carry for about a year at this point and had my .45 under my shirt. I grabbed the grip after telling my wife and niece to get behind our van (cover is preferred but concealment is better than nothing right?). At this point the lady who owned the house came walking out, smiling no less. She asked what was going on, still smiling. "Well sis, these folks have thrown your wood pile all over your front yard, that's what!" (more than a bit of an exaggeration there).
"Why?" she asks, still smiling. My brother in law explains the situation to her and she says, "well my brother has always acted like he owns my stuff too."
"No kiddin'" says the rifle wielding old guy.
"I should say both of my brothers have always acted like the owned my stuff too," she says looking at the rifle man with a smirk. Things immediately cooled down and her rifle wielding brother started walking toward his truck. I took my hand off of my .45.
"It's a good thing they didn't want to see your chickens!" says her brother as he opens the drivers side door of his truck. My brother in law and I just look at each other and smile, both wanting to smartly ask, "You got CHICKENS?", but neither of us wanting to push our luck further.

We stood and talked with the smiley old lady for about half an hour or so before taking some pictures of the well and restacking her woodpile heading on down the road. She was so sweet that we'd almost forgotten about her rifle wielding brother that seemed so eager to get into a skirmish with somebody. I might be that way if it involved my sweet sister too though.
 
Jesus5150

Just some advice from a stranger:

I am 30 years old now, married with 2 kids. I always wanted to be a Marine. Others said I should go to college. So I did. For a while. Then I got into a good career and moved around a bit with that career and met a really sweet girl. That girl is now my wife, so I am not complaining. I do, though, often wish I would have followed what I wanted and not what everyone else recommended for me. I'm sure that God would have found a way to let my wife and I meet, but I would not be sitting here typing to you about how I once thought about being a Marine, I'd be telling you what it was like when I was a Marine.

Just my .02

PS- Don't forget to pray on it.
 
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Lucky for you that wasn't in Texas

I Jumped out of bed to grab the muzzle of the rifle pointed at me and it went click...... I grabbed the muzzle and did not allow the bolt to be pulled back again. Every time he tried I yanked it. That was after three rounds were fired at the headboard to wake us up.
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Sounds like you were with another man's wife.
In Texas, he could legally shoot you.
 
I've only had a couple "close calls" fortunately. This was my closest:

I was working overtime doing "civil" stuff, and was way out in the sticks on a dirt road barely wider than one car width. I was looking for a guy who lived in the area to serve him with a restraining order from his ex. I saw a black VW Jetta come up the road behind me and recognized it as his car so I got out and he stopped about 25 yards behind my car. I should point out that the road had a cliff sloping up on one side and had a sharp drop-off on the other.

I walked down to his vehicle and told him I had some paperwork to serve him with. He started cussing at me and told me I was on his private property. He said, "How do I even know you're a real cop?" (I was wearing plain clothes). I knew he was just saying it to be a ****. I'd arrested him two weeks before for drunk in public and he was now parked behind my marked police car. I turned to walk back to the cruiser to get the restraining order and when I was 1/2 way there he revved the engine and floored it, coming right for me. Because of the steep slopes on both side of the road I had nowhere to go. Without even making a conscious descision to draw I was pointing my SIG P225 at him. In my mind I'd decided to put all eight 9mm rounds into a dinner plate size circle where I thought his head would be (I couldn't see him through the windshield glare).

I was actually moving my finger off the frame and onto the trigger when he burried the brake pedal and the car slid to a stop. I yelled at him. In hindsight it was sort of funny, we're taught to yell, "Sheriff's Office, don't move!"...That wasn't what came to mind so I yelled, "Throw the keys out the window or I'll fill you full of holes!" :D He was shaking like a leaf but did as I suggested. I threw the restraining order through his driver's window. He was still sitting in his car with the keys on the road as I drove off.

In hindsight I probably should have arrested him. :o

PS- Sorry for the necropost but I just found this site and was reading through old posts.
 
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