Have you ever been involved in an ND?

General General Discussion
1

The Baldwin event go me to thinking about an ND I witnessed once, which was a good example of what happens when people get lax on safety. I also have a theory that the most dangerous is those new to firearms, and those most experienced who have been around them so much and so long, they have lost their healthy fear and respect for them.

After a day at the range with pals, we where back at one guys house. A true gun guy, did gun smithing, ex SF, small office gun shop (ended by future MA laws), huge collection, BTD with guns and so forth. Very casual with firearms however. Other guy, ex mil, SWAT, gang unit, multiple OIS, etc. Shoot the eye out of moving bird level shooter. Guns used for the day on the range on a table, maybe 6-8 of them.

I’m sitting there reading a gun rag. I’m not paying close attention, but I hear something like “is that one clear” followed by “yes” then BOOM! Went off close enough to me that the blast wave made the pages of the mag move, so a few ft at most.

I lower the gun rag to see WTF? Instead of clearing the weapon himself, he points gun in safe direction and pulls trigger just to make sure. Bullet goes through file cabinet, wall, and into the grill of his wifes new car in the garage…

“WTF, you said it was clear!”

“No you A hole, I meant that one was clear, not all of them!”

And so that went. Then his wife comes running in, and she is pissed. She is already not happy with the in house gun store gig, he drinks a lot, has several small kids in the house, and now someone shot her new car.

Me and buddy get out of their and leave him to his fate, and it was not pretty. They did end up divorces not that long after, I’m sure that didn’t help. Me, I was just happy no one harmed, at least one level of check happened, and had the bullet not hot her car, would have gone out into the street.

It also learned me that even highly experienced gun guys, due to simply miscommunication, lowering their guard due to perhaps over confidence, and such, could result in an ND.

It was big time reminder not to lose healthy respect of the golden laws of gun safety, and always check for myself the status of a gun no matter what someone else says.

That’s my most notable ND story. What you got?

2

I was in a training course in day three. I sweaty and it was hot and humid. Instructor advised me to manually decock my Shadow 2 and continued to talk to me from behind me while I was decocking. It slipped out of my sweaty hands and it fired into the berm just a few inches from the target I’d been firing at.

I should have asked him to wait or tuned him out while I set the hammer down and simply asked him to repeat himself. Obviously, all four rules were followed and there were no injuries.

Another time I had a hang-fired I left the rifle on target for about two seconds before it fired. It was strange because it was a modern bolt-action rifle.

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3

Ha, go to the NRA HQ range the weekend of a Nations Gun Show. You’ll lose count.

4

I had it happen once in my younger days. I was letting the hammer down on a loaded Taurus PT92. I didn’t have as much of a purchase on the hammer as I thought and it got away from me. Boom! One in the dirt about two feet in front of me. I know the term AD has fallen out of favor and I agree with the reasons for the most part, but I would call mine an “accidental” discharge.

5

Yeah, a few weeks ago.

I’m still embarrassed and ashamed.

I was going to show a friend the new optics I had just installed on my AR. As I remove it from the case I see it has a mag inserted.
I don’t know why but instead of dropping the mag out I pulled the bolt back to check the chamber. The bolt picks up a round but doesn’t completely chamber it.

So I point the rifle towards the wall to drop the mag and clear the chamber. As I drop the mag my middle finger landed on the trigger, putting a round through the wall of my shop, upwards at about a 45* angle.

I hand the now cleared rifle to my friend and go outside to see how bad the damage is, and where the bullet may have gone. There was a quarter sized hole in the siding and tree limbs that the bullet would have gone through.
My friend commented that it would have lost velocity and been deformed from the wall, I don’t think it went far, or had much velocity when it came down. I’ve heard nothing in the news about any mysterious damage.

I am prepared to hand the rifle and mag of ammo over to the Sherriff if anything comes up.

That night I grab a book to check my procedure and see what I did wrong.

I was a little rushed, excited and going on muscle memory.
The next day I loaded a mag with snap caps to go over what I had done. As I held the rifle by the pistol grip with my right hand, with my left prepared to catch the mag, I lose control of the rifle when my trigger finger tries to push the mag release.

I have had tendonitis in my right arm for a couple months and my forearm and hand don’t have the strength that I am used to.
I’m not blaming it for my ND, I should have realized things weren’t right with my grip.
I should have slowed down and gripped the rifle in a different manner so as to maintain control.

I have never liked the bolt lock on the AR, it is not convenient to engage so I never practiced engaging it, I had no muscle memory for that function.

I’m not sure what’s next for me as far as fire arms. Due to the price of ammo I haven’t been shooting. I may stick to bolt guns, or I may pick up my AR if my tendonitis ever gets better.

The main reason I’m telling my story is to prevent someone else from doing the same thing. A little thing like an injured arm or hand will let you down when relying on muscle memory.

6

Shot myself in the ass with an airsoft pistol back in college while trying out the Hickock Cavalry Draw. (Strong side, butt forward.)

7

Embarrassed to admit it happened not long after I got out of the Army no less, albeit with a different weapon.

Fall of 1987. Lived with the ex at her mom’s house after I ETS’d that summer. My grandfather had bought me an M1 Garand as a gift. It was a Friday or Saturday night and we were getting ready to go out partying. Ex was in the bathroom doing her hair (back when chicks actually did their hair!). I was in the bedroom finger-fvcking the M1. Then I loaded a full clip into it. Finger off trigger and all that. I decided to go ahead and unload it and started counting the rounds as they ejected onto the bed. For some reason when the clip popped out I didn’t bother to rack it one more time to visually check the chamber. I was turning to put it in the box and I always (still do) store my weapons with the trigger pulled so no long-term spring issues. It was pointed upwards (thank God) as I turned and pulled the trigger…BOOM! Now I was sitting on the edge of the bed and only had on an old pair of Army PT shorts, no underwear. The hot brass rolled down my thigh into the leg opening and left a blister on my dick! Of course instantly I couldn’t hear anything but a loud REEEEEE (I mean hey, I touched off a 30.06 in a friggin’ bedroom!). Smoke in there like I was on a range. Apparently the ex heard the shot (no shit) and called my name, but of course all I hear is REEEEEE so I didn’t answer. Thinking I had offed myself she runs down the hall and flings open the bedroom door as I, now standing due to my burnt pecker, have a stunned look on my face and shrugging like “WTF just happened?” I could see her mouth start running and I’m 100% sure she was bitching at me but all I could hear was REEEEEE.

Now that 30.06 black-tip AP round easily punched through the ceiling and sailed on out the roof. Fortunately the ex-MIL wasn’t home that night. Ended up taking a little toothpaste and covered the hole in the ceiling. On the roof however, had to tear a piece of shingle from an edge and slip it over that hole, which was a little larger.

I learned a valuable lesson and have never had a ND since…and don’t plan on it either!

8

So far, no. But been present for many.

There would have been a couple IF the firearm just happened to be actually loaded.

One guy handed me his custom tuned .005 lb trigger and while looking through the scope I barely touched it and dropped a hammer.

Another was a S&W revolver where the trigger had been “lightened” and while I intended to pull the trigger because I was trying it out, I didn’t intend for the trigger to break quite so soon.

9

I was young & driving on the way to the stand w/ Dad & he asked me to check the chamber…it was my first deer rifle & one of the older 700’s that had to be on fire to open the bolt. I flicked & kaboom!!

Let me tell you, a 6mm Rem inside a closed vehicle is LOUD…I started screaming thinking I blew my foot off.

There was powder blast over the top of the boot & the bullet creased the leather & put a half moon bite of the edge of the sole, then through the floorboard & took out the tire.

Dad blames the gun, but I’m not so sure I didn’t have some blame…I never could get it to duplicate. That 76 Blazer ended up being my first vehicle & the rem is now a custom 6BR.

Only other to be part of was at gun show when some idiot brought a loaded pistol & shot the front glass door when clearing…the whole civic center went dead quiet for about 10 seconds.

10

I was shooting IDPA and a guy hit a patch of loose gravel during a reload, he slipped, so did his pistol, now the mad scramble he made to retain the pistol, nearly got him shot in the head.

11

Never had a ND, but I did point an empty rifle downrange when a guy was down there. I didn’t see him until he came back and tore me a new one. That was embarrassing.

12

i had had 2, the first was with a full auto open bolt mini Uzi. I was teaching an anti terror course to an international class. Racked the bolt back to show the class how to shoot the course. My luck was it was being videoed, so rack the bolt back trigger finger is on the frame above the trigger guard and the gun rips off full out till it ran out of the rounds in the mag.

Second was a sensitive primer that went off when I closed the cylinder on a revolver. Cylinder thumps into place and bang.

Both time muzzle was in safe direction.

Guns are mechanical things and can break or malfunction.

13

Thankfully not a ND, but I’ve had my AR double tap on me while shooting from the bench at the range. (Range was hot at the time). Haven’t quite figured it out yet, but I’m thinking I had a shitty grip.

14

Are Uzi’s known for that issue? That could ruin your whole day.

15

I’m an idiot, so two here, one in my basement and the other in a field.

In both instances the guns were pointed in a safe direction and no harm was done, except for my pride.

First one was Walther P22 that malfunctioned at the range. I put it back in my bag and left. Several hours later while starting to take it apart to clean. I was having difficulty disassembling. I forget the exact sequence of events but for some reason I thought I would try dropping the hammer to get it apart.

The P22 is one of those pistols where you need the magazine inserted to pull the trigger. So I inserted a magazine and pulled the slide back to visually check clear. Well having just returned from the range I knew the magazine was empty. It was not empty and I have no idea why I didn’t notice the round in the magazine when inserted.

Well as you can guess, when I racked the slide, saw clear, I unknowingly chambered a round. I shot the corner wall in my basement when I pulled the trigger to drop the hammer. I must have been focused on the issue I was having getting it apart to clean. Regardless, it scared the crap out of me and shouldn’t have happened.

Second was a buddies .308 Tika. He had just left his deer blind and I took his gun to help as he was taking care of all the crap he had in his blind. I couldn’t get the magazine out as my hands were freezing cold so I started racking shells out of the gun and counted as I racked them out.

What I didn’t consider is he was rolling hot with a round chambered and I counted wrong. When I dropped the hammer, after thinking I cleared the rifle, there was a round in the chamber. We were bullshitting, I was over confident and not paying enough attention to what I was doing.

The gun was pointed away from the four people standing there and it went harmlessly into the woods. It shouldn’t have happened and I got shit from everyone, including the owner as he was especially pissed he’d now be forced to clean his previously clean barrel.

I don’t clear other peoples rifles for them anymore and I don’t buy pistols with magazine interlocks.

Bottom line in both scenarios is to pay the F attention and focus on what you are doing. I’m staring at the little dimple in my basement wall as I type this on my phone.

16

I have seen so many as a CRSO over the years prior to, military and civilian. My first I was 10 years old hunting, the Winchester 94 hammer slipped as I attempted to half cock it. It was cold and I couldn’t feel my fingers much. I was doing what my father taught me and was pointing the muzzle at the base of a tree trunk and it caught the 44 mag. It was a good lesson in the fundamentals.

17

No, but I did watch someone fall asleep and ND a quick burst of blanks with a SAW and immediately yell “TEST FIRE”.

18

Been shooting since I was 13 and now 77. Never had one, luck or careful, can’t say. Have been in the presence of a couple.

19

Not really and that ratcheting top cover has saved more than one person. But I’ve seen a few M-10s runaway when the disconnector failed.

20

I had a 1911A1 that went full auto when it was factory new. But it came out of it.