I recently loaned an overseas visitor my O/U on a goose shoot and at the end of the day he returned it with a dent in the rib. After apologising and offering to repair it he explained that he had rested the gun against the framework of the hide to take a pee and that as he climbed back in the gun fell onto the sheet metal ammo box, denting the rib. Any of you ever dropped your prized rifle/ shotgun and what was the damage? Maybe you removed the bolt and it fell to the ground etc. What was the damage?

A friend leaned his $40K Perrazzi shotgun against the rail last year at a sporting clays event. You guessed it - slid down the rail and fell onto the gravel, scratching and denting the stock and forend.

He said a lot of bad words, then went out and shot a 49 of 50, and came back in a better mood! Don't take them for a walk, if you can't risk a nick or scratch.

Brownell's makes a dent remover that worked exceptionally well on my O/U. It fell against the side of a cruiser in Zambia and got a double dent. Just go slow and be patient. Have the culprit send you one!

http://www.brownells.com/.aspx...roduct/VENT_RIB_TOOL

Thanks for the site Dall85. Im not only referring to shotguns but all firearms. I remember too of a chap that rested his prized Sako 75 on top of a camp table. As he went to fetch a pack of smokes from the tent, his jacket caught the butt of the rifle and it fell off, dinging the scope and also leaving a horrible scratch on the stock.

I have a special rifle. In my circles it is known as old black death. If you can see it, this rifle kills it. It has been to Africa more than I have. Someone is asking to us it on a regular basis. I have posted about it before. It is a rem 700 that has been worked over by my riflesmith. Once it started killing, it has never been cleaned, except for a wipeoff now and again. Not even my smith is allowed to clean it. It is a running joke. I leave for Namibia in two days and it is shooting tiny groups.

Anyway, it is scratched and ugly. I dropped it on a whitetail hunt in NY. I dropped it down a gorge on a sheep hunt and used it as a crutch when I broke my ankle on a deer hunt. I have leaned it on my truck as I locked up and had it slide and fall. It has an aftermarket stock that is ugly, but it takes a beating and keeps on ticking. I will try to attach a photo if someone tells me how to do it.

Regards, PG
www.Trolgar.com

Well I will tell you what happened to my rifle when it fell to the ground, a very nice rifle as well,.......at the risk of sounding like a complete idiot. It is quite a long story, so my appologies to those who don't like the read, but the story is the interesting part.

We had been hunting Nyati all morning in Omay south, we kept spooking a group of dugga boys so we decided to give them a rest, and come back in the afternoon. When we got back to the cruiser I had to pee something fierce, you know how it gets woorse the closer you get to being able to finally relieve yourself, trust me it was bad. I stood there waiting to hand the tracker, who was in the back of the truck, my rifle to slide in the case, but he was busy and I was literally leaking in my shorts, I didn't want to lean the rifle up aginst the cruiser and have it slide as someone rocked the truck and fall to the ground.

We had actually parked at a "bus stop" on the main road. A little thached covered L shaped bench. I walked over to the structure to have a safe place to lean my rifle up aginst. Still scurrying to piss, I hastily leaned my 20 year old (at the time) best quality, Grifnee full Purdy type scroll engraved, Marcel Thys sidelock 500 NE double up aginst the post and fumbled to get my equiptment out as I was already starting to pee, my rifle immedieately (thanks to Murphy of course) fell fortunately in the soft tallish grass, but unfortunately directly where I was pissing. I spun around to keep from pissing on my beloved rifle, and finished the task at hand, which took what seemed like 5 minutes of sheer relief.

As I was zipping up my PH hollers at me, jokingly as it has taken soo long, to quit playing with myself and get in the truck, we had a laugh and I turned around and give him the finger while walking to the cruiser.

Back at camp after lunch I was lying down to take a nap and thought I would wipe down my rifle as we had done a lot of crawling trying to get close to the Nyatis that morning and it had also fallen...iN...tHE......GRASS.........OH SHIT!! Panick and a cold sweat were instant. I ran to the cruiser with that, "this cannot be happening" feeling and.....rifle case??? check......rifle??? ohh Eff me!!!.

I got my PH an we blazed a trail back to the bus stop and no rifle.......we looked in all the surrounding bushes, hoping someone found it and didn't want to get caught with it and hid it, but to no avail. The rifle was gone.

That's what happened to my rifle when I let it fall to the ground. This story has more but I don't want to bore everyone unless you guys are interested.....the story actually gets better this is not nearly the end.

ok.....I'll bite, did you find it?

Come on....spit out the rest....

Ouch...!

Part 2

After the 4 of us (PH, myself and trackers) searched the area we left and went back to camp to tell the camp manager what had happened. For those of you that have hunted Omay south, the camp we were in was the one nearest Matsudona park. The dining area overlooks a large open flat that was always full of Impala, warthog and you could always find a bushbuck or two on the edge of the trees directly below the overlook.

After talking to the camp Mgr it was decided we were to go for the police station @ an hour away, to the north I believe, while the camp Mgr and his guys went to a village near the bus stop to question the people about the possible whereabouts of the rifle.

Believe me when I say I am sick by this point, and want to shoot my self in the face for this rediculously careless thing I have done. I had the rifle insured but that was not much comfort, as you all know how insurance works......."you are covered for loss if loss occurs while the southern cross is visable from Texas and only then if it is snowing in Iraq at the same time etc"

We have driven a pretty good while and we reached a large hill, very steep, with a paved road going to the top and at the top is some stores and a small town I believe. We were driving up that hill when a call came over the radio that the rifle had been found. I jumped out of the cruiser and jumped up and down WooHooing like an idiot, I'm sure giving the people walking up that road a frightened view of crazy American hunters.

As we headed back we got the story over the radio......A young guy from the village near the bus stop was out looking for his donkeys and saw our truck at the stop earlier that morning. When he came back by later our truck was gone but he saw my rifle laying there on the ground. He took it off into the bush an hid it because he didn't want to get caught with it but didn't want someone walking down the road to find it and pick it up either.

When I first realized I had left the rifle there and went back to look for it he saw us there at the stop. He ran to get the rifle but when he got back to the stop we were already done looking and were driving away. He hid the rifle again and went back to his village and told his mom where it was hidden in case we came to his village. The camp Mgr found this out when they passed one of the villagers on the road and he told them the story.

We arrived at the village @ 4 PM and the mother sent her other son into the bush to get the rifle. Unfortunately the son who had found the rifle was still having hell with his donkeys and was not around. My PH had @ one million Zim dollars (2004) in his glovebox and I gave it to his mother as thanks.. Ten minutes later a boy comes out of the bush with my rifle. This might have been one of the happiest moments in my life! On top of the fact it was recovered it was unblemished from its day spent as a scavenger hunt prize in the Omay bush.

We had less than 2 hrs until dark but the PH said we were close to where we left the buffalo earlier that morning so we should go have a look, he felt we just might have some luck on our side at that moment. We walked 15 minutes into the bush to where we left them and the spoor there was still very fresh. Within 10 more minutes we took the bull we had hunted all morning. Pretty lucky day.........

The chances of me dropping this rifle again have become quite a bit slimmer since this incident............

Some 20 odd years ago I arrived at our local clay target club and opened up the utility tailgate to get my Miroku O/U shotgun out where I had it lying on a large foam mattress. I was absolutely stunned and mortified to see a car battery (to be used to operate one of the target traps) had tipped over onto the pad and given the gun a good acid wash.

The blue had mostly disappeared off the barrels and the nickel finish on the action was badly discoloured.

There was a drum of rainwater at the club house so I dunked the whole gun in that and gave it a good soaking. Dried off, sprayed with CRC 5.56 and shot a good few rounds of skeet and trap.

Completely stripped the gun down at home and washed everything with mild soda, reblued the barrels, and using fine steel wool and CRC 5.56 polished off the dis-colouring on the action. The action amazingly came up like new and didn't loose any of the nickel or nitride (whatever Miroku uses) coating. The woodwork and oiled finish was not the least affected by the acid or the subsequent dunking and washing. The whole gun was restored and still looks new today.

Was a nightmare to see my beautiful Miroku in that condition on the day but in the end no harm done.

Most of my rifles, handguns and gear looks like I lost a fight with a grizily bear while holding on to them. You want to know why???

Because I USE THEM!!

That said the guns have zero rust, they are all in perfect mechanical order and the bores are 100% clean and I keep the working parts and surfaces lubed.

As said previously, if you cant handle the thought of dinging a gun up then leave it in the safe and take it out to impress guests from time to time. Otherwize use it, they are mechanical not eternal.

Most of my guns look very very used and have multiple dings and bumps, especially the once that I have in mexico , a couple are older than I am and have been hunted hard with thousands of shells through some of the shot guns.......

On another note, I did lean a nice shot gun against the truck, forgot about it and made a u turn on the county road and ended up running over it........ that one needed a new barrel.........

I was expecting Silwane to give us a punch line of seeing a baboon sneaking into the park carrying his rifle. His ending was much better.

A little over a year ago, I was returning back to the house from my range after shooting my 'Leopard Gun.' It is a pre war O/U guild gun in 16/8x57R that spent most of it's life in Africa as a farmers leopard gun. As I walked up the hill, rifle slung on my shoulder, juggling the chronograph in one hand, range box with the other, a bunch of targets with the other, and ammo boxes with the other. I just jumped the little creek in my meadow and the sling swivel that was soldered to the barrel broke free and the rifle bounced on the ground. When I picked it up, the area behind the receiver ahead of the pistol grip was shattered.
A visit with Rich Woodward my gunsmith and application of Mike Dettorre's gunsmith tools and she came home.
I am sure that this rifle had been dropped many times when she lived in Africa. She had accounted for 48 leopards and a bunch of antelope and other vermin back then.
It does happen, if you use your guns.
Bfly

Apparently Purdy's get LOADS of their guns coming back in after having been backed over by a Range Rover.

Silwane, that story nearly made me cry. It had a happy ending though.

Well, if you drop your weapon it costs you 50 pushups!

Any of you guys shoot Trap? In the late seventies and into the eighties the standard middle class Trap shooter wore a black or brown Bob Allen shooting jacket, and shot a Citori. Many of us disabled the ejectors, because any shells that hit the ground then belonged to the Club you were shooting at.
I went to the Mint and shot with Tom Garragus. He owned a gunshop in Nampa then. Anyway, we shoot, have a good time (remind me to tell you about the Toe Sex story sometime), and drive back here late Sunday night. Tuesday morning he calls me. "Got your Citori handy?". Yup. "Get it out of the case and stick it together.". Okay. "Stick a couple snap-caps in and check the triggers.". Okay. Click-Click. "Now, open it up.". Okay, snap-caps fly out. How'd that happen? Hey Tom. He laughs his tail off, and then tells me. "The guy you were in the shoot-off with accidentally grabbed your Citori by mistake. He has been calling people for the last day and a half trying to find it.".

Rich

Do not loan out your guns!

Silwane,

I had a similiar but much less stressful expereince when I laid my rifle down after a kill just at dusk. On the way back to camp in the Eastern Cape the PH Gary Kelly catches a glimps of a mountain reedbuck. We bail out of truck, find the reedbuck, it's a good one and I make a good shot. Since it was geting dark we take a few hurried pix, pick up the reedbuck and set off for camp. Everything is fine until the next AM when I'm getting my gear together. Where is my f---ing rifle? After a few moments of panic I figure it out. The rifle is on the ground near the sight of the reddbuck kill. Sure enough it is right where I left it.

Although my situation was not a severe as yours I can identify with the panic and the "I'm such a dumb ass" feeling.


Mark

The Game wardens in Pennsylvania gave you a ticket for leaning a gun up agaist your vehicle.
Apparently many gun accidents were attributed to this practice. If somebody took off without seeing the gun --- accidental discharges are poossible. They were very strick about this rule back inthe 70s. That is why I was amazed when a compay came out with a magnetic & foam looking strip that you placed on the side of your truck/car to keep the guns from sliding down. I don't know if this is still enforced.

How about a Jeffrey's .500 DR, fall out of the gun rack and have the cruiser drive over it.......... end result? Twisted metal, splintered wood luckily it wasn't mine.

Always, always use two rubbers straps to secure your rifle on the rack in case one breaks!

Mark - I did the same thing in your wonderful state of Wyoming. Problem was I left my rifle sitting in a public land parking lot, directly in the middle of the road, while I was loading my gear, then drove off and forgot it. Came back 4 hrs later and it was still sitting in the exact same spot, wow!!

Aaron,

You are a lucky boy!

Mark

quote:

Originally posted by Aaron Neilson:
Mark - I did the same thing in your wonderful state of Wyoming. Problem was I left my rifle sitting in a public land parking lot, directly in the middle of the road, while I was loading my gear, then drove off and forgot it. Came back 4 hrs later and it was still sitting in the exact same spot, wow!!

Aaron

LUCK-EYEE!!

I was dragging out a nice buck I shot,way back in about 1980.I had my new Ruger 77 flat bolt in 6mm slung over my shoulder.
Upon reaching the road,I stop dragging and went to take the rifle off my shoulder.The sling swivel stud in the forend turned 90 degrees ,and the quick detachable sling ,detached.
The barrel swung down and hit the gravel road,neatly breaking the stock in two at the wrist. I was not happy.

Best was Adrian Carr in Luangwa. He was using his rifle as a pogo stick to get a better look at some buffalo in the long grass. Slipped and the barrel slid up his arse. He asked the tracker to extract it, however the fore sight had pierced his gut and the client had to drive him to hospital.

quote:

Originally posted by silwane:

quote:

Originally posted by Aaron Neilson:
Mark - I did the same thing in your wonderful state of Wyoming. Problem was I left my rifle sitting in a public land parking lot, directly in the middle of the road, while I was loading my gear, then drove off and forgot it. Came back 4 hrs later and it was still sitting in the exact same spot, wow!!

Aaron

LUCK-EYEE!!

Ya, you too! But didn't your gun still have piss on it when you shot the buffalo?????

quote:

Most of my rifles, handguns and gear looks like I lost a fight with a grizily bear while holding on to them. You want to know why???

Because I USE THEM!!

+1

JW

I fell in the mud with my rifle and knocked a tooth out of my top denture along with a very fat lip. No damage to the gun, just muddy as hell.

quote:

Originally posted by eezridr:
Do not loan out your guns!

Amen, never again.

quote:

Originally posted by Aaron Neilson:

quote:

Originally posted by silwane:

quote:

Originally posted by Aaron Neilson:
Mark - I did the same thing in your wonderful state of Wyoming. Problem was I left my rifle sitting in a public land parking lot, directly in the middle of the road, while I was loading my gear, then drove off and forgot it. Came back 4 hrs later and it was still sitting in the exact same spot, wow!!

Aaron

LUCK-EYEE!!

Ya, you too! But didn't your gun still have piss on it when you shot the buffalo?????

You would remember that part....

Well by that time the multiple trips back and forth from its dirt and grass hiding spot...the piss was gone.....I suppose there was still some DNA but the actual piss was just good old Zambezi valley dust!

To be honest when that little guy came out of the bush holding my rifle I think I pissed myself a little again..........and that was ok with me

Silwane - I just wanted to see who was paying attention!!!

Great story, silwane.

You have certainly used up all your lost rifle luck.

I think that if I were you I might keep the thing in my hand on all future hunts.

The "thing" being the rifle, of course.

quote:

What's the damage when you drop your rifle accidentally?

Depends who it is pointed toward when it goes off!

My pop lost a family member many moons ago due to carelessness. He was crossing a fence, leaned his shotgun against the top strand of wire. The gun slipped as he was going over, went off at the exact wrong moment, and killed him dead.

Predictable results and easily preventable negligence. A sling, an empty chamber, a shotgun flat on the ground. Any of these would have probably saved his life but the most difficult to master is this: let a falling gun....fall.

I was on a farm in Manitoba over Thanksgiving week a few years ago hunting whitetail. A cold front had passed, snowed like hell the day before and it was an honest minus twenty F. I had bought a pair of Rocky Boots from Cabelas who promised they were good to minus 125. After sitting in the ground blind for an hour or so, I found the boots to be almost useless and walked back to the farm house before my toes finished freezing.

I have this Browning A Bolt Medallion in 7mm Remmy that I paid $400.00 for at a Miami gun show about twenty years ago. It may not be a Rigby, but I have some really good glass on it and it shoots cloverleafs with anything you put into it. The scope is worth about five times what the rifle is worth.

So I was frozen solid and had slung the rifle over my left shoulder. I was wearing genuine Mountie mittens the guide, a retired Mountie corporal, had loaned me. I was trying to close the gate when the rifle slipped off my shoulder and hit the ground, landing not on the rifle, but on the scope. The ground was hard as concrete.

That ended my hunt with that rifle. Bent the tube. Borrowed a rifle but didn't score. Had a great time, anyway. Saw a young eight point but let him walk because he had a couple of years left to get really Canadian big.

Luckily, Leupold came through with a new scope. Very stupid of me, but events conspired against me, as they often do. I wish it had landed on the rifle. That thing has dings all over it from Africa and Canada and Texas and a few other spots and one more would not have mattered. Live and learn.

BTW, sent the boots back for a refund and bought a pair of boots from Northern Outfitters for Saskatchewan the next year. When they advertise they're good for minus 60F, they're not kidding. Best cold weather gear available anywhere. Period.