I wrote about a mistake I made in the thread "Why is this Page so Lame?". In a drive during a deer hunt I hadn't put my shotgun on safe and had a branch enter the triggerguard and a slug went flying off through the woods. I could have killed someone. Maybe others can learn from our mistakes.
Here's one I saw during a high power match a few years ago and it's a doozy. Two brothers were teamed together. One had a new M1A and had sold his brother his old one. The second brother was up to shoot and fired his first round. The rifle exploded with a roar, the barrel flew up in the air did a flip and landed next to the spotter on the grass. The poor shooter stood there with the stock pointing straight up split all the way to the mag box in a Y still against his shoulder. The match was stopped while we pressed a cloth to his forehead to stop the bleeding. All he got was a bad scrape in his forehead, loss of a $1000 rifle and was badly rattled. The gunsmith that built his brother's rifle drove out to visit and figure out what had happened. He found a can of AA#5 on the loading bench. Turned out the poor guy had accidently loaded pistol powder into his rifle, probably about 45 grains or so. Putting the wrong powder into a case haunts me. Do you guys have any of your own to add?

I have done plenty of stupid things, but two stand out to me...

After a day at the range I was putting away my handguns and casually pulled the trigger on my Ruger Mark 2 so that the mainspring wouldn't be stored under pressure and was greated with BANG. A friend of mine, at the range as well that day had fired the pistol some, and had left a round in the chamber. He and I shot together so much, it simply didn't occur to me to check the chamber,as the range rule is no loaded gun on the bench. Guns on the bench must be empty, barrel pointed downrange and action open. He had laid the pistol back in the carry case, I thought nothing of it. I have no fear of insulting anyone about the loaded status of a firearm today, and I always double check. If one gets insulted when I ask, I simply ask them to leave.

The other time, I was thinking of loading up some ammo using Reloder 15. At the time my measure hopper contained 5744. I reached for the Rx15 and emptied the hopper into it.I was mad when I realized what I had done, but I got off easy on what could have been a harsh lesson. In reloading, one cannot focus on two things at once. A moments distraction, or a momentary loss of concentration can spell disaster. Today I always follow the old rule, work only with one powder at a time, and keep the container for that powder on the bench.

I came home from deer hunting late one night, dog tired, left the keys in the car, went into the house and feel asleep after having a drink.At the time I was living in a rural area outside of Grand Junction Colorado. When I woke up the next morning my car was gone and every thing in it and the deer on it. Four days later one of GJs finest called me up and told me my car was found in the parking lot of a local restruant. When I got there I found that all my stuff was still in the car incluing the rifle I forgot to unload. There was one thing missing though, the deer that was on top of the car.LAME???
roger

There are photos in reloading manuals that show loading benches with powder containers on the shelf. I've always wondered about that. It seems to me it would be very easy to mistakenly grab the wrong container. I keep my powders in a different room so that I don't grab the wrong powder by mistake. Believe me I know I could do that.

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When I was 16, several of us were duck hunting in flooded timber near Stuttgart, Arkansas. I took up residence on the edge of a little clearing, and one of my partners was on the opposite side of the clearing, about 20 yards away. Finally, a few ducks swooped down, intending to land in our clearing. I started to swing, and just as I was about to pull the trigger, I realized my gun was pointing directly at my partner -- and his gun was pointed directly at me. Neither of us said anything, but I learned a lesson that day.

I think I made a comment once about what someone else said ....

Need I say more? <VBG >

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" What?? roger

I am VERY aware that I have white plastic jugs of both WC860 and WC680. Both are Ball powders, one of rather finer texture than the other, but similar looking. I've typed the wrong number before on discussions like this. I keep them separated and double check that I've got the right one before loading or dumping powder back. I think if I compressed a case full (80 grains) of WC680 under a 175 grain SP Hornady bullet in 7mm Rem Mag, my M70 would fragment noisily. It makes a nice 2960 FPS load with WC860, however. Going the other way, WC860 instead of WC680, I might get a bullet stuck in the bore of my .45-70 with the 2/3 full sort of loads I use. More likely I'd just get .45 ACP velocities.

A friend, now a gunsmith, shot himself when he was 17. He'd put a rifle down on his bed and gone to the bathroom. When he picked the rifle up he slid it towards him holding the muzzle, he thinks the sheet or blanket caught the trigger and it went off! He searched the room looking for a hole and couldn't find it anywhere. Then he realized his hand felt funny, looked down and there was a hole in the palm of his hand! The .22 bullet had gone up between the bones in his forarm and lodged in his elbow. He can't feel hot or cold in three fingers of the hand and has some tingling. He shows kids the four scars in his forarm where the drs. let the puss ooze out and tells them he was lucky. Kids are pretty impressed!

Seeing as this is cast bullet
I was casting in the garage (well ventilated) I was dropping the wheel weight bullets into a 5lb coffee can of water. Water was a bit too close to the lead pot.
My young lad (about 6 at the time) just outside the door said "what was that"? When he heard the loud pop of steam. I controlled my curses, and peeled the lead off my just hairy enough arms. Damn that hurts!

Got home from work, packed up to get to deer camp. In my upstairs bedroom I got the nightstand gun (.380) out to clear it and put it in the gunsafe. I think I must have racked it, then droped the mag, instead of dropping the mag then racking it, anyways I pointed it in a safe direction (the waterbed) to drop the hammer. Boom! bullet went completely though the water mattress and into the underwear drawer below. I had to drain the bed, clean up the water that was quickly draining into the drawer and onto the floor, I spent hours getting things cleaned up before I could leave. ....Talk about feeling stupid!