Every time I see some Iraqi trash firing their ak's full auto into the air I wonder where thoughs bullets are coming down (not that anyone really cares).

When I was a senior in college, I was dating a girl who was from a very small town (population 300). I think there was a total of three cops on the local police force. Well one night, they get a call about a possible prowler at the hardware store. So this officer goes out to investigate. When he arrives at the store, he gets out of his squad car, pulls out his pistol, and starts to look around. He walks around behind the building and finds nothing, so he comes back out front, to the parking lot. When he rounds the corner, he sees someone with a gun inside the store. As turns to face the thief, the punk turns and points his gun at the officer. So the officer fires....and shoots his own reflection in the front window!!! No burglar was ever found.

I think his nickname was Barney Fife from then on.

[ 01-25-2003, 02:37: Message edited by: Billy Buck ]

Wel I really don't want to pick on cops but here goes.
1. the shotguns were carried in an barrel up position mounted to the dash board of the car. The second officer was "playing" with the safety. Well it went off and blew the lights of the top of the car, very noisy indeed.
2. then the shotguns were moved to a barrel down position, about 45 degrees down. Again "playing" with the safety, the gun went off, severing the gas line, had to get a tow, again very noisy.
3. hot call, right handed officer, pulled his gun and grabed the steering wheel, it went off shootng out the windshield. All above in Detroit about 30 years ago.
And yes, it seems that many cops don't know how to shoot or even use their firearms. Seems strange to me that something that you might depend on to save your life you are not familiar with, or proficient with. How many of you ever been to a "police" range and noticed all of the bullet holes in the ceiling or walls, or even the barricades? Had one a few weeks ago with a .40 in it. This is where your hand should go, not the bullet.

my favourite is when my wife and i were at the range shooting our rifles and this guy shows up with a 30-30 lever action Marlin and a box of shells, he pulls out a lifesize poster of a deer and staples it to the target holder at the 50 metre line, he then puts on one of those orange chainsaw hard hats with the ear muffs and screen face shields, stands behind the shooting bench with one leg up on the seat and cranks off 5 rounds one right after another at the deer, he shoots the whole box of twenty shells and then goes down to take a look at the target, there wasn't even one hole in the poster, so i go over to him and i say that i was watching the bullets and there was a really good grouping just about 2 inches off the paper, he said that should be good enough but couldn't adjust the scope because he only had the one box of bullets

Mike, do they (LEOs) actually carry those shotguns in the car mount with a round in the chamber? Sounds like a real bad plan obvious by the stories related...

XWind

A couple of quick ones that come to mind;

Range oficer catches a guy forcing 7mm Rem mag ammo into his 7mm Wby Mark V rifle. Shooter said that Weatherby's ammo was just too expensive.

New shooter buys a 30-30 rifle for deer hunting. He returns a few weeks later and wants something MUCH bigger because he stumbled upon a bear while deer hunting. When asked if he wanted to trade in the 30-30, he stated that he dropped it (loaded)in the woods when he saw the bear and ran away. Doesn't know where he was at the time.

Guy brings a 300mag bolt gun into the gunstore to sell. The salesman looks it over without ever opening the bolt. He raises the rifle to look through the scope and pulls the trigger while it is pointed at an elk head which is mounted high up on the wall. Elk was killed for the second time. Salesman is still looking for work.

Shooter puts an unidentified cartridge into a bolt gun. The bolt is extremely hard to close. Shooter decides that this may not be right and decides to open the stuck bolt. Unable to move the bolt, he bashes it with a piece of 2X4 until the bolt handle breakes off. Gun is still loaded. Even the range officer doesn't know what to do so he throws him out of the range.

A guy is showing off his fathers 38 revolver while sitting in the den. First he opens the cylinder and drops the cartridges out. Without realizing that he only has 5 rounds in his hand he procedes to shoot a hole through the wall, through 4 custom tailored suits and just over the back of their sleeping Irish Setter.

Just a few that came to mind.
VH

Local yokol loaded .223 with Bullsye, using a teaspoon for a measure. Blew the receiver apart an a Ruger Mini 14 on the first shot. Amazingly, he wasn't hurt and Ruger replaced the gun.

I see two old timers (no disrespect intended) at the range. They bring out about $2000.00 worth of S&W stuff. Two 9mms, hats, T-shirts, jackets, ammo, holsters, range bags, you name it. At first I thought they were company reps until.... No ear protection at all and obviously no understanding of what they were up to. I tell them that I'm shooting my .44 mag to their immediate left, and that they might want to put on some ear-muffs about now, because even though I was shooting medium strength handloads there would be plenty of noise. They tell me to go ahead and shoot, they don't need any. They thought that 10ft of seperation between us was enough. The younger one tells me that he doesn't handload because it cost too much! Great!
I couldn't shoot in good concious, so I just watched these two guys. The younger one finally works out how to load and fire his handgun, and I'm moving further back away from them all the time. The older guy has his turn and after much fumbling to get his gun loaded and cocked, proceeds to hold it about 6 inches from his eye, like he's shooting a rifle! No ear protection just like his younger friend. When he finishes he throws his gun down on the steel table like it was a busted hammer. Neither seem interested in seeing where their bullets are going and I'm well back from these guys, by now. After a box of ammo they finish, thank God. They simply round up all their gear into their bags and take off, not checking their guns, everything mixed up like a dogs dinner and both looking kind of unhappy.
I go and inspect their targets that they set up at about 15ft. With 50rds they managed to hit the cardboard backing sheet about 3 times. The targets were well and truly safe.
Now, whoever sold them the cubic yard of S&W stuff should have asked them if they had the first clue as to what they intended to do with it. So there's moron number one. We really need another firearms related tragedy for a media feeding frenzy. Say one of these guys shoots his wife, or grandchild, who knows? That's going to hurt the dealers just as much as us.
I just don't know how guys of their age could have acted so stupidly with firearms, so maybe they were two morons too.
I hate to say that because I was always taught to respect my elders, but this was too much.
Regards, Cheeky.

About 10 years ago while living on the left coast I was out on a nice winter afternoon bass fishing a public pond from the bank. As I had made my way around the pond and was near where I started at (the parking lot) a couple of yokels drive up and park and get out with a shotgun and a box of clays and a hand thrower. I am not sure who was more inexperienced here, the thrower or the shooter, but the thrower proceeds to put a clay in the thrower and pulls back and lets it rip out over the water. BANG BANG goes the shooter and misses cleanly as they have a good laugh. They proceed to load up the gun again and put another clay in the thrower and he rears back to throw it out over the water again but this time he didnt snap it hard enough and the clay stays in the thrower until it had come around just a hair to far and the clay released out in my direction. Low and behold the fellow with the gun follows that clay right across the water and levels off right at me!! BANG BANG!!! I was about 50 yards down the bank from them and was completely stupified that this guy dropped the hammer. Pellets falling all around me I reeled in and put my hands in the air with a good WTF comment leaving my lips. I packed my shit and got out of Dodge before blood was spilled. Fortunately for these two fools breathing is an involutary action because I am positive that if they had to do it on their own they would die.

Mike

I knew this stupid kid who's first gun was a model 42 (410 pump) One day after hunting he dropped the butt down so hard on the porch that the gun discharged removing (destryoing) his hat and just missing his face. One more inch and!!!!! It became a VERY valuable lesson about firearm handling. He grew up and spends lots of time posting on foums now.

Ultraman -

I knew another dumb kid who blew the ass out of the hired mans only sunday-go-to-meeting suit jacket, trying to unload a Model 12 Winchester (with a very worn sear)...fortunately the jacket was hanging on the clothesline at the time.. ...sure wish I could still run that fast...

I think I drank too much! I'm seeing twice!

One year before the opening of deer season, Dad and I were down at one of the local spots shooting a few rounds. Two guys pull up and set up targets and the sleeping bag over the hood routine for their yearly fling fest. I guess they didn't want to walk too much so one fella stayed down at the target, about 10 feet to the side, and let the shooter know where the bullets were hitting the target!! We loaded up and got the hell out of there!

STILL I'M SPEECHLESS........................

In the latest Hodgdon's Reloading Guide, one of the authors relays the story of some guys he knows who reload their 30-06s by dipping their primed brass in a can of H 4831 and filling the case to the rim. They then wipe the excess off to flush with their finger and jam a bullet (slightly compressed, I would guess)into the neck and go hunting.

He said the the last he heard, they were still alive with all the orginal parts still functioning.

I'll have to tell on on myself. Was new to reloading some years ago, decided to load half of a box of 20 shells with cast bullets and light load of Unique, other half with jacketed bullets and normal load of IMR3031. I was using LEE scoops to add the powder (nothing wrong with the scoops, just the way I used them). You can guess what happened - I grabbed the wrong powder jar and managed to load at least one of the jacketed rounds with an overcharge of Unique. Could not lift the bolt after firing, later discoverd that the third lug on the bolt (#4 SMLE) had broken off.

It was an educational experience. Now I never mix loads in a box, and double and triple check every aspect of what I am doing when I load, espcially powder selection and the amount that is being added.

I once worked in a gun shop in Las Vegas, New Mexico. We had tools set up for reloading which we did for some of our customers. There was one local turkey who used to come in alot, and the shop owner let him use the reloading tools to load ammo for himself, including shotshells. The shotshell press was a progressive set up to load 12 Ga. skeet/trap ammo, depending on the size shot you used. It had a preset measure which was set to throw a 3-dram equivalent charge of Red Dot. One day, we heard that this genius had blown up a Marlin 12 Ga. O/U shotgun while testing some of his reloads at the range. A section of the barrel went through his forearm, and he would have bled to death except there were other people there, and one of them stopped the bleeding and took him to the hospital. Another piece of shotgun barrel completely penetrated the hood of a car this guy was standing beside when the gun blew. If it had not been for the heavy breech section on this O/U, he probably would have lost his head! We disassembled the unfired shells he had loaded. Some contained as much as a double charge of powder. Knowing this could not happen if the loading press had not been tampered with, we asked the guy about this. He said he had looked into each shell before seating the wads, and had reached into the powder hopper, got a pinch of powder in his fingers, and added powder to the shells that "didn't look like" they had enough powder in them. He said he had had to add shot to some of the shells also, because they didn't look full enough!! I heard that a year later, he seriously wounded himself by accidentally shooting himself through both lungs with a .22 short from a rifle. He survived this also!!

[QUOTE How in the hell do you accidently shoot yourself in the chest with a RIFLE ?? A pistol I can understand, but a RIFLE? Jeez Louise [/QB][/QUOTE]

Not hard to do if you drop a loaded rifle.

I was in a pick-up truck one time when the driver reached under the seat and pulled out his "NEW" S&W .357. He said, "Check out my new .357, its double action" as he cocked the hammer back...then pulled the trigger and eased the hammer down. I asked him if it was loaded, and he said "Sure". Then he spun it around on his finger like a gunslinger and BOOM! The gun discharged a round. I was in the passenger seat next to him and had no idea where the bullet went. I looked myself over and seemed to be ok, then asked him if he was hit. He said "no....uhhh, maybe, yea, I think so". I looked at his leg and the bullet went right into his thigh. There was a hole the size of a dime through his jeans and a small amount of blood draining from the hole. I asked him if it hurt, and he said it was starting to burn. I told him to pull over, wrapped my shirt around the wound, and took him to the ER. They wouldn't even treat him until they notified the law. The FMJ bullet went through the thigh, just missing the femur bone, and exited the back of his thigh, through the seat, and lodged in the floorboard of his truck. Glad it was he and not I.

I think this one will take the prize for idiots and other morons, and these morons were college-educated soon to-be engineers. Not really a suprise to anyone who has spent much time talking to one. When I was in school at the University of Missouri, I had some friends who were in a Kappa Alpha fraternity. It is a southern fraternity( supposedly sons of Robert E Lee or some such shit). All of their fraternities had a big ceremonial cannon in front of the yard. To celebrate some important event or when really drunk, the cannon would get a shot of black powder and fired- usually at night. At the University of Mo at Rolla, which was largely an engineers school, there was the same fraternity and a similar cannon. While having a social event with one of the sororities, some drunk a-hole wanted to touch off the old cannon-but they were out of black powder. Everyone should guess what comes next- since no black was available, how about we just dump 2lbs of Red Dot down the old cannon. It made a nice loud boom, of course flew apart, killed, I believe only 2 of the sorority girls, injured I don't know how many others.

My brother relayed this true story from Elk hunting last year in Colorado. He ran into two guys hunting. One had shot and wounded an elk that ran over in the vicinity of his buddy. His buddy proceeded to shoot, reload, shoot and reload a total of 8 shots at the wounded elk about 150 yards away (my brother watched this all from about 500 yards away). Between each shot he would stop and "fiddle" with his gun. Finally, he throws his hands in the air - he is out of bullets. His buddy, the original shooter, eventually catches up to him and, after a few shots, puts the animal down for good. My brother couldn't resist meandering by for a visit. The poor shooter looked at his gun saying he didn't know what was up. "I was adjusting the scope between each shot. I don't know why I couldn't hit it".

He ain't all there...is he?

That's the dumb, then there is the fruity. We have two unsociable neighbors up the creek from my folks in CO that love to shoot AT you. In fact, the two of them have had their own old-West style shootout (they got a visit from the Sheriff but "un"fortunately lived). The one has fired "warning" shots in my direction a few times - when I am very far from being on his land. The last time, I was 300+ yards away on a canyon rim when all I heard was bullets literally whizzing past (very close). I don't know how close they have to be to hear them as well as I did, but those weren't "harmless" bluffing shots - not from his distance.

It's great to share the great outdoors with these guys

I have a buddy who upon purchase of a new .357 without a holster would proceed to carry it fully loaded stuck down his pants right behind the belt buckle. We had went coon hunting at night and before we left I said to leave it there. He was so ego happy he carried it anyway. When we got back to the light I seen what he did, I promptly informed him that I told him to NOT carry it. He said, why its my gun. I said yeah but its my hunting place, and we came in my truck, and you are my friend and I don't want an accident happening. He said it can't go off. Well, to this day we haven't went hunting or shooting anymore and as far as I know he still has his "best friend".

My buddy's dad was trying to sell his shotgun one day and the guy came over after we had just got back from a day hunting pheasants. Usually, when he was done shooting he wouldn't unload the gun all the way. He would open the action and take the shell out. Then turn the gun over and dump out the shell that was just released from the mag and stuff it back in. This usually left two shells in the mag and he'd leave the action open. Guy comes over to look at the shotgun and he takes it out of the closet and hands it to the guy with the action open. Guy looks over the gun, closes the action, and pulls the trigger. Click. Buddy's dad takes the shotgun back, racks the slide, points at the ceiling, and pulls the trigger. BOOM. Blows a hole clear through the roof. Guy left and never came back. Buddy's dad patched the ceiling and roof and never told his wife.

Only 64 stories out of about 10,000 members?
Pretty good, wonder if Darwin is commenting
on the gene pool up there...

reloader-1

I know of this gunsmith who works on firearms for the police. His oficer buddy came by one night and dropped off his service weapon to have some work done on it. He received the pistol and set it on the TV stand. Later on the guy was watching TV (you all know where this is going because you do it too) and there came a bad guy on the screne. He was handling the gun, so he cocked the hammer and shot a perfect hole right through his Magnavox. He said he felt real stupid.

I know another fella that was trying to shoot a varmint in the ditch across the hood of a truck. The animal started walking towards the truck so he had to adjust his sight. (The animal was close and he was looking through his scope.) When he pulled the trigger, the animal just sat there looking like nothing happened. It was then he realized that he bagged himself a Ford F250. Not good eatin though. He turned it into insurance.

Actually, I am amazed at the idiots that can't take correction. One day I saw this man shooting a pistol on a clay bird range. It wasn't safe because there was road not too far away. I reminded him there was a road just over there and the guy turns around to draw, like he is going to shoot me. Then some big burly Grizzley Adams looking fella comes out of the woods to have a talk with him. I was thankful.

I thank them every time work on a vehicle.

About 4 years ago I visited a store and range setup in Southern Minnesota.
I walked down to the rifle range and saw something unusual. Their facility was limited to a 20' long and 2' diameter cement sewer pipe. You were to stick the muzzle in the pipe and fire. I guess this was their substitute for a decent backstop.

I saw one guy sitting at the bench, muzzle in pipe and ready to fire. Two of his buddies standing on either side. I already had ear plugs in because I knew I was about to walk into a hot range. None of these three had any hearing protection. You can guess what came next: BAM. Of course the pipe magnified the blast ten times. I asked what they were shooting: a 25-06. I bet this guy won't ever shoot another rifle without a serious flinch.

A retired friend of my Dad's was watching TV one evening. His neighbor, kinda nuts and traded guns constantly, comes over to show him the Model 12 he just knows he needs. First guy says"Don't need one". Second guy proceeds to demonstrate it anyway. While wildly cycling the action, he manages to blow a hole completely through the living room floor. At that, he becomes abjectly apologetic, and moves to the kitchen to unload the gun. While being told to calm down and leave, he then blows a hole through the kitchen floor. His remedy is to give the gun to my Dad's friend in restitution and leave. My Dad's friend ends up standing in the kitchen with a new pump gun he doesn't want and two 6" holes in his floors.

I once saw a knucklehead bending his shotgun barrel to change the point of impact of his shotgun slugs. He was wedging the barrel under one of the benches and putting all of his weight on it to bend it. About three of us that were there packed up and left after telling him to wait until we were gone to finish what he was doing.

I once saw a guy start a straw bale on fire using it as a rest to shoot at a deer. It's hard to check to see if a followup shot is needed while patting out a fire with your hands!

I know somebody that didn't know that a Model 97 pump gun has no disconnector, but he figured it out right quick!! Only took 4 rounds!! I can't seem to remember his name, however.

I was doing fill in Rangemaster duty at the local firing range where I was on the range commitee. All was going well during Hunter sight in day on the Rifle portion of the range. Immediately adjacent to the Rifle ranges 12 firing positions was a pistol range with about 6 firing positions. Th Rifle range was full and the pistol range only had one person on it. I was at the far end of the Rifle firing positions looking down the firing line and all the Rifle shooters toward the lone pistol shooter! I was about 60 feet from him and had been watching the elderly gentleman having trouble adjusting the sights to the proper point of impact on his High Standard automatic pistol. At the commencing of firing after a target change I noticed the gentleman clamping his pistol to a 4"X4" vertical roof support beam. He assumed a stance with his arm around the front of the 4"X4" an was clamping he pistol to the beam with his left hand. I started moving his way to warn him of the dangers involved when he brought his bespectacled face right up to the rear of his pistols action! Apparently to get a good look through his sights! My shouted warning went unheeded and he touched one off! The rearward motion of the pistols action smashed his prescription glasses breaking them and driving the lense into the orbit of his right eye! He dropped his now recharged pistol onto the cement floor luckily it did not discharge again! The man was wearing not only ear muffs but also the small foam ear plugs! Double protection do to all the Big Game Rifles going off. As I administered first aid to him and calming him down he asked me what had happened! I literally had to explain the function of his new to him pistol and the lightning quick rearward movement of the action. I hold myself responsible to a certain extent for not "running and waving my arms" to get his attention for what I thought was about to happen. I thought he was just going to mar the finish on his pistol as the slide moved backwards while being held against the timber! I was wrong.
Lesson learned would be this - if you even think someone is about to do something that might be dangerous interupt that act somehow! Engage them in reasoned talk about their upcoming action or point out directly your concerns.
Luckily this mans eye was not injured just the flesh damages - cuts and a bruise! But I hold myself partly responsible and still feel bad about it 30 years later! There were at least 1 and 1/2 morons on the range that day!
Be safe! Rule #1!
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

My brother in law shows up with a shotgun he had just purchased from the pawn shop. It was some sort of imitation Browning humpback. He told me how pleased he was with it; but he had one problem with it. He tells me that he doesn't like how you have to unload it. The gun was loaded with 00 buck shot. He procedes to lean over the barrel, with the butt of the gun on the floor. He then shoves the reciprocating barrel into the action over and over, cycling the shells in and out of the action while standing over the barrel!!! He cycled it twice before I yelled at him to stop. Scared me to death!!!

I've got two stories, A customer came into my RV store to get his refrigerator fixed. He had a bandage around his head that at first I thought was holding a poultice on his jaw but soon realized it was for his ear. I asked him what happened and he very matter of factly said, I shot myself . When the surprise wore off I asked him "on purpose or by accident"? He replied "Oh it was an accident". Seems he was a commercial mushroom picker and carried his SA Ruger 44mag in a shoulder holster for protection. Some of the mushroom crowd are pretty rough caracters. Anyway his Ruger fell out of the holster while he was bent over and it discharged and blew his ear clean in two. He said when he came to he decided he must rescue himself so he wrapped his head in his long johns and walked out. He said he had a 2 mile walk then a 90 mile drive to the hospital. I asked him if he knew he was only supposed to load 5 rounds in his revolver and leave the hammer on the empty chamber, he said yeah he had heard that somewhere. Then I told him that Ruger would fix the gun so it couldn't do that for free, he said yeah, the sheriff told him that too. When he came in a few days later to pick up the fridge he had the bandage off, he looked just like those cows that have had there ears notched for identification.

The next idiot was at a fishing derby that always ends up being more of a party by nightfall. One year a local mental health advisor brought a 1 inch bore black powder cannon and was blasting loads from the deck of the cabin for the flash/bang effect. When he ran out of lead he used "c" sized batteries, when those ran out he just filled it up with paper wadding and let her rip. I've got to admit it was an impressive display after dark. There was a good backstop as he was shooting into the side of a mountain. But about midnight he thought it would be a good prank to fill the cabin with black powder smoke. He loaded up and aimed the cannon for the entry door. As he touched off a blank load (paper wadding) he had an accomplice kick open the door. Unknown to the idiot there was a fellow guest drawing a beer from the keg just inside the door. He was bent over slightly and the paper caught him down one thigh and in the back of the knee. It tore through his Levis and burned and raspberried the back of his knee pretty bad. After restraining the victum to protect the idiot we escorted said idiot from the premisis and he was never invited back. Drinking and shooting don't mix and "blanks" can be very dangerous. We laugh about it now but it could have been a tragety. Drakeslayer

The black powder cannons reminded me of one other morron that my brother used to run around with. He built us 2 cannons that we fire on 4th of July and News Years Eve. With a good load, they will set off all the car alarms for a good block in each direction.

One New Years Eve my brothers friend wanted him to bring it to his house to shoot it. My brother loaded it with about a half a cup of blasting powder, put a fuse in it , and handed it to his friend to light. His friend said he had changed his mind and didn't want to light it in a neighborhood. My brother told him that it had to be shot because it couldn't be unloaded. His friend said he would light it and my brother and another friend went in to the living room to listen to all the commotion. The guy with the cannon walked in to the living room as soon as my brother had set down on the couch and my brother asked him how far out in the backyard he had put the cannon, he said he hadn't taken it out in the yard, he had just opened the back door and aimed it outside from the kitchen. When it went off, my brother said it felt like the skin was going to be pulled off of his face. They went to the kitchen to inspect the damage. I guess the force of the blast going out the back door had sucked a vacuum in the kitchen because every window had been sucked in and was laying in the floor, the ceiling was sagging down 6 inches, the refrigerator door was sucked open and emptied out, the sheetrock on the walls had been pulled away from the wall studs in places, and the back door was blown off of the hinges. This guy is a pipe fitter and had worked on the construction of nuclear power plants (scary thought).

when I was at the shooting range this past fall some guy in his sixties was not shooting but going around looking for conversation,when he approached me and asked what caliber I was shooting.I noticed the skin around his eyes was stitched forming a circle around each eye.He was talking about a big magnum he once owned-I believe it was a 300Wby and how it kicked awfully hard.I then asked him if the circles around his eyes were caused by his scope and he answered yes.Both? " yes" he said.