ive seen and heard some stupid things, lets tell a few they must be true.

a fellow buy's a custom rifle ,only shoots handloads cause its a wildcat.
apparently the gun has a headspace problem or something cause most rounds wont fire the first time he pulls the trigger but they go off on the second try.
the guy asks " should i prefire them then load them back into the magazine(or chamber) so they will fire the first time i pull the trigger? " now this aint no 12 yr old kid this is an experienced lic. asst bear guide. and has
personally killed at least 500 animals

If your gonna be dumb, you gotta be tough

Here is one .......... When I was liveing at False Island.. A young guy who I knew ,and I were talking about Ruger M77mkII safties.....He like I and alot of other guys around had a 338 in that action.......His was a stainless laminate he had put a leupold scope on it , I think it was a 2-7x vx 2 ..........I told him that as I lived alone I kept my rifles chambered as that was the safest policy for me .........I had them with me 7 days a week and I may need them at any time ..But they were 95% defense and were incedental to my work.. Not the tool of my work...........I prefered the new Ruger as the safty was really that,,, SAFE..........He said the safety on his rifle was too stiff and was concerned he wouldn,t be able to get it off in a time of need ...So what he did was hold the trigger back and lower the bolt on a live round............Then if he needed it , all he had to do was raise and lower the bolt handle and he was in bussiness....................I told him that was very dangerous and may even give him a miss fire ................Being a fairly strong willed young fella ,, he said NOPE ,, Thats the Only way He dd it ....I explaned about how strong the fireing pin spring was and how a jar could set it off .. but he was adamant about how long he had done it that way.............O K >> .......The next winter he and his brother were out where I lived .. They were trapping Martin and Otter.........The brother had a nice 17' Whaler deep vee .....They would run up or down the strait checking and setting traps... One day, my friend ,as he was putting his shotgun back in the gun boat... He carried both his 870 and 338 in ,, simultaineously, discovered for himself ,,,,that I had told him the truth............If you can picture this... He is standing in the bow of the boat ... His brother is backing away from the beach ..The gun boat is standing with the muzzel end between his feet and he is slideing the 870 in what he was hopeing was beside the rifle .. Which has a live round in the chamber and the fireing pin is resting on the primer ....My friend who is weaveing around a little , In the small chop with the boat going backwards , can,t see what is going on in the gun case......The 250 gr Nosler Partition made a nice hole thru the hull ...Whalers will float when they are full of water .........Unfortunately for the uninformed occupants of Boston Whalers that fill up with water .....They usually float keel up.......That didn,t happen to my 2 adventureist friends.......The muzzel blast split a seam on the fuel tank that was just aft of the goings on in the bow.. As I recall one of his Xtra Tuffs got split open and both his feet hurt like heck... Both he and his brother said quite a few bad words once the shock wore off............Its a ways from where they were to where they spending the night .........By going 3/4 throttle or better they could open the plug and keep the water flowing out of the boat.............When I saw them later in the evening he was walking funny and he told me I had been right and that he would learn to use the saftey when he was chambered up..........

Actually,
Lowering the firing pin and lifting the bolt handle to cock it is a pretty widespread practice and quite safe. Done a lot in Africa. It would take a pretty hard blow to the back of the firing pin to set it off. It does not indent the primer and cause a misfire. You just have to be very careful on closing the bolt. Practice a lot lowering on an empty chamber. Many PHs use this practice on their backup rifles for dangerous game. I don't do it, but it is done regularly.

Well known custom rifle maker delivers a 300 Wby bolt gun to a customer. Factory rounds will not chamber. Customer inquires with maker. Maker says that he tight chambers that cartridge to get better accuracy, and he will sell the customer reloads that work in the rifle. Customer sends the rifle back to be rebarreled in 300 win mag.

Capstick describes this form of carry as his choice in Death In The Long Grass.

It's just a dumb thing to do. Fit the right safety on a rifle and it is twice as fast as raising the bolt and cocking the rifle.JMHO

Dittos on firing pin on a primer is a dumb thing to do.

There are alot of unsafe practices that usually don't get folks killed, and a firing pin on a primer is one of them.

Sadly many guides are the absolute last person to ask about guns and gunhandling, as their's are of the worst practices, not the best.

Hunter asks Reloader to load some 150-grain Speer GSs for a 7MM Weatherby... Reloader buys components, picks middle of the load chart data, seats bullets to cannelure and gives three boxes of loaded ammo to Hunter.

Three weeks pass, then Hunter tells Reloader that "those shells were too long. My buddy like to never got the bolt open on his rifle, and when he did, the bullet was stuck in the chamber and we had to drive it out with a cleaning rod." Reloader apologizes and doesn't understand what could have gone wrong...

More time passes. Then, one day, out of the blue, Hunter brings up subject again, and says to Reloader: "About them shells... Why in the world anyone would buy a Weatherby in 7MM Remington Mag is beyond me, but my buddy sure did."

I reloaded some 375 H&H for a guy ....It was a 375 H&H .. I loaded 1 box ,, went from min to max book load........Wrote on the brass w/ sharpy the powder charge .. loaded 5 rounds of each.......Told the guy to go shoot them and pay close attention to how they shot and extracted and to bring me the brass so I could mike it ...I think it was all ok but I will never know .........He later said that they all went off and wondered why I was concerned about it ......His words [those lighter ones went off just as well as the ones you wrote MAX on ] and gave the brass to a friend of his..

A fellow came by the table at a recent gunshow and was telling me about his 270 Weatherby. I told him Iwas not a fan of them and he procededto tell me it "was the flattest shootin' summbitch in the world, hardly any drop..."

I asked how flat and he said "she drops a litlle out to 200yds but after that she flattens right out."

two guys go to the range to sight in a 30-30 neither knows much about how to sight in a rifle.
one guy takes the target downrange and stands beside it and points to the bullet holes while the other guy shoots

Was stationed at Eielson in the 70's and friend and I were out shooting revolvers. He was flinching pretty bad so i asked to see his Ruger 44. I removed 4 of the 6 so he could see how bad he was flinching if the hammer fell on a empty chamber. Two guys walked over and asked what we were doing because they thought we were having mis fires.
I told them why I was doing it and they said it was a great idea. Next one of the guy pulled out his .45 autoloader and removed 5 of the 8 from the magazine and handed it back to his friend telling him he wanted to see if he was flinching too!

quote:

I told them why I was doing it and they said it was a great idea. Next one of the guy pulled out his .45 autoloader and removed 5 of the 8 from the magazine and handed it back to his friend telling him he wanted to see if he was flinching too!

Gentlemen, we have a winner!!

Back when I was in the navy, the torpedo deck had an armed night watch when the ship was tied up to a dock anywhere. The watch was armed with a 45 pistol, and they had a routine to ensure that the chamber was empty, but the magazine was loaded, inserted and ready.

Anyway, I was present when they changed the guard one night, and the new watch promptly went through the routine, but somehow got a round in the chamber, pointed the muzzel at the sky and blasted off a round. Naturally this ratteled him thoroughly - and everyone else too. He went about getting himself together, started over with the routine, and shot another one off toward the sky.

I left the scene at that time, and later heard that they had to find another guy to stand watch that shift.


I witnessed a similar incident as described by Gumboot, but this was with a springfield rifle in 30-06, and the guy wouldn't listen to advice not to lower the firing pin onto a live round in the chamber. He would hold onto the knob on the cocking piece, pull the trigger and lower it to the uncocked position. He always said he had been doing it that way for years, and learned this "safety feature" of the Springfield from his father. The rifle went off, but fortunately no one was hurt.

About two years ago, during deer season, I watched a local woman getting into their truck with her 243 pointed down. Her husband was driving, and she also had her hands full with the children crying, messing around and such. I remember thinking at the time - now there's an accident waiting to happen. You would have to know this woman to fully understand. I walked on down the sidewalk, and soon they drove by, and about fifty feet after passing me, BOOM. I thought at first naw, couldn't be - must have been a backfire. But, the truck weaved about a little, and he finally pulled over to the curb, and everybody piled out, children really screeming. It was quickly evident that no one was hurt and bleeding, but everyone's and especially the children's ears were suffering from the blast.

After a while, they all got back into the truck and drove away. I thought it was somewhat amusing, since no one was hurt, and they obviously needed a lesson. I went down the street, and found the pock mark in the asphalt where the bullet went through the floor board of the truck, which they had borrowed.

Anyway, the rest of the story - the driver was the local guy responsible for hunter safety education. Go figure.

KB

This isnt a rifle related story....but its stupid and it took place in Alaska.

I spent considerable time in my youth on the banks of the Russian river fishing the salmon runs. On one occassion I was fishing next to a tourist who had two reds on his stringer...on his hip. I had only one fish on me. Anyway, a young grizzly wandered out of the brush and ambled down the bank right at us. I dropped my fish on the bank and slowly backed off. This guy drops his fishing pole and grabs his camera and starts snapping pictures while the bear is headed right for him. With those fish still hanging on his hip!!!

quote:

Originally posted by Snowwolfe:
Was stationed at Eielson in the 70's and friend and I were out shooting revolvers. He was flinching pretty bad so i asked to see his Ruger 44. I removed 4 of the 6 so he could see how bad he was flinching if the hammer fell on a empty chamber. Two guys walked over and asked what we were doing because they thought we were having mis fires.
I told them why I was doing it and they said it was a great idea. Next one of the guy pulled out his .45 autoloader and removed 5 of the 8 from the magazine and handed it back to his friend telling him he wanted to see if he was flinching too!

I hope he never plays Russian Roulette with his autoloader.

Way back when I was in the USMC at Camp Lejuene I worked for this goofy Lt. who was the Battalion Intell Officer. Heck of a nice guy, just no common sense. He was the Staff Duty Officer one night and while being relieved the next morning had a "little" mishap with his .45. It was SOP to carry a loaded magazine in the .45, but not chamber a round while on duty. Most people would know to drop the mag, then work the slide and check the chamber before pointing in a safe direction and dropping the hammer. Well, this MIT grad musta not learned anything in OCS. He worked the slide, dropped the magazine, pointed to the side and promptly dropped the hammer on a live round, thus shooting a SSgt. right through the knee. As the SSgt. lay on the floor in pain he cursed the Lt. up one side and down the other.....something like, " I made it through 2 tours in Vietnam without being shot and you shoot me here you dumbass MF!!!!!" Needless to say the Lt's. career was over at that point. The SSgt. eventually returned to duty.

I know a story of stupidity. Thing is it is on me when I was a teenager. About 1996 or 1997 somewhere around in there. Thing about it is I had been hunting for several years already on my on and was real big on safety even then.
I pulled the trigger on my 870 that I thought unloaded and blowed a big hole through the left fender of my buddy's brand new S-10 truck that he had only had for a few weeks.
Talking about feeling like an IDIOT.

30 some yrs ago, three teenagers crusin around in a v.w. fastback, one has got his dad's 357 and a box of shells.now way out on south tongass hwy there is a turnout that overlooks george inlet this is a popular spot to shoot or maybe push an old car over the cliff.
george inlet is deep and s. tongass hwy runs along it for several miles, seperating the road from the water is a steep embankment and beach fringe trees.
on the way to the turnout maybe a hubcap or something along the road catches the lads' attention so they stop for a minute.
now they are only a few hundred yards from the turnout and except for a quirk of fate there is no reason to ever stop at this spot.
before getting back in the car the kid with the gun decides he wants to shoot into the water only about 100 ft below (there is a gap in the trees)six shots as fast as he can pull the trigger---by the time the last shot hits the water the roar of an outboard -- started in gear wide open--- like a bat outa hell this little boat is heading for parts unknown--it was right next to the beach hidden from sight by the trees about 30 feet from where bullets were splashing. nobody got hurt. the boater was probably checking a trapline

If your gonna be dumb , you gotta be tough

Had an elk hunting "expert" tell me one time that he loads his .300 win in this order. First bullet is a 200gr second is a 180 third is a 150 and the fourth is a 120.

That is so if you miss on the first shot and the critter runs off you'll have flatter shooting rounds as the critter gets farther and farther away.

PS

Leaving a “dead†bolted rifle on a live round is right up there with the top ten on the Darwin awards. STUPID! And it’s further proof that P.H.C. was mainly full of shit. Really entertaining well written shit, but shit none the less.

How's about this one. At a particular Naval Shipyard on a particular boat(Sub), topside watch was arguing with another sailor about the 1911 being safe with the slide being pushed back a bit. Said topside watch then proceeds to chamber a round into pistol and pushes the firearm against the palm of his other hand and maybe out of battery of 1/8" or so and pulls the trigger. Guess what? Nice 45 cal wound in palm of left hand. Topside is relieved of duty and mustered out shortly after.

quote:

Originally posted by Doubless:

quote:

I told them why I was doing it and they said it was a great idea. Next one of the guy pulled out his .45 autoloader and removed 5 of the 8 from the magazine and handed it back to his friend telling him he wanted to see if he was flinching too!

Gentlemen, we have a winner!!

That's the best way to play Russian Roulette: Make sure there's nothing in the chamber, close the slide, put in a mag with a single bullet in and pull the trigger
then cycle the slide and hand the gun to the next in line!

at a sullivan arena sportsmans show years ago a guy based out of kodiak was advertising deer hunts off his boat (a big seiner or crabber type)
he reccommended using a 300 to shoot from the boat and to make gut shots as not to spoil meat

One day I was walking thru my parents upstairs bedroom barefoot, and my toes slipped thru a hole in the carpet. I examined further. Pulling the carpet aside, I found myself peering down on my big brother, who was sitting on his bed reading a comic book. I then looked up at the the bedroom ceiling above the hole. Saw a nice pattern of pellets.

I asked my mom, and she said she was in bed the other night and heard a loud boom. She asked my big brother what happened, and he told her he dropped his weight bar while doing curls.

Off to my big brother, who finally admitted his 12 guage was "jammed", and while sitting on his bed, he was trying to clear it...when it went BOOM.

Never told mom, but I am still blackmailing him about it to this day..............

you meet some of the most dumb people in the Army. My ex leaned against the trigger of a mrk19 (fully auto 40mm grenade launcher)and there went 5 rounds followed by 5 explosions. luckily it wasn't facing anyone's truck.

WE have also sent new poeple to the unit on runs looking for:
chem-light batteries
checkered paint
blinker fluid for the trucks

it's pretty funny when you see a soldier trying to hold a garbage bag over the exaust of the running truck after you tell them they need to get an exaust sample.

We also had a soldier that said his 22lr would shoot through thicker steel than a 30-06. this is also the same 20 year old guy that has a 20 million doller dump truck with a 42 cylinder engine that he drove across the US going 120 mph the whole way.

I tried to shoot a mooses antler off with a 38 special lead round nose at point blank. At the shot I had an incredible pain in my upper thigh which I figured was pieces of bone. Lucky for me there were no puncture wounds, just a helluva bruise and a flattened lead nickel at my feet.

Speaking of stupidity - there was this guy once, who got into an argument on the AR forum - - -

quote:

Speaking of stupidity - there was this guy once who got into an argument on the AR forum - - -

Phil Shoemaker

A few yrs ago upon returning from Bristol Bay my wife said a brown bear had been getting braver everynite and coming through before dark. We've lost chickens,goats,smokehouses full of salmon and caribou but we didn't want to lose our prized new pullets . We enjoyed my 1st nite home in a couple months and had a couple of beers but the bear didn't show. My family went to bed at midnite and myself used to be up all summer had a toddy or two?? Sometime later my wife was shaking and yelling (CAN'T YOU HERE THAT) the bugger was in the chicken house raising hell. I was seriously impaired at that point but grabbed a rifle and a maglite and wobbled towards the comotion. It got quiet and as I was about 10yds from the coop I brought up the rifle and turned on the lite. The bear was standing about 5' away with a white chicken in his mouth so i shot and the flames from my muzzle went into his throat just below the chicken. The lite went flying and I scurried to the house for some support and turned the genset on. Once the place was lite up the bear had died instantly and with the bird clenched in his jaws,I had a pic for years but it got wet on the boat as does everything else.

When i was in high school my brother, 2 cousins and I were hunting is the Atchfala Basin in my fathers Willis Jeep. We came to a slough that looked a little deep. I told my cousin to go and walk the slough to check it depth. so he wakled out to the middle it was only thigh deep. So I put the hammer down and headed across, the hood just kept going down. After we swam out of the jeep and to the bank, I realived he was standing on a bridge in thigh deep water. How I didn't shoot the little shit on the five mile walk out, I still don't know.

DR B

When I was in VietNam in '69, many of the US buildings had a bucket of sand outside of the door. As most of us were "locked and loaded" off base, the normal practice before entering a building was to remove the magazine from your weapon, work the slide, then dry fire it into the bucket of sand. Every so often, someone would mix up the sequence and their dry fire "click" was louder than expected.

Jim - So thats where you are supposed to shoot a brownie (just below the chicken) - wish you would have told me that years ago.

IMHO, the definition of "STUPID" is Tim Treadwell. Nuff said. Bear in Fairbanks

Some years ago, a good friend (an experienced shooter and hunter) and I were on the phone talking about a hunt late one evening. His wife came into the bedroom while we were talking and said someone was outside. He put the phone down and picked up his .45 Auto, and I heard him say "Hit the lights" and then "Oh, it's only so and so coming to feed the horses. He's really late." Then he picked up the phone and resumed the conversation. A few moments later, I heard a gunshot. Over the phone, it sounded just like Dillon's .45 on 'Gunsmoke'. Then silence. Rattled, all I could think of to say was, "Tom, what are you shooting at?" Silence "Goddamn, I DID shoot didn't I." Seems his thumb slipped as he was lowering the hammer. The 230 grain hardball went through the bed, ruining a fresh set of flannel sheets and expanded to .90 caliber on the slab underneath. Seems that a lot of ADs are due to shoddy hammerwork.

At Christmas, I gave the happy couple a new set of flannel sheets. On the card I wrote 'Here are some fresh targets."
------------------------------------------------
"Serious rifles have two barrels, everything else just burns gunpowder."

quote:

Originally posted by Bear in Fairbanks:
IMHO, the definition of "STUPID" is Tim Treadwell. Nuff said. Bear in Fairbanks

Well despite the fact that the other autoloader post is deserving of the Darwin award, I'll have to agree with Bear on this one.

Stupid: Number 1 defintion, Tim Treadwell, aka, 1dumsumbitch, poster boy for ultimate moron.

quote:

Originally posted by 458Win:
Speaking of stupidity - there was this guy once, who got into an argument on the AR forum - - -

no they didn't