I just had a friend shot in the foot over the weekend.
This guy was out with a group of others on horseback when he saw a coyote. He pulled his 30.06 from the saddle scabbard and as he dismounted the horse next to him spooked. This caused his horse to jump and resulted in him falling off one side of the horse and his rifle falling off the other. When the rifle hit the ground, it fired. The bullet hit the horse's hoof and then deflected into my friend's foot.
Besides the obvious stupidity of carrying a round in the chamber while horseback, when they picked up the rifle they noticed that the safety was still on!
The gun is a early 60's model J.C. Higgins bolt gun, but I haven't seen it yet so I don't know who it's manufacturer was.
He has asked me to take it to a gunsmith to get it checked and I'll pick it up tomorrow. Does anyone know who all the manufacturers were for J.C. Higgins during the 60's?

[ 12-02-2003, 03:35: Message edited by: Fjold ]

Fjold, the ones that I have seen were built by FN. Strange accident, hope he is doing well.

I'm curious as to whether it had the original bolt safety, or one of those trigger-locking side types.

Sears marketed J.C. Higgins-branded guns built on FN Mauser, Husqvarna, Sako, and Winchester actions. There's a recent thread on this subject here on AR, so you might do a search.

I think that the early FN's had bolt safeties, so if the safety was still in "safe" position, such a gun could not have fired. Later FN's, of course, had trigger safeties (as did the other actions that J.C. Higgins' were made on other than the Winchesters) so one of them could have discharged due to an impact of the rifle on the ground.

How's the horse doing?

Here ya' go, I just looked down the page and found that thread. Coutesy of RedRider, here's a rundown on J.C. Higgins rifles:

In the EARLY 60s JC Higgins models 50, 51, and 51 Deluxe were FN Mausers. A 51L was a Husqvarna. and a 52 was a Sako.
Barrels are said to have been from High Standard, stocks from an American company, maybe Bishop or Fajen.

In the LATE 60s, a plain Sears 53 was a Winchester 670 and a Ted Williams 53 was a Winchester 70. I think these were all Winchester manufacture, just with Sears or Ted Williams markings.

Best I can tell, they changed sources from FN to Winchester about the time they changed sports department spokesman from JC Higgins (maybe fictional, maybe a company employee, stories differ) to undoubtedly well known Ted Williams.

Thanks guys, I knew that I'd get the information here. My friend's OK and he's not looking to sue anyone or anything, he recognizes that he pulled a bonehead play. I just want the information for my own personal knowledge. It looks like from the X-rays that he has a chunk of bullet jacket in (EDIT) the broken bone in the ball of his foot, but he's actually at work today (he's a plant manager so he rides a desk). The horse had a chunk of hoof blown off but luckily that didn't go up into the hairline so we had the vet clean it and we patched it to keep the junk out and he'll be out for 6 months or so until the hoof grows out but it shouldn't have any permanent damage.

[ 12-02-2003, 07:25: Message edited by: Fjold ]

We would still like the information on the model rifle and if the safety is factory or aftermarket. You should be able to drop a loaded rifle and not have to worry about it going off.

Hello:
I dunno, Kurt. One of the first things I was taught is never trust a safety, on a firearm or anything else It's only a back up to the guy holding the piece. As for just falling, having unfortunatly had some eperience with spooking horses, the piece probably flew some distance and who knows how it landed. As they say, a car is only as safe as the nut behind the wheel. Hell, the French never put safeties on any of their military weapons before they got to automatics.
Grizz

Thank God it wasn't any worse. In this world nothing is safe-not even, oh well enough said. Hell, if you are around guns long enough it is bound to happen. Just keep it points at something that doesn't matter if it gets shot to hell. Good thing your friend can ride a horse because walking will never be the same as it was-but then maybe he had better get another horse because riding probably won't be the same either if lightning goes off, a gun is fired, a tractor backfires etc. Poor horse! At least your friend knows what happened but the horse is still wondering what he did wrong. Pary for good recovery.

That is a hard hit for most rifles to take unless the rifle has a mauser type cocking piece safety and it is engaged I would think a lot of rifles might go off under that kind of hit. This is one reason that we are getting 6lb plus trigger pulls from the factory.

Ok guys I'm looking at the rifle right now and it's a J.C. Higgins model 53L (Husquavarna). The safety is a little slide on the right hand side next to the bolt shroud and with the safety back, the bolt is locked down.
I checked it empty when I picked it up and just verified it, then put the safety on and pulled (hard) on the trigger and the sear did not release.
I then pushed the safety off and the bolt stayed cocked.
I then put the safety back on and bounced the recoil pad on the carpeted floor hard enough for Wifezilla to yell at me for banging on stuff again and the sear did not release.
I'm going to let my gunsmith take it apart and check it out next.

I was just thinking , If it was a fn action and it fired there is no way the safty would be on after the firing pin dropped.
Its a husky though..... I think that safty doesnt block the cocking piece

I don't think that there's anything wrong with the gun. That safety is only designed to keep the sear from being released by a pull of the trigger, which it obviously is doing. The design of that particular safety cannot prevent the sear from dropping due to a severe impact (as will the Mauser-type bolt safety).

The safety mechanisms on guns vary tremendously in their design and function, and there is no industry standard -- in fact, there is no "requirement" that a gun incorporate a safety at all. As other posters have suggested, I use the safety mechanism religeously, but do not "depend" on it in any way: When I climb up or down from a stand, I remove any cartridge from the chamber, and do the same thing when entering an automobile (or at least completely raise the bolt to prevent any chance of accidental discharge).

Since the engagement or particularly the disengagement of the safety is, by necessity, involving the fire control mechanism of the rifle (trigger and/or sear), it is ESPECIALLY important that the muzzle be pointed a safe direction when engaging/disengaging the safety, as the sad owners of a number of Remington 700/721/600 have so abruptly found out .

[ 12-02-2003, 21:05: Message edited by: Stonecreek ]

Some Sear rifles of that period used the FN 400 action which is a Mauser with a side thumb safety. The bottom of the bolt shroud could come in contact with the top of the safety and prevent it from working properly. I had one of these go off when I released the safety once. It was a cusom 300 weatherby and the safety split my right thumb down to the bone. Grinding the right hand bottom of the bolt shroud so it could not contact the safety cured the problem.

As many have said, the best safety is the one standing behind the weapon. It is a mechanical device and anything mechanical can fail.
I have been fortunate, my only A/D was an ancient remington pump 22 my brother found in a barn. I was squirell hunting and saw one, raised the barrel and pushed off the safety and POW !!! Had the barrel been pointed somewhere else it could have been bad.
As a teen we had riding stock and I often carried a rifle saddleback, but my Dad told me to not have a loaded chamber when riding....good advise.

Good luck and good shooting,
Eterry