Accidents and near misses

[Scotsgun]

At Bisley a few months ago, there was a wierd 'bang' - as everyone looked round, this guys' suppressor was bouncing 50 yds down the range...not sure what happened, but you could see that even his mates were trying not to laugh :lol:

Happens so many times, it's ceased to be funny. Usually the shooter manages to cross the threads and forces the moderator on.

Last summer, during a meeting of the BDS, South West Scotland Branch one guy was so desperate to be 'first' and shoot his new rifle that on first shot the moderator blew off and bounced 30yds down range and he got a massive scope bite above the eye. Stupid fecker later tried to force the moderator back on and continue shooting! Couldn't understand why we wouldn't allow him :G

Spent the rest of the day blaming South Yorkshire Shooting for the barrell screw cut job despite admitting that he'd already passed rounds through it during a zero session.

[Ireland Custom Rifle]

Ive had a few very close ones for sure. Myself and a mate were out shooting bunnies once and doing everything wrong, drive by stuff out the window of the car. Pulled up at field full of rabbits, I was on the drivers side, leaning across the roof to take a shot suddenly just as I pulled the trigger my scope was full of my mates head. I really thought Id blown him away, he pulled his hands around his head and dropped to his knees, it was just fright on his part but it looked from my end that he was actually hit. The bullet took a massive step out of his hair, couldnt have done better with a scissors. Since that very moment Ive taken a a serious approach to everything firearms related. It always happens so simply and impossibly.

[ovenpaa]

A while ago I was shooting on my own and had finished for the day and was packing away, last to go was the rifle and I noticed the bolt was closed which is very odd for me however it was raining. I picked it up, pointed it at the ground a few feet in front and pulled the trigger.....

I have always considered myself to be a very safe shooter so it was a serious wake up call and a mistake I will never repeat.

[Chuck]

At the range office in the MKE factory in Ankara there are several bullet holes in the furniture caused when an old codger (who had never owned gun before) was waiting for his turn with an "instructor" he managed to load his semi auto pistol and squeeze the trigger. The rsulting BANG gave hin such a fright he manged to let off another 6 shots befor he released the trigger....Thankfully no one was hit. As for looking down the barrel, saw a turkish cop do that a couple of years back after a CLICK! it went CLICK again - luckily for him.

[Tower75]

I've had a few.

My first was when I was first starting out, I was about 17 - 18. The rifle was sitting on it's bipod, I chambered a round, then shouldered the rifle (that in itself is bad, as we should all chamber a round with the rifle in our shoulder), as soon as my hand gripped the stock's wrist my finger tightened on the trigger and the rifle went off.

The rifle was pointing down range, but I sent the bullet very, very high into the air. Luckily it was a field-firing range, there was no back-stop.

The other was when I was shooting my Brown Bess musket. I loaded the barrel and primed the pan. The flint was completely dull and wouldn't spark.

I layed the musket down - pointing down range and went to get a spare flint.

But at the firing point I went about changing the flint. Now, for some reason, during this process my brain forgot that I had loaded the barrel.

So, after changing flints I wanted to make sure it would spark, so I cocked and fired it. The barrel obviously went off and sent the ball whizzing down range - the musket was always pointing down range, but it scared the brown out of me.

Once, I was shooting next to a chap who had a Le Matt cap 'n' ball revolver. This guy had a chain fire and three chambers went off. The chamber behind the loading-lever went off. The ball struck the loading-lever, bent it, and the ball shot to the left, hits a wooden post and bounced onto my foot completely spent.

I just looked at the shooter and said "You just shot me you, bast***"

[ovenpaa]

We were shooting next to an RCO one day, I was not paying a huge amount of attention to him as I was doing my own thing however Christel had spoken to him a couple of times and just happened to be looking over when one of the youngsters with him knocked the centre fire rifle they were using which promptly collapsed and went off.

Apparently the very first thing he did was look round to see if his antics had been witnessed and found Christel watching him intently.

[Porcupine]

one of the youngsters with him knocked the centre fire rifle they were using which promptly collapsed and went off.

The rifle collapsed? I've heard bad things about the SA80 but that's a new one :lol:

[ovenpaa]

It was a centre fire rifle .243/.270 ish on a concrete bench, the bipod collapsed/rifle fell over on it's side and went off. Quite why it was loaded and unattended and fell over is beyond me as I missed the event so hard to comment further...

[Porcupine]

It was a centre fire rifle .243/.270 ish on a concrete bench, the bipod collapsed/rifle fell over on it's side and went off. Quite why it was loaded and unattended and fell over is beyond me as I missed the event so hard to comment further...

That makes more sense, I was imagining a rifle receiver imploding in a cloud of dust!

[Blackstuff]

Personally i've only had one slam fire myself (touch wood) and the rifle was shouldered and pointing at my target on a MOD range. I can only assume the firing pin had stuck and hit the primer when i released the bolt as it never did it again.

The worst incident i've seen is on a game shoot where someone who'd never been on one before swung through the line of guns for a follow up shot on an already dead (and crashing) pheasant :roll: The same bloke later shot at a low flying partridge and the pellets tore up the grass not 2ft in front of where i was standing. Needless to say, he didn't get an invite this year :G

Aside from actual discharges i've had closed shotguns pointed at me at a clay ground before, which were almost certainly empty but its still not nice when you're not sure :x