OH S#!% moment

Oh shit moment for me was a young girl retrieving a handgun from back of truck. She turned & gun went off behind me. This was about 2 ft above my head. Lucky for me I was sitting at bench & not standing!

 

That's pretty much the gun story version of, "I walked on the moon." Crazy, man. That could have been a lot worse.

 

Durn Tootin', man. I still remember that day like it was yesterday. The doctor was just amazed that the bullet hadn't hit anything vital and did the geometry based on about how far away the guy was when the gun went off. Just complete and utter dumb luck that it went off at the angle it did and hit me in the lower leg instead of..well..ANYWHERE else. I'm thankful to have been able to leave the hospital the next morning as opposed to having an extended stay or a trip somewhere else.

 

I was shooting with @cgnsa and on the opposite far side was a conceal carry class and we were free to shoot on our side. Both side fired a couple rounds of shots and there's this really big round guy 300-400 lbs (no offense intended) and he stands up and the instructor says fire 'x' number of rounds and stop. They do and the big guy falls backwards with his gun in hand and everybody hits the ground. Lucky no shots have gone off and he was okay.

 

Good times.

 

If the hook is large enough (I.E. it's a tight fit in the hole on the target) if the hook leans forward the target will also lean.

 

Same thing here, and about the same age, over 50 years ago. It happened in my parents' house, but they weren't home so I was able to cover it up.

I still think about it quite a bit too.

 

Not mine but Brother in Law was cleaning his Glock and pulled the trigger. Gun went off and the bullet barely missed his Son in Laws head. The bullet went through the wall and landed on Garage roof. The House was full of people. His grandson and Wife and Kids have never gone back to visit since it happened.

 

I had a guy at the range want to shoot my .22 auto pistol when I was ~16 years old--1986. He fired a couple rounds then turned to me with the pistol pointed up, finger on trigger. Pop! Right thru the roof of the covered range area. I have my own range now and haven't been to a public one in >20years.

 

A few of years ago up north, been out hunting, and saw nothing, freezing my arse off, got gloves on and walking back through some deep snow, come up on a fence sort of just under the snow and as I climbed over it and I got snagged and over I went, rifle was point down and bang off it goes, scared the crap out of me and when I looked at why in hell did that happen, I realized that I didn't have the safety all the way back, like I thought I had because I assumed and couldn't feel the click with my gloves on. In all my years, never ever have I had anything even remotely close this moment of total stupidity. I tell ya, it didn't seem as cold after that for a while. Got back to my truck, started it up and thought about how that could of really gone wrong and I was by myself... Sometimes getting older doesn't necessarily mean smarter...

 

I got one. When I first started carrying I went to a range and decided to shoot my XD40. For those unfamiliar there are safeties built into the rear of the handle, sort of like a Colt. Well, I'm shooting my rounds and the darn thing didn't fire. The slide was still forward like it was in battery and I thought I had a bad round. I pointed it up towards the ceiling of the range and pulled the trigger. B-A-N-G.
To this day, I don't know WHY it happened, but I know what happened after that. I put the weapon down, unloaded it and went home. Sold that gun later that month, never trusted it after that.

I learned the lesson, all it takes is a moment's carelessness. Hope this helps someone. I still squirm thinking about that breeze that blew by me. I felt that.

 

I spent two years of my last enlistment as a TTECG Coyote so I have seen about everything. Boots and Pogs would pop frags on me all the time and drop them at there feet or would throw them without popping the thumb clip. Had arti simulators go off right beside me. Negligent discharges with every small arms weapon you can think of while I was controlling ranges. Been about taken out by AT4's, Smaw rounds. Had a mortar crew go active with 81's one time when we were down range checking for un-exploded ordinance. Was lead trace on the DAC on P5 when arti fired on the wrong target group that I had already shut down because we had busted the min safe line. I was sitting in a soft skinned HUMVEE with an AAV right beside me. Only thing that saved my ass was the armored AAV was between the impact and my truck. Still got some holes in the truck though. Hell we had a pilot drop a 500lb bomb on the wrong target one time and it blew up within 100m of us but thankfully we had some cover. Those are just times outside of combat in Afghanistan and Iraq. I tend to be pretty calm now as not much surprises me.

The one that stands out the most was some PFC that popped the thumb clip and pulled the pin on a frag while he was on his knees in the pit before making entry into trench 2 on range 410A. He strait dropped it between his legs and looked strait at me as if we were both going to die and he had accepted it. As I was taking my last step over the wall I reached down and got two fingers on his flak jacket strap and that I guess was just enough of a tug to make it click in his mind that he needed to be heading out with me. The frag detonated just as his legs were clearing the wall so he took a little shrapnel but nothing to bad. I seldom took my kevlar off and hit a younger Marine with it on theirs while they were wearing it (this is known as turtle F'ing) but on that occasion it was warranted.

On my last deployment in Iraq I was the squad leader for the security detachment for the Navy EOD unit working out of Haditha dam. One of the squads from my battalion showed up in the middle of the night at my berthing area to give me what they thought might be an IED. These dipshits found an IED out on patrol and then picked it up, brought in back inside the wire, inside of a hydro electric dam and handed it to me. It was in fact a live IED and here I was in my berthing area with some dumb ass LCpl holding an IED in the doorway. That was a bit of an o'shit moment. We found that one battery was installed incorrectly on the detonator and that is the only reason it had not gone off. Sometimes it's better to be lucky I guess.

Another time I had a buddy of mine that was struggling with PTSD back here in the states and always carried a loaded XD40 (firearms and PTSD are not a good combo). We were at a farewell party for one of the guys that did not know him well and he (my buddy) was getting pretty drunk. He ended up passing out. I discovered him in a back room of the house that was hosting the party. Just knowing him and how he was I thought I better unload that pistol I am sure he has on him. I myself being drunk can't even fathom what made me think that but I guess it was a moment of clarity. I reached under him and sure enough found his XD in his waste band, I dropped the mag and shucked the round out of the chamber and stuck the pistol back under him. Threw the mag in my pocket and continued to party. A couple hours passed and I heard a commotion in the back of the house so of course we went back there. I walked into the room to find my buddy sitting on the floor looking at the pistol and a kid we didn't know white as a ghost on his knees next to him. I guess it turns out that they were back there F'ing with my buddy because he had passed out when he came to life, pulled the pistol from under him. Stuck it to the guys forehead and pulled the trigger before he had realised where he even was. After he regained his surroundings he was looking at the gun like holy shit how did that not go off and how did I not just kill that guy. The next day when I got to work I handed him his mag back and stressed that he really needed to stop carrying that pistol and should probably start taking his meds.

I have lots of stories of weapons malfunctions and operator malfunctions alike. Those are always a lot of fun.

Of course there were several other instances both in combat and while training that ended with much worse results and repercussions but I try to mostly put those things out of my mind nowadays.

 

Buddy of mine's dad was an immigrant from Poland, nationalized probably in the 50's, and made it into the Green Berets. Some time in the 80's, retired, moved to our town and set up a liquor shop. FFWD to the early 2000's, and his son and I are working in that shop on the weekends while in college so his mom wasn't up there at night. His dad had passed away, but his .38 is still under the register. Never taught his son how to shoot it/handle it properly. My buddy is not a showboat or irresponsible guy, just hadn't handled firearms much.

I'm over in the corner of the place about 25 feet away working on my buddy's mountain bike cause we were riding the next morning.

Unexpectedly I hear "POP!THWACK!" and turn around to see my buddy staring at the .38 in his hand, barrel in my general direction, and notice some white powder settling next to my left leg.

I walk over, take the gun, unload it, and get him to settle the F down. I'm now in "Let's figure out where the round went so your mom doesn't find it, and so we can fix anything that's FUBAR" mode.

We're walking all over that end of the store and can't find anything. Finally I remember the powder, walk over and look at shelf behind where I had been wrenching. There's a big jug of cleaning powder with a brand new .38 sized hole in it, and the bullet lodged in the shelf behind it. Problem is, the only way that the hole goes in the angle that it did, is if I had turned around and shot from where I had been sitting. My buddy had been 25 feet away, and the pistol was pointed vaguely parallel to that wall.

I stand up, look to my left and see 2 kegs of Shiner Bock that had been returned earlier that night. They had been stacked behind me, and sure enough there's now a brand new crease in one that would have bounced the round over toward the shelf. The crease was about waist high standing, but I had been crouched right on the other side of those kegs.

To this day, I'm still a big fan of Shiner beer.

 

I'm a firearms instructor. I teach both in-service officers and cadets. Cadets pull some pretty dumb stuff, but the biggest oh shit moment was during an advanced course teaching officer down recovery to in-service officers. Students were working in groups of 4, directed firing at a door frame to provide cover while they advanced on a medical mannequin that bleeds, needs CPR, etc. We had two firearms instructors on the group, including myself and another instructor, and additionally an EMT instructor who would give prompts on how to treat the simulated injured officer. When running through with one of the groups, we reached the mannequin and the person who is supposed to grab it decides, instead of keeping a master grip with the rifle and grab one shoulder while his partner grabs the other, to sling his rifle over his shoulder. instead For safety reasons we did not teach this technique, and specifically said don't do this on the range. I had one hand on each shoulder of the other two students to keep the firing line even and just stood there, eyes wide as the barrel of a loaded AR-15 without the safety on is coming toward my face. Just a little past the vertical point, a hand from behind me shoots over my shoulder, grabs the hot barrel of the rifle that had just been mag-dumping, and pushes it back down. It was the EMT instructor who saw it happening and had a free hand to react. Fortunately his hand didn't get hurt, but he thinks all of us firearms instructors are crazy now and refuses to come to advanced live-fire training with us anymore.

 

My dad and his older brother back in the late 80's had just got done hunting and my uncle was taking him back to school in my grandpas farm truck. (An old Toyota in fact) My dad was driving and my uncle had his rifle in the passenger foot well with himself and something caused the rifle to go off and shot a round right through the floor of the truck. They slid the floor mat over the hole and my grandpa was none the wiser

 

I "shot" myself once at a USPSA match. Didn't quite clear one of the thick plastic water barrels with the muzzle on a really stretched out corner barricade. Shot through the barrel, and the bullet whizzed around the inside a few dozen times. It then exited a fist sized hole where a bunch of other people had done a similar thing over the years on the other side of the barrel and hit me right in the sternum,going about as fast as you could toss a piece of gravel, just enough for me to notice. RSO and I just stared at each other for a while, admitted that's the first time we'd ever seen that happen. We agreed it was probably a match DQ, even for a freak incident, but whatever. They let me shoot the rest of the stages unscored since it was a local match, and we finished the day with a story to tell.

 

I shoot action pistol every week and I swear I catch lead splatter every damn time we use metal targets on a stage. First few times it happend it was unnerving. Now it's just normal.

 

The constant battle of teaching Mess Cooks and Disbursing Clerks how to handle a service weapon for ship's self defense force. They shoot stations, rain scuppers, nonskid ...... everything but the man sized silhouette that is 7 yards in front of them. And let me tell you there is nothing worse than a person with a gun that is afraid of the noise. Time and time again, they will prove our military small arms are drop safe.

 

My crazy oh sh*t moment was overhearing the range masters walkie talkie say "fatal shooting at gun/shotgun range". Some homer (by himself) rented a 10mm and off'd himself right on the line.

 

Lotta gun ranges wont rent handguns to single first time walk-ins for exactly that reason.