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thank god it wasnt worse

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recurve shooter:
sup guys. had one heck of an incident today. me, my best friend Ian, and his little cousin loaded up to go to some folks we knows property to shoot some. we had got out to tell the land owners we were there, and were just getting in the truck to drive back to the field to shoot when Blake showed up. Blake is like 24, he's an ex navy rescue swimmer, and he always has some fun firearms to play with. he hopped out with a Llama, a Spanish WWII, 32 semi auto. we checked it out and Ian asked if it shot, and Blake popped off a shot at a stump, then pointed it at the ground to uncock it. i guess the hammer slipped out of his thumb, cuz it went off.

Ian looked at his leg, then looked up, wide eyed, and calmly stated "you just shot me in the leg!" (OK it wasn't exactly calmly) we thought he was messin with us, but that proved to be untrue when we saw the bullet hole in his jeans, which were very quickly turning into red jeans. there was the initial freakout that lasted about ten seconds, then Blake got him layed down and got the bleeding stopped, and 911 was called. by the time the cops got there we were all laughing and making fun of eachother (better than being all up tight right?). I'm sure the cops found that to be a little strange. the ambulance took him to the hospital and we got him checked out.

so here's the summary. the bullet hit the gravel first, because it was pointed down, and ricocheted up into Ian's right leg, about halfway between his ankle and knee in the flesh of the calf to the inside of the bone, and somehow ended up in his heal between the Achilles tendon and the bone. the doctors looked at it and xrayed it and just doped him up, bandaged it, and sent him home.


no one was really at fault, it was just kind of a freak accident. but when something like that happens it kinda makes you realize how easily that bulled could have done ALOT more damage than it did. we just thank god and try to get goofy over here healed up. after all, we never got to shoot the new black powder 44. ;)

Eric Krewson:
My own story of the same type of careless incident.

I was rifle hunting with my 700 Rem on a local mgt area one morning when what I thought was a buck came cruising through the thick stuff about 100 yds away. I would see horns, flip the safety off then not be sure and flip the safety back on. I did this over and over a half a dozen times and finally let the deer walk.

I walked back to camp where everyone gathered in a circle around me to hear my story. My gun had a floor plate release in the trigger guard so I pushed it with my thumb to release my ammo and BOOM. I had lost track of my safety off and on switching and left it off.

The guy in front of me instantly put his hands to his face and had blood coming out between his fingers. The gun discharged into the ground but a ricochet had hit him in the lip. Turned out to be superficial but there is no feeling on earth worse than knowing your carelessness has caused an injury to your friend, my heart felt like it stopped when I saw blood all over his face.

It could have been much, much worse had my gun been elevated even slightly. I haven't walked into camp with a loaded gun since and that was 35 years ago

Ranger B:
I don't mean be controversial but here are my thoughts on the "accident."  In the Army we used to call them "accidental discharges" but after we had enough people shot we began calling them "negligent discharges" and all of them result in an investigation and usually a letter of reprimand follows at a minimum.  We had two Soldiers shot at chow on my first tour to Iraq - folks jumping out of the back of a vehicle with their weapon not on safe.  Shot is shot and dead is dead.  Muzzle awareness is critical. Even when pointing the weapon at the ground you have to make sure it's not in the direction of someone if you are clearing it.  Most ricochets continue in the direction of the muzzle so you can't be too careful.  You're right, you guys were lucky. I would bet your friend is super conscious of the muzzle from now on. If we could only get guys that nervous about the muzzle before it happens to them the first time.

Grunt:
I lived with a rifle for about a year when I was a young man. I slept in the dirt and the rain with it, I carried it every where I went. Always with a round in the chamber. All the people around me did the same thing. We had only one accident where two Jarheads were screwing around and one cut loose a three round burst from a M-14 auto. The Marine hit took a round in the right thigh, and a round that cut his Johnson in half and a round in the left hip. Everybody learned from that screwup. When we were underfire it was common to have to shoot within two or three feet of another grunt. At times we intentionally shot low to use the ricochets to our advantage. Glad your friend wasn't seriously hurt. Treat every gun as if it is loaded with the safety off.

islandpiper:
MUZZLE AWARNESS.........!!!

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