Wrong Ammo

[Rich Coyle]

Wrenches,

In 1962 I was quail hunting. There were patches of snow on the ground where I slipped in one and fell. All the racket flushed a covey. I jumped up and fired my Remington 870 which was lounder than anything I ever heard before. I looked at the action first and then followed up the barrel. A piece of the muzzle about the size of a dime was gone. My friend came over to see what happened. In all the excitement I didn't realize the piece of muzzle cut a straight line in the skin above my right ear for a couple inches.

We went back to the house where I hacksawed off about an inch and a half and went back to quail hunting.

 

[john k]

I handload for 243 and 7-08. Needless to say how focused I need to be at all phases. Fortunately no mishaps but several years ago I had an accidental discharge while cleaning my Colt Double Eagle .45 cal. My two young children at the time were in the house. I was watching TV which is a big red flag. Thru proper instruction I always have the barrel pointed in a safe direction. I was humbled, scared, and thankful to God no one was harmed. My father was very strict in teaching me gun safety and the handling of firearms. I carried a shotgun for a year unloaded to prove I was ready. I thought there was no way for an accident like that to was going to occur to me. I will NEVER forget! Thanks and stay safe

 

[JMW67]

I have yet to make this mistake not saying I wont make it. I did take a buddy to the range to sight in his new 243 for hunting season after some shoot and clean break in he proceeded to try shooting some groups he had 3 different brands of ammo first group about 1 moa at 100 2nd brand a nice tight clover leaf he then went to the 3rd brand first shot no problem 2nd shot I noticed it did not sound right by the time I walked back to him he was loading the 3rd round I stopped him and told him it sounded funny he unloaded the round I took the bolt out and looked through the barrel and you guessed it no daylight the second round must not have had powder in it could have been ugly I could not believe he did not notice the lack of recoil but he didnt

 

[javman]

After reading another post today about the mistake made in calibers after being told it was one caliber and finding out it was a 243 and lucking out and not getting hurt I decided to share one myself. I have been loading for almost 50 years & never had anything go wrong until about five years ago when I was the lucky one, i was out shooting the 1000 yard steel at our range with my 300 win and my 7mm STW and not having a very good shoot and was about ready to call it a day. I decided to take one more shot with the STW and unknowingly chambered a 300 win, when I squeezed off the round I got a little hot gas back in my face and knowing right away something was very wrong. The rifle spit the 30 caliber bullet out but the bolt was welded closed,I took it to a gun smith and we tried to remove the barrel on the Remington 700 and ended up having to cut it off needless to say the rifle was a total loss except for salvaging the the Timney trigger. So the comment someone made about only shooting one rifle at a time is true at least for me, I learned a cheap lesson in only losing a rifle and not being hurt. I now only have one rifle at a time out at the bench or two that are very different calibers

Samething happened to a good friend. Savage 25-06, accidentally chambered a 308. Bullet squeezed out the barrel but bolt was welded shut. He called Savage and they asked to ship the rifle and he could choose anyone in whatever caliber. They wanted the rifle to show how strong their actions are.

 

[memtb]

I, like many of you, have "color coded" boxes! But, different colors can't fix stupid! I probably had several things on my mind....being distracted can be a very dangerous thing! memtb

 

[Calvin45]

So, about a thousand years ago I was in junior high school. Dad always had the firearms stored in an older style wall rack where unlocking the ammo drawer allowed you to remove stuff from the rack. As a kid at that age I naturally knew where he stored the key. When the folks weren't around I would unlock everything and do a variety of really stupid stuff that a junior high schooler thinks is okay.

Like purposely trying to chamber the wrong caliber cartridge just to see if it was possible to close the breech.

REALLY? D*** STUPID !@#$ KID!!!!

In spite of my very best efforts, no negligent discharge occurred.

Fast forward a few decades. Married, a number of young children have somehow shown up. Thinking back on what I had done all those years before and how I would react to such moronic behavior on the part of MY children.....I confessed to Dad what I had done all those years before.

Oh Boy.

Didn't go well.....and I still received the chewing out I had so richly earned those many years before.

Yeah there's some things you can't confess to until a certain statute of limitations is up...and I feel some of my teenage stupidity will never seem so far behind me as to have reached that point haha. By the grace of God or good luck or whatever you choose to believe in, I'm still here unscathed. But suffice to say a .30-30 is LOUD when it goes off in a basement. That will never become something I talk about in person, long ago tho it was.

 

[cvixx]

Traded a Turk 93 for a couple of old percussion shotguns that needed work. Decided to clean out the barrels and found one was clogged. A worm brought out some old newspaper (no date unfortunately), then some shot, more newspaper and a load of BP that had probably been there for 170 years or so. Was tempted to pot a cap on that barrel and fire it off, but sanity prevailed. Never had that happen before!

 

[LVJ76]

Thanks for sharing.

The good thing again is you didn't get hurt.

This sport/hobby/passion demands perfection and that is hard no matter how good we are at it.

This past Saturday I was reloading for my 7mm-08, two different loads and forgot to put one powder away and I ended up loading some rounds with RL17 instead of H4350, luckily I caught it and didn't get to fire any rounds. I was curious of what could've happened and checked load for RL17 instead of H4350 and it would've been fine, it was actually a light load for that powder so I could've not noticed, but ir could've been the opposite.

Regardless it ticked me off bad knowing this should not and cannot happen. Can't think about next time being lucky because there can't be another time.

Stay safe

 

[Muddyboots]

The old 2 powders on bench... I have a 1 lb'er that I collect powder from past mistakes or even from pulled rounds that I didn't want to use the powder from. Not full thank goodness but it started when I had 2 powders on bench and placed wrong powder into wrong container. No way would I shoot a "blended" powder so I started to use it as a collection container.. Original powder covered up with tape and called "GARBAGE CAN"! I leave it on shelf in prominent location to see and nice reminder not to be distracted.

Will fertilize something someday with it.

 

[Rich Coyle]

I handload for 243 and 7-08. Needless to say how focused I need to be at all phases. Fortunately no mishaps but several years ago I had an accidental discharge while cleaning my Colt Double Eagle .45 cal. My two young children at the time were in the house. I was watching TV which is a big red flag. Thru proper instruction I always have the barrel pointed in a safe direction. I was humbled, scared, and thankful to God no one was harmed. My father was very strict in teaching me gun safety and the handling of firearms. I carried a shotgun for a year unloaded to prove I was ready. I thought there was no way for an accident like that to was going to occur to me. I will NEVER forget! Thanks and stay safe

As many gun as my so-in-law has I'm sure he has a Cold Double Eagle .45. Maybe that is what he used to poke a hole in the gutter above the sidewalk leading to the front door on my house.

 

[Muddyboots]

Here is my reminder

 

[Vettepilot555]

Well, 36 years have passed; speaking of "statute of limitations", so here's my story....

My wife had some new friends over, and they were interested in guns. So I got some out to show them off. Last one was my prize 44 magnum Virginia Dragoon, that I keep loaded. I dutifully unloaded it, and handed it to the fellow, seated next to me on the couch. He looked it over, suitably impressed, and handed it back.

I then re-loaded the revolver in preparation to put it away, but when I let the hammer down, the gun went off!!! Luckily, as per safe handling, I had the pistol pointed down at the floor at an angle when it happened. However, he started shouting "I'M HIT, I'M HIT!!!" Through my fog of shock though, I saw that he was sitting cross legged, and the only thing that could have been hit was his foot sticking out. Even that could not have been hit from how I had been holding the pistol, and his foot was fine. I thought "Wait a minute, this is a 44 magnum, and if it hit his foot, it would be a bloody mess!!"

Long story short, the round had hit the tiled floor between he and I, and ricocheted over the top of his foot, and on out through the (open) sliding glass door. Some shattered tile and concrete were blasted through his shoe, and into his foot. Once we calmed down, (just a little), we got his shoe and sock off, and there was like little bloody pin pricks in his skin; nothing more. WHEW!!

Then we noticed the screen door, and that the bullet had gone through it, at about 4 feet high.... exactly head height of my wife's young son, who often stood right there, watching us. Luckily, he hadn't been there this time.

The hammer HAD NOT slipped on me. I distinctly remember gently setting the hammer down, then a half second later...BOOM!!

I will never know what made that gun go off, but the whole deal really, really shook me up. It was months before I could handle my guns with comfort again, and much longer yet to shake the sick feeling inside every time I thought of the incident. Really, it still bothers me, but keeps my gun handling hyper-safe and alert, as it should be.

Whew! That was kinda tough to recount.

Vettepilot

 

[Carsyn.22]

Quite some stories here! We can't be too careful...

I have a friend who hunts with a 7RM but like many Canadians he also owns a .303 Brit, he accidentally chambered a 303 in his 7mm and kaboom, case failure which led to front action ring failure which ejected the barrel out the front and broke the stock. By the Grace of God he was okay.

I would never have guessed that a 303 would chamber tightly enough to fire in a 7RM but when I heard what had happened to him I started thinking and that rim is probably close enough to the right size to fit the bolt head pretty good.

It sure made me more careful.

 

[esshup]

I gave my nephew a bunch of .380 mixmosh ammo to run through a pistol of mine to get it broken in. He came back with one case that had a bell on the bullet end. Said it sounded a little weird. Looking at the headstamp, somehow a .32 auto was in the mix and the pistol loaded it into the chamber from the magazine and fired it.