Amen to that. Very lucky.
Really didn't want to share.
- Thread starter nmbarta
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Fireman Barry
New Member
nmbarta: Thanks for posting this! It should remind us all to double-check ourselves every time we are out enjoying what we do! My buddy and I have been reloading for 35 years and we still find things that somehow slipped through- fortunately we haven't had a major oops and were able to correct it before firing anything. We learned a long time ago to check our feelings at the door and to accept the butt chewing we deserved.
Not gonna call you a dumb-*** simply because we've all done something to deserve a boot in the rear!
It looks like you've beat yourself up enough over this so don't let it eat you up but use it as a Teaching point and pass it on to the next generation!
Hal The Slayer
Well-Known Member
Feenix,I know you maybe didn't mean to but, that doesn't excuse what you did and hope in the future you learn from this,I know people have gotten in a hurry or have been sloppy with their guns and ammo and have not been able to share their mistakes with others. The grave is a cold dark place! By now you have realized all of this and really need to set up a fool proof way of doing things so it never happens again and share your experience with as many people that will listen,starting with those closest to you.I really admire you for coming forth with this! you really don't know how many countless lives you have touched or saved.You have helped more people than you have realized and learned from it also PROUD TO HAVE YOU IN LRI ! Take care my brother!You are correct, you could have easily not shared it, but there is definitely a lesson worthwhile sharing. It takes a bigger person to admit mistakes.
To help avoid mistake(s), "I" only deal with one rifle at a time. "If" waiting for the rifle to cool off, I have my .22LR or air rifle to entertain myself during the cooling process.
Ed
Hal The Slayer
Well-Known Member
SORRY FEENIX! Hit wrong button!!! nmbarta will excuse me hopefully lolYou are correct, you could have easily not shared it, but there is definitely a lesson worthwhile sharing. It takes a bigger person to admit mistakes.
To help avoid mistake(s), "I" only deal with one rifle at a time. "If" waiting for the rifle to cool off, I have my .22LR or air rifle to entertain myself during the cooling process.
Ed
Hal The Slayer
Well-Known Member
SORRY BRO. Hit Feenix instead of you
Wow nmbarta you really are being hard on yourself!! Mistakes are mistakes and oftentimes are avoidable, however that's what they are "mistakes" and not intentional actions. When I hear people call themselves stupid, I ask them how they would like it if I called them stupid because there's really not difference. Anyway...........I did something quite similar as your mistake, something that I am, and was not to happy to have done. I was shooting five-stand with my Remington 1100 20 gauge with a bunch of friends. I was using an ammo bag to hold for my ammo and to hold my hulls. One of the guys who I was shooting with had a Remington 1100 in 12 gauge. While we were shooting the course I was talking with this guy about his 12 gauge 1100 and how it shot and recoil. After we had shot the course he asked me if I would like to try shooting a few rounds with his gun, and I said yes. He gave me a couple of rounds to shoot, I put them into my range bag, set my shotgun in the rack, all this time we were BSing and I was not really paying attention to business. I took his gun, reached into m range back, pulled out a round and threw the round into the chamber, BSed some more, called pull. I raised the gun up and "CLICK", so "Oh" I must have forgotten to put a round in the chamber so I reach into the range bag, pulled out another shotgun shell, put it into the chamber making sure there was a round inside of the gun this time. At this point I was getting ready to say pull when one of the other, more experienced shooters, told me to hold up and to check the barrel of the shotgun, which I did. I still thank Frank for paying attention because there was a very nice 20 gauge shotgun shell lodged inside of the barrel. Apparently there was still a 20 gauge round inside of that range bag and when I reached into the bag to get one of the 12 gauge rounds I pulled that 20 gauge shell out first. Had I pulled that trigger it would have been catastrophic for everyone on that shooting field. Had I been paying attention instead of BSing I would have realized when the gun went "click" that there was something seriously wrong or I would have caught it when I heard the round fall down the barrel!! When something like this happens it can be a blessing in disguise because it gives us a real "wake-up" call and keeps us on our toes. Sometimes after shooting for many years we become callous. Right now as I am writing this reply my butt cheeks slammed together and everything between them slammed up tight!! Thanks for sharing this with the group, by doing so you probably helped people to pay more attention and prevented something serious from happening to them!!
I have been handloading for almost 30 years now...Complancency is something we all want to avoid however we are human. Lesson learned on this occasion and count your blessings if you, people around you and your rifle was unharmed or damaged. I had a similar experience regarding a .243 bolt action pistol I had built with a Gunwerks action and Proof barrel. It was chambered for .243 Tactical Match (PTG chamber). I could attach the drawings but to make it simple-the chamber has less tolerance and a SAAMI spec round will get stuck in it...and you guessed it...I did the same thing; I had SAAMI and my Tactical Match rounds inthe same color box and nearly indistguishable. My mistake did not result in damage to the firearm or myself but did cost me a trip to my gunsmith to have the round removed from the chamber by way of the barrell being removed and $100. Cheap lesson considering what I had in the labor and firearm. My gunsmith only said one thing. "Don't do that again." Again, lesson learned.
Its easy to lament all the things we shouldn't do or should do, but as humans we fail. We just hope we can learn from our failures and teach others not to repeat our mistakes. Happy you were not injured.
Its easy to lament all the things we shouldn't do or should do, but as humans we fail. We just hope we can learn from our failures and teach others not to repeat our mistakes. Happy you were not injured.
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You just proved that mistakes could happen anywhere and anytime.
@nmbarta is NOT looking for an excuse but rather man up on the mistake and share it for all of us to learn from.
Cheers!
misterc01
Well-Known Member
Thanks for sharing ~ and I suspect we all may have seat in the "Oops"boat sometime when a brain cramp or other mistake bites or almost bites us!! I understnd the self-examiation and rerunning the scenario you must have gone thru as you beat your self up. I shot a .22 match, and in the last relay, we loaded a magazine with 5 rounds in a ten round magazine fired the five shots which emptied the magazine, I removed, pu ton the safety "knowing" I had "fired the last round" as usual emptying the rifle. I Next morning. getting ready to clean it, I "knew" it was empty, and as is my usual practise, opened the bolt to get ready to clean it. I am not sure what hit the l floor first, my jaw, heart or the round that ejected from my "empty" rifle. Retracing my actions - first, I failed to ensure I had only loaded fiver ropunds ( it was six), to open the bolt and insert an ECI into t (normal practise), and I got to talking losing my "situational awareness" relying onbeing on autopilot in my pot-shooting range actvities - being compalacen and not focusing on an always dangerous activity!
Well said and Agreed.Wow nmbarta you really are being hard on yourself!! Mistakes are mistakes and oftentimes are avoidable, however that's what they are "mistakes" and not intentional actions. When I hear people call themselves stupid, I ask them how they would like it if I called them stupid because there's really not difference. Anyway...........I did something quite similar as your mistake, something that I am, and was not to happy to have done. I was shooting five-stand with my Remington 1100 20 gauge with a bunch of friends. I was using an ammo bag to hold for my ammo and to hold my hulls. One of the guys who I was shooting with had a Remington 1100 in 12 gauge. While we were shooting the course I was talking with this guy about his 12 gauge 1100 and how it shot and recoil. After we had shot the course he asked me if I would like to try shooting a few rounds with his gun, and I said yes. He gave me a couple of rounds to shoot, I put them into my range bag, set my shotgun in the rack, all this time we were BSing and I was not really paying attention to business. I took his gun, reached into m range back, pulled out a round and threw the round into the chamber, BSed some more, called pull. I raised the gun up and "CLICK", so "Oh" I must have forgotten to put a round in the chamber so I reach into the range bag, pulled out another shotgun shell, put it into the chamber making sure there was a round inside of the gun this time. At this point I was getting ready to say pull when one of the other, more experienced shooters, told me to hold up and to check the barrel of the shotgun, which I did. I still thank Frank for paying attention because there was a very nice 20 gauge shotgun shell lodged inside of the barrel. Apparently there was still a 20 gauge round inside of that range bag and when I reached into the bag to get one of the 12 gauge rounds I pulled that 20 gauge shell out first. Had I pulled that trigger it would have been catastrophic for everyone on that shooting field. Had I been paying attention instead of BSing I would have realized when the gun went "click" that there was something seriously wrong or I would have caught it when I heard the round fall down the barrel!! When something like this happens it can be a blessing in disguise because it gives us a real "wake-up" call and keeps us on our toes. Sometimes after shooting for many years we become callous. Right now as I am writing this reply my butt cheeks slammed together and everything between them slammed up tight!! Thanks for sharing this with the group, by doing so you probably helped people to pay more attention and prevented something serious from happening to them!!
