Anybody have a rifle malfunction that made them say what!

crkckr, Often, sharing our less than flattering moments of our lives.....is a good cleansing of the soul! "Bless you my son, go and sin no more"! memtb

I had Winchester 70 I hunted with for years. Probably 40 deer with that rifle. One cold day I hadn't seen anything for hours when a groundhog popped up. I shot the ground hog then realized I hadn't chambered a fresh round With the rifle vertical I chambered a round. When the bolt closed the rifle fired. Winchester says due to the manufacturing date not their responsibility. 25 years ago I did have a local gunsmith work the trigger. I have been unable to replicate the malfunction. Wound up giving it to a gunsmith as it needed to be rebarreled any way and I couldn't trade it or continue to use it as is.

Hey Otisdog, That's aggravating. Glad the only casualty was your camper glass. All these stories are really making me realize how CAUTIOUS we have to be when loading, unloading, or even taking a gun 'off' safety. When good gun rules are used, no one gets hurt (thankfully) but occasionally an inanimate object gets to become a terminal ballistics testing medium.

Memtb I had another incident just like you. I was shooting a 30-06 and 6.5x55 testing and chambered a 6,5 round in he 06. Lucky for me the bolt would not close on it. It took a moment to figure out why all of a sudden the 06 ammo did not work in the rifle. When I fiured it out my next thought was how will I get that out of there. Luckly both rifles were Winchester's and same length action. Switched bolts and out came the 6.5 round then switch the bolts back. I knew I did not want another issue that day.
I must say whenI started this I was almost ready for a real written beat down. How ever I have learned we are all human on this site and make mistakes. Not to mention many of us have gotten away real lucky with some of our mistakes. To be honest I thought there may have been more rifle malfunctions.

Maybe those that have never made a mistake, will read some of these posts with "complete condescension", and learn something. Though.....would never admit it! memtb

My oops was a rem 700 I was borrowing, done hunting for the day, set the gun into the case on the 4 wheeler, left a round chambered hoping to come across a pig on the drive in, put it on safe and blew the end of the case off. Needless to say I dont leave a round chambered and trust the safety anymore. My friend ended up changing it to a timney and never looked back, that was right around the time of the trigger recall.

I have another opps moment but this is definitely not a matter of a rifle malfunction, it's more of a brain failure. A buddy of mine from wanted very badly to learn to hunt so several of us at work helped him out thru all the stages, getting a rifle, hunter safety course, etc. He and I went out opening morning and saw nothing but hunter orange dots all over the place, so we decided to try another place. While getting all of our gear together back at the truck, he laid his rifle down in the bed (same truck I'd blown the window out several years earlier), so I asked him if he had a round chambered and he said yes. I told him rounds in the mag ok but not in the chamber. So he pulled the rifle out and had a senior moment, much to my dismay! No, not the window again... he intended to take the bolt out, which required pulling the trigger first. Except he forgot to take the round out first! He had the rifle pointed straight up (but not at the window this time), and when that -06 went off, the muzzle blast took my ball cap off!! The look in his eyes was priceless and definitely a lesson learned for him... fortunately, only at the cost of our hearing for the day. The rest of the day was strictly hand signals! The hearing loss was a drop in bucket, as we both worked at the airport and were both a bit "deef" from spending most of our adult life around jets. I guess just about everyone has a ND eventually but as long as we stick to the 4 rules 99% of time, they'll just be a lesson, instead of a tragedy. The only real problem is that went we mess up more than than that 1% and someone pays a steep price. Personally, I think they should be called the 4 Laws, just like gravity is a law!
Cheers,
crkckr

2 incidents have happened in my gun owner ship career.
The first was with a TC encore. I had adjusted the trigger to ~1.5# using some diamond files and polishing compound. Gun worked great for about 2 years. Then one day at the range, I cocked the hammer back and heard the click. So, I let it go and it released. The 300 WM went off by total surprise. Thinking it was a fluke, I repeated the steps with the same result.
Next time was with an AR15. The military trigger was gritty, heavy, and creeped like cars at a stop sign. I polished the trigger to remove some of the roughness with Flitz. Took it to the range and was firing some bullets. About 3 magaizines later I fired the gun and it shot 2 shots in automatic fashion. Surprised and unsure of what had happened, I continued to shoot a few more shots. Couple of shots later it did it again. Well I stopped shooting it and took it apart. Threw the trigger assembly in the trash and ordered a trigger tech trigger. All good now.

Put a 280 Remington cartridge in a 7 Rem mag and pulled the bang switch. I did in fact say "What!?!" along with several other expletives. Not enough material to make a 7 Rem mg case out of a 280. Just sayin.

Frog4aday said:

Before the "X-Mark Pro" trigger came out, the 'standard' Rem 700 trigger would lead to accidental discharges often enough to prompt many lawsuits. (https://www.kennerlyloutey.com/defective-remington-triggers-fire-still-not-recalled/) But I'm guessing you and your gunsmith discovered something else? Dying to know the answer!

Click to expand...

As others have said, I hate to admit my own stupidity but I guess we all live and learn..... the gunsmith immediately took the bolt apart and showed me what I had done. The inside of the bolt was covered in a heavy "varnish" caused by how I had been cleaning the gun. Each time I cleaned it I would shoot some cleaner up through the firing pin hole (without taking apart the bolt assembly) and then blow it out, again just through the firing pin hole. I would the put a few drops of oil in the hole and blow it out. Of course blowing it out without taking the bolt apart wasn't cleaning it and the residue of cleaner and oil had mixed and created a very hard, thick, super slick patina of varnish. That was allowing the pin to fire as the bolt was thrown over. The gunsmith took his trusty toothbrush and cleaner and gave it a good cleaning. All that patina came off and it worked perfectly ever after. Of course, if I ever cleaned the bolt again I took it apart, gave it a good cleaning, made sure it was dry of cleaner before adding some lube sparingly. Lesson learned!

By the way, thanks to all of you more experienced shooters for all your posts. I am learning a lot just by reading all the posts. Don't know enough to add too much myself.

memtb said:

Maybe those that have never made a mistake, will read some of these posts with "complete condescension", and learn something. Though...would never admit it!memtb

Click to expand...

In the motorcycling world there is a saying:
"There are those that have crashed their bikes and those that will"

It seems the corollary in 'our' world is:
"There are those that have experienced an accidental discharge (AD) and those that will."

I was humbled at a young age when my 'unloaded' BB gun blew the glass out of our kitchen stove. Mom and Dad were so pleased with me.

Wolf76 said:

2 incidents have happened in my gun owner ship career.
The first was with a TC encore. I had adjusted the trigger to ~1.5# using some diamond files and polishing compound. Gun worked great for about 2 years. Then one day at the range, I cocked the hammer back and heard the click. So, I let it go and it released. The 300 WM went off by total surprise. Thinking it was a fluke, I repeated the steps with the same result.
Next time was with an AR15. The military trigger was gritty, heavy, and creeped like cars at a stop sign. I polished the trigger to remove some of the roughness with Flitz. Took it to the range and was firing some bullets. About 3 magaizines later I fired the gun and it shot 2 shots in automatic fashion. Surprised and unsure of what had happened, I continued to shoot a few more shots. Couple of shots later it did it again. Well I stopped shooting it and took it apart. Threw the trigger assembly in the trash and ordered a trigger tech trigger. All good now.

Click to expand...

You should have polished the ar-15 just a bit more.

My first experience I was 10 years old my grandfather came in from deer hunting We were in the bedroom
I begged to look through his scope he let me A sportsrised 8 mm Mauser which I still have and shoot
Yes it was loaded i pulled the trigger don't remember if safety was on or off
Shot through the wall and over the trucks outside also got a scope cut
Grandma fixed everything
Hung a calendar over the bullet hole and band all loaded guns from inside the house
I'm 66 now and that rule is still enforced

My friends helped me learn more about gun safety
Sure glad i can learn from other people's mistakes
I learned there is no good place to point a Airgun
When you use the hallway and bedroom for a range
All accidental discharges are Bad
Don't watch TV and Dry Fire
Was using Rabbit on seat of a volts wagon outside of a plate glass window
Loaded gun to be returned to bedroom during next commercial
That's right dead Rabbit broke window and windshield