No Such Thing As An Unintended Discharge

[Zen Archery]

Has anyone ever experienced a mechanical unintended discharge?
I worked as a range master for 3 years and only experienced 2 unintended discharge while calling the line. One was a bolt gun that had a failed safety on an old Savage. He was manipulating the rifle with the safety selected to on. He brushed the trigger during manipulation and the rifle fired 10-15 feet which caused everyone to gasp.

The second was a AR15. When the operator released the bolt, the gun went off even with the safety on. You could tell by his response something wasn't right. He tried it again the same thing happened. He believed the firing pin was too long and was causing the round to ignite. As you can imagine we asking him to stop!

The first example was definitely human error. Never put finger on trigger until ready to shoot. Second was mechanical anomaly.

I wasn't there but a coworker shared how a guy chambered a round and caused it to go off. He swears his finger wasn't on the trigger since he was cycling the rifle.

Landowner was adamant "no unintended discharge." For insurance reasons, obviously. But there are those weird mechanical issues that aren't completely impossible to eliminate.

My favorite are guys that would shoot their chronograph. Happened a few times a month.

My other favorite was guys who would accidentally shoot the wrong targets. "Hey who the #*?! is shooting # (fill in the number).

You had to qualify to shoot beyond 200 yards. We had specific red steel targets only for qualification. You could shoot them as long as people weren't trying to qualify. We literally would yell, "qualifier 500 yards." Which meant don't shoot the dang red 500 yard target. Inevitably some yahoo would plink it.

 

[Rich Coyle]

Yep. Round went off when the bolt closed. I didn't try to verify. Just took it to the 'Smith. He told me something went wrong with the trigger.

 

[matt_3479]

I had a trigger/safety failure where if you flicked the safteg off the gun would fire. I couldn't get it to replicate but bumping it or anything but if I put the safety on and took it off it would drop the firing pin. Trigger was covered under warranty and gun works great now.

I also had a tight headspace 22 that would slam fire eley tenex but was fine with sk and Lapua.

 

[8x68s]

... but there is such a thing as an accidental discharge. I opened the lever and loaded my Winchester single shot. Upon closing the lever, the rifle remains at full cock. To carry one must drop the hammer to half cock. In doing so and talking to someone nearby, I distractedly tried to lower the hammer and it slipped off my gloved thumb. Luckily I was conscious enough to have been pointed away from those around me and at the ground. A smoking 9.3mm bullet in the ground is an awesome reminder to pay attention,... full attention to what one is doing with a firearm in one's hands.

 

[338 dude]

Has anyone ever experienced a mechanical unintended discharge?
I worked as a range master for 3 years and only experienced 2 unintended discharge while calling the line. One was a bolt gun that had a failed safety on an old Savage. He was manipulating the rifle with the safety selected to on. He brushed the trigger during manipulation and the rifle fired 10-15 feet which caused everyone to gasp.

The second was a AR15. When the operator released the bolt, the gun went off even with the safety on. You could tell by his response something wasn't right. He tried it again the same thing happened. He believed the firing pin was too long and was causing the round to ignite. As you can imagine we asking him to stop!

The first example was definitely human error. Never put finger on trigger until ready to shoot. Second was mechanical anomaly.

I wasn't there but a coworker shared how a guy chambered a round and caused it to go off. He swears his finger wasn't on the trigger since he was cycling the rifle.

Landowner was adamant "no unintended discharge." For insurance reasons, obviously. But there are those weird mechanical issues that aren't completely impossible to eliminate.

My favorite are guys that would shoot their chronograph. Happened a few times a month.

My other favorite was guys who would accidentally shoot the wrong targets. "Hey who the #*?! is shooting # (fill in the number).

You had to qualify to shoot beyond 200 yards. We had specific red steel targets only for qualification. You could shoot them as long as people weren't trying to qualify. We literally would yell, "qualifier 500 yards." Which meant don't shoot the dang red 500 yard target. Inevitably some yahoo would plink it.

My wife had a Remington moment. even with the safety on when she was unloading the rifle it went off and put a round through the wall of my shed. Luckily, no one was injured and this was the new x mark pro trigger. They are no better than the original Walker design.

 

[xsn10s]

I'd probably put them into two descriptions. "Negligent Discharge" and "Mechanical Failures". Highlighting the need to follow the safety rules, I like Col Cooper's safety rules.

 

[Bucklowery]

I had a rifle that started firing when you released the safety. I cleaned it and next time I was shooting it done it again. I replaced the trigger and no more problems. They are mechanical devices and will fail and not necessarily from wear

Thanks

Buck

 

[crashlanding]

An AK, I thought I could polish the trigger to remove the gritty pull, I did succeed, it turned into a slam fire. Caught me off guard at first but on the second pull, I knew immediately what was going on. Immediately went home and put a different trigger group into it. In my defense though, I only shoot out in the desert, no ranges for me, I'm sure I would have been kicked out .

 

[Muddyboots]

I got my Uncles Savage 750C from my Aunt after he passed away many years ago and it hadn't been fired in quite a while. I decided to shoot trap with it just to get a feel for it. I bought reloads at the club range. So I l was standing on firing line. When it became my turn, dropped shell into chamber and I dropped bolt on shell....BOOM! Safety was still on and I was not near trigger. What THE!! Spooked the crap out of me! Barrel was pointing down 3' in front of me and made nice divot. Of course rest of line was spooked as well. I could not duplicate the incident no matter how many times I tried. The Savage is a humpback recoil spring driven semi auto that you never want finger near bolt when you release it since it slams forward pretty hard. When you push bolt release button, you do so with trigger finger so that fully eliminates any possibility. One of 4 possibilities: high primer in reload?, firing pin never retracted since I found bolt little dirty but could not duplicate that (dismantled and cleaned it anyway) , there is a ring in the recoil spring to adjust for light or heavy loads which was set for heavy loads so maybe the primer was overly shock sensitive? Bad safety?

The safety has proven to be solid. I've had this shotgun now for 50+ years and it has NEVER repeated this incident so I feel pretty confident I prob had a high primer in a reload.

This truly incident re-enforces the basic safety tenet barrel in safe position!

 

[VinceMule]

M1 Garands with broke firing pin, pick up a round out of the mag, round discharges before the round is seated in the chamber. I saw this happen twice on Busy Saturdays, and it was not uncommon with CMP guns, nationwide.

Weatherby Mark 5- round went off out of battery, blew off parts of hand and face. The guy was darn lucky to survive the incident, and he will never be the same. I never found out the particulars on the rifle's malfunction. He was shooting factory ammo.

Rem 700-push the safety off, gun goes off

Mechanical failure incident below:
I was almost killed at the Rio Salado rifle range in Az. 15 benches to my Right, a Model 19 S&W blew up. I had just stood up from my shooting bench. A friend on my Left suddenly grabbed his chest and blood was seeping out of him, soaking his shirt, instantly. I lifted up his shirt and could see the intestines inside of him. I laid my friend down, got his son to hold his hand, went and told the range master immediately, and started looking for other victims. A man was limping off the firing line around 10 benches from me, grabbing his peter. I asked him to pull down his pants so I could see if an artery had been cut. No artery was hit, but his peter was cut nearly in half. Another man was sitting at the bench like he was frozen in shock, still holding the Model 19 S&W propped up on the pistol rest, with it's entire top strap gone along with the top half of the cylinder. His wife, to his left, was whimpering some blood running down her face. I got her up from the shooting bench, quickly examined her head for depth of penetration, and sat her down on a bench beside the man that was crying in agony with a blood-covered crotch.

Ambulance and air medivac for my friend involved, and an army of cops.

All survived the incident. The investigation proved that the gentleman with the Model 19 in 357 mag had no overloaded ammo. My friend tried to Sue S&W and found out that the Model 19 of this date and manufacture was never designed to shoot 357 Mag ammo full time, but only on duty rounds with intended everyday use to be shot with 38 Specials loads. It is possible that Model 19s from different time periods are weaker/stronger than current guns made or later production models, I don't know the answer to this question.

If I had not stood up the moment that I did, the top half of the cylinder would have gone through my head, due to a mechanical failure of the pistol.

Metal fatigue was the reason for the accident in the pistol, and S&W was not at fault, and neither was the Rio Salado rifle range.

 

[epags]

Was a range safety officer for a number of years at a city range. Only noted one mechanical unintended discharge.

One time a customer waved me over and said his 22LR projectiles were breaking up and he was getting two holes every time he pulled the trigger.
I stood beside him and yes he would pull the trigger once and two holes would appear on the target. (No, no one was shooting his target,,,LOL)
As I observed him shoot, I discovered his rifle was cycling twice every time he pulled the trigger (wow, his rifle had become a two round 'fully automatic" rifle). I had him stop shooting it and told him to take it to a gunsmith.

Side note: I noted that in the double cycling the 22 brass sometimes would shred. I know this because while observing the issue a couple of pieces hit my upper body. Since it was 'just' a 22, I ignored the strikes but the next morning while showering I scrubbed a fragment of brass out of my shoulder....never told spouse about that and was glad about always wearing safety glasses because one of those fragments might have hit my eye.

 

[codyadams]

I'd probably put them into two descriptions. "Negligent Discharge" and "Mechanical Failures". Highlighting the need to follow the safety rules, I like Col Cooper's safety rules.

This is how I feel. If you cause the weapon to fire, it's not an accident, it's negligence. The only other way a firearm can fire, is if something mechanically went wrong.

 

[Muddyboots]

The incident with my uncles shotgun was prob due to a high primer which is still a potential for anyone who reloads. I still think this is something easily overlooked in our reloading steps. Verify primer seating depth on every round loaded.

 

[26Reload]

Unloading an older 700 ADL..original trigger....had been on a long hike and got back to the truck...went to unload the rifle and the first round went off....luckily it was pointed down the canyon...scared he'll out of us.....glad I didn't try to unload in the truck.....
Couldn't get it to do it again...maybe dirty safety...dirt in trigger...don't know...