I am glad that I always follow the 4 rules
Posted: Sat May 12, 2012 11:38 pm
First:
Gun safety: NEW SHOOTERS PLEASE READ! Old shooters read too!
Never let us or yourself slip, no matter how long we've been shooting. Humans make mistakes, and if we keep an eye out for each other, we can learn from them and live to pass that knowledge on to others.
1: Humans make mistakes.
All guns are ALWAYS LOADED! If someone unloads a gun and hands it to you, they have just handed you a LOADED GUN until you personally prove that it is empty by checking the chamber. If you are handling a gun that you know is "unloaded", it is LOADED until you check it again. Each and every time, no exceptions, no excuses!
2. Humans make mistakes.
Never point the muzzle at anything you do not intend to destroy! Guns are safe, and guns protect lives. They do that by DESTROYING what they are discharged at. They are also indiscriminate and will destroy anything or anyone they are discharged at, even by accident.
3. Humans make mistakes.
NEVER put your finger on the trigger unless you are ready to shoot. If your sights are not on the target, there's no reason for your finger on the trigger, right? So DO NOT PUT IT THERE!
4. Humans make mistakes.
Always know where your bullet will go. You can shoot at a target, but the bullet can carry on and kill someone down range unless you know for a fact where that bullet will stop. DO NOT fire unless you know the bullet will stop harmlessly in a backstop and not carry on to injure someone down range.
Today, while visiting my grandparents, my grandpa brought out a Winchester 30-30 from 1913 (that he keeps loaded for home defense) with rounds that have been cycled through it for years. Well, as any good soldier does when handed a weapon, I cleared it. While trying to clear it, the first of the rounds got stuck in the chamber and I couldn't pull it out with my fingers. So....I cycled the action (yes my trigger finger was way off of the trigger) and it went off, with the loop 90% back into firing position. The first thing that I realized was that the hammer dropped, second was that the sound was not like a normal powered 30-30, and lastly, there was a hole in a metal file stand.
After checking that everyone was ok, I grabbed the weapon, and immediately checked to make sure that the hammer was indeed down. I then took it and unloaded it the rest of the way, only moving the action enough to pull the rounds out of the tube and using my fingers to extract them from the carrier. After that was done, I went and investigated the damage.
The damage was to a metal file stand and some papers on top of it, a curtain and the wall. Examining all of that I noticed something that I thought was strange. There were what looked to be shrapnel marks on pieces of paper before the round hit anything.......And (even though there was only one hole in the stand, that was about 2 inches across) there were 3 distinct and separate holes in the wall (no over penetration, thank you for old brick houses)......This leads me to believe that the round actually started coming apart as it was fired (ammo is at least 30 years old, and then some, plus it has also been cycled through the weapon many times over the years, flat soft point jacketed).
I then looked at the casing and noticed that the primer was almost popped out of the case, with a strange ripple on it, next to the strike point. As for the sound, we were indoors and I have been around 30-30s outdoors without ear protection........it was significantly less than that, my ears barely rang.
Now to the meat and potatoes of the mechanical stuff.....the weapon itself. I examined all that I could of the old 30-30 (without disassembly) and noticed something strange. When actioning the lever, the hammer wobbled a lot (forward mostly) when racked strongly. Now mind you, the action on it is pretty stiff and because of that, it is almost necessary to put some force into it. I know one can cause a slam fire with an M249, but I don't know about a lever action because the hammer will generally hit half cock with the action still in use, (I checked that). Also, I realize that most lever actions have a little stud where the lever is to act as a passive safety mechanism, the hammer would still fall without any pressure on that piece. Any ideas as to what went wrong (no, I didn't touch the trigger, then again humans make mistakes)?
Lesson learned, however often you do something, however good you are at something, however long you have been doing something, how ever much knowledge you have of something, Murphy (or idiocy/stupidity/complacency etc) can and will toss a curveball at you. Also, for someone to be injured with weapons, you only have to violate 3 of the four rules.
Gun safety: NEW SHOOTERS PLEASE READ! Old shooters read too!
Never let us or yourself slip, no matter how long we've been shooting. Humans make mistakes, and if we keep an eye out for each other, we can learn from them and live to pass that knowledge on to others.
1: Humans make mistakes.
All guns are ALWAYS LOADED! If someone unloads a gun and hands it to you, they have just handed you a LOADED GUN until you personally prove that it is empty by checking the chamber. If you are handling a gun that you know is "unloaded", it is LOADED until you check it again. Each and every time, no exceptions, no excuses!
2. Humans make mistakes.
Never point the muzzle at anything you do not intend to destroy! Guns are safe, and guns protect lives. They do that by DESTROYING what they are discharged at. They are also indiscriminate and will destroy anything or anyone they are discharged at, even by accident.
3. Humans make mistakes.
NEVER put your finger on the trigger unless you are ready to shoot. If your sights are not on the target, there's no reason for your finger on the trigger, right? So DO NOT PUT IT THERE!
4. Humans make mistakes.
Always know where your bullet will go. You can shoot at a target, but the bullet can carry on and kill someone down range unless you know for a fact where that bullet will stop. DO NOT fire unless you know the bullet will stop harmlessly in a backstop and not carry on to injure someone down range.
Today, while visiting my grandparents, my grandpa brought out a Winchester 30-30 from 1913 (that he keeps loaded for home defense) with rounds that have been cycled through it for years. Well, as any good soldier does when handed a weapon, I cleared it. While trying to clear it, the first of the rounds got stuck in the chamber and I couldn't pull it out with my fingers. So....I cycled the action (yes my trigger finger was way off of the trigger) and it went off, with the loop 90% back into firing position. The first thing that I realized was that the hammer dropped, second was that the sound was not like a normal powered 30-30, and lastly, there was a hole in a metal file stand.
After checking that everyone was ok, I grabbed the weapon, and immediately checked to make sure that the hammer was indeed down. I then took it and unloaded it the rest of the way, only moving the action enough to pull the rounds out of the tube and using my fingers to extract them from the carrier. After that was done, I went and investigated the damage.
The damage was to a metal file stand and some papers on top of it, a curtain and the wall. Examining all of that I noticed something that I thought was strange. There were what looked to be shrapnel marks on pieces of paper before the round hit anything.......And (even though there was only one hole in the stand, that was about 2 inches across) there were 3 distinct and separate holes in the wall (no over penetration, thank you for old brick houses)......This leads me to believe that the round actually started coming apart as it was fired (ammo is at least 30 years old, and then some, plus it has also been cycled through the weapon many times over the years, flat soft point jacketed).
I then looked at the casing and noticed that the primer was almost popped out of the case, with a strange ripple on it, next to the strike point. As for the sound, we were indoors and I have been around 30-30s outdoors without ear protection........it was significantly less than that, my ears barely rang.
Now to the meat and potatoes of the mechanical stuff.....the weapon itself. I examined all that I could of the old 30-30 (without disassembly) and noticed something strange. When actioning the lever, the hammer wobbled a lot (forward mostly) when racked strongly. Now mind you, the action on it is pretty stiff and because of that, it is almost necessary to put some force into it. I know one can cause a slam fire with an M249, but I don't know about a lever action because the hammer will generally hit half cock with the action still in use, (I checked that). Also, I realize that most lever actions have a little stud where the lever is to act as a passive safety mechanism, the hammer would still fall without any pressure on that piece. Any ideas as to what went wrong (no, I didn't touch the trigger, then again humans make mistakes)?
Lesson learned, however often you do something, however good you are at something, however long you have been doing something, how ever much knowledge you have of something, Murphy (or idiocy/stupidity/complacency etc) can and will toss a curveball at you. Also, for someone to be injured with weapons, you only have to violate 3 of the four rules.
