How did you break your gun?

[aema15]

How did your gun break to the point that it was no longer serviceable?

I've been thinking about how (many/most?) guns are so well engineered nowadays that they should be able to last a lifetime given that minor replacements and general maintenance are performed. That said, there are always those stories where something just completely goes sideways and the gun is just a goner.

Has this ever happened to you? What's the story?

 

[BONECUTR]

Working in the industry, most that are complete gonners are ones that went Kaboom.....

Even when parts "look" ok after something catastrophic its not work trying to repair it.

 

[Markbsae]

.300 black out in a 5.56 is the easiest way to do this.

 

[NedSled]

Working in the industry, most that are complete gonners are ones that went Kaboom.....

Even when parts "look" ok after something catastrophic its not work trying to repair it.

Yeah, I've seen more than one "had a squib and I had to replace parts XYZ but it's running again" story. I'm always thinking "if that happened to me, the only way I'm using it again is if someone puts the bits that survived through an MPI scan (or whatever high tech stuff they would do to detect micro-cracks or whatever)".

Not trusting a "gunsmith" to examine it either... being a gunsmith is not what it used to be.

 

[dannyz]

Accepting a former roommate’s offer to run the tiny 22 pistol my grandpa gave me when I was a kid through his ultrasonic cleaner. He took it completely apart, lost a couple pieces, and we’ve never gotten it back together.

Over the years, I’ve had multiple gunsmiths offer to put it back together as a challenge. None have been successful. It’s been with the current guy for six ish months. I should really follow up.

It has some gorgeous engravings but is unnecessarily complicated and has always been objectively terrible. Think 50-50 on hitting a milk jug at 10 feet. My grandpa won it in a poker game before I was born. He can’t remember if the prior owner bought it from a flea market in Florida or found it in the pocket of clothing he bought at a flea market. No one has been able to find anything about it online.

 

[Tere_Hanges]

I broke an AR-15 shooting steel-cased Wolf .223 through a Delton "plain" steel (non-chrome lined, non-nitrided) upper. Had a case seperation but didn't know it right away. The case head completely seperated leaving half the case stuck in the chamber. It loaded another round into what remained of the seperated case. It fired. Of course that's when it failed to extract. I mortared it to remove the second case and took it home looked in the chamber and noticed what looked like half a torn case molded into the chamber.

I ended up removing the barrel from the receiver. The receiver still looks usable although I don't have any plans to use it for anything. I threw the barrel into a box of random parts.

After shooting thousands of steel-cased rounds without any serious issues, I'm phasing out steel-cased ammo and not using it in any guns I care a lot about. Only buying brass ammo now.

 

[H. Bowman]

Had an OOB on an old 12g pump. Not sure what happened but it bowed the receiver out enough that it's junk. Still sitting in the corner of the shop. Maybe one day I'll hammer it flat and screw the stock back together where it split and shoot it again.

 

[PunkRwkRay]

How did your gun break to the point that it was no longer serviceable?

I've been thinking about how (many/most?) guns are so well engineered nowadays that they should be able to last a lifetime given that minor replacements and general maintenance are performed. That said, there are always those stories where something just completely goes sideways and the gun is just a goner.

Has this ever happened to you? What's the story?

I was shooting with my buddy on Hodge Rd a few years back doing drills with my AR, I felt some debris hit me after the bolt went forward. Go to take my next shot and no more boom. Took a closer look and the extractor on my BCG had exploded lol
My second gun I broke, I installed a johnnyglock umbra trigger on my brand new shadow systems xr920 and now it doesn't consistently reset

 

[SteamedHams]

I was once with a girl who was on top and came down a little bit too vigorously.

Oh wait, we're talking about firearm guns?

 

[socalgunowner909]

had my ejection pin fall out while shooting my winchester 1897 shotgun. Luckily I found it and was able to put back in and secured it to the best of my ability at home.

 

[NapalmCheese]

How did your gun break to the point that it was no longer serviceable?

I've been thinking about how (many/most?) guns are so well engineered nowadays that they should be able to last a lifetime given that minor replacements and general maintenance are performed. That said, there are always those stories where something just completely goes sideways and the gun is just a goner.

Has this ever happened to you? What's the story?

I shot thousands of rounds through it.

A couple of springs later I was back in business.

 

[Luciansulla]

Took my Franchi to the trap range for the first time, and the bolt release button launched itself into orbit. Four month delay to get a new one off back order.

 

[tomrkba]

How did your gun break to the point that it was no longer serviceable?

I've been thinking about how (many/most?) guns are so well engineered nowadays that they should be able to last a lifetime given that minor replacements and general maintenance are performed. That said, there are always those stories where something just completely goes sideways and the gun is just a goner.

Has this ever happened to you? What's the story?

SIG P220 circa 1997. I had it about a year and had fired around 5-8k rounds with a bazillion dry fires. The hammer return spring broke during a session. Hammer was floppy; no spring tension. It would still fire, but the hammer would catch on the bottom of the slide. Fortunately, I found a gunsmith who fixed it in a few minutes.

 

[duc748bip]

Trying to install an after market sight on a pistol slide. the rear sight was a bit over sized for the dovetail..... actually cracked the slide rail with the MGW sight pusher...

Did I win a prize?

 

[tincan]

Had a true squib on my Henry Golden Boy 357. Blaming it on my ignorance and purchasing cheap ammo, Ammo Inc. Never again.

 

[H. Bowman]

Had a true squib on my Henry Golden Boy 357. Blaming it on my ignorance and purchasing cheap ammo, Ammo Inc. Never again.

Ouch, that one sucks.