Pics Learned the Hard Way

[echo1]

Hi refugees,

Was at the range with my nephew teaching him how to handle an SKS and trying out my new-to-me Paratrooper, my 1st one. We both went through a mag then traded off SKSs. On his first attempt, he cycled a round, aimed and pulled the trigger...nada. Turned to me and said it didn't fire. I told him to engage the safety, and keep it pointed down range, cleared my weapon, then instructed him to point the rifle up and hand it to me, which he did. When I went to clear the bolt, I just touched the charge handle, the bolt moved and the hammer flew, a round went off, the bolt cycled and when it did it ripped my palm open with a 6" gash and blew a hole in the shed's roof. The line was hot and nobody saw. Back at the barn I did the SKS drop check, and it would let the hammer go 1 out of 5 times, poor sear engagement. I was able dress the sear to correct the issue but ended up having Murray do a trigger job on it. It wasn't REAL deep, I butterflied it. It was only my 2nd SKS (out of 50 eventually) and was a great learning experience. Looking at that first Paratrooper closely, I could see that even though it was numbers matching, the bolt face and hammer face were well worn. Since then I've checked all SKS purchases closely. It was this little guy. PAX

 

[Jon F]

I had an AD at a match during load and make ready, they are freaky. In my case it was a JP GMR-15 PCC. I inserted the mag, dropped the bolt and it slam-fired; just stood there frozen thinking “what the hell just happened?” After the obligatory walk of shame to the shack to process my DQ, I stripped the bolt to figure out what happened and the firing pin fell out in two pieces.

 

[Malibu]

Both of the above incidents are a good reminder of why we have Rule #2: “NEVER let the muzzle cover anything you are not willing to destroy”. In the first example, the person holding the weapon when it discharged was covering the ceiling of the structure they were under. In hindsight, a better move would have been to instruct the person who initially had the failure to fire to keep the weapon shouldered, and pointed down-range. The coach could have carefully cleared it while still in that position. It got dangerous when the coach took hold of it, and arched it up towards the ceiling. Now the muzzle was no longer pointed in a safe direction, and BOOM! Where did that bullet finally come to rest? Hopefully somewhere where it did no further damage. Remember that it has your bank account attached to it.
I offer this as a thinking point on how to clear weapons that malfunction for whatever reason. NOT as any kind of slam on the OP, and I thank him for posting it so we all can learn. Hopefully his wound heals quickly, the weapon is properly repaired, and we all take something from his incident.

 

[Tere_Hanges]

Scary. This is a really good reminder to keep a firearm pointed down range at all times when loaded, especially when there is a misfire. And not to try handing a firearm to someone else to troubleshoot it. Just keep it at the bench pointed down until someone more knowledgeable can come over to clear it.

This is probably why some ranges require you to unload and case up a firearm before handing it to someone else to shoot at a different bench.

Thanks for sharing OP. Sometimes, experienced folks can get a little lackadaisical, and that's when accidents happen. I try to always be 100% conscious of what I'm doing, it helps to slow down and think as much as possible.