Hunting with an unsafe firearm

John Y Cannuck

John Y Cannuck

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This goes back a very long ways, I think I was about 16yrs old. I was hunting at a friends farm. He let me borrow his Lakefield Mossberg bolt action 410. We were after grouse and woodcock if I remember right.
He says, be careful with it, it's got a real sensitive trigger. If you bounce the butt on the ground it will go off.

About an hour into the hunt, a Woodcock flushes close to me. Fired, missed, rapidly worked the bolt. BOOM!
I was stunned by the noise and flash that occurred.
A shell exploded in the open chamber.
I had powder burned into my hand, I had ringing in my ears for weeks, it's lucky I wasn't blinded. BTW the shot stayed in the end of the shell.

What happened? It failed to eject the previous shell, and when the bolt picked up the next shell and it hit the back of the first, Kaboom!

If there is ANY question about the firearm you are about to shoot, JUST DON'T.
 
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We were hunting in Temagami. End of day we are grouping up to meet the boat. As we are desending the shore to get to the boat I hear a shot go off right above my head. Turned around to see what happened to find buddy behind me with a dumb look on his face and blood dripping from his hand. After an exchange of words he swears he only took of the safety to unload.

Back at the cottage I find out this was a new to him gun and he only shot 3 bullets before the hunt. I grab his gun to see what the heck is going on. After about 5 minites I start calling him a FN idiot for multiple reasons. Apparently he must have been playing with the trigger with the safety on during his time on the stand. The previous owner must have done a redneck trigger job. Pulling the trigger with the safety on released the sear but not the firing pin. Hence taking the safety off released the pin. Only saving grace was that he was pointing muzzel in a safe direction.

His hunt ended that day.
 
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Glad to say I haven't had anything like this happen to me. Worse I've had is 22lr out-of-battery in a 10/22. Fingers crossed it stays that way.

My buddy did get shot by another buddy last year though. We were jump shooting ducks on a small pond, and one of the ducks was wounded in the middle of the lake. My one buddy didn't see our other buddy across the water (he was wearing camo but I could clearly see him, my other friend swears he didn't see him) and shot the wounded duck. Shot ricochet'd off the water and a few pellets hit him. Not even enough energy to leave a mark, no torn clothes, nothing, but I guarantee my friend won't be hearing the end of this one for many years to come!
 
Bought a Winchester double barrel long ago, just because it was a Winchester. Seemed to work fine dry firing, but both barrels would go off with a live round.:redface:

Grizz
 
In "Man-Eaters of Kumaon" the author recounts how he wounded a tiger with his own rifle before running out of ammunition.

The animal being cornered behind a rock on a steep slope he decided it had to be finished off quickly, so he grabs a shotgun out of the hands of an Indian villager and runs up the slope for a close range shot.

"Don't do it!" shouts the villager.

"It's not safe!"

"You'll be killed!"

"Cowardly Peasant!" sneers the great white hunter.

He rounds the rock, the tiger crouches to spring, he brings up the shotgun and sees... the base of the shell plainly visible through the 3/8" gap between the bolt and the breech face.

The way he recounts the thoughts going through his head at this point are a lovely read.
 
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yomomma said:
We were hunting in Temagami. End of day we are grouping up to meet the boat. As we are desending the shore to get to the boat I hear a shot go off right above my head. Turned around to see what happened to find buddy behind me with a dumb look on his face and blood dripping from his hand. After an exchange of words he swears he only took of the safety to unload.

Back at the cottage I find out this was a new to him gun and he only shot 3 bullets before the hunt. I grab his gun to see what the heck is going on. After about 5 minites I start calling him a FN idiot for multiple reasons. Apparently he must have been playing with the trigger with the safety on during his time on the stand. The previous owner must have done a redneck trigger job. Pulling the trigger with the safety on released the sear but not the firing pin. Hence taking the safety off released the pin. Only saving grace was that he was pointing muzzel in a safe direction.

His hunt ended that day.
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I've had this happen to me at the range.
New to me old Winchester 69A.
Aim down the range with a cocked 69A.
Set the safety and pull the trigger.
Let the safety off and ker-pow.
Tried it again and the same results.
Found some parts and fixed it up.

Now any used firearm I purchase, I do this bit oh s'perimint.
Safety has to work properly.
 
Not unsafe gun, but unsafe hunters. Had a guy fire off a .243 walking behind me, just missed. Another time, buddy walking behind me had his 12ga go off, not sure how he missed me. I hunt mostly alone these days.
 
blargon said:
Not unsafe gun, but unsafe hunters. Had a guy fire off a .243 walking behind me, just missed. Another time, buddy walking behind me had his 12ga go off, not sure how he missed me. I hunt mostly alone these days.
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Jeez with friends like that I would hunt alone too! At least my friend MEANT to shoot, hes just blind apparently...
 
I once bought a like-new M70 Winchester push feed 300 Win Mag for about 1/3 what it was worth.
Owner said it was a dangerous rifle, and he just wanted to get rid of it. Told me it would fire without
touching the trigger. And he was right. very hairy situation.

"Bubba" had been working on the trigger, and had reduced the sear engagement to dangerous levels.
A few new trigger parts, and voila! Dandy rifle for very low cost. Dave.
 
Decades ago i bought a tube fed Weatherby .22 semi at a gun show . Don't recall how many rounds it held . Buddy and i took off to a gravel pit to shoot guns a few days later so i loaded the Weatherby , aimed , pulled the trigger and the gun emptied . Buddy offered me twice what i paid for it . Probably shot 4 boxes of ammo , all full auto . Another buddy had a model 100 Winchester .308 that did the same thing .
 
Jaaska said:
Decades ago i bought a tube fed Weatherby .22 semi at a gun show . Don't recall how many rounds it held . Buddy and i took off to a gravel pit to shoot guns a few days later so i loaded the Weatherby , aimed , pulled the trigger and the gun emptied . Buddy offered me twice what i paid for it . Probably shot 4 boxes of ammo , all full auto . Another buddy had a model 100 Winchester .308 that did the same thing .
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Grandpa's old gevarm .22 something similar if you didn't clean it in a long time shooting dirty winchester ammo and then shot target level loads out of it. I got a grouse one day like that.
 
I believe that the discharge on releasing safety issue was the basis for the massive recall of Remington M700.
Continues to this day.
Always wondered about the mental ability of folks who will pull the trigger on a live round just to see if the safety works.
Kind of reminds me of the folks you will see jumping up and down on the glass floor of the CN tower to see if it is strong enough.LOL
 
The closest I've ever been to an "unsafe" firearm has been when teaching some friends how to shoot and crack out the SKS. Now, I clean my stuff - especially since i do run corrosive, BUT slamfires are always potentially a thing. I just made it extra clear that when letting that charging handle go make sure they have a good grip on the rifle and pointing downrange.
 
thegunnut said:
I believe that the discharge on releasing safety issue was the basis for the massive recall of Remington M700.
Continues to this day.
Always wondered about the mental ability of folks who will pull the trigger on a live round just to see if the safety works.
Kind of reminds me of the folks you will see jumping up and down on the glass floor of the CN tower to see if it is strong enough.LOL
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Do tell, HITF does one otherwise check to see if it works or not?
 
Suther you post some dumb stuff but your reaction to a fellow hunter shooting someone has to take the cake. Unbelievable, I think you should put this as your signature so all the people you share your expertise with know what kind of source they’re dealing with.
 
I put a round through the living room floor last year. I was stupid to even have the thing loaded, no excuses aside from foolishness, I was checking if a new magazine would cycle properly and didn't have snapcaps in that caliber. Needless to say I will never put live ammunition in another firearm I don't intend to shoot. Protocol prevented tragedy, muzzle control is hands down the most important rule in the book. Whenever this incident crosses my mind, I thank my lucky stars that I had the sense to implement, at the very least, the steps taught in the course. Be careful gentlemen, machines can fail.
 
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