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I dropped my RIA 45 and....

15K views 73 replies 48 participants last post by  bluesteel 
#1 ·







If you don't believe a 1911 45 can fire from being dropped,It happened to me about 15 minutes ago,I was in the bathroom and as I pulled my shirt up to set my gun on the sink the shirt had got caught between the gun and my crossbreed holster as the shirt came up so did the gun and I watched it drop barrel first on my tiled concrete floor then I heard bang and thought OH DANG but with an S.My ears weren't ringing but there was a shunk of tile missing and a chip out of the edge of the bathtub,If you look at the picture you can see powder burns from the muzzle around the hole in the tile.I did get a small cut from shrapnel on my ankle and I had to put a band aid on it.I know the safety was engaged in the holster but i believe when the weapon was pulled from the holster and started to drop it was disengaged.Thank god nothing worse happened but the bullet was smashed flat and the copper jacket was in the tub and the lead was in the toilet.I gotta tighten up the retention on my holster and make sure i never get my shirt wedged between the gun and holster in the future.
 
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#7 ·
Very scary, and first I've ever heard of this happening (knew it was possible in theory).

Landed muzzle first? So inertia of the firing pin set it off? Wow. Glad you weren't hurt worse!
 
#8 ·
So what's up with the bloody towel over in the corner of the first pic? Band aid?

I did get a small cut from shrapnel on my ankle and I had to put a band aid on
Well, glad you're still alive to tell about it.
 
#9 ·
So what's up with the bloody towel over in the corner of the first pic? Band aid?



Well, glad you're still alive to tell about it.
That was toilet paper i was using to put pressure on the cut til i got a bandaid on it
 
#10 ·
Count yourself lucky that the bullet didn't do much worse!

Now think series 80 firing pin safety or something like such that will prevent this.

I've dropped my guns by accident or even better,, someone picked up my gun and somehow dropped it.

Ever see what a hydra-shok does to the human hand??

Another time..I thank God that my friend didn't pick up my DW .45
instead of my 10mm.

Again, we can all say silent prayers for you.
 
#57 ·
Yup



We are tiling ours next week. After, I would be better off "gettin real hurt" in a AD, than letting the tile get damaged---'cause Mrs. will finish what the gun didn't do.'

Seriously, glad you weren't seriously damaged. Tile can be replaced. You can't.

Always remember, put people before things.
 
#18 ·
The gun is good did a function test and everything works like it should,the barrel has a couple small nicks on the crown where concrete or something hit it
 
#19 ·
Ok dukalmighty, I think its time you take a break. That makes two freak accidents in the past couple of weeks. I don't want you to prove the old adage "Third time is the charm."

Glad your ok, though.
 
#20 ·
You're not kidding both with 2 different 45's the first one an overcharged case and the last round I had to shoot and now a dropped weapon with a discharge in my bathroom,dog didn't come out from under the bed til i showed her some pizza.
I keep looking at the diameter of the hole in the floor and it's over an inch in diameter,I guess that's why I carry a 45 but i'm not gonna put anymore holes In my bathroom floor with other calibres to do a comparison
 
#22 ·
Glad that you're OK. That's the most important thing always. :yup:

You had best install a heavier Wolff firing pin spring.

A heavier firing pin spring sure would have prevented an inertia FP discharge when the pistol was dropped from that short distance.

Yep, looks like your thumb safety was also in the Off Safe position when your pistol hit the floor.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You also need to do a complete step by step "function check" on that pistol.
 
#23 ·
Yep I already ran through all the safety checks trying to get hammer to drop,and I will get a new firing pin spring for both my 45's ASAP,I read about other 45's discharging but when you watch you're gun freefall and fire as soon as it impacts the floor it's surreal,due to my spinal cord injury I have abnormal feeling in my legs and first thing I noticed i got cut by shrapnel is when i saw the blood,then I started looking for any worse wounds, I have totally skinned my knee before and didn't know I was hurt til i saw blood coming through my pants.
 
#24 ·
I have seen some really light weight firing pin springs for 1911s.
In fact a have a couple of them saved just because I could not believe how light/weak they were.

One option is to get Titanium firing pins which are so light that they do not have enough mass/weight to detonate a primer in a muzzle drop.
I love Titanium but, just don't trust Titanium as a firing pin material.

I'd rather stay with a fairly heavy firing pin spring...which means that you need at least a full power mainspring in the mainspring housing.

The set-up that I am using on my carry guns is a full power plus mainspring.
A Titanium mainspring cap.
A Titanium hammer strut.
A slightly weight lightened "tool steel" rowell hammer.
A Wolff heavier firing pin spring.
A super high quality aftermarket firing pin.
A tool steel "machined from bar stock" sear.

Of course that negates the possibility of having a super duper lightweight trigger pull weight since they usually require a lighter mainspring (and light mainsprings plus heavy FP springs result in light primer strikes) but, I just want a crisp 4.5 or 5 # trigger on my carry .45s anyway. So the above combination works out great for me.

I also make sure that my thumb safeties have a very positive On/Off click.
No "mushy" thumb safety for me. :nono: When it's on it stays on and when I thumb it off it stays off.
 
#25 ·
I installed my ambi safety and it has positive on off stops,I just bought 2 new 18# recoil springs,but this is a RIA 1911 compact that discharged,I don't care for light triggers on carry guns as long as it's consistent and breaks crisp,I'm hoping new firing pin spring will solve the problem,that and tightening the retention on the holster up a little,to prevent dropping my gun again,I hope I can get the tile replaced before my wife sees it:ahhhhh:
 
#26 ·
You're one lucky dude. That could have gone a lot worse. I'm surprised the gun fired. Glad you are OK and no-one was injured.
Seems like we can never be too careful.
 
#28 ·
from what I could tell the gun jammed and i cleared it and sat it down there is no way the slide could of operated if thumb safety was engaged,due to way gun fired the slide never cycled all the way and the spent case wasn't ejected but the slide started to strip another round from mag.I'm positive the safety was on prior to incident and my shirt upon pulling gun out of holster when the gun dropped it pulled the safety off,but the impact of the barrel striking first propelled the firing pin forward,even with the thumb safety engaged gun would of fired but action would of remained closed with fired case in barrel.The gun hit just in front and to the side of my left foot,and I received a cut to my right ankle,and my blood is really red.
 
#34 ·
I know the safety was on,I had just come home and when I left the tv was on as I got out of the vehicle there was no tv light showing through the curtains so when I opened the door I drew and looked inside the house,my power had gone off turning off the tv then came back on but tv stayed off,when i reholstered is when I must have got my shirt between the gun and holsterand how I know the safety was engaged then about 1 minute later the incident happened.Like I have said before even had the safety been engaged pulling the bang switch isn't what fired the gun the firing pin inertia from the gun being dropped on a concrete floor from waist high and striking the barrel straight up and down caused the gun to fire,I've looked at the impact and it looks about as perfectly straight shot into the ground as you could get if you pushed the barrel against the floor and lined it straight up and down then shot,if the gun hit slightly crooked would it have discharged,maybe not due to force not being in a straight line,but i'm buying heavier firing pin springs for all my 1911 platforms
 
#33 ·
First, glad you are okay.

Second, if you learn from the experience it can't hurt you in the future.

You got lucky, just learn from the experience and move on. It's not a matter of if, but when for most who handle guns often and long enough.

Brownie
 
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