Stupid accident at the range this morning...

[Team American]

Didn't happen to me, thank God, but I saw the aftermath...

I shoot at an indoor range almost every Saturday morning, and there is usually a group of armed security guards (for Brinks, Wells Fargo, etc.) re-qualifying in the next bay. My shooting buddy, his wife, and I were halfway through our usual 150-200 rounds when we heard a yell from next door...looked over and saw an older guy grabbing his left hand and bleeding pretty badly...

The instructor packed paper towels around the wound, and the range officer called 911...Englewood Police, Fire and Rescue, and an ambulance crew were there pretty quickly.

We got the story from the instructor later...the older guy was shooting a 6-shot Colt revolver (didn't catch which model), and after firing 5 rounds, he thought it was empty ( )...he wrapped his left hand around the front of the cylinder and tried to open the latch...the hammer was cocked on a live chamber, and he had his finger ON THE TRIGGER...it fired, and the gasses escaping from the front of the cylinder pretty much took the fingertip pad off of his left index finger.

Needless to say, he didn't pass his qualifier...

[DefensiveCarry.com]

[buckeye .45]

One of the first rules any revolver shooter should know is "Don't put your hand in front of the cylinder." That goes way back to old blackpowder days and is still something that should be observed today.

Sounds like he had a bit of a brain fart.

[Ride4TheBrand]

Cocked AND trying to open the cylinder?
That's just plain stupid even if the weapon were empty.

[P95Carry]

Hmmm - hot super fast gasses = damage potential. As he found out. Not pleasant.

Glad OTOH he was not being even more careless and bringing muzzle around into an unsafe direction too - heaven knows what may have followed that!!

So easy to happen - but so very preventable.

he thought it was empty

As everyone says after the event.

[ccw9mm]

Yeah, putting the hand anywhere except on the grip when the gun's action isn't open can be risky. I'd hate to have any fingers near the front of the cylinder on a revolver, when firing.

LMFT:

1. Loaded -- A gun is always loaded.
2. Muzzle -- Do not point the muzzle at anything you're not prepared to destroy.
3. Finger -- Do not put the finger on the trigger or inside the trigger guard until you're ready to fire.
4. Target -- Know what your target is, as well as what is beyond it.

[Sheldon J]

40 years of shooting and I count every round, after the first few years it just became automatic, I hear bang and in my head I go 1, it's reflexive, I can tell you exactly how many round the BG on TV has shot regardless of how fast he fired. Too bad this guy could not count to 6.

[dr_cmg]

The problem is that in spite of being told to treat all firearms as though they are loaded people don't do it. The answer is always the same I thought it was empty. What part of "treat all firearms as though they are loaded" don't they understand. I never think a gun is empty even when I know it's empty. That way I check every time and I don't hurt myself nor anyone else.

[Bud White]

Thats not a accident thats stupidity

[steve-o]

What was he thinking?

[Blackeagle]

What was he thinking?

He obviously wasn't . . . and therein lies the problem.

[CopperKnight]

He must have gotten distracted. Why else would the gun be cocked?... perhaps because he was planning on pulling the trigger one more time?

Finger on the trigger? Probably done it this way every time, but this one bit him. The instructor/evaluator should be watching for such bad habits, unless he was just a scorekeeper.

[rocky]

That sucks, finger on the trigger is bad.

[lowflyer]

Thank God it wasn't worse.

[Captain Crunch]

I hope they never let this guy near a self-loading pistol.

If he can't handle a revolver......

[Citizen]

Let me try out an idea I've not seen mentioned elsewhere yet.

I don't practice safety because I believe in it. I practice safety because I decided a while back that I would never, ever have a negligent disharge. An intention, as opposed to a prediction of the future. Practicing safety is how I accomplish that decision.

As a youth, I received NRA safety training in Boy Scouts. "These are the rules. Always follow the rules. That way you don't get hurt or hurt somebody else." This of course led to trying to sort out the seeming contradictions. The ones you see people arguing over. For example, "Its not true that the gun is always loaded." I was following the rules because rules are rules. And, even though these rules are a very good idea, I was still following them as rules.

Then I saw the ND photos on TheGunZone website last year. I decided right then and there that I would never have an ND. It became my personal goal that it would never occur. Now, instead of "following the rules," I use the rules as procedures to accomplish my goal, to make my decision a reality.