Ooops! or - How did that hole get in the covered range roof?

[Catchem]

Well, I am all in favor of learning from other's mistakes, but I really don't get all that excited about publicizing my own. Here goes tho, in hopes it helps someone else.

I was out practicing with my 12 ga full choke flinter, when I decided, with a loaded shotgun, to adjust the clay pigeon thrower. The range is designed for modern guns, no slots to rest the barrel of a muzzle loader in. I think that I'm pretty safety conscious, I put the shotgun into a v-shaped corner of a nearby shooting bench. However, I missed by literally a 1/4 inch and the half-cocked lock fired when the hammer brushed past the bench top.

I'm one of those who doesn't believe in firearms 'accidents', it shouldn't have happened, and it did because I was careless.  The solution?  I've seen this before - A thin and fairly narrow plank with a block of wood on the underside to keep the plank from sliding away from me when put on the top of a shooting bench, a notch in the free edge of the plank, facing me, for the gun to rest in and a shooting box placed on top of the plank to keep it from rising up. Simple and effective. The hole in the roof?  Well, I was told by an officer of the club not to worry, its a heavily used police range with constant holes being put in the roof during rapid fire practice.  So, I have learned a second lesson - Avoid that range like the plague during rapid fire practice.

[Riley/MN]

Thanks Catchem - Always a good reminder that the most seasoned of us can error at times. Glad all that got punctured was the roof (& maybe yore pride, a little...)

[greyhunter]

A loaded gun has a mind of it's own. When I come in from hunting I "always " set my days gun in a small notch of my work bench. Until the one day I decided to lay it on an arm lawn chair. When I released the buckle on my one strap pack, you guessed it, it swung around and whacked my rifle to the concrete floor! Gawd that is a sickening sound! Rifle bouncing on a concrete floor. Glad you survived  pard, thanks for the heads up reminder!

[sse]

Thanks for the story...yet another reason for a percussion conversion...LOL  Just kiddin.

A loaded gun has a mind of it's own.

Yup, and sometimes the "unloaded" ones, too.

[Stormrider51]

Thanks for the story.  The range I use recently went to a "barrel horizontal and pointed downrange only" policy for that very reason.  When the range master told me this I said "How am I supposed to load?"  They made an exception for muzzleloaders but only during loading.  Once loaded it has to point downrange which makes sense.  One of the most basic firearm safety rules is "Never point a loaded gun at anything you aren't willing to destroy."  Range owners would rather you not destroy the roof, not to mention that the bullet you just fired is going to come down somewhere.

Storm