First, a little background history.
I have been an avid firearm owner since I was old enough to shoot my first .22 as a kid (9-10ish).
I was always taught, and practiced firearm safety, as one should.
As I got older, I have built up a good collection of guns and enjoy shooting, hunting and reloading.
Last night, I picked up a really nice used S&W M&P shield .45. The guy I bought it from gave me 2 loaded mags with the gun.
Once I got home, I headed to my workshop / reloading bench down in my basement to disassemble my "new to me" gun and give it a good cleaning like I always do with a new gun.
To disassemble this particular gun, you have to rack the slide all the way back, push the disassembly lever down, move the slide forward and pull the trigger to release the slide from the frame.
Guess what happened next? Yeah, unintentional discharge!
Scared the living shit out of me! Feeling like a complete dumbass, I wondered what had just happened!
Well, as I was heading down to the basement, a friend called and I was talking on the phone with him, mistake #1.
I had forgotten that I had the flush fit, loaded, 6 rd mag in the gun, which means I didn't do a safety check. Mistake #2 (cardinal rule broken!)
At least I did point the gun in a safe direction before pulling that trigger, and there was no damage to anything but my electronic scale which took the brunt of the bullet. (well maybe my pride was damaged a little too!)
This was a stupid mistake that, up to this point, I thought could / would NEVER happen to me because I'm usually more careful than this!
I have been an avid firearm owner since I was old enough to shoot my first .22 as a kid (9-10ish).
I was always taught, and practiced firearm safety, as one should.
As I got older, I have built up a good collection of guns and enjoy shooting, hunting and reloading.
Last night, I picked up a really nice used S&W M&P shield .45. The guy I bought it from gave me 2 loaded mags with the gun.
Once I got home, I headed to my workshop / reloading bench down in my basement to disassemble my "new to me" gun and give it a good cleaning like I always do with a new gun.
To disassemble this particular gun, you have to rack the slide all the way back, push the disassembly lever down, move the slide forward and pull the trigger to release the slide from the frame.
Guess what happened next? Yeah, unintentional discharge!
Scared the living shit out of me! Feeling like a complete dumbass, I wondered what had just happened!
Well, as I was heading down to the basement, a friend called and I was talking on the phone with him, mistake #1.
I had forgotten that I had the flush fit, loaded, 6 rd mag in the gun, which means I didn't do a safety check. Mistake #2 (cardinal rule broken!)
At least I did point the gun in a safe direction before pulling that trigger, and there was no damage to anything but my electronic scale which took the brunt of the bullet. (well maybe my pride was damaged a little too!)
This was a stupid mistake that, up to this point, I thought could / would NEVER happen to me because I'm usually more careful than this!