Dry Firing surprise....

[jdavis]

Not being able to go to the range in a while, I decided to dry fire a couple of my pistols. I have done this for years using snap caps to practice trigger control. All went well until I took out my bedside Beretta 92FS and removed the magazine and cleared the chamber. I reached down and inserted the snap cap and closed the action. I took aim at one of my usual "targets" which is a clay grecian urn planter about 30' down the hall. I checked the CT laser with my sights and squeezed the trigger. An instant later, a loud bang and pieces of the urn were flying about as the urn fell from it's stand. Smoke alarms screamed as I stood there stunned, my mind racing over the events leading up to the AD and wondering what my wife was going to say. With a moments lapse of concentration I had picked up the live round instead of the snap cap and chambered it! I have handled firearms safely for over 30 years but that meant nothing. I screwed up by not paying attention. Thank goodness that no one was at home.
Fearing that the bullet had passed through the urn and entered the wall into the kitchen, I went to examine the damage. Thankfully, the Federal HST +P bullet didn't make it through the 10" urn. The urn was 3/4" thick clay and filled a foam (similar to building insulating foam) used to contain the thick artificial plant stems. I gathered my wits as I cleaned up the mess looking for the bullet as I went but never found it. I looked for a ricochet hole but came up empty. Perhaps it shattered and and was vacuumed up with the other debris.
I opened the windows and turned up the ceiling fans to get the odor out before anyone came home. At that point I decided that I could cover my stupidity and the wife would never know.
I sprayed Lysol about and "happened" to be cleaning when my wife returned hoping that the scent would cover any lingering tell tale odor.
I explained that I had "knocked over" the urn and it had broken. What a shame, but I did promise to find a suitable replacement.
Lesson learned! NEVER DROP YOUR GUARD WHEN A FIREARM IS INVOLVED!
Double check everything. With my experience, I thought I was informed and cautious and "IT" would never happen to me. B.S., nobody is immune. I was lucky that no one was harmed (except the urn), but it could have been catastrophic.
Be careful and don't let something like this happen to you!

[Thunder71]

I agree, we're all human - you got very lucky.

I'm sure within minutes everyone will be coming in repeating everything you did wrong, but I'm glad you're OK and nobody was hurt.

[Kahrson]

Wow! That had to be frightening! Happy to hear no one was hurt. Beleive it or not I have shyed away from snap caps for this very reason. I know they are colored so as not to be confusing but I always thought it just introduced one more level of chance for something to go wrong just as it did for you.
None of us are infallible. We all can and all have made mistakes.

[WMD]

Ah yes...., you were struck by the "complacency" bug. Anyone who handles firearms a lot is subject to getting bitten by that particular big. You were fortunate. Glad no one was hurt (and you were able to cover up ). I was not so lucky. I put a 45acp round through the ceiling into the apartment upstairs. In addition, the muzzle was 18 inches from my ear. This happened in the early 90's. I still to this day hear a constant ringing in my ears from that incident.

I would be really curious about where the the bullet went however. Hard to beleive a clay pot stopped it. My 45 went through some serious wood before it finally lodged into another wall. Bullets upon impact, will deflect big time. Take a good 360 degree look around where the pot was hit. You may find the bullet!

[Kahrson]

Yea I was going to ask. How loud was it? I have forgotten to put my ear defenders on during the course of shooting out at the range. You know your shooting for awhile take a break and then decide to shoot again and forget your ear protection. Always a nice surprise

[bigbob68]

Crap happens! Sometimes in your pants.

[garyb]

THANKS for sharing. I dry fire practice nearly every day. I hear you loud and clear and appreciate the POWERFUL reminder. Glad you came out unscathed with wifey and no injuries nor significant damage. I was trained against using snap caps for this reason, so I triple verify EMPTY and leave live ammo in a draw of my bedroom upstairs while conducting dry fire practice in an entirely different area (basement) of the house - ALONE. This forces me to comply with a systematic process. You are 100% correct and I respect your input that this can happen to anyone. WE can never be too careful. This kind of story instills humility, so thanks for having the kahungas to share your story. God was looking out for you this time.

[REACT]

I was waiting for the punch line....

I explained that I had "knocked over" the urn and it had broken. What a shame, but I did promise to find a suitable replacement.

She says: "I understand about the urn, but what's wrong with the dog?"

Anyway, thanks for the reminder to remain ever vigilant around all firearms.

[JimBianchi]

I always wondered if I had an AD if I could hold it together and cover my butt?

You did well.

The abuse you will take online for shooting a planter is nothing compared to the beat-down a wife can dish out!

[wyntrout]

An urn... that's a lot cheaper than a TV... large screen or a refrigerator... or a chest-of-drawers... more common "targets".

I've heard from family and friends... at least 3 occurrences... of refrigerators... and I know personally of one chest-of-drawers, but I don't think that was my AD.

Maybe the urn was something you really wanted to "shoot or kill"... subconsciously, of course.

Thanks for sharing. We all need to be awake and aware, especially when handling firearms... and sharp instruments... and driving....

Wynn

[TheTman]

Thank God no one was injured. I am so cautious (paranoid?) when I dry fire, that if I set my gun down to go grab a pop or something, I have to check it again in case someone sneaked in and put a live round in the chamber.

[Jeremiah/Az]

We had a guy at an ATA trapshoot, looking at a shotgun inside a vendor's tent. He asked if he could mount it & pull the trigger. He reached in his shooting bag, which he still had on, for a snap cap. He put it in the gun, mounted it & pulled the trigger. BOOM! He had grabbed a live shell! The shot went thru the tent wall & by a miracle, did not hit anyone at a crowded trapshoot. He was banned for a year.

[jimbar]

Coulda been worse,.......that urn coulda had the remains of a loved one,......you would have some "splainin" to do.
Glad no one was hurt,....only your pride.

When I was a young lad, unloading my .22 auto, after ejecting the "last" round, I pointed at the floor, pulled the trigger, and BANG!, it hit the floor at a glance, went into my parents bedroom, and lodged in the wall just above the make-up dresser my mom used every day. If she had been sitting there,....well,....

[jlottmc]

At the risk of some fire, I'll tell you the same thing I told a cop friend of mine. We all drop guns no matter how careful, and eventually there will be an AD (or two, any more than that and you have a serious problem). I know of a shared wall in a duplex that had a solid copper hollow point go through one side, and not the other (that was embarrassing, wife was on the phone with my old man at the time, narrowly missed the tv) and a hole in a mobile home floor from a Hydrashok 45 fired from a certain cheap brand 1911. Both of them were all me, and both due to my lack of diligence. I had assumed and made an ass out of me. I do know of a dinning room chair that bought it (not mine, but I know who did it), same causes. Bottom line looks like this, great care and attention must be paid to firearms. The other thing that strikes me funny is that while I know some people who use the dog or a cat as a moving target to snap in on, I have not heard of anything but replaceable things taking fire. I suspect that this may be our sub-conscious making sure we really don't want to destroy the critters or people, but the furniture is ok. (FYI, I know I'm not the only one that does that with household critters.)

[melissa5]

I'm glad no one was hurt and that you were able to present it as just a broken urn. Knock on wood! I've never had an AD, but there have been a couple of times when I've dropped the mag and forgotten about racking the slide to clear the chamber. Thank God I wasn't about to practice dry firing! I usually aim at a red vase that's on the mantle or people on TV.