Funny thing happened at the indoor range…

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Was shooting last night with a couple buddies over at Center Target in Post Falls.

I was shooting my S&W SC1911 .45 (e-series). We were doing little friendly competitions and having fun:

1. "Okay. One-hand shoot with your weak hand. One round only at the 3" circle at 25'."
2. "Let's see if we can hit the big circle at 75'."
3. "7 rounds. No faster than one per second. One round per circle (on our target sheet with multiple circles. If you miss, too bad. Go to the next one."

Stuff like that. Went through over 200 rounds.

Then my gun fell apart.

We were doing a seven-shot competition (#3 above), but one handed. I was focused on the target and didn't notice the barrel link pin had somehow come loose.

Suddenly, the gun felt weird, like the front end was heavy, and I heard something hit the floor that was metallic but heavier than a casing.

I look at my gun and see the slide assembly far forward on the pistol, almost falling off.

I look at the floor and there's the barrel link pin.

I pull the slide all the way off and see a round in the chamber.

That was a first.

I called the RO over and we got a good chuckle over it. He suggested taking it to the staff gunsmith. I didn't think that was necessary. I mean, I could easily (and safely) remove the bushing to release the spring and pull the whole thing apart, all while still pointing it downrange; there was little to no danger of the firing pin hitting the round because the lower assembly with the hammer had been removed. But I always follow the RO directives and took it to the gunsmith.

He looked at me like I was an idiot and took it back to his room and came back in five seconds with it all disassembled and a look on his face that asked "are you this stupid all the time?"

No. Just when doing what I'm told.

I'm not sure how it happened that the pin got loose, but after 200 rounds I guess weird things can happen sometimes.

What's the strangest, and non-injury, thing that's happened to you while shooting?

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[Member 5605]

I blew the suppressor off the end of my rifle.

Lucky no damage but it ended up about 35 yards downrange of me. Everyone got a chuckle and carried on.

 

[thereddog]

I was out on the Lower Columbia years ago hunting divers with my buddy. We had a group of about 10 come bombing in on the deck doing a left to right cross over our deeks.

It was blowing about 30 kts and pushing them at about 75kts past us as a group.

I was shooting my old over under, and he was shooting his benelli SBE.

Double guns arent as long as semi's because the receiver on the semi takes up about 6 more inches, so overall, a semi is a longer firearm than a breech loader.


I was standing to his right about 3 feet away directly to his side when we mounted our shotguns. He was aiming at the lead bird and I was aiming at the last two in the group. (Our shot strings were crossing)

We shot and knocked a few down and he said, "hey why'd you push me?"

I said, "I didn't push you"

Then we looked at the front of his barrel. My shot had glanced off of the last inch of it and removed the vent rib to the point that it looked like a coat hanger that somebody'd try to jimmy a lock with.

I ended up buying him a new barrel. I was relieved nobody got hurt (cept for a few ducks.)