Stoopid mistakes you made as a newbie gun person?

[CHLChris]

Alright, I'll start this off with my favorite. I decided to build an AR-15 a couple years into this gun-owning passion of mine I've only had for the last 10 years or so. I bought a Nikon M-223 1-4x scope to put on top.

I installed it perfectly and looked around my backyard with it. But when I dialed up the magnification everything got SMALLER! This junk must be broken and I called Nikon CS.

"Did you install it correctly?" Of course I did! What do you think, I'm an idiot? I look into the little end and the big end faces out, right?

"Uh, I'm sorry to say that you installed it backwards. Please let us know if you have any other problems." He said, without busting up. I guess I don't know everything...

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[308]

Cleared my AR at the range as usual, put it in the bag and drive home. Prior to putting it away in the safe I pulled the charging handle for one last safety check only to see a live round fly out of the chamber.

I learned to trust, but verify my safety measures that day. Everything is TRIPLE checked now and I have taught my wife and grandkids to do the same...always triple check.

 

[Joe13]

I have an idiot mark on a S&W 39-2 (1911 commander size gun) were I scratched the frame while putting the slide stop back in after cleaning it. Have been shooting it since I was 4 and it wasn't until I was in my 30's that I goofed up.

Thank goodness for all the neat new paints in a variety of colors; someday I'll have the gun tuned and colored.

 

[Joe13]

Another one I did was never get instruction on how to clean a Ruger Standard (Mark 1) so when I inherited it at 18 after each time out I would diligently clean the barrel bore.

Fast forward years later and who know how many rounds thru it and I want to take a friends kids and mine to a range.

Actually 2 things happened, the red dot on my Marlin 60ss kept going in and out (called on Monday and the guy asked, "did you make sure the tension tabs are out far enough to hold the battery in?", I said No, and that fixed that- not that it did any good on Sat at the range when it failed.

We went to iron sights and the kids had an ok time.

Took them over to the pistol range and the little Ruger just would not fire more then 2-3 at a time before we would see failure to feeds and all sorts of weirdness.

Went home unhappy and determined to get a gunsmith to fix the gun - Id learned on it at 4 and it's got a lot of history in it now.

Got bored one day and jumped on YouTube and watched a video of a 12 year old taking the gun apart (holy cow I didn't know the barrel came off!!! Yea, yea laugh it up).

I immediately grabbed the pistol and took it to my 'gun cleaning and maintenance' desk.

After about an hour and a half of useing a pick and solvent, I was able to get LOADS of old .22 powder that had turned to concrete out and started to get a feel for what 'clean' really means.


That old girl hums right thru a mag now without a hiccup and I didn't have to pay a gunsmith to tell me I'm an idiot at times (or at the least somewhat uneducated at time) lol. Felt like a champ that day it got clean!

 

[edslhead]

Bought my first auto pistol from 3 Bears guns. Was a Barreta Tomcat. Took it out to shoot, put the mag in...nothing. Couldn't get it to fire. I took it back to 3 Bears and told them my problem. He says, did you rack the slide? Well that was embarrassing

 

[CHLChris]

And another...

Early on, with my first handgun (gen 3 Glock 19), I felt the need to empty it every night, check the gun by pulling the trigger/rack/pull/rack/pull. Okay, all is good. Re-load the gun and put it into the gun safe under the bed.

One night I racked the slide, dropped the mag, and was just about the pull the trigger. Ahhhh Wrong order. Drop the mag, then rack the slide. I was so scared at that moment, even though nothing had gone wrong yet, it has been burned into me. I'd almost had a "bedroom pop!"

I almost reflexively check the chamber once or twice EVERY time I pull a trigger on an "empty" gun.

 

[Camelfilter]

...Everything is TRIPLE checked now and I have taught my wife and grandkids to do the same...always triple check.

Newbie here --- by "triple check" you mean: Triple rack, visual & feel. Yes?

 

[Joe13]

And another...

Early on, with my first handgun (gen 3 Glock 19), I felt the need to empty it every night, check the gun by pulling the trigger/rack/pull/rack/pull. Okay, all is good. Re-load the gun and put it into the gun safe under the bed.

One night I racked the slide, dropped the mag, and was just about the pull the trigger. Ahhhh Wrong order. Drop the mag, then rack the slide. I was so scared at that moment, even though nothing had gone wrong yet, it has been burned into me.

I almost reflexively check the chamber once or twice EVERY time I pull a trigger on an "empty" gun.

Was at a buddy's friends house when he gets up and says come took at this!

Went into his bedroom and he points out a hole going thru his beds headboard and you can see the light coming in from the hole.

I was kinda, uhhhhhh... As he says, Yea I was showing off my glock the other day and accidentally pulled the trigger.

9mm straight out of the house and luckily for all, straight into the ground and not hitting his neighbors house 6 feet away.

 

[308]

Newbie here --- by "triple check" you mean: Triple rack, visual & feel. Yes?

Yes.

 

[Joe13]

My dad was handed a 12ga hunting gun at a house when he was a younger man and by his friend.

First thing he does is pull the trigger and blast a hole in the ceiling and roof. At least he had proper muzzle control????

I guess they had a heated debate about what was stupider, handing a loaded gun to someone without saying it was loaded or pulling the trigger before checking for clear.

I've heard that story so many times I've never had even close to a ND in my whole life and plan to keep it that way.

 

[Camelfilter]

Yes.

Thanks! Just making sure I'm building good habits.

 

[Joe13]

Newbie here --- by "triple check" you mean: Triple rack, visual & feel. Yes?

I rack twice, and visual all mine. I've stopped feeling unless it's someone else's gun - I already know if it is or isn't loaded but reduncy is a good think I think.

Also, almost every gun I own is loaded so having a bullet pop out on the first rack is yet another indicator to me that the gun is now empty.

 

[etrain16]

One incident that comes to mind was a time I was helping show a newbie - newer than me, how to shoot. I was teaching them on a Ruger SP101 with .38 loads. We had worked on safety, handling, trigger finger discipline, etc. We loaded up some live rounds and I stood beside them as I talked them through their first shots. I told them to pull back the hammer for the shot, but as I looked up at the target, I failed to notice that instead of using their thumb to pull the hammer back, they had put their finger on the trigger and pulled it back, firing a shot into the ground a few feet in front of us. It was a simple misunderstanding, when I said hammer, they understood trigger, and since I took my eyes off of them, I missed it. As a newbie myself to training others at the time, I learned about keeping my eyes on their hands and learned to make sure folks understand what I mean when I use certain terms. Thankfully, nothing happened because the gun was pointed in a safe direction, but it startled us both, and certainly made us take a step back and gather ourselves before we proceeded again.

 

[2A2Dend]

My first hunting trip. I was 12 and packing my Winchester 94 30-30.
Walking through an area following a deer trail. Fresh tracks.
Not paying attention to anything, BUT the tracks.
When I bumped my head into something.
A Yellow Jacket nest near 24" across.

Wholly SHIZ....RUN!!

After getting a safe distance away, no bees. WHEW!!
But, where's my rifle?
It was stuck...barrel down in the ground. Under the bees nest!!
I was in no hurry to get it.

So, I walked back up to the truck.

About an hour or so later, dad come walking up. See anything?, he says.
Nope, I replied.
Where's your gun?, he says.

Umm, down there...as I pointed.
Why is it down there?, he asked.

I ran into a bees nest, and dropped it.
Go get it, he said.

I replied, nope, maybe later.

Was he ever mad at me.
He grumbled, and said he'd get it.
I replied, I hope you can. The bees are pissed.

He walked down there, I followed a ways, then I stopped.
He said, c'mon. I said, nope. It's right down there. Follow the trail. You'll see it.
Dad was pissed at me by then. He was spittin when he talked.

Dad found the gun stuck in the dirt, then saw the Yellow Jacket nest.
The bees were still swarmin, he says, as he come walkin back towards me.
C'mon, he says. Were not gettin that damn thing now.
We went back to the truck and had coffee and a snack.

Dad went back about 30 minutes later in full hooded Grundens and got my rifle.
The barrel was packed half full of dirt.
A vine maple branch cleaned it out good enough for the rest of the day.

I'll never forget that day. LOL

 

[Diamondback]

Shot myself in the arse... with an Airsoft 1911 I used for "handling training" while I was practicing the butt-forward Cavalry Draw favored by Wild Bill Hickock.

Safety was ON, but my trigger finger was stronger than the plastic. Rule reinforced: "Booger Hook OFF The Bang Switch!" Lesson learned, to the point that I incorporated a deliberate violation of that rule (again, with Airsoft *only*--I'm not reckless after all) to same effect into my instruction techniques... lessons taught with pain stick with us longer, after all.

 

[Brutus57]

Purchased a Siminov from a relative about 20 years ago. It came with 2 duckbill metal mags, and a sandwich bag of stripper clips (maybe 50 or 60)....well my .30-06, 12 ga. and bolt .22 didn't have stripper clips....so I chucked them! That's what happens when you have a firearm for 15 years before you think about shooting it.

Now, I am wishing I had stripper clips after looking at buying them at worth their weight in gold and the trouble folks have with the modern "Amazon" stuff!

Brutus Out

 

[DieselScout]

Two ND's on the same day, both flying safely down range. Both were from a friend's rifles and it became abundantly clear I was violating basic firearms rules. It was humbling and useful.

 

[F2CMaDMaXX]

I had decided to case my Wife's .270 before heading out for a big shooting day, but the 3-9x40 scope had to come off (not sure why, made sense at the time)

So sure enough, we get to rifle shooting and she asks me to put the scope back on so she can use it. I get it all together, hand her the rifle and leave her to it.

She gets some pretty good shots off, hitting her targets, all off-hand, but tells me she doesn't remember it being quite so hard to see the target downrange.

Boy did i look stupid when someone else in our group said, "er, that scope's on backwards...."

 

[robertg]

I had a Glock 21 on the shelf of my safe that had a loaded mag in it but nothing in the chamber. I kept it that way as a gun I might grab if I needed one while I was in the back of my house where the safe is. The rest of my pistols don't have mags in them and they are on a rack. I opened my safe for my 25 year old son and was showing him a rifle when he picked up the Glock when I wasn't looking, racked the slide, and fired a round into my safe. He wanted to check out the action of the trigger. Fortunately he was taught from a young age about always pointing the gun in a safe direction, unfortunately that was into the gun safe. He put a hole thru the shelf and the bullet bounced around in there and amazingly missed all of my guns.
Now I no longer keep loaded mags in any gun in my safe. Scared the crap out of both of us. That was the only negligent discharge I've ever had and I hope the last one.

 

[RVTECH]

I guess they had a heated debate about what was stupider, handing a loaded gun to someone without saying it was loaded or pulling the trigger before checking for clear.

Heard this debate so many times and it STILL does not make sense - A gun is ALWAYS loaded and it is up to the 'receiver' to check it. I Had a friend once hand me a loaded revolver and when he noticed the FIRST thing I did was to check it he said 'I know I can always trust you' - as he knew it was loaded and was watching very closely.