When the unthinkable happens to you - self-inflicted gunshot wound

[Stomper]

You blew your godamn big toenail off too! lol, just kidding.

That's Uncle Fester to YOU, mister!!

 

[WWShooter]

It took a lot of balls to tell your story. Much respect. As someone who has introduced 4 people to shooting lately, I understand how our day-to-day interactions with firearms can become casual. As I was explaining basic gun safety rules to the new shooters, I realized that I don't always practice what I'm preaching. Good reminder to be alert and safety conscious at all times - especially when rushed.

 

[Cerberus Group]

Here's to a humble guy with a great attitude! May your recovery both physical and mental be as pain free as possible.

 

[Goosebrown]

Bless you bud for this write up. There's a gentleman wo did something similar and documented his recovery. I read his page every year with my wife and kids.

Accidents happen. I know it's popular (and right 99% of the time) to call it a negligent discharge, but it being negligent doesn't make it not an accident too.

Point is these things happen and the best way to remind yourself to take your time, think through what you want to do, and understand the dangers is to literally remind yourself regularly.

Your account should be pinned and we should all read it from time to time

I am really glad you are as ok as you are at this point and thank you again for sharing this

 

[RVTECH]

Ditto to all the positive responses to telling your story.
Many of us have shared stories of NDs but most not resulting in an injury so the effect is not the same.
No doubt some of us have known people who have experienced an injury from an ND but it really has an effect when heard in 'first person'.
I plan to 'step up' my own safety procedures when handling all firearms as your experience (while unfortunate) should influence a 'pinch test' if nothing more when hanldling or transporting firearms.
Heck just the other day I had a minor, incident while shooting my .45. While on the bench I was shooting at paper and counted seven shots fired and set the gun down. I looked at it right after and realized the slide was closed and the hammer back. I immediately performed a safety check and realized there was a round in the chamber - I was using an eight round mag in conjunction with seven round! A simple oversight but it was a 'wake up call'.

 

[v0lcom13sn0w]

heal up soon and be thankful it wasnt a 45!

 

[User 1234]

As an Air Force veteran like you I noticed the similarity with the AARs' consistent findings that at least three errors or hazards combine to cause the mishap. In your case was double the usual number, and you still kept your foot, so maybe it's time to buy a lottery ticket! If I ever accidentally shot myself in the foot there is one thing I would be extremely thankful to God for, and that is that my mistake caused me and not anyone else to get hit. Good luck with your healing.

 

[CLT65]

I'm not setting myself out as an example of anything except perhaps an arrogant fool.

Thank you for posting. You're beating yourself up pretty bad right now, but I doubt anyone here thinks you an arrogant fool; it takes a brave and humble person to post a mistake like that. It's a harsh reminder that it could happen to any one of us unless we stay diligent in our safety practices, each and every time.

there wasn't a single thing accidental about this. The proper term is negligent

I understand how you feel, and I don't mean to be contrary, but it's just a little pet peeve of mine. Grammatically, unless it was intentional it was an accident, caused by negligence: a negligent accident. I understand why some firearms instructors stress that "there are no accidents" (because that's no excuse), but it's just not true, either grammatically or practically. I think some people get confident and think they would never be negligent, but the reality is that accidents can happen to anyone, unless you're constantly diligent to avoid them. That's just the way I see it anyhow, no offense intended.

Thanks again for posting. I hope you heal up quickly.

 

[User 1234]

It is also ironic. The idiot in Houston who pointed the gun at his friend's head for a photo op didn't shoot himself (or his friend) but OP did.

 

[Howard1955]

Well, that's a good reminder for the rest of us. I hope you recover swiftly and completely.

 

[SynapticSilence]

heal up soon and be thankful it wasnt a 45!

I had already put my unloaded Walther PPQ .45 in my bag. Once I got calmed down, my first thought was exactly what you said.

 

[Fishonshawn]

With the size of your balls for sharing that story I'm surprised the bullet didnt go through one of them before hitting your foot. All jokes aside I'm glad you shared this story. Accidents happen. Complacency can be a killer. It's a good reminder for all of us that handle guns regularly to slow down a bit and really think about safety and how we are handling firearms.

Also I was super bummed that it was a CZ PCR that this happened with. I know the gun has nothing to do with it but my PCR is my main carry and my favorite to shoot. Im not gona lie, I felt a pang of betrayal when you said it was that gun. Weird.

 

[SynapticSilence]

As an Air Force veteran like you I noticed the similarity with the AARs' consistent findings that at least three errors or hazards combine to cause the mishap. In your case was double the usual number, and you still kept your foot, so maybe it's time to buy a lottery ticket! If I ever accidentally shot myself in the foot there is one thing I would be extremely thankful to God for, and that is that my mistake caused me and not anyone else to get hit. Good luck with your healing.

Yep. I was glad my wife was gone and none of the grandkids were in the house. I don't think I could ever recover from hurting someone else through my own lack of concentration or stupidity.

 

[SynapticSilence]

You blew your godamn big toenail off too! lol, just kidding.
Thanks for your well written testimony and warning to all gun folks.
Get all healed up soon!

Actually, the toenail loss was the result of a tragic negligent pair of too small running shoes.

 

[SynapticSilence]

Thank you for sharing. I wish you a quick and full recovery.

I am glad for you that the flutes of the solid copper 9mm Underwood 90 grain XTreme Defender bullets did not do the extensive damage that they advertised. I imagine that any decent expanding hollowpoint would have blown a larger hole out the bottom of your foot and caused more fragmentation damage as well.

I think that I will be switching back to HST soon.

The Underwood Ammo is designed to induce a large wound channel in soft tissue but allow penetration to FBI standards as well. The flutes cause massive cavitation in soft tissue. In bone and more dense tissue, however, the fact the bullet doesn't deform allows just the kind of barrier penetration it demonstrated through my ankle bones. So I think the injuries I suffered actually prove the bullet does what it claims to do, rather than refute it. That said, I would have much rather conducted the test in ballistic gelatin, not my left foot.

 

[SynapticSilence]

With the size of your balls for sharing that story I'm surprised the bullet didnt go through one of them before hitting your foot. All jokes aside I'm glad you shared this story. Accidents happen. Complacency can be a killer. It's a good reminder for all of us that handle guns regularly to slow down a bit and really think about safety and how we are handling firearms.

Also I was super bummed that it was a CZ PCR that this happened with. I know the gun has nothing to do with it but my PCR is my main carry and my favorite to shoot. Im not gona lie, I felt a pang of betrayal when you said it was that gun. Weird.

I was taking mine out for the first time. I've had several CZs over time but was happy to get the PCR. Hopefully the cops won't be dicks about returning it.

 

[Nick Burkhardt]

I am still glad for you that it was not an expanding bullet.

 

[bgdawgrr]

Oh bubblegum! Glad you are ok and suffered no permanent injuries or had any collateral damage.
Props to you for sharing your story. Always a great reminder to us all.
A couple of follow up questions:
1. Will the bones mend back or will it be kind of a soft spot forever?
2. Where is your safe? Top floor, basement, garage etc? Curious to where the bullet came to rest. Did it ricochet, go through the floor/ceiling, disintegrated on cement floor etc?

Best of luck in your recovery.
Thanks for sharing.

 

[mikemenzie]

Welcome, not much help with a place to shoot way up there but if your ever get to Grays Harbor (west of Olympia towards Westport) give me a shout.

Bless you bud for this write up. There's a gentleman wo did something similar and documented his recovery. I read his page every year with my wife and kids.

Accidents happen. I know it's popular (and right 99% of the time) to call it a negligent discharge, but it being negligent doesn't make it not an accident too.

Point is these things happen and the best way to remind yourself to take your time, think through what you want to do, and understand the dangers is to literally remind yourself regularly.

Your account should be pinned and we should all read it from time to time

I am really glad you are as ok as you are at this point and thank you again for sharing this

I don't mean this as a knock on you, because I'm sure you don't mean it quite how it sounds, bud. But yes the proper term is negligent, and no it's not an accident. Like the OP said, it was completely avoidable, and should have been. There is never a good reason even in our heads to soften the idea, and that's hugely important in avoiding becoming so comfortable that we let things slide with safety.

@SynapticSilence massive thanks and respect for the post.

I had a similar experience that through very little foresight of my own resulted in no injuries, and I think about it every single time I go out for a shoot.
My mother, aunt and I went to a shooting spot in the forest. Got set up. Mother was loading her .30-06 with reloaded ammunition she had purchased from a reputable dealer - mistake number 0.5.
Now, my mother and I are used to being alone when we shoot, so when we declared the range hot and called for ears on, saw my aunt by the truck, we moved on in prepping our firearms.
First mistake. I did not go over range safety rules with my aunt, because I was young and stupid, and I assumed she was familiar.

So while my mother loaded her rifle, I loaded one of my handguns, and we prepared to shoot. My mother called out that she was having trouble and I went over to check on her. She was having a lot of trouble closing the bolt on her rifle. I had her remove the cartridge and feed another. Same problem. I inspected on of the cartridges and compared to a storebought, and eyeball inspection looked good.
Second mistake. Again, young and stupid. I should have had her toss those rounds back in the range bag and wait until we could inspect them at home.

While I was looking over the rounds, she kept trying to chamber a round, and I had stopped paying attention to her - third mistake.

While we were messing with things, we removed our ear protection - fourth mistake.

Boom.

I looked up, my mother jumped about a foot. She managed to get the bolt to lock in, and as soon as it locked, the rifle went off. Her finger was nowhere near the trigger. After learning more about reloaded ammo, and inspecting the remaining rounds (we did NOT shoot any more of those, and returned them to the reloader) the primers were sticking out from the rear of the head of the brass. You might see in your reloading manual that this can cause unintended discharge due to pressure of the bolt face against the primer - I never knew what that meant before that day.

I immediately looked around to see where my aunt was, and make sure she wasn't stupid like us, and had her ears on. That's when I realized, while we were trying to figure out the ammo issue, my aunt had decided to go downrange and adjust one of the targets. The rifle had been pointed to the right of our target area, and my aunt had been to the left, just by chance or the intervention of God. She stood there staring at us, my mother was mortified, and all I could think of was how much I sucked.

I took the rifle from my mother, dropped mag and opened chamber, set it down, called my aunt and mother to the truck, and we had a good half hour "what the everloving heck had just happened and how stupid can 3 intelligent people be" conversation.

This was nearly 10 years ago or so. So many things could have gone so very wrong that day, and I still tell new shooters about it, when I take folks out. When I remind them for the 20th time to keep their finger out of the trigger well, or keep it pointed downrange, or not touch the firearm while range is cold, and they chuckle a bit, I tell them that story. Shooting ought to be an enjoyable experience, and it can be a ton of fun, but safety matters.

@SynapticSilence you are not alone, my friend. We all can make mistakes. The key is that we learn from them, and I have every confidence you will, just as you give others the benefit to learn from your experience. Mass respect for owning your situation.

-Mike

 

[UnionMillsNW]

It's not about how you fall down but about how you get back up. Thanks for sharing and speedy recovery!