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Negligent Discharge

Have you had an ND/AD

  • Yes

    Votes: 12 42.9%

  • Not Yet

    Votes: 16 57.1%
  • Total voters
    28
One ND I was present for happened the night before dove season. Guns were being checked over one last time. I sat on the ground reassembling my first shotgun. While my hunting partner cycled their old Sears & Roebuck. This gun had a habit of 'hording' the last shell. So three cycles layer it finaly gives up the last shell and sneaks it into the tube.

As soon as I heard the action catch the brass I started to turn around and got half way through, "HEY!" When we went deaf and a shower of what had once been china poured out of a neat hole in the cabinet.

That night I learned never turn your back to someone else while they are manipulating a potentially loaded gun, no matter how much older or experienced they might be.
 
In high school I was pheasant hunting on a steep slope facing down hill when the bird I was moving toward took to the air. I smoothly pressed off the safety as I shouldered the Remington 1100 skeet for the shot with my finger on the trigger, and that’s when my feet slipped out from under me on the wet leaves. I hit the ground and discharged beside my right foot chewing up a small bit of leather and a chunk out of the edge of the vibram sole. Lesson learned: shoot from a solid position. I have been shooting since age seven and have had negligent discharges and have been there for many by others. My opinion is that DISTRACTION is the root cause of almost all NGs, while very few are caused by malfunctioning weapons.
 
I had an ND and I learned don't unload while you are preoccupied or distracted. I racked the slide, then dropped the mag and then popped off a round dry firing. Second lesson was my wife was a couple feet from me, at least I remembered not to point it in the direction of a living thing. Lesson two always point in a safe direction when unloading and disassembling. There are two types of shooters those that have had an ND/AD and those that will have an ND/AD. I played that desk pop in my mind a million times and I could still see in my head that I dropped the mag first and then racked the slide.......But thats not what happened.
 
xdman said:
I had an ND and I learned don't unload while you are preoccupied or distracted. I racked the slide, then dropped the mag and then popped off a round dry firing. Second lesson was my wife was a couple feet from me, at least I remembered not to point it in the direction of a living thing. Lesson two always point in a safe direction when unloading and disassembling. There are two types of shooters those that have had an ND/AD and those that will have an ND/AD. I played that desk pop in my mind a million times and I could still see in my head that I dropped the mag first and then racked the slide.......But thats not what happened.
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Desk pop... sorry I couldn't help it.
 
I had a negligent discharge with my first gun back 25 years ago when I was trying to be safe by putting a trigger lock on my 870 express that happened to be loaded when the 3-1/2 magnum slug blasted off through my floor. That was a major eye opener for me and my parents who weren't too happy a gun went off in the house and also put a quarter sized hole through the hardwood. Fortunately nobody was injured except for my ego. From then on I've been a major advocate for safety, teaching people that clearing guns by racking multiple times and visually inspecting before doing anything with them along with the other obvious safety rules.
 
xdman said:
I had an ND and I learned don't unload while you are preoccupied or distracted. I racked the slide, then dropped the mag and then popped off a round dry firing. Second lesson was my wife was a couple feet from me, at least I remembered not to point it in the direction of a living thing. Lesson two always point in a safe direction when unloading and disassembling. There are two types of shooters those that have had an ND/AD and those that will have an ND/AD. I played that desk pop in my mind a million times and I could still see in my head that I dropped the mag first and then racked the slide.......But thats not what happened.
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My ND is exactly the same, my wife even swore i racked the slide. Luckly no one was hurt and nothing damaged besides the floor.
 
My Grandpa started teaching me about gun safety when I was very young. He instilled a healthy sense of paranoia from the beginning. That was many years ago and I still feel that paranoia every time I'm holding a loaded firearm. I've tried to instill that same sense of paranoia in my kids including my new daughter-in-law who is just now learning how to shoot. That said, while I've never had an accidental discharge, I have had one incident where I looked down at my deer gun (12 ga slug) to see that the safety had been bumped off after working my way through the woods. Sent a shiver down my spine. The message I give my kids is probably similar to what all of you have heard...whether a firearm is actually loaded or not is irrelevant. It's "always" loaded. Diligence regarding where your barrel is pointing, the position of your safety (if there is one), and where your finger is in relation to the trigger should always be top of mind.
 
I had a negligent discharge about 32 years ago, when I had purchased my Ruger Mark II target pistol. I was breaking it down to clean it, and had no magazine in place, and inspected the chamber, and it APPEARED empty to me. I couldn't get the main spring crazy contraption rotated out of the back without pulling the trigger to release the spring pressure, or so I thought anyway, so pointed it at a wall and pulled the trigger (which I now know is NOT good for a 22LR). If you have ever taken apart a Ruger Mark I through III, you know what I am talking about. Anyway, the gun went boom, the wife came running from the other end of the house, and there was a small hole in the sheetrock of a wall - nothing on the other side, which was the master bath, then a brick wall past that.

It was a learning lesson all around, and made me ultra cautious in all the years since then. That is the only unintentional discharge of my life, knock on wood.
 
I've witnessed a few and had one. Watched a friend shoot a round between his feet in the passenger seat of a car about 15 years ago. He was handed an unloaded pistol with a loaded mag in it, racked the slide to "test the trigger" and shot through the floor boards. That was dumb.

I had my one and only ND 6 years ago. I was shooting clays at dusk and had just finished my turn, as i was lowering the gun to my hip i touched one off. That one came with an adrenaline dump and rattled me a bit. I'm super safety conscience so it hurt the ego a bit.

Both instances are razor sharp in my memory and in both cases the gun was pointed in a safe direction. Biggest lesson for me was humility and how important it is to treat them like they are loaded. cliche for a reason.
 
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Not yet, and hopefully never.

I was nearby during two separate NDs [decades apart], and it still resonates with me to this day. Though both instances resulted in only property damage, there was a valuable lesson learned from these. I never pull the trigger on a firearm unless I am at the live fire range, or at home practicing dry fire exercises with snap caps. The only exception is during disassembly, as required. Note. These are my safe practices and ones that I pass along to my family.
 
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I had an AD at the range testing out my newly purchased used Colt Anaconda loaded with 44 magnum. I was firing it single action, and after about 4 rounds fired, cocked the hammer back and raised the revolver pointing towards the ceiling and close by to the right side of my head but still somewaht extended out in front of me down range. I never took my finger off the trigger and next thing I know, it goes off. Boy did I feel stupid. No one said anything and I don't even know if anyone saw what I did. Luckily, I was in the last shooting lane next to a cider-block wall that divided another 3 shooting lanes. The shot was angled somewhat down range but up towards the ceiling. I sure hope they had a good backstop up there that could stop a 44 mag slug.
 
xdman said:
I had an ND and I learned don't unload while you are preoccupied or distracted. I racked the slide, then dropped the mag and then popped off a round dry firing. Second lesson was my wife was a couple feet from me, at least I remembered not to point it in the direction of a living thing. Lesson two always point in a safe direction when unloading and disassembling. There are two types of shooters those that have had an ND/AD and those that will have an ND/AD. I played that desk pop in my mind a million times and I could still see in my head that I dropped the mag first and then racked the slide.......But thats not what happened.
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I have had something just like this happen. Now I always pay full attention to what I am doing.
 
Here's an interesting one that I don't feel was necessarily my fault, but an AD nonetheless. I had my Uberti 1873 Cattleman 45LC SSA revolver down at the indoor range firing Cowboy Action 45LC loads. After firing off a few rounds, I pull back the hammer, line up my sights at the target, and pull the trigger. The trigger is frozen, the Cylinder isn't aligned with the barrel and frozen, and the cylinder locking/take down pin seems like its coming forward out of the revolver. With my finger OFF the trigger and the gun pointed down range slightly angled to the left, I jiggle the pin trying to push it back into the revolver to its correct position. My left hand was doing this manipulation, so it was somewhat in front of the cylinder. Well after a few jiggles and pushing of the rod, the cylinder must of freed up, rotating into alingment and the hammer falls with my right hand firing finger nowhere near the trigger. Hot black grains of powder blow across my left hand & fingers. Shocked, I looked to make sure I still had a hand with fingers intact, which thankfully I did with no injuries. Well that revolver went right to the gunsmith who informed me that Uberti's were known to have weak springs holding the cylinder rod button in place. He swapped it out for a heavy duty spring and did some other work I wanted done with the grips. Well I haven't yet fired it again, but now I bring a rag with me to wad up and shove between the hammer and firing pin if this ever happens again.
 
Nothing yet, but that comes from an early start - I was on a rifle range starting around age ten, at a summer camp. It was there that I learned "never point a gun - loaded or not - at something you don't want to put a hole in", and "treat every gun as if it is loaded, all the time".

We have to pull the trigger on our XDs's to disassemble and clean, so hopefully we all VISUALLY INSPECT the firearm before that. I drop the mag (step 1); I rack the slide and catch the round before it can hit the ground (step 2). I put the round down, and set the slide on the catch (open), so I can visually inspect the chamber, rotate the gun so I can verify no mag, and in low-light I'll probe each with a fingertip quickly. Flip the lever, release the slide, point it at a wall (not out the window!), pull the trigger, and disassemble. Takes me about eight seconds to do it all, properly, and correctly.

Practice.
Practice.
Practice.

Use your EYES, and don't trust mechanical 'indicators' - always verify through direct contact with a round/empty chamber, or direct visual check of the round/chamber.

And don't EVER point a weapon at something you're not prepared to put a hole through, right then and there.

I actually carried my XDs the first couple of weeks, with a dummy round in the chamber - and checked it every single night to verify that nothing had "tripped" the trigger by dropping the mag, pointing it in a safe direction, and pulling the trigger. This is my first carry piece, and I was a little nervous at first about carrying "cocked and locked" so to speak. Now...it's 7+1 on my hip, every time, in my kydex IWB Alien holster.

Obviously, it had never tripped on its own.
 
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