Guns Not Going Bang Stories...

[Sparks2112]

If this needs moved then by all means...

Thought this would be an interesting topic. Anyone ever had a gun not fire when you really needed/wanted it to? Either through not loading it properly, keeping the safety on, broken firing pin, etc...

Just last night I went to shoot a scavenger bird that has been terrorizing my dad's rabbit population. I pulled the trigger on a Franchi LAW-12, and nothing happened. Turns out I had hit the magazine disconect on accident before attempting to chamber a round, so, one wasn't in the tube (Which really drove home for me practicing with ALL your equipment). The bird took off when it heard the click, and seemed to be mocking me as it flew away. :(

My Dad had a very young asian gentleman in black pajamas try to shoot him at close range with an AK-47. Gun went click and Dad then gave a practical demonstration as to why you should be able to clear a bad cartridge from your weapon before whoever you were trying to shoot figures out that you're there. Upon inspecting the cartridge the primer was dimpled, but either hadn't hit hard enough, or was a dud.

Have fun...

[grymster2007]

Gun went click and Dad then gave a practical demonstration

That was right polite of your dad! Was it a life altering lesson? :D

I had a squib in a 44 and numerous FTFs in 22s, but can't recall a click when a bang was a matter of some urgency!

[Sparks2112]

That was right polite of your dad! Was it a life altering lesson?

I'd say. It's funny though, to this day he can clear a bad cartridge from a weapon faster than almost anyone I've ever seen.

[bufordtjustice]

Back when I was in the Army I purchased a new Colt Combat Elite 1911. I carried in my car on occasion when I went on road trips, etc. I thought I was a real badass. I actually owned it for a couple of months before i got the chance to shoot it. I took it to the range, loaded it and pulled the trigger. It went click, and then went click again as I tried different rounds and magazines. Evidently, something was goofed up with the disconnector and it wouldn't fire at all. I still remember that "lesson".

[wuluf]

The bird took off when it heard the click, and seemed to be mocking me as it flew away.

Hmm, what kind of bird was it?

[lockedcj7]

I've had this happen many times but never when a human life was at stake. I've had countless duds over the years and several shotgun rounds where the primer went off, but not the powder.

Two memorable occasions:

One was while deer hunting. I had decided to take a small 4-point as a cull buck on some private land. I squeezed the trigger and... click. He looked right at me. I realized that I hadn't chambered a round after climbing into my stand. I was able to reach up and bolt the gun before he figured out what I was. He was acting really nervous and ready to run but I was able to make it happen.

Another time I was turkey hunting and had chambered a round, but the bolt wasn't all the way forward. The turkey jumped at the sound of the click but I was able to chamber a round before he spooked. When he stepped out from behind a tree, I nailed him.

When it really matters, I double and triple-check everything.

[Stevie-Ray]

I've had only a few clicks in several thousands of rounds of .45 ACP. As I remember it, it was mainly WWB or UMC. Never on one of my own reloads. One in particular was noticeable in that I discovered that I had no flinch.:D I'm sure that one would have been a perfect bullseye, also.;)

I've had only one in 9mm and it was out of a WWB valu-pak.:confused: Never had one in 10mm, .32ACP, .44mag or any of my rifles, and am only this year starting to have them in rimfire. Mostly Federal Bulk packs.

Never had one in any premium defense loads. And never when I needed it, though it could be said I've never really needed it. So far, though, the premium defense loads are rather comforting in their quality and consistency.

[dabigguns357]

I have had that happen twice and both while hunting.The first was while i was dove hunting in Alabama,looked up to see some dove flying over and pulled the trigger and all i heard was click and click again,forgot to even load the gun:mad:

The second was when i was hunting in West Virginia,we were out early in the morning hunting deer and hadn't seen anything till about 10am when all of a sudden 2 big doe came hauling tail by and stopped short of a fence about 75 yards down range from me,needless to say i pulled the trigger thinking bang but again all i heard was click and they were gone.Same thing again,forgot to load the dang gun.:eek::mad:Yea go ahead and laugh all my hunting buddies still laugh at me too.Now i check and double check,no more clicks for me.That and i now carry my 686 for back up:D

[cold dead hands]

Two instances that really stick in my mind...

When I owned my first gun I had a click when there should have been a boom. I must have loaded 9 rounds instead of the 10 rounds the gun is able to hold.

When the click came I almost panicked...my first gun and my first range trip and I have potentially dangerous squib load.

I waited out the the 30 seconds as advised on the box of ammo by about 5 minutes...nothing.

So I ever so gently pull the slide back to discover that the chamber was empty and the slide lock failed to engage.

This is the only time this gun did this to me.

Just one of those things I guess.

Next is the time that I first owned a 1911.

It was a Llama double stack Para Ordnance clone (series 80). Very rare. I still miss that one...

It was loaded and I pulled the trigger on the half cock to release the hammer and the hammer slipped from under my thumb.

The Hammer made a quick and powerful "thwack" on the firing pin.

The gun did not go off...much to my relief...but, when I dropped the mag and ejected the round I saw on very deep pit in the primer.

When I took the round to the range it went off as expected... thank god it wasn't ignited at the wrong time in the wrong place. An Officer's model .45 going off in a small apartment living room would have surely gotten me much more attention than I would have wanted.

The only damage I would have done with that round is some rug and concrete damage in a rental unit (the four rules are your friends), but it certainly instilled a new found respect for guns that I will never forget.

[rem870hunter]

other than about 15 remington thunderbolts in my nylon 77. no ftf. every firearm i have fired, even shooting handloads has fired when i pulled the trigger. none have had broken firing pins,forgot to load it or chamber a round. and i hopefully never will,because the moment i do will possibly be my first and last.

[Dwight55]

I don't recall any times it happened to me, . . . but one of my friends still frowns when someone hollers his name and does the fake gun thing up in the air with the thumb an forefinger and says, "Click".

He was bear hunting in Canada, . . . had not seen anything the first 4 days out, . . . on his last day, he took the gun his wife bought for him before he left as a present, . . . a bolt action 300 WinMag.

Normally, his 30-30 lever gun was his choice, . . . but figuring it might change his luck, . . . the took the bolt action. Yeah, . . . you guessed it, . . . he put the magazine in the thing, . . . forgot to load a round in the chamber. That afternoon, . . . the only bear he saw all week, came to his bait, . . . and the rest is history, . . . "Click".

May God bless,
Dwight

[James K]

I have seen several instances where people were depending on a gun/ammo combination that didn't work. Fortunately, none found out the hard way.

That is the reason I always tell anyone who intends to use a semi-auto for serious purposes to make sure it will fire at least consecutive 200 rounds with the carry magazine and carry ammunition, no malfunctions. Revolvers are less likely to have problems, but should be checked out also.

One guy I know practiced with cheap ammo and had no problems, but saved the expensive stuff for carry. When I finally persuaded him to fire some of the super (and super costly) ammo, he got four failures to feed out of a magazine. So saving money could actually be costly, in a way you might not like.

Jim

[Superhouse 15]

Had a friend, known around here as Musketeer, buy a nice Colt Delta Elite as a CCW. It had been worked on by a local gun plumber who had screwed up the series 80 safety. Everything worked on the gun, but the firing pin safety would not let the firing pin move forward.


If he reads this, he can comment on if he carried it before test-firing it.

[matthew temkin]

Opening day of deer season in 2006.
My bud pushes a nice buck my way and I get a 20 foot shot.
I shoulder my .308 and shoot--but nothing happens.
Thinking that the safety is on I try to push it off again and again nothing happens.
Later on I check my ammo and the primer is deeply dented--a dud round.

[grumpycoconut]

An old partner of mine once was forced to face a man with a 12" butcher's knife who was charging at him down a narrow hallway. He thumbed off the safety and pressed the trigger on his Series 80 1911 but nothing happened. Fortunately his partner was right behind him with a Glock 21 which performed as designed.

He had shot at the range earlier that shift and had no problems with his 1911. When the armorer stripped his pistol he found that the firing pin was in two pieces rendering the pistol inoperative. The firing pin must have snapped on the last round fired at the range.

This is not a 1911 bashing, merely an illustration that the god Murphy is omnipresent.

[alloy]

recently figured out that loading a 1911 with a closed slide takes more pressure than i thought. cycled the slide, click. waited 30 seconds or so(thought it was a missfire), checked breech, cycled again, click. look down, magazine is out about 1/8". gave it a good smack, and pinched my hand between mag and frame, drawing a little blood. now i understand what plastic mag bottoms are for.
not really an important event, just the firing range.

[ChewToy]

So, I'm at my very first USPSA competition with my brand new Glock 35.

I shot it a few times just to get the feel of it but never really practiced with it, and never loaded it with a full mag and with a round in the chamber allready. Needless to say this puts extra presure on the mag spring which can make the mag not lock into place if you don't push it in hard enough... I did the bang click dance abot three times that match and watched my full magazines fall onto the ground after the click each time.

I was so embarassed, and could not figure out what the fudge was going on...:o

[big_bang]

Not a FTF, but still no good:
I was hunting coyotes with my Savage combo gun. We were hunting some fairly deep cover, so I had the hammer selector set on the shotgun barrel. A yote popped up about 100 yards out and framed himself for a perfect shot through a hole in the trees. I got settled into the scope and was mentally prepared for a .223 round going off - instead I got a 3" buckshot load. Now my thumb subconsciously checks the hammer selector before every shot :)

[Jon-m]

I found this video of an Ar-50 misfiring.
This is a prime example of why you use the 30 second rule when it goes "click"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWnNkWO6moo

[armedandsafe]

I haven't had a ftf when I really needed it, but I remember having to tell a lad that he could stop pulling the trigger, once. Twenty year (about) Army vet and his furst time of having his target shoot back.

Pops

[BanjoGunner]

recently figured out that loading a 1911 with a closed slide takes more pressure than i thought. cycled the slide, click. waited 30 seconds or so(thought it was a missfire), checked breech, cycled again, click. look down, magazine is out about 1/8". gave it a good smack, and pinched my hand between mag and frame, drawing a little blood. now i understand what plastic mag bottoms are for.
not really an important event, just the firing range.

Had a similar problem with my Glock 17 at a combat pistol course recently. Got FTFs several times after speed reloads; multiple tap/racks wouldn't fix the FTFs, so I wound up dropping full magazines and loading new ones. As it turned out, I just wasn't tapping hard enough to seat the magazine, even on multiple attempts.

The good things are that I discovered this problem at a training course, it only happens when I reload under duress, and my speed reloading got much faster with all the practice I got trying to fix it.

[44Magnum]

Yeah, I always just slam those autoloader magazines in. It won't hurt the gun and seats in properly every time (so far).

Now that I've said that I'll probably get a FTF next outing because the magazine didn't seat. :rolleyes:

[raimius]

Nothing too serious, just one embarrassing moment.

I have had a few failures to seat the magazine properly (and forgot to do a chamber check). Click...?

There have been a few times when I've gotten nose high jams in a 1911, and one or two FTRBs. That was due to using wadcutters in a 1911 with weak springs.

The embarrassing one was at my first 3-gun competition. It was on the 4th or 5th stage. Pistol was last. I finished the shotgun targets, drew, aimed, pulled the trigger...and nothing happened, not even a click. Somewhere during this process the thought "my 1911 feels lighter than normal" rumbled around the back of my mind. When I realized the hammer had not dropped and my pistol felt lighter than normal, I was able to practice my speed (not re-)load. :o

[whiplash]

Just last weekend my son put the crosshairs on a doe, pulled the trigger, and click. Pulled the round out and found out there was no powder in the case. I, during reloading of our hunting ammo, missed the powder step. That doesnt happen very often. I just read this thread, and it got me thinking....what if that would have happend in my carry ammo on a bad guy? Just another reason maybe to not use reloads for carry??? We are all prone to human error......felt bad for my son. However, he put the crosshairs on another doe at 300yrds the next evening, one shot (.308Win), meat in the freezer...He said I am off the hook...

[devlin02]

I was 13 and elk hunting in Northern Arizona. I shot a nice 5x5 from around 230 yards. When my cousin and I made it to the spot where I thought he was hit I turned to see him staring me down from no more than 10 yards, bleeding and unhappy. I raised my Remington 7400 30-06 and pulled the trigger and heard the loudest, most horrific sound a gun can make.....click! As it turned out, the action hadn't cycled completely forward after I shot the first time.

I re-cycled it and ended up taking the bull, but for every hunt after that it's been nothing but bolt action for me!

[Stevie-Ray]

When the armorer stripped his pistol he found that the firing pin was in two pieces rendering the pistol inoperative. The firing pin must have snapped on the last round fired at the range.Very unsettling, and yet another reason I carry a BUG.

[scorpion_tyr]

Only time I've ever had a gun not go bang was firing my Tarus PT 92 AFS 9mm. I believe I was shooting Magtechs... but I can't be 100%... might have been Monarchs. I pulled the trigger, gun went click, stayed in position for a few more seconds... pulled the trigger again without ejecting the round or anything and it went BANG second time around. That's the ONLY problem I've ever had with any of my guns. (Note: The multiple problems with my Talon 100 don't count... I was young and dumb.)

[RedneckFur]

I've had quite a few .22lr's that had dead spots in their primer. I uasually rotate them 180 degrees and try again before throwing them out. I've even had a few that had dead primers.

In centerfire ammo, I've had to FTF's. one was a 20ga dove load when I was a kid. I was hunting with my dad. I brought the gun to my shoulder, pointed, pulled the trigger, and heard a pop-fizzle sound. I asked my dad what happend, and he told me to count to 30, then eject the shell. The shell had a dented primer, but never fired.

My second one was a .223. I was shooting it in my savage bolt gun. It kinda suprised me when it didnt go bang, but when i ejected the round, the primer was well dented. Just for the heck of it, I tried it one more time. Still didnt go bang.

[Ridge_Runner_5]

Wasnt in any danger or anything, but my GSG-5 had a couple Remington SubSonics fizzle in the chamber a week and a half ago...

[bds32]

The two loudest sounds you never want to hear

A click when you want to hear a bang and a bang when you want to hear a click.

I'm no stranger to the click sound, luckily though they've been few and far between. It's a good reminder to routinely check to see what you have in the chamber.

[test drive]

several years ago as i was headed home from work i saw a few poeple and a game warden standing on the side of the road where you turn to go to my house. i get out and walk over to take a look. someone had hit a deer. it could not get up and seemed to be in real pain.after moveing everyone back the warden pulled out his beretta 92 aimed and "click". :eek:you could see the "oh s##t" look on his face that said "what if this had been a for real moment"

[Tymah123]

Just this past weekend my and my girlfriend went to a shooting range and rented a Glock 17 just to see how it feels. After putting 20-25 rounds through it, she raised the gun and pulled the trigger. Nothing happened. I was watching the gun closely and I even saw how she jerked it down when she was pulling the trigger. When we extracted the cartridge it was already fired! I still can't understand how the gun cycled but didn't jam the spent cartridge with a new round and looked liked it was ready to be fired. Weird.... We did learn a good lesson from this incident: she jerks the gun down when she's pulling the trigger.

[Tymah123]

Just this past weekend my and my girlfriend went to a shooting range and rented a Glock 17 just to see how it feels. After putting 20-25 rounds through it, she raised the gun and pulled the trigger. Nothing happened and I was watching the gun closely, I even saw how she jerked it down when she was pulling the trigger. When we extracted the cartridge it was fired already! I still can't understand how the gun cycled but didn't jam the spent cartridge with a new round and looked liked it was ready to be fired. Weird.... We did learn a good lesson from this incident: she jerks the gun down when she's pulling the trigger.

We were using a mix of American Eagle and some homemade reloads we bought at the gun show. The gun had a full blown jam at the same session, at least we weren't surprised by the "click" that time, it was a textbook FTE. Lesson learned: saving $2 on a box of 50 rounds doesn't justify using unreliable reloads.

[Sulaco2]

Had a small .22 semi auto to Bang, but the sound was weird, magazine was partly ejected and the concussion stung the hand through the grips... Called a halt and pulled the magazine. .22 LR round had blown out the rim from an over loaded primer or weak spot. Never seen it ever again...

Pulled my duty Glock off my belt to clean it and at first could not figure out why I could not get the trigger to reset when I reloaded it. Found out the trigger return spring had BROKEN sitting in the holster. Gun would have been a single shot had I needed it!!

Ya just never know...:eek:



NRA Endowment Member

[alienbogey]

1. Elk hunting with a traditional muzzleloader, end of day went to fire it to clear the load (I don't like leaving it charged and uncapped overnight) and the cap popped. My buddy was really disgusted because we had agreed I had first shot that day. 5 caps later if fired, still not sure why, hasn't misfired since.

2. No-powder reload in a single action revolver. The primer pushes the bullet just far enough into the barrel to bind the cylinder.

3. Light primer strikes in a SAA which is going to the smith to fix.

A much more interesting one (though not first person).

> I attended a brief by a Russian pilot who defected in his Mig-29. He overpowered the guard (and got shot in the process), climbed into the Fulcrum and took off. Because he was REALLY mad at the Soviet government he cleaned up, got some knots and altitude, then returned for a strafing pass down the entire flight line. About 25 fighters were all parked in a row, he got them lined up in the gun site, squeezed the trigger and.....nothing - he'd forgotten the master arm switch. Because he was bleeding and worried about fuel and being interecepted he then hauled ass for Turkey rather than make another pass.

[Stevie-Ray]

I attended a brief by a Russian pilot who defected in his Mig-29. He overpowered the guard (and got shot in the process), climbed into the Fulcrum and took off. Because he was REALLY mad at the Soviet government he cleaned up, got some knots and altitude, then returned for a strafing pass down the entire flight line. About 25 fighters were all parked in a row, he got them lined up in the gun site, squeezed the trigger and.....nothing - he'd forgotten the master arm switch. Because he was bleeding and worried about fuel and being interecepted he then hauled ass for Turkey rather than make another pass.Interesting. I hadn't heard of this since the time of Viktor Belenko. I'll have to delve into this.

[troy_mclure]

i was 9, and it was my first hunt with a new side hammer percussion muzzleloader, a nice doe walking by last day of gun season 20m away, i pull the trigger and pop. the cap fires and the deer drops, then about 4 seconds later boom. after the deer had already dropped down the ridge of course.

after waiting 5hrs in a freezing sleet in a goose blind a large flock comes in low and slow, me and my dad both fire, pop, pop. the primer was just enough to push the wad out the barrel.
the whole box of winchester super x steels had no powder. we sent in the remaining shells to winchester and got a coupon for 5$ off a box of super x steels. ***! needless to say i dont buy winchester.

had 7 rds in one 30 rd mag ftf in a fire fight in iraq, but with the quality/lack of ammo we were getting over there it wasnt a big deal at the time.