The Firing Line Forums - View Single Post

dajowi · July 28, 2013, 04:23 PM

A gentleman arrived at our private club's indoor shooting range the other night during my scheduled stint as RSO.

He was shooting a Remington, (new model) .45. He was using his own reloaded ammunition.

During a lull we got to talking about the gun and he asked me If I wished to shoot it. Well..."hell ya". (One of the perks of being an RSO is everyone wants you to try their gun. So You get the opportunity to shoot WWII Lugers, diminutive Derringers, tack driver race guns, cowboy six shooters and anything you can imagine). It's great!

The gun is loaded with a full magazine and I start firing downrange. After the sixth round the slide is closed and locked tight. It will not budge.

We have rules on the firing line on how to handle a "hot" (loaded) malfunctioning firearm. One rule is that everyone stops shooting immediately and backs away from the firing line.

My personal rule of thumb is unless it's obvious that the shooter is unfamiliar with their firearm, the owner of the firearm in question "is the expert." So after attempting to clear the weapon by pulling the slide back without any luck I removed the magazine and handed the firearm to the owner. He attempted to lock the slide back by pulling it rearward and also failed. So he takes the pistol and with the muzzle pointed downward uses the edge of the table to force the slide back. When the slide locked back it ejected a brass case which fell to the floor. Picking up the extracted shell casing I noticed that the primer wasn't struck.

Before he could reload another magazine into the pistol I told him to check the barrel to make sure it was clear. (You know, just in case). It wasn't clear. A bullet was lodged in the barrel.

He had been shooting the same FMJ reloads through the gun without incident.

I'm still scratching my head trying to figure out what happened. But one thing is for sure - SAFE GUN HANDLING IS NO ACCIDENT.

July 28, 2013, 04:23 PM	#1
dajowi Senior Member Join Date: November 2, 2005 Posts: 1,196	One bullet away from disaster A gentleman arrived at our private club's indoor shooting range the other night during my scheduled stint as RSO. He was shooting a Remington, (new model) .45. He was using his own reloaded ammunition. During a lull we got to talking about the gun and he asked me If I wished to shoot it. Well..."hell ya". (One of the perks of being an RSO is everyone wants you to try their gun. So You get the opportunity to shoot WWII Lugers, diminutive Derringers, tack driver race guns, cowboy six shooters and anything you can imagine). It's great! The gun is loaded with a full magazine and I start firing downrange. After the sixth round the slide is closed and locked tight. It will not budge. We have rules on the firing line on how to handle a "hot" (loaded) malfunctioning firearm. One rule is that everyone stops shooting immediately and backs away from the firing line. My personal rule of thumb is unless it's obvious that the shooter is unfamiliar with their firearm, the owner of the firearm in question "is the expert." So after attempting to clear the weapon by pulling the slide back without any luck I removed the magazine and handed the firearm to the owner. He attempted to lock the slide back by pulling it rearward and also failed. So he takes the pistol and with the muzzle pointed downward uses the edge of the table to force the slide back. When the slide locked back it ejected a brass case which fell to the floor. Picking up the extracted shell casing I noticed that the primer wasn't struck. Before he could reload another magazine into the pistol I told him to check the barrel to make sure it was clear. (You know, just in case). It wasn't clear. A bullet was lodged in the barrel. He had been shooting the same FMJ reloads through the gun without incident. I'm still scratching my head trying to figure out what happened. But one thing is for sure - SAFE GUN HANDLING IS NO ACCIDENT.