not me....I couldn't have done this....

Frank Fusco

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12,782
Location
Mountain Home, Arkansas
Since childhood, I have been literally a nut case for safety with firearms. I've gotten many guys upset with me because I am so particular. If you are doing something unsafe with your firearm, I'm just no fun to be around. I have always been careful and it has proven to be a wise choice.
Yesterday, I got lucky. And, it was just luck that prevented an accident, and maybe tragedy. I got careless.
I have a Savage bolt action rifle in .243. Bought it for the wife to hunt deer. But, when I got it she said she was through hunting. She killed two the year before with her muzzle loader and was satisfied and had proven she was a hunter.
I never used the rifle but did sight it in and carried in my truck for feral dogs and coyotes. Never shot it again. Yesterday, I took out of the gun safe to clean up to sell. I brought it to the gun show but left in the truck. Later, at home, I cycled the bolt a couple times (with the muzzle pointed safely into the woods) and carried it to my work bench. When I cycled I made a point of looking into the chamber to make sure there wasn't a round in there.
At the bench, I disassembled it and when I did, two rounds fell out of the box magazine. I was really rattled. :eek: I had carried that with rounds in it and was not aware they were there. By my standards, that was a major class no-no. I am more than just a little angry with myself. I had failed to look down into the magazine. Major oversight. Apparently, the magazine doesn't feed properly and rounds I had put in a long time ago just stayed there.
Leaving for church in 1/2 and hour. Will add a little "thank you" to my prayers this a.m.
 
Yep, something like that can and will rattle a person that cares. Will cause you to look deeper from now on. The difference is, the person that doesn't care, they'll just shrug and forget it. Then the problem is bound to repeat itself with possibly bad consequences.
I know of being a pain with safety as I am also. Bought the girls single barrel 22's for their first guns. Then I knew how many they had left after shooting the target! Have a very good friend that skeet shoots with guys we all went to school with. Sounded like fun, one Sunday afternoon every month they get together. Buddies son tells me, "they really aren't good and after a couple of beers they are terrible". :eek: Never went. Buddy asked why, told him, they have never asked again and I never want to go.
 
Frank,
The good lord was looking after me once when I got careless with a rifle... as a teen I used to run around with 3 brothers, one of whom was in my grad class.. they were avid gun nuts and we generally always did some shooting... that was back when you could buy a box of .22's for about $2 or $3. They had an old pump .22 that could only be unloaded by jacking the shells out of the magazine... I was unloading after a day of shooting and was jacking the shells out... we were in the boys bedroom and the muzzle was pointed towards a wall, but just about the time I jacked the last shell, the middle brother stepped towards me and the gun fired... the bullet went between his arm and body... an inch either way and we would have had a disaster. Scared me to the point I just dropped the gun on the bed, and left... left my ammo and my gun and all... didn't go back out there for nearly a month. I don't own a gun today, I have no need for one. I do have a very healthy respect for guns and when my son was growning up, I taught him about guns and gun safety... never forgetting the fact I could have killed a very close friend. That was 50 years ago and still as vivid a memory as it was the day it happened.
Glad nothing happened in you case... hope nothing ever does...
 
Was elk hunting in Swan River canyon in Montana way back when. Bushwhacked down the mountain through very thick stuff with my buddy leading the way for the better part of 3 hours with the muzzle of his 7mm usually pointed close to somewhere on my anatomy. I'm worried. It's not loaded he says. Ok fine says I. We get down to camp and do a double check on the weapons. Turns out it had one in the chamber and the safety was off....all the way down that mountain, branches and twigs slapping us every second. Apparently not my time to go. You can never be too careful with things that can hurt you.
Hunting in Alaska I missed a huge moose because I had stopped carrying a round in the chamber when hunting with others and the sound of the action spooked him.
 
Quite the wake up call Frank. Glad that it had a happy ending. I was never raised with guns as my dad was in WW2 and had no use for guns after seeing what they could do to a person. My ex brother in law took me out with him shooting once and after 6 beers and watching him dive in a frozen lake for his 30-30 that he had dropped while crossing a icy plank pretty much cleared my head of any need to be around that idiot with a gun again. I did own a gun once when i lived up in Northern BC, a beautiful 30-06 Browning composite stalker, bolt action, My ex wife bought it for me but with me never hunting a day in my life it was quite the mystery as to why she bought it for me. Then she told me it was for protection in case of a burglar. Yea a bolt action is a great home protection gun!! Of course I ticked her off when I broke the gun down and hid it around the house as I we had two young very curious kids in the house. I got rid of it before an accident did happened. Bought a great fly fishing rod instead that fit the gun rack I use to have in my old truck. Of course right after i got rid of the gun I saw a grizzly walk down the street in front of my house and moose walk through our back yard. God works in mysterious ways. :thumb:
 
Well you were careful making sure nothing was in the chamber and that's the real blessing. Having 2 rounds in the magazine that is an oversight anyone can do and many have. Don't beat yourself up about it. Sometimes we need a little reminder that we are not perfect. Maybe a little wisdom and compassion when dealing with others oversights will gain you more respect then someone looking at you like, who do you think you are. Having strong principles when dealing with our guns is a good thing, learning to admonish someone who did something wrong takes wisdom as to how to address the issue as a learning statement.

Are you like the drill sgt. that whacks you upside the head when he sees you did something wrong or are you like the drill sgt. that kneels down on one knee and explains to you what you did wrong and the corrective measures to take to rectify your mistake.

Many times I have screwed up when I am alone and my trust in the Lord has carried me through many because I know he has my back.
I leave you with this: Lets be safe out there and watch each others backs.
 
i think that's why i was probably one of the most hated/respected range safety officers at a gun club i used to belong to. when we would open the range to hunters for sighting in, they would know it would be a no nonsense day of shooting when they saw me in my green capote (with the rso vest over it). not that i was a hard case or dictator mind you. as a black powder shooter, we're concerned first for safety, then getting the round ball down range. from the modern shooters i tolerated no errors, from the black powder shooters, even less (as they should already know better). if you screwed up with me, your day was over, period, no argument.
 
I was brought up with guns and have spent my whole like shooting. My Dad who was a Marine in WWll made me memorize and recite the Marine code of safety before he first taught me to shoot at age 5.
I used to hunt all the time when I was young. Got my first deer when I was 10. But something happened to me when my first child was born. I just couldn't bring myself to kill anything anymore. I don't have a problem with hunting or hunters, it's just not for me.
I love to shoot. I have a small range in my backyard for my pistols and rifles. I used to belong to a trap and skeet club and reloaded my own shells for the longest time.
I quit the club because so many members would have a few beers before shooting. It made me very nervous.

That was defiantly a "oh-my God" moment Frank. So many bad things could of happened. Thank the Lord.
 
don't get me wrong dave, i was one of the most approachable of the rso's. if someone looked like they were having a problem, i would ask if they needed help, and if they did, i'd help. there was one guy, down on one end of the range, having a devil of a time getting his rifle out of it's plastic container. turns out he wanted to shoot a muzzleloader, and bought one of the cheapest he could find. then he had troubles loading it, and putting the cap in it. well, i helped him again, and when he finally got his shot off, he said he didn't know that muzzleloaders were so hard to use. i said they weren't, that real muzzleloaders aren't inline, and don't have primers that look like they should be used in a cap gun. his were some sort of disk that you had to slide in, and it didn't want to go in half the time. real muzzleloaders used real black powder, that you poured down the barrel, not some sort of pellets that look like they fell out the backside of an oversized rabbit. i suggested that he take is $79 toy back to where he bought it, and get a real muzzleloader, and i would show him how to use it. he thanked me, and told me that his trying to stay with something familiar (inlines, and plastic stock), and the problems with this cheap gun, almost kept him from learning how to do it right.
 
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