Ruger Forum banner

story of an AD

4K views 37 replies 17 participants last post by  magnum62 
#1 ·
Or---how my wife survived bein shot with a 45.

Back around 1997, the wife and I took a trip to visit her brother. Now he is a good feller and dang near a best bud as i was also the best man at his wedding. A certified "gun nut" is he. Has a good paying job and a large gun collection and tons of reloading equiptment and reloads. We were on vacation and the wife wanted to see him and i wanted to play with his collection. So after the 1st day there, he and i went to an outdoor range and had a good time shootin his kimbers, cz's, glocks, etc, etc. It was a good day! Went back to his apt and started to do the duty of cleaning. I got thru cleaning mine and he had just got thru cleaning his.

Something went very, very wrong. My brother-in-law inserted a loaded mag (Federal 230gr hydroshoks)into his kimber 1911 "custom royal" and the weapon went off.

At the deafening sound of the shot, my wife, who was standing about 10 ft away, cried out and went down. She was on the floor on her back and saying words that would make a sailor blush! And rightfully so. She had taken the round in the back of the leg just behind the knee joint. As luck would have it, it did not take out the joint itself but it did damage everything behind it including muscle, tendons, and ligaments.
O.K...................everything kicks in, 911 is called for an ambulance. I get towels and start applying pressure to the wound. Brother-in-law has put the kimber down and more in a state of shock.

P.D. gets there 1st of course to secure the scene for the ambulance since it was a shooting. I identified myself as a police officer and gave them my I.D. Ambulance gets there and hauls wife to the hospital. I get to stay there to answer questions for the P.D. with the brother-in-law.

The P.D. concluded it was an A.D. and did not seize the kimber. A sgt. did find the bullet. Seems that after it had exited, struck the floor and channeled under the carpet on the concrete for about 24". The sgt cut it out of the carpet and kept it. Turns out he had a private bullet collection goin on.(wife had actually wanted it to hang around her neck)

The remander of the vacation is of course shot to hell and back.( the "undertaker" was to wrestle in Dallas and i had talked the wife into going until this happened---never been to one of them big matches)

Wife eventually released from hospital and we had that long drive back home. To add insult to injury, the hot water heater had cratered while we were away and the whole house was flooded.

Hav'nt taken an out of town vacation since.

Brother in law to this day insists that the hammer chased the slide down and the kimber went off. I have since examined his kimber and could not make the hammer chase the slide down. A gunsmith also examined it and could find no wrong. I think that brother-in-law had a mental moment and thought he put in an empty mag, dropped the slide and pulled the trigger. I have seen a hammer chase down the slide on an old surplus 1911 before but it stopped on the safety notch.

Moral of the story, treat every gun as if it were loaded, experienced guys make mistakes, don't point a gun at anything you don't want shot, and anything mechanical can fail.
 
See less See more
#2 ·
Yep, most ADs are mistakes, or mental moments. Only with guns they can be tragic. Glad your wife is fine and you all have moved on. Hope she has forgiven her brother. I follow your moral of the story to the letter. Because of that, instead of shooting the dog, I almost shot my bathtub. Missed it by inches. But that's another story.
 
#3 ·
She is fine with everything and of course quickly forgave her brother. Does however get some pain at change of weather.
 
#4 ·
I dropped a loaded .30 cal Blackhawk and the hammer hits the floor and fired. The Bullet went in just above my knee and came out and stopped in my billfold. The copper jacket stayed in the muscle and worked out about a year later. I don't care whether you call them accidents, neglect, or whatever, they will happen, and when you think they can't happen to you, you had better look out. As was pointed out the best insurance against getting shot, or shooting someone else, is to always treat a gun as loaded and never point towards anything you don't want to shoot.
 
#5 ·
If I'd shot MY sister, I wouldn't be able to eat her cookin' for the rest of my natural life...she forgives better after she's gotten even...and she's good at gettin' even!!! Glad it was slight injury...that's the bad part about humans...oops comes with the package...
 
#6 ·
.30 cal blackhawk---guess it was an old model? Glad that you are o.k.

I have several AD stories from 20+ yrs(not at the range).
All of them have to deal with human error and not a mechanical failure.
Off the top of my head:
officer--1911 goes off while fighting a suspect
officer--1911 goes off and destroys a light bar
officer--colt trooper revolver goes off during a building search
officer--ruger p85 mkII goes off in a lieutant's office
officer--sks goes off in a parking lot
civilian-glock 21 goes off during disassembly and man shoots self

of these only the glock resulted in an injury.

One could say something about the quality of police training here but I'll pass on the obvious.
It can happen to anyone, anywhere, anytime.

Unfortunately there are probably more but these are just off the top of my head.
 
#8 ·
If you knew this feller you might not be too far off. I can detail that glock AD if you want to hear it.
 
#15 ·
Back around 1994 i think, i was dispatched along with another officer and an ambulance to a house in the city. The call came out that a man had shot himself accidently Reconized the house as i pulled up as a pd wan-a-be guy that i had known for a cpl of years. Trouble was he had been in and out of trouble for minor offenses. He always just hung around the edges so to speak and tried to act like a narc. Not very good at it. Info never proved to be credable.

Dispatch still had the victim on the phone and passed along his location to us on the radio. We made entry and found him on the floor on the phone in the living room. His response was something like "oh no, not you". He was holding a bloody hand on his but. I saw a glock with no mag laying by a rocker and secured it while the other officer made a security sweep of the house.

The ambulance hadn't made it there yet so i started talking to him to find out what had happened.
He told me that he had been shooting his glock 21 earlier in the day and decided it was time to clean it. So he just sat in his rocker and started the disassembly procedure on the glock.
Seems he removed the magazine but forgot to clear the chamber. So leaning forward in the rocker he pressed the muzzle just to the left of his crotch area and pulled the trigger to start the disassembly. Chambered round went off entering the upper most portion of his leg and exited the left buttock. The bullet (230 gr fmj) continued thru the seat of the padded rocker and into the floor. Not much damage to the bullet. Sure enough, there was a cleaning kit laying open by the rocker and a loaded mag by the kit.
He recovered and received a new nickname--hipshot. Turns out he also later got rid of the glock and got a revolver.
Just plain luck that nothing vital got struck.

Not to bash glocks but i always kind of thought it strange that a design requires one to pull a trigger for initial disassembly. Then again, any weapon should have a cleared chamber before disassembly.

These are the one-shot stops we never hear about.
My wife and "hipshot" both dropped with a hit to a non-vital area.

I do respect the 45!
 
#16 ·
quote:Originally posted by Bearhands

After reading this thread..... (sorry guys), but it just reinforces the "revolver vs semi" to me... And I am very happy your wife is ok.
Nothing wrong with a good wheelgun. I started with a revolver, of course back then autos were not allowed at the academy. Dang computers! Ain't this just like a coffee shop visit'n.
 
#18 ·
Glad she was OK.

I have one story to tell. Late one afternoon I was action testing my handy work on my S&W 625 with a full moon clip loaded with empty casings in my bedroom. Well, after being satisfied with the job I felt a bit drowsy and took a cat nap on the spot. When I awoke I went back to playing with the action, slowly working the trigger trying to reveal a rough spot I may have missed when BANG!, the pistol went off. Apparently while in a sleepy state I had loaded a clip of my defensive loads in the pistol. My off hand was cradling the side of the pistol, gas cutting a deep, laser-like incision in my middle finger with the gap leakage. Shocked, stunned, and momentarily deafened, I immediately took to surveying the damage. Luckily only a broken window and an impact in the neighbors lawn. That is a real eye opener. I was glad to at least have had the state of mind to keep the gun pointed in a safe direction. I never put empties in that thing again!
 
#19 ·
They are loud indoors ain't they? Seems even the best clean house will give up a small dust cloud when one is touched off inside.
Glad to hear of only slight injuries.
 
#23 ·
Well kansas, you know we'll all be here for you when the time is right. Can't hold these things in forever. Best to let it out, just stand up and start by repeating, "I, kansas45, had this happen to me a couple of weeks ago,I was just sitting there on the couch minding my own business when----: Now it's your turn.
 
#25 ·
Glad the wife is ok for sure. Wheel guns yep there is alot said for them.
I have something to share, I have a friend that likes guns but I don't trust him with guns. One reason he always puts his triger finger in the triger guard where the triger is when pulling back the slide. I have told him several times how dangerious that is to do that. So I got to the point when I am at his house and he wants to show me a gun I first ask him is it unlocded? If not then I go outside until it is.
The other day he was telling me that he had an AD. I asked him how it happened and he was telling me that he was letting the hammer down on a live round. I asked him why he was doing that. He said well you do it like that. He is right I do but as I told him I am left haved and the Browning I have is made for a right handed person.
Anyhow no one was hurt his wife was sure mad at him. And his wife and I have talked and I don't talk about how I carry my guns to him anymore. I just tell him I carry a 2 inche 38 sp. Of which I do most times. Its only five shots but I know where I can put those five shot also.
 
#26 ·
snuffy, I am real watchful around people I don't know when guns are involved. At the range, gun shops, even the PD station back when. I have had that "let me show you this" scenerio happen to me, I make them open the slide or cylinder before they hand the gun to me. Once I had a guy want to show me his new gun, and he couldn't figure how to get the cylinder open, on a Ruger Security Six. He kept pulling the release to the rear, when I took it away and opened the cylinder there were TWO live rounds in it. He bought it that way from another individual and never checked it. It's a wonder he didn't kill someone. After I made that comment to him, he had to go sit down for awhile. And I have left the range because of other shooters mishandling their weapons. Some people don't have their head in gear when it's needed most.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top