Confess your accidental discharge here:

[mdi]

Since this is an anonymous forum, I'll confess, my absolute stupidity that went against all gun handling rules. I have a Puma in 44 Magnum. I was trying a new bullet (Ranch Dog 265 RNFP.) because I had been having feeding problems with another style. I had loaded a few with low-medium loads of Blue Dot and wouldn't be able to get to the range soon so I put a few in the magazine. Working in my shop (a Tuff Shed) with the gun on it's left side on my bench I fed a few rounds watching through the ejection port. Three fed OK, but the fourth fired when I closed the lever. The cast bullet (about 12 BHN) went through a 3/4" plywood wall, across a 4' gap into the back of my house (mobile home.). The exterior wall is 1/2 plywood covered by aluminum siding. The bullet went through the exterior wall and an interior wall into my closet, through 3 shirts, through a sliding door, through a corner of an interior door, through a wall, through a decorative folding screen, through another interior wall, through a 1/2 wooden plaque, through another 1/4" panel an embedded in a 2x4 edgewise about an inch deep. Wasn't loud at all and I went outside and saw the holes in the shed and the house wall. My stomach sunk and I got a bit nauseous. I ran inside and surveyed the damage. Thank God my wife wasn't home not only because she might have been hurt, but I just barely survived when I explained all the holes in the house and if she was home I surely would have been in extra deep sh*!...

I have made dummies before and since my major mind fart, but I was kinda in a hurry to see if the ammo fed properly. Since then , 10 years ago, no live ammo goes in any gun's chamber when I'm not at the range (I do have HD weapons with loaded magazines, but none chambered)....

[Traffer]

OK, you asked for it:
At the age of 12 I dragged my mother down to Wards. I found a well balanced bolt action 410 single shot. I had hoped to buy a break action but they were too expensive. Got the bolt. Very nice shooting and handling gun. H O W E V E R There was one little flaw in it's design or build.
It had a thumb safety that went left and right in front of the bolt. The problem was that at about 1/2 to 3/4 of the way towards "safe" position it would "click" like it had clicked onto safe. NOT SO. It required going all the way over.
As I was very leary of this defect I developed a REALLY BAD HABIT of pointing the gun in a safe direction and trying to pull the trigger to "test" the safety.
Once hunting crows from my buddies 57 chev ...Loaded the gun in the car for a quick jump out an blast. (Illegal in Wisconsin) Hey I was 16 and broke a few laws OK?
Chambered a shell, clicked the safety, pulled the trigger BANG headliner was smoldering and a rather neat crowned hole through the top of the car. (just missed the dome light) .
Another time was even more near death.
Went hunting alone to a new place. Drove the car in an old path about 1/4 mile. Just enough that nobody could see the car from the road. Went out looking for rabbits. UNCONSCIOUSLY pulled that dam trigger as I was used to testing the safety. 2" from my right foot, again BANG. Had it hit my foot I would have probably bled to death there and they wouldn't have found my body for weeks.
Gave the gun to my brother many years ago. He was going to give it to his young nephew. I had to stop him and WARN him about that damn safety. Nobody uses that gun now.

[Rizzo]

I had just received my new digital trigger pull gauge and was so excited to test it out.
So, I grabbed my Ruger SP101 357 mag revolver and headed for the garage to test it.

Yep, you guessed it, the gun was loaded.
In my excitement I had failed to check it empty.
BAM!!, it scared the heck out of me and I immediately felt that sickening, nausea feeling.

Fortunately the bullet exited through the garage wall into a tree outside.

I hate screwing up but have come to realize that incidents like that burn in your brain such that it is unlikely to occur again.

Thanks to all who have shared their stories.

[Lakehouse2012]

I had just received my new digital trigger pull gauge and was so excited to test it out.
So, I grabbed my Ruger SP101 357 mag revolver and headed for the garage to test it.

Yep, you guessed it, the gun was loaded.
In my excitement I had failed to check it empty.
BAM!!, it scared the heck out of me and I immediately felt that sickening, nausea feeling.

Fortunately the bullet exited through the garage wall into a tree outside.

I hate screwing up but have come to realize that incidents like that burn in your brain such that it is unlikely to occur again.

Thanks to all who have shared their stories.

Did you get a read from your new scale at least?

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[Texas by God]

When dry firing becomes wet firing as in wet your pants? One of my shop Windows has a little 6 millimeter hole in it from testing the trigger pull on a loaded firearm!
After drilling gun safety into my children's heads when they were growing up, they sure get a lot of mileage out of this mishap.

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[dondiego]

Don't ever dry fire if two firearms are in the same room. It ruins TV's.

[marek313]

Don't ever dry fire if two firearms are in the same room. It ruins TV's.

I heard that if you dry fire it too much you go blind

[Sig556r]

Since this is an anonymous forum, I'll confess, ....

Big brother is always snooping...just not sure which one.

[Wayne Smith]

Right now my current experience is my flintlock with a double set trigger. It is set so light that I've frequently fired it before I intended which qualifies. Same thing with a Martini Model 3 22 that has a very light trigger. I tell people to just think about pulling the trigger and it will go off. Since my stupidity was back when I was a grad student I'll leave that alone.

[John McCorkle]

Oh all this just reinforces the cringe factor (read healthy respectful fear) of firearms and a renewed humility that "yes I am capable of making that mistake too"

By grace I have never had a ND but, it's not because I'm just too aware or practiced...and it's good for me to remember just how easy it is to be proud and think "it could never happen to me". Oh, it could absolutely happen to me....and this is a good thread to read and remember that many men way more experienced and mindful than me have made this mistake- I can too if I'm not always careful...always always always check!

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[fredj338]

The title should be changed to negligent, there are very few true accidental discharges. Knock on wood, in more than 400K rds downrange in 40y, never.

[sigep1764]

I was still living single with the current fiance as a girlfriend in her own house and I in my own. I was just back from a range trip and dismantling guns en masse as was my practice. (I have now adopted the one gun check, disassemble, and clean philosophy). It was a Kahr C9 9mm single stack pistol. I dropped the mag and mistakenly thought that I hadn't reloaded it when I was done at the range. I pulled the take down pin and pulled the trigger. (The proper procedure is to drop the mag, check the chamber, drop the slide, pull the trigger, pull the slide stop, and slide the slide off). BANG!!! I did not check the chamber. ****ing idiot. It was pointed down and away towards the wood floor. At first I thot a pop can exploded in the freezer but quickly realized as my below me neighbor (I live in an apartment) knocked on my door that the gun had fired. He was extremely nice about it. The boolit, an Accurate 358-120B, had gone through the floor (his ceiling), and landed neatly on top of his stereo speaker. He wanted nothing to do with the landlord, let alone the police. I patched the wood floor, and he patched his ceiling. He was arrested 4 weeks later for drugs. I was extremely lucky no one was injured and the boolit was pointed in a good direction. I was also lucky in his discretion. I now pull the magazine or bolt, check the chamber, and proceed as is necessary per gun, one at a time.

I also subscribe to the term Negligible Discharge. My experience was due to Negligence. Not inexperience, not ignorance, etc. It was an oversight of safety. It was entirely my fault, my process, my carelessness. Now that I have experienced it, I have high doubts that this will ever happen again.

[Bazoo]

I check a firearm, any firearm every time I handle it. The only exception is my carry gun, I don't have to check it as it's always loaded. It goes from holster to nightstand and back, with muzzle awareness always.

My buddy once lent me his Ruger SBH 44 mag. I didn't load 44 or have any cartridges in the house at all. But I still checked it every time I picked it up.

[popper]

Had an old single shot 22 given to me as a kid. Load the round, close the bolt, pull back on the firing pin knob, make sure it caught the annular groove in the firing pin before you release the nob. After a few 'I didn't pull the trigger' events, don't use anymore. Kinda the first 'striker' fired guns? Oh, yea AR10 with shoulder not pushed back far enough! Pointed at the ground and dropped the bolt. Big chunk of concrete gone. Had all kinda people on forums telling me it can't happen, bad gun, etc.

[jimb16]

Mine was on the shotgun range. Somehow a piece of shot managed to get itself into the action and prevented the sear from fully engaging. When I closed the action, the shotgun fired. But since I had it pointed down range (safe direction) no harm done. It left the range immediately to be disassembled and fixed!

[Texas by God]

A friend was explaining to his girlfriend about the grip safety, the thumb safety, and the magazine safety on my FN1922 .32 auto. He then proceeded to cripple my coffee table by shooting it in the leg. I was in the bathroom at the time. This man was a Veteran and competition shooter- a very apologetic and remorseful man.

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[Mica_Hiebert]

My closest was a not really an accident more negligent and a definite learning experience! It taught me alot! I was probably about 14 and I had an adult family friend I went bird hunting with several times a week. I kept my shotgun out in the shop and I religiously unloaded it every day when done hunting. I used to casually grab it and cycle the action and dry fire it usualy practicing my swing and lead on passing pigeons etc. One day I did it and swung it on my bird dog and when I racked the slide it sounded different, I paused and pointed it at a fence post instesd and Bang! Aparently I hadnt unloaded it the last time I had gone hunting. I had 2 rules of gun safety burned into my head that day! Treat every gun as if it where loaded and never point a firearm at any thing you dont intend to destroy. Stupid juvenile stunt almost cost me my bird dog who I loved and had trained for 2 years.

[44Blam]

I've got a CZ52 that had the firing pin worn and also the sear the blocks the hammer worn.
If you had a round in the chamber and decocked the gun it would fire about 20% of the time. We tested it...
I eventually replaced both the firing pin and the sear and the gun is "safe" (or as safe as an eastern block firearm can be). But one day in a competition, I accidentally decocked the gun in my holster because the RO asked me to make sure the safety was on... I flipped the safety and then it decocked - I about crapped my pants... Did not go off though.

[David2011]

I can confess to an accidental discharge and a negligent discharge. I bought a high end competition pistol that was slightly used, supposed to have had about 600 round run through it. At a Tuesday night PPC match I racked the slide at the "load and make ready" command and the gun fired. I know my finger was clear of the trigger. The boolit hit the ground safely about 15 feet down range. The hammer followed the slide and I was able to replicate it many times after I got home. A new trigger job fixed it and it has not happened again in 90,000 rounds.

The other time it was clearly my fault. I was in a hunting blind on a cold day, wearing gloves. When loading the rifle I closed the bolt with an open palm and my finger hit the trigger. Fortunately it was pointed in a safe direction but it was still very upsetting. I'm a state certified Hunter Ed instructor and that should never have happened after all the safety rules I've preached to countless students. It's a reminder that humans are fallible.

[303Guy]

Mine was closing the bolt on a chambered round with the trigger depressed on a Lee Enfield with a striker mounted safety. That's a heavy striker. The gun was pointed in a safe direction so no harm done. It was a very light load so ears didn't get hurt either.