45-70 wound. . . . Wow!

[awaveritt]

Thought I'd share this email story that's going around. I trust the moderator to move this to the appropriate forum, as I wasn't sure where it belonged.

I cannot speak to the veracity of this story, I'm sending it to you in the form I received it. If true, HOLY %$^@ !!!!!! (SEE Attached PIC)

This guy and a buddy were sighting their rifles in. One of the guns was leaned up against the 4 wheeler he was standing on. The gun started to fall and I'm not sure if his buddy grabbed it, or something on the bike caught the trigger. Either way, he caught a 325 grain .45-70 round right under the collar bone. I think it goes with out being said, how lucky he is to still be here.

The big hole around his shoulder blade is where the bullet entered and it traveled under his skin and exited right there on his neck, above his spinal cord! Just goes to show that he truly is LUCKY! The ballistic tip mainly just burned the edges of the skin of the wound that you see in the picture.
He's getting better & better every day, last night he was even doing push ups!! He's finally able to use his arm again! Somehow it didn't hit anything major and basically ended up being a really bad flesh wound! It is truly a miracle that he is alive and not paralyzed!

Anyone care to share some first hand stories of firearm accidents or near-accidents? I know how easy it is to forget the awesome power of firearms when we get complacent. Y'all be careful out there and Merry Christmas!

[Hickory]

Rule # 1 all guns are dangerous
Rule # 2 all guns are loaded

[j20owner]

Where's the picture?

[1874Sharps]

That wound is incredible! So glad the shooting victim is doing better and survived.

I will tell you all about an exceedingly bazaar mishap I had about ten years back. My wife and I were on the road, traveling on a cross country back to Texas from Washington State and I had been driving for some time. It was in the early morning hours that I pulled off to the frontage road and into an improvised parking area where there were a couple of 18-wheelers doing the same thing. I reclined the driver seat and placed my 9mm Ruger P95 on my lap under a pillow and placed my hands on top of the pillow. The Ruger had been decocked with one in the tube for quick DA deployment in the unfortunate event the bandits would show up, and I drifted off to some much needed sleep. Now just the day before my wife and I had been having a great old time with some college friends of decades past in Southern Idaho. The gals did their thing and we guys did our thing: shooting at the range. It was a fun reunion and brought back many great memories of our times of hunting and shooting years ago. After about three hours of sleep I started dreaming about our time together on the range. My dream was much like the event of a day before. We were laughing and joking and then it was my turn to step up to the firing line and shoot my pistol. I fired a shot in my dream and suddenly woke up. After the cobwebs cleared a little and I came back to reality, I saw my wife's eyes looking like saucers. She told me, "You just fired your gun!!!" At first I thought to myself, "That just cannot be! She could not have had the same dream I just had!" Then I smelled that smell of burned smokeless powder and it started to become clear to me that I had just shot the Ruger that was in my lap. I jumped out of the car and started checking myself for holes, as my wife said she was OK. I broke out a flashlight after verifying that I was unscathed and searched the car. I found that I had shot the pistol downward toward the floorboards in my sleep. The bullet went through a plastic panel below the dash, clipped the edge of the fuse box and embedded in the floorboard. The bullet had passed between my knees and only by the grace of the good Lord did not hit me, praise be to him. Fortunately the shot did not disable the car, either. What did this teach me? It taught me that tactile touch can feed back into the central nervous system in the form of a dream and fuse together with it. I decided in the future I would sacrifice a little time in deploying a weapon in such a situation and keep the gun out of my touch. I have never heard of this kind of mishap before or since, so I am sure it is not a normal or usual type of accidental discharge. I just hope that by relating this incident to everyone I can benefit all of you by this experience.

[303Guy]

I have heard stories of people sleaping with a gun under the pillow shooting themselves! It was thought to be by accidently setting the gun off by nocturnal movement. Urban myth? Apparently not! It makes sense to me now.

One of the guns was leaned up against the 4 wheeler he was standing on.

A loaded gun with a closed breach while sighting in?

Rule No.3 Only close the breach when ready to fire!

Try leaving a rifle's breach closed on an official range under the control of a range officer and see what happens!

An incedent I had once. I closed the bolt onto a loaded round while holding the trigger depressed (so as to be 'uncocked'). The gun fired! At first I thought I boched it and must have pulled the trigger after closing the bolt. But no, close a bolt quickly enough with the trigger depressed and there is enough forward momentum of the firing pin to set off a primer! (Sometimes in some guns).

[PatMarlin]

Ouch-

I have been a sleep walker and talker all of my life. It was much worse when I was under stress, living in the city. I don't do it much at all anymore. I've hurt myself before- got up and slammed my head into a mirror trying to escape from who know's what in a dream. I've pulled out a loaded gun at night and woke up.

Now I don't keep em' chambered and decocked unless I am fully awake and ready to fire.

[Pitmaster]

Any chance this is photoshopped. Quite honestly something about the wound and the photo doesn't particularly look real to me. I find that with a wound that looks like that he would be sitting up. I can't picture that guy stretching his arm/shoulder as he appears to be doing. Notice his arm in front of his face. No doubt a wound from a 45-70 would hurt but I don't think someone would be sitting up like that.

There was an email going around awhile back about a guy shooting his foot. I received the email photo several times with the "incident" attributed to different shooting disciplines and scenarios.

[jdgabbard]

When I was in High School I had a buddy of mine (who was a few years older) who had a really bad accident. He and his good friend were out hunting in the mountains around southeastern Oklahoma. Yes we do have what we call mountains... After they had been out hunting for a while they decided to make the drive back into town. When they got there they both exited the vehicle and began retrieving their rifles that where stowed behind the seat in the truck. Well when my friend grabbed his rifle he laid his finger inside the trigger guard. When he went to pull the rifle out the buttstock hit on the cab of the car. And the 35win decided to go off. The round struck his good friend just below the collar bone in the front of the chest.

Jody immediately drove his friend to the hospital, and to the ER. And yes in towns such as this it is faster to drive to the ER instead of waiting on the ambulance. The man lived. But from what I hear he still has issues with his left arm.

[jdgabbard]

Any chance this is photoshopped. Quite honestly something about the wound and the photo doesn't particularly look real to me. I find that with a wound that looks like that he would be sitting up. I can't picture that guy stretching his arm/shoulder as he appears to be doing. Notice his arm in front of his face. No doubt a wound from a 45-70 would hurt but I don't think someone would be sitting up like that.

There was an email going around awhile back about a guy shooting his foot. I received the email photo several times with the "incident" attributed to different shooting disciplines and scenarios.

Here a while back there was a story about someone who had shot themselfs in the leg while unloading their pistol in his loading room. He was actually giving updates on his website. Forget who it was. But if you saw that wound it would suprise you at how much tissue damage there was from just a 45acp.

I'm not saying that photoshopping doesn't happen, or that changes in stories don't happen. But the fact that many of these stories have happened cannot be debated. Sure there are a few that are just nonsense. Sure there are a few that have changed little by little with each new posting and end up as a different story. But don't write it off just because you're unsure. It may very well be a true account.

[awaveritt]

Any chance this is photoshopped

Anything's possible in cyberspace, and as I said, I'm not sure. However, I wondered about the entrance wound being larger than the exit wound. Seems like they would be just the opposite in size. . .

[PatMarlin]

A local CHP killed himself up here on a deer hunt. Went to pull his rifle out of the back seat by the barrel and it fired. Hit him in the leg and he bled to death. Another CHP up here killed himself by pulling his service shotgun out of the patrol car. Shot himself in the head.

Actually, those are the only firearm related accidents I've heard of from these parts in 11 years. Both CHP cops, and both within a very short time from each other.

I remember the guy with the 45 going off in his basement. That was ugly.

[silverbuzzard]

that wound could in fact be entrance, if muzzle were close and any gas went in, even if not ,the wound can "blow back". I have shot deer close on the shoulder and had it happen
If this is legit, he should now be a Christian if he was not before.

Had a mishap coupel eyars ago. Brand new Ruger 45 auto unfamilar with it.
Was wiping down outside of it AFTER I checked condition by pulling slide back an inch.
I thought I was looking at the nickeled follower on the mag but was glancing at a 230 grain Remington nickel cased Golden Saber.
Thank God for good handling practices even if I made mistake visually.
I wiped gun and pointed it at my work bench and pulled double action.
Killed an old computer on the bench! Was really surprised by the lack of penetration
Went thru sidewall of unit and only dented the other side ,hit nothing in between
Have had one other brainfart in 50 years [ I am 57] of handling guns including handling them every day as a cop . Thanks again to the Lord, that time I was also pointing gun down and away.

[Deliverator]

Buddy of mine blew his pinkie off with a .40 Glock 23. He was attempting to remove the round from the chamber, pinched himself, flinched and the extractor hit the primer, sent an extremely deformed .40 S&W Federal HydraShock through his hand and sent pieces of it into the wall. Goes to show you, being "careful" not to lose or damage a round isn't as important as being careful not to let it discharge unintentionally. Buying more ammo is cheaper than buying a new hand.

[lwknight]

This one ins kinda funny in hind sight.
My grandfather was hunting in some rocky hills with the rifle in condition 1 in case he jumped a deer. He tripped and fell, dropping his rifle somehow and it went off.
He siad that there wqas blood all over his face and running down his neck with a burning sensation on his neck.

He felt fragments of bone in his forhead and a bone fragment in his neck. Or so he thought.
It turned out that the bullet hit a rock and embeddeb a small piece of rock in his forehead shin and on his neck was a piece of hot lead wrapped on the skin.

He was not seriously injured but, was wondering how he could be alive after being shot through the neck and the bullet coming out his head.

When we hunted, he never let me carry one in the pipe untill ther was a clear target.
A good rule to stay alive by.

[Crash_Corrigan]

I, according to my ex, am a sleepwalker. She loves to embarass me by telling the story of how I ended up in a closet and I was trying to find the john cover and then as I had closed the door behind me, I could not get out.

I keep my shooting iron in a holster, with a safety strap over the hammer across the room so I at least have my eyes open.

I really do not think anybody can sneak up on me as I have "Rambo" my attack trained Chihuahua to keep me safe 'on the alert' at all times.

[awaveritt]

Well, since I started this, I'll tell one on myself.

About 2 months ago I was firing my first batch of cast TL-356-124-2R out of my CZ-75B at an indoor range. I had apparently left a few primers high in the pocket so that when I had inserted a full magazine and released the slide to chamber a round, the bolt face slammed against the high primer causing the gun to discharge! Fortunately, my brain circuitry was following the embedded script of safe gun handling and the gun was harmlessly pointing downrange. Talk about a dose of adrenalin!

I immediately came home and inspected the rest of the rounds and have ramped up a closer inspection of loaded rounds as they leave my bench.

[HammerMTB]

2 incidents:
High school acquaintances were out hunting deer. One was using the scope across the hood of the truck. The other was sitting/kneeling below the front wheel.
From sitting, he rose in front of the shooter, who at that moment decided he had a shot.
The hunting round went back to front clear thru his head, killing him instantly.
There are more gun safety violations in that than fingers on my hands. It was a real sad hometown tragedy at the time, as both were high school seniors.

2. I was going to my gun room to clean my 19-2 S&W. It was my bedside gun at the time. Opened the cylinder, dumped the ammo in my hand, put it in my pocket, and closed the cylinder. As I passed by the picture window, drew a bead and "dry-fired". ND'd a round right thru the double-pane 4X8 window, into the garage roof.
The brass had a dent and didn't eject with the rest of the rounds. I did not count them as they left the cylinder.
Lesson learned. Thankfully no harm, other than an expensive window shot out.

[ghh3rd]

My ex's brother in law lost use of his left arm and has a massive scar on his shoulder below the collar bone. He climbed over a fence, reached over and pulled his hunting rifle over -- you can guess the rest.

[XWrench3]

i am not sure if that is a true story or not. the hole sizes look about right, but it is hard to believe that the damage to the tissue between the two points isnt more. if the bullet just skimmed accros the top, and did not enter the body, it may be right. the meat damage that was done to the deer i shot this year was way more substantial. but, i guess you never know.

[Lead Fred]

Rule # 1 all guns are dangerous
Rule # 2 all guns are loaded

Rule # 2 should be rule #1

Guns are only dangerous when the operator isnt obeying rule #1