I feel like an idiot.

Trade

Trade

Well-known Member
After reading about all these shootings I got my Walther PPK out and started playing with it. I took the mag out of course but I forgot that several days ago I had chambered a round. :oops: Long story short I now have a bullet hole in the 5 X 8 foot picture window that looks out on my back yard. So now I am one of those stupid yayhoos that I am always complaining about that shouldn't be allowed to own guns. :(

And I had to pay my back yard neighbor a visit and own up to the fact that I had accidentally fired a bullet in the direction of her house. :( She was real nice about it (It's Alabama and people are pretty chill about guns around here) and said there didn't appear to be any damage but I told her I would pay for any that might show up in the light of day. It was full dark when this happened. Theres a line of trees and heavy shrubbery on either side of the fence between our houses and the yards are big so I'm hoping it hit enough stuff to get spent before it got to her house. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

One thing I have learned in this life is that the best thing to do when you **** up is to own it right away.
 

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The Spousal Equivalent did that a few years ago while cleaning his rifle. He shot a hole in the ceiling AND up through the roof. We had to call the roofer to patch the plywood, the underlayment and the shingles. It cost a pretty penny.

Normally, he's the absolutely most careful gun owner in the world, but this time? I'm just glad he didn't shoot his head off.
 
Happened 50yrs ago. I lived in a mobile home I rented in a mobile home park. Had my Marlin .22cal rifle out.
Long story short, squeezed the trigger and out the living room window the round went.
I totally wasn't expecting that to happen.

Next, the round went straight through the door of the mobile home next door and clean out the other side of that mobile home.
Luckily the two guys who rented and lived there during the week when working in the area, weren't home.

Then the round went into the mobile home on the other side of them where the round lodged into a bedroom closet.
I worked with the guy that lived there with his wife and young child. That was also a rental mobile home.
They were home when the round entered their mobile home and the noise it made drew my workmates attention.

I fessed up to it. I offered to pay the workmate for any damages to anything in that closet.
He didn't accept any payment and thanked me for letting him know exactly what happened.
Forever after that, he was leery of me and never said much.
Can't say I blame him. I screwed up and his family could have been injured through my carelessness.

When the two guys next door got home that afternoon, they were examining the hole in the front door when I walked up.
I explained there was a hole in my living room window too !!! ... then I told them what happened. That it was I who put it there.
The .22 round went through their screen door, wooden door and out the other side of the mobile home without striking anything else.

The mobile home was a rental so they didn't want or demand any monetary compensation for the aeration of their dwelling.
Actually, they laughed about it and thanked me for letting them know exactly what happened rather than let it remain a mystery to them.

The whole careless thing scared the hell out of me. No negligent firearm discharges since. One was one too many.
 
I won’t judge you but I think that you are very lucky to have the kind of neighbors you have.
I’m sure the police would be at my door in ten minutes if a neighbor would ever hear a gun shot.
I don’t think that you are an idiot as a matter of fact I doubt if there are very many gun owners who haven’t learned a lesson the hard way, one way or another.
The lucky ones have the gun aimed more downward.
 
It's happened to me, too. A friend of mine was visiting from Britain, and she asked to see all my guns. One she was particularly interested in was my old S&W revolver. I was showing her how you hold it, because she asked, and I shot a hole in my hot water heater. 😖

I don't remember ever loading that thing...not since I was a kid, anyway. Fortunately, I held it well away from my friend, but her ears were ringing for quite a while afterward. (we were indoors)
 
When I was in HS, a friend of mine went duck hunting and got back in the truck without unloading the chamber of the shotgun. He propped it against the seat with the barrel pointing up, the gun went off and blew a hole in the top of his pickup. Not only that, but he had ringing in his ears for a while after. It could have ended much worse.
 
Naturally said:
squeezed the trigger and out the living room window the round went...straight through the door of the mobile home next door and clean out the other side of that mobile home...into the mobile home on the other side of them where the round lodged into a bedroom closet.
Click to expand...
Wow. I had no idea bullets were that powerful.
 
The Walther PPK is a very good pistol to conceal carry. I think it was James Bond’s choice of carry weapons.

I’m not one to chastise someone for making a mistake, but when misusing a firearm, it’s always possible to harm another person. Even if we harm a person by using a weapon by accident, we could still find ourself in a load of trouble and possibly doing time in the joint.

I’m sure you learned from it, so I will let it go at that. BTW, I think you did the right thing by fessing up in case there is a bullet hole somewhere in the neighbor’s property and the Sheriff does an investigation back to you. Kudos for doing that.
 
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I had a friend (since passed away) who was putting one of his guns away because his 8 year old twin grandkids were over. He had no idea or recollection of it being loaded.

It went off, passed through his bedroom wall and into the bedroom next door which he had set up as a playroom for the grands. And yes, you guessed it, hit one of the twins and it killed that poor child.

He would go every evening to that child’s grave and lay down on it, talking to his grandson for an hour or more. Sometimes he’d fall asleep there. He cried every visit.

He was never quite the same. Once vital and strong, he seemed to just wither away after that. He could never get past his guilt. He died several years later.
 
An accidental discharge is a big fear of mine and I am always overly cautious, even when I empty a gun I keep telling myself it's still loaded and handle with care. I taught my kids the same, every gun you handle or see is loaded.

When I was active in shooting sports I witnessed a good number of accidental discharges from seasoned shooters so know it can happen. Trade you were lucky, and so were your neighbors.
 
I have had a few similar things happen to me in the last year, but driving, not with a gun. So I am being extra careful as I drive, looking both ways twice at intersections, etc. As we get older we have to take extra care with dangerous things!

Yes, EVERY gun is considered loaded!
 

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