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muzzle in safe direction


survivalshop

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While hunting Deer this year with my Remington 870 Super Mag, designated slug gun , I had a multifunction that caused the firearm to discharge with the safety on & nothing touching the trigger.

I put on a Magpul stock & forend on & did the test  firing & sighting in before I left & no problems .

This shot gun did have a trigger job about three years ago ( by a reputable trigger gunsmith )& that & the metallurgy of today's firearms probably caused the malfunction.

We were standing a the end of the drive that goes into camp & catching our breath & BAM ! My 870 went off , I had a single point sling on & was resting my arms on the butt of the stock & of course , the muzzle was pointing down & slightly to the rear of me .

The round ( an Hornady SST , sabot slug )made a nice hole into the ground & after looking my self over(my pants had not yet begun to smell ) I went into the cabin & got my cleaning cradle out & removed the trigger assembly .

The hammer sear was rounded off & all you had to do was tap the assembly & the hammer would drop .Not sure how the sear looks ,but it will be replaced also .

I see Brownells has all I need to make it better.

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Very fortunate situation, ss.  Very.  Firearms safety always pays off, as it did this time, too.  I can't imagine how much damage the SST slug could do to a human leg, man - damn glad that it went the way it did.  <thumbsup>

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They aren't "accidental" anymore than a drunk smashing a car into a minivan with a family in it is an "accident".

It is a negligent discharge from when people get to comfortable and carefree with firearms in their hands.

Keep it pointed in a safe direction.  When you start your plause' waving it around with your stupid fornicate finger on the trigger and get called on it, CHECK YOURSELF.  Don't come off with the standard lame-o excuse "It isn't loaded!"

Here's a whole store full of dumbshits and this guy has a dead child now, by his own stupid fornicate hand:  http://news.yahoo.com/police-boy-7-shot-death-pa-gun-store-200049283.html

Jon

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Yep it happens to us all I was 15 and going thru a barbed wire fence picked up the gun on the other side pointed it at the ground and boom, it was a Beretta golden lark semi auto shotgun and the round of number 4's missed my toes by less than 3 inches i will never forget that and still do not know what i did to get it to discharge but after that and till my dying day i unload and put it thru a fence today and then reload and check safety.... scares the poop out of ya...

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Just to reiterate, in ss's situation here, it was a mechanical-wear issue - mechanical failure...  <thumbsup>

And that alone, should remind all of us to stay on top of our equipment. Just more proof that "poop happens" even when it's beyond our control. We can build it....shoot it....clean it....repair it. But any of us can look right at something and maybe not see it. No exception. None of us. When it's a mechanical failure, it's totally out of your hands.

I agree with Robo. We all will have AD's. It's never intentional. That's why it's called accidental. We're just called lucky as long as nobody gets injured when it happens.

Just my opinion.

Ron

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    Jon, I respectfully have to disagree with you.

  I'v seen quite a number of guns that "accidently" discharged because of mechanical wear, someone who didn't know what they were doing working on them. or just plain bad parts, or a combination of conditions.

    One memorable occasion was a customer who brought in a brand new Win M490 .22 semi auto.

    Guy took it out to the range, loaded a clip, went to relese the bolt, and the gun fired the whole clip!!!

      Guy came in, still shaking!  I called Winchester, and soon after, Win recalled All the 490's because of out of speck parts.

    No one was hurt, because the guy was practicing safe gun handling, and the gun was pointed down range,  But I can say, AD's DO happen.

    Respectfully

    Terry

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Glad to hear you didnt get hurt, like said the last line of defense is to always point in a safe direction, I had my first (a doubletap) and hopefully last a while back. It was definitely my fault, I was test fitting a mag in a AK after grinding the rails to fit the first mag and did not realize the mag I grabbed had 2 rounds in it. The rifle was pointed up with the butt on the bench and the bottom facing me, was holding with my left hand by the top cover with the bolt locked open, inserted the mag a couple of times and released the bolt by accident when my left pinky finger was in the trigger guard. I sat there motionless for a good half hour, emptied every mag I owned, cleaned up and patched the hole in my new metal roof. I hope it never happens again. Always point in a safe direction. I was at independence firearms last week, a very large gun store near my house ( a bad thing) 5k guns in stock ( a very bad thing), and had 3 employees and a deputy sheriff who was working security for them all muzzle sweep me within 2 or 3 minutes!

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    Jon, I respectfully have to disagree with you.

  I'v seen quite a number of guns that "accidently" discharged because of mechanical wear, someone who didn't know what they were doing working on them. or just plain bad parts, or a combination of conditions.

    One memorable occasion was a customer who brought in a brand new Win M490 .22 semi auto.

    Guy took it out to the range, loaded a clip, went to relese the bolt, and the gun fired the whole clip!!!

      Guy came in, still shaking!  I called Winchester, and soon after, Win recalled All the 490's because of out of speck parts.

    No one was hurt, because the guy was practicing safe gun handling, and the gun was pointed down range,  But I can say, AD's DO happen.

    Respectfully

    Terry

I'll grant mechanical failure of the mechanism and have had one myself, and two due to stupidity on my part.  As I said in my first post on this thread, I'm glad survivalshop had it pointed in a safe direction.  Quite unlike the dad in the link I posted in my second post.

Safety mechanism or not, when the bullet slams into somebody and you get to watch them gasping like a fish or twitching like a rabbit for the last minutes of their life, it is negligence due to unsafe handling.

All 50 states have Negligent Homicide on the books.  Even in gun-liberal Arizona here, it is a CRIMINAL offense to point a firearm at any person without legal justification.  It doesn't matter if the firearm is loaded, unloaded, or temporarily inoperable.  A.R.S. 13

After teaching thousands of students, it is never the new shooting novice that doesn't follow the rules.  It is the braggard ex-military/law enforcement.  And while by God's grace it hasn't happened on my firing line yet, when they do shoot themselves or someone else, they always place the blame elsewhere.  The mechanism failed, the ammunition was out of spec, it was the case/holster. 

And when they get called on their unsafe practices you get excuses.  Oh my finger was off the trigger, it's unloaded, I'm out of ammo anyway.  Just like the dad's unloaded gun that he killed his son with.

texas30cal isn't kidding.  Any gunstore these days, nothing about safety. 

Jon

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If you shoot, you will eventually have an accidental discharge. I've AD'd twice that I can remember. I thank God that nothing bad came of those.

SS, glad you're back safe. How did you like using that Magpul furniture?

Most awesome set up I have ever used. I had five shots that day ( all ,but one ,were very long shots for a slug gun) &  all but two were off hand & the 870 came right up with near perfect scope alignment. I can't say enough of how much I liked the stock.

Everyone at camp were impressed with the new look & color , of course.

post-154-136297286645_thumb.jpg

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I'll grant mechanical failure of the mechanism and have had one myself, and two due to stupidity on my part.  As I said in my first post on this thread, I'm glad survivalshop had it pointed in a safe direction.  Quite unlike the dad in the link I posted in my second post.

Safety mechanism or not, when the bullet slams into somebody and you get to watch them gasping like a fish or twitching like a rabbit for the last minutes of their life, it is negligence due to unsafe handling.

All 50 states have Negligent Homicide on the books.  Even in gun-liberal Arizona here, it is a CRIMINAL offense to point a firearm at any person without legal justification.  It doesn't matter if the firearm is loaded, unloaded, or temporarily inoperable.  A.R.S. 13

After teaching thousands of students, it is never the new shooting novice that doesn't follow the rules.  It is the braggard ex-military/law enforcement.  And while by God's grace it hasn't happened on my firing line yet, when they do shoot themselves or someone else, they always place the blame elsewhere.  The mechanism failed, the ammunition was out of spec, it was the case/holster. 

And when they get called on their unsafe practices you get excuses.  Oh my finger was off the trigger, it's unloaded, I'm out of ammo anyway.  Just like the dad's unloaded gun that he killed his son with.

texas30cal isn't kidding.  Any gunstore these days, nothing about safety. 

Jon

The hammers sear ( its as far as I have looked ,until I get replacement parts ) failed & photo's will be taken & posted.

I can say the trigger job that was done to it , I'm sure contributed to the mechanical failure . I can assure you nothing was near the trigger & the safety was on .

The configuration of the FCG of an 870,1100,1187 only blocks the trigger from engaging the sear , to release the hammer , there is nothing to stop the hammer from falling onto the primer ,but the hammer sear , like AR's .

The lighter the trigger pull , the less the sears are engaged , just the way it is .

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