This summer, I was out in the woods with buddy of mine shooting some guns. It started out horribly, as we originally started out with four of us, then the biggest butthead in our group(all four were buttheads) got us separated & we ended up shooting just in pair. At least both group had plenty of guns & ammo to shoot.
When we go shooting, we generally try out other guys firearms, too. The friend I ended up pairing with, he's never even owned a gun. Anyway, while we were both pretty annoyed when the other friend got us separated in two groups, that actually turned out to be a blessing in the disguise......
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| Last known pic of the gun still in one piece. |
It happened when I was shooting my go-to gun. It was a Heckler & Koch USP .45. I was having a pretty good time, then this happened:
For the record, debris in the photo may have been moved before the photo was taken. I recall us picking up handful of pieces in amazement, before realizing that I needed to take pics for evidence & examination.
Anyways, I said earlier that the group getting separated may have been a blessing in the disguise. All four of us would have shot this pistol. By ending up with just two of us, it lessened the odds of this accident happening to someone else. It happened to me; the owner of the gun, and the guy who brought in the ammo. That is the way it should have been, and also this way, I know for sure where the ammunition came from, and that the magazine was loaded properly, and the handgun was operated correctly. In hindsight, it helped me tremendously investigating into the cause of the accident.
I have not shot anything since. After the incident, I didn't know that if I ever even wanted to shoot again. I felt that, everything I had control over, I had handled 100% properly..... and still, something like this can happen to me? When the gun exploded, I was initially just dumbfounded. Then I was terrified that when I looked down & I'd be missing fingers, or find gun parts stuck in my body. Actual injuries were really minor. Tiny cut on my nose, blood blister & another tiny cut on my right hand. I sometime wear gloves while shooting, sometime not. SO glad I actually had gloves on, but still, few minutes later, I was seriously considering giving up on recreational shooting.
After picking up all the pieces of the gun off the ground for me, my friend finished up shooting I think couple more guns, and I think I just sat down going "WTF WTF WTF" until we were headed home. lol
This is a long story, but with a happy ending. Considering. I thought I was going to do one post on this, but me being really long-winded, I'm going to try to break it down like this.
- Part One: Catastrophic Failure - Kaboom
- Part Two: Examination - Investigation
- Part Three: Contact with Heckler & Koch & Ammunition Manufacturer
- Part Four: Conclusion
Having a gun blow up on you, I think the odds must be similar to winning the lottery. You hear about it, you may know someone who know a guy this happened to, but it's that rare. When it actually happened to me(lucky guy.....), I had no idea what to do. But I asked around, I did my research online. I received so much helpful information & feedback from people not just in real life, but also online. I hope my series of post on this become part of that support for other unlucky shooters who may go through similar accidents. Thank you for reading & I will take you through the examination process I went through trying to figure out the cause.
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