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True story, happened this weekend. We were out at my mother's house in the country for a weekend of just kicking back, shooting and fishing.

We have a good family friend living with us right now. He came along for this trip too. He's just down on his luck and is staying with us until he can get back on his feet again. We'll call this friend Koto. We also had another friend of the family down just for the weekend. We'll call him Poto for the sake of the story.

Koto is very much like a little brother to me. He's about 6 years younger and probably 10 years behind in maturity, but he's really a good guy and means well. Things just dont always turn out the way he intends because of his own lack of life experience. I really do look at him as a brother and would do almost anything for him.

Poto is like a twin brother. We were inseparable in our younger days and he's sharp as a tack. Invariably when I need advice this is the guy I turn to before anyone else.

So Poto is packing his bags for the trip home and Koto is talking to the wife. I decide to hit the head real quick before seeing my friend off. As I'm walking back up from the restroom at the far end of the house I can see Koto standing with his back to me and he's got his 12 gauge in his hand. He has it pointed up though like he's showing it to someone so I don't think anything about it.

Right about the time I walk up behind him I hear him say to Poto, "hey, what's the scariest sound in the world?"... I know the answer to this and was about to answer him but before I could he cycles a round in his shotgun and there's a deafening BOOM. I very briefly saw a flash of light...

I'm stunned for a few seconds from the shock of what just happened. I think to myself, "surely i'm dreaming... this didn't just happen? Did I just see this?" Right about that time the smell of gunpowder washes over me and Iook up at the ceiling and sure enough... there's daylight. My mom just got a new skylight...

I turn to look at my buddy holding the shotgun who has since turned to face me. He looks like what can only be described as the walking dead. The blood has entirely drained from his face and he's standing there speechless and a bit stunned himself.

I look at him then slowly look at the tree outside my mom's house clearly visible through her new skylight and then back at my buddy still not quite sure that I just saw what I saw. For all his faults this guy has always been one of the safest folks I've ever known around firearms. I quietly ask him, "Did what just happened really happen?"

He looks up at the hole in the roof and back at me and says, "Man, i'm so sooo sorry. It was unloaded. I just checked it and I swear it was unloaded." I can't help but smile a bit and without missing a beat say, "Well, that unloaded gun must not have gotten the memo on what unloaded means cause that hole in the roof seems to tell a different story."

He commences to cycling another round to show me it's unloaded. Afraid he's going to blow another hole in the roof, especially since he's now visibly shaking I ask him to please give me the gun and to sit down. I verify that the gun now does indeed meet the condition I generally term as "unloaded" and set it down out of the way and commence to look up at the hole again.

"Well, that certainly is an unexpected turn of events." is just about all I can manage to say as I stare at the hole. After a few minutes I look around and realize that my wife, koto and poto are all standing there staring at the hole as if none of us have ever seen a hole before. It was pretty amusing at that moment.

After a few minutes my friend departed and I had another conversation with my buddy. Luckily he has extensive experience with roofing and is now in the process of repairing the "skylight".

My mom wasn't there, at the time of the incident, but let me tell you she was none too pleased to see her oak tree from her living room from that particular angle. My buddy must have apologized more than a dozen times and he truly feels horrible about it. Truth be told I'm kind of glad it happened. It serves as a reminder to everyone that all guns are always loaded.

For the love of god though I still can't imagine what possessed my buddy to pull the trigger on that shotty even if he thought it was unloaded that was just an unnecessary risk.

For the record the standing joke has always been that the scariest sound in the world is that of a shotgun cycling a round, but I believe after this incident I will amend my answer to state it's the close and unexpected sound of a 12 gauge going off. My heart skipped a beat in that moment.

I thank Christ that the gun was at least pointed in a safe direction. If the muzzle had been down another foot when the round went off that 00 buck round would have sailed right into the room my daughter was playing in.

*notes: we were out in the boonies so no need to report an accidental discharge.
The gun appears to function normally. My buddy actually pulled the trigger for some unknown reason so there is nothing to indicate that there was a malfunction in the gun, only in the operator :)

Yet another reminder that the most dangerous thing in the world is an "unloaded" gun. They kill dozens of people every year.

Just thought i'd share the story.

wow, glad he hadn't pointed it at anyone...

WOW

That's all I can say... just wow!

Doug

LedJedi wrote:Yet another reminder that the most dangerous thing in the world is an "unloaded" gun. They kill dozens of people every year. Just thought i'd share the story.

Thanks for the post. This post is a potent reminder that the most dangerous thing is an untrained/unsafe person handling an "unloaded gun". There are several lessons here that we may be able to learn from this post.

First of all, I am surprised that this situation doesn't happen more often. Many people on this forum have stated that they have various loaded weapons throughout their homes. These people and their family members are, presumingly, aware that the weapons are ready for use and that they are properly trained. Obviously, people who have children living in the house have to take more precautions so that their children and their children's friends don't have access to guns.

My point is that adults can be just as dangerous. While at a friend's or relative's house I would never pick up a gun that did not belong to me. Unfortunately, some people don't have that self restraint. We all have "Kotos" in our lives. I hope that we can all learn something from LedJedi's story and prevent a future tradegy.

So can you actually hear again yet?

Great story, thanks for sharing. Might copy and paste and send it to some folks as a reminder if you don't mind me stealing your work.

austinrealtor wrote:So can you actually hear again yet?

Great story, thanks for sharing. Might copy and paste and send it to some folks as a reminder if you don't mind me stealing your work.

go for it man. that's exactly the reason I posted the story.

sounds like you guys know how to party

I was at a gun show last month and I watched a guy pick up a pistol, immediately put his finger on the trigger and sight down the length of the barrel. Then he proceeds to pull the trigger 3 or 4 times and he never checked the gun. Now granted the gun was tie wrapped but still. My eyes got big as saucers wondering what it was like around his house.

In my time I have seen one auto pistol (Ruger .22 MKII) and one tubular magazine (12ga Remington shotgun) exhibit an EXTREMELY dangerous habit of having a shell lodge in the magazine. When this happens, especially on a 12ga it is VERY easy to believe that the gun is empty. You can rack it and nothing is in the chamber then drop it on it's butt and the stuck shell comes loose. Then another rack of the pump and the gun you thought was empty is HOT and READY to FIRE.

So for me the rule is "It is NOT empty until you can see the empty chamber AND the follower"

There was also one other incident: When I was a teenager some of the other kids in the neighborhood were playing with an antique Winchester .32 special carbine(I believe). They were "shick-shocking" the action and firing it. They had been playing with it for 30 minutes when a shell that had been lodged in the tubular magazine (for god knows how many years) came loose and on the next cycle proceeded to take one of the kids heads apart.

It was indeed a VERY NASTY episode. I am grateful I wasn't there. The neighborhood was pretty darn sober for awhile after that. It took some time and investigating to figure out what had transpired but in the end it was ruled as an accident. Imagine that poor kid having to live with that his entire life.

Your friends story sounds suspiciously familiar - racking the action on a weapon he was sure was empty only to have it discharge. May want to check that out.

There are many models of shotguns that have magazine cutoffs that will not release a round when the magazine cutoff is engaged. I even owned one until recently that the magazine cutoff was always on except for when the gun was fired.

So even though a shotgun does not have a removable magazine it is important to inspect it.

Got to wonder what Koto felt like the instant the gun went off.

VoiceofReason wrote:Got to wonder what Koto felt like the instant the gun went off.

Shocked, surprised, scared, stupid? All of the above.