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Now let me start this out by stating good habits are a darn good thing! After cleaning my Springfield .45 I was preparing to place it back in the gun safe. I was al alone in the house, thankfully. My safe is in the back room too. Anyway, after cleaning I wanted to chamber a round prior to locking up the safe. The clip was out of the pistol and the slide locked open. I dropped a round into the chamber still with the clip laying on the desk. Here is where my good habits come in to play. I always point the muzzle downward and in front of me and make sure my hands are clear of the muzzle. Come naturally to me these days. Then I proceeded with my thumb to release the slide and to much surprise POW!. Accidental discharge in my house with a clean hole through my exterior wall and into the ground. Was I ever surprised. That was the first time I ever "accidentally" discharged any of my weapons.

Lesson here is good habits are a blessing. And thank god my 2 daughters were at the Ex's house. They would have been really scared as I was standing there in disbelief of what just happened.

Now I am wondering if I had my finger on trigger. How else could the gun have fired. I have yet to test this pistol to see if it will fire again like this.

Thank God that everyone is OK. A good thing that the EX did not witness this as well

I think that you are saying that you inserted one round with out the use of the magazine Anyway you are correct in establishing safe 'habits' so that you don't even think about what to do next.

For example I always check my firearms before cleaning, before leaving the house and before bed.

NuBee

Don't drop a cartridge into the barrel and then close the slide on it. That is very hard on the extractor.

Have you (or anyone else) done any "work" on this pistol? It sounds like you have a case of "hammer follow"......or you had your finger on the trigger.

Glad you were not hurt and I applaud you for exercising "good habits".


Flint.

also check the firing pin and pin hole

Easy one. Take your finger off the trigger when dropping the slide.

I was running a combat course for a security company that has a govt contract today.

On shotguns, after being told OVER AND OVER, one guy kept his finger on the trigger when they were off target, or manipulating the safety; one dude went to low ready and tried to engage the safety on the Mossberg. It was tight, he squeezed his hand to flip it with his thumb, and of course his finger was on the trigger. The sympathetic reflex caused him to press the trigger, and BOOM!. However, he was pointed downrange towards the ground so no injury or damage. (except to his ego)

txinvestigator wrote:Easy one. Take your finger off the trigger when dropping the slide.

+1.

Also, FWIW...

Clip != Magazine.

</technical police>

I can think of three ways for a 1911 to fire upon slingshot/slide release. Two are parts failures that are rather uncommon; one is user error. If you had your trigger finger just slightly depressing the trigger, the forward momentum of the slide could have carried the pistol forwards, discharging the sear.

I've fired doubles off my Kimber Ultra that way. Once I shot a can, knocking it into the air, and managed to pop it with the doubled shot. Yeah, I passed that one off as intentional.

Thanks for the good feedback. That is one of the best things about this forum is the amount of good knowledge that is freely shared among all.