This little rascal...(safety first!)

Could have cost me my life the other day. Had a Vectis that was jammed due to me forgetting to tighten the hammer spring set screw. Finally got that fixed and ran a dowel rod thru my barrel; pushed out three pellets. Wow. So seeing the barrel was cleared I fired into the carpet inside the house. I failed to realize my dowel rod didn't go all the way through and this guy shot out, ricocheted 3-4 times and came to land on the work table next to me. Dang! My head/body could have been in that trajectory somewhere. There is a God. Thank you oh Lord for keeping me safe. A great reminder to never assume your barrel is clear and to fire them outside or in a safety barrel when possible. Keeping this as a good reminder for the future.

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Top 2 rules of gun safety, in any order you like.

1. Muzzle control. (Always keep the barrel pointed in a safe direction.)

1. Treat every gun as if it is loaded. (Until you CONFIRM otherwise.)

A close 3rd, of no less importance.

2. Keep your booger hooker off the bang button. (Until you're ready to shoot a target.)
 
Glad your ok, your lucky!
Years ago, a gent was messing with a 22xx build, didn't degas it , put a pellet in his leg. That was lucky, could have been the guys head standing next to him.
Thanks for being transparent, helps us all.
You know, I definately don't mind telling my mistakes, even if they are stupid mistakes and make me seem like a goober if someone learns from it. I'm really very cautious and usually fire it outside on my upstairs balcony. But this time I got in a hurry. I learned. Hopefully someone else will learn also.
 
When I first got into pcp airguns, I was shooting in my garage one day. I had a 2260 pcp that the trigger sear locked up on me after it was cocked with a pellet in the barrel. I put it on safety, flipped the gun over in my lap to inspect. Started to remove the stock screw, and the damn thing went off and put the pellet through my storm window on my side door of the house and hit the bricks on my neighbor's house!

Luckily no damage to his house or anything else, except my pride. Turns out, the Marauder trigger I had on there for 100s of shots no issue, had binded up from being compressed by the stock screw and the plastic spacer washers between the air tube and trigger frame. It forced the sear up too far and locked it up.

When the pressure was released when I removed the stock screw, it caused the trigger housing to lift up off the action and then the hammer shot forward since the sear popped out of place. I switched them out to brass and never had a problem again.

As they say, Schitt happens! Sometimes it's a negligent discharge from operator error, sometimes parts fail or aren't set correctly. Always be mindful of where that muzzle is pointing.
 
Yeah, all guns are loaded!

With our springers you could tell if it was cocked by the stiffness of the trigger.

A friend had the "safe" habit of checking a rifle by pointing it at the floor and touching the trigger to see if it was "set". Not a problem with a 6 fpe pellet gun outdoors but definitely a concern when he persisted with doing that with .22 rimfires indoors.

Several warnings did not stop him from "checking" rifles by pulling the trigger so I loaded a .22 rimfire with a blank, cocked it and put it in the rack just before he came over to visit. He picked up the rifle (I watched the muzzle closely when he picked up the gun making sure it didn't point at anything that could be harmed by the flash) and "tested it". The was shocked at the shot - then mad when he realized he had been set up, then apologized for being careless with firearms.

Fixed the problem with just a little scorch mark on the concrete floor.
 
When I first got into pcp airguns, I was shooting in my garage one day. I had a 2260 pcp that the trigger sear locked up on me after it was cocked with a pellet in the barrel. I put it on safety, flipped the gun over in my lap to inspect. Started to remove the stock screw, and the damn thing went off and put the pellet through my storm window on my side door of the house and hit the bricks on my neighbor's house!

Luckily no damage to his house or anything else, except my pride. Turns out, the Marauder trigger I had on there for 100s of shots no issue, had binded up from being compressed by the stock screw and the plastic spacer washers between the air tube and trigger frame. It forced the sear up too far and locked it up.

When the pressure was released when I removed the stock screw, it caused the trigger housing to lift up off the action and then the hammer shot forward since the sear popped out of place. I switched them out to brass and never had a problem again.

As they say, Schitt happens! Sometimes it's a negligent discharge from operator error, sometimes parts fail or aren't set correctly. Always be mindful of where that muzzle is pointing.
Amen. glad nobody was hurt
 
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Glad all ended well.
I think if you mess with guns long enough, you will experience an accidental discharge or a close call.
Regardless of how well trained and diligent we are, accidents happen. I have had 2 in over 60 years of
handling guns. Both make my pulse race just thinking about them. They are as fresh today as the day
they happened, one was over 50 years ago!
Thanks for your honesty and for the safety reminder that we can all use.

Doc
 
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