I shot my air gun today - literately

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You can't be too careful, and here's a true story. I was helping a friend work on his RAW rifle. We had it sitting in a gun cradle, magazine removed, and I asked if he was sure it wasn't loaded. He said he didn't think so, but also said he wasn't totally sure that he had fired the last pellet. So, to be safe, I took my cleaning rod and carefully inserted it in the muzzle, and pushed it back. Sure enough, a pellet came out the breech. So, mission accomplished, all safe. The gun was cocked at this point, so we dry fired it. Yep, a pellet shot right into the wall, there had been two pellets in the breech! So, lesson learned, if you are checking for a loaded pellet with rod, push it until you see the end of the rod come out! I probably needed to push it only another quarter inch to have know for sure it was empty (or not). 
 
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Thanks for sharing that. IMO, definitely one of the biggest safety pitfalls with airguns is it often being difficult to discern if there is a pellet in the breech. I often find myself firing mine in a safe direction before and after storage, even when I'm 99.99% sure there isn't a pellet in the breech. I get paranoid about it.
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Me too. I see many youtube videos where the shooter isn't cocking until he has acquired his target, or even until his target is still. They seem experienced, and it looks like a good safety measure, but I'm used to simply having a bullet ready to fire, so the transition to that new style is making me nervous that I might be forgetting a lot of the time. So I fire a good amount of blanks into a safe area just to check.

I also don't have a rod yet for poking out a double pellet -- on back order a while now -- so I am watching out for not just getting one pellet in the barrel unknowingly, but two ...
 
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I also don't have a rod yet for poking out a double pellet -- on back order a while now -- so I am watching out for not just getting one pellet in the barrel unknowingly, but two ...
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If you want a tool for that specific purpose, you might want to buy a small wooden dowel, or, remove the barrel and push from the breech end with your cleaning rod. Using a metal rod at the muzzle is risky, as it is easy to scratch the crown of the barrel. When I used a cleaning rod as mentioned above, I attached a plastic jag, which came with a cheap rod I bought years ago, but I kept the plastic accessories for needs like this. But, it's not a great idea. Also, you are working from the muzzle on a cocked and potentially loaded rifle, so be very cautious. Better to remove the barrel. Although it worked, I didn't set a very good example. 
 
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Thanks for a good post and a great reminder. I agree with the others: I appreciate your post and I'm glad you're safe! This is a valuable 'PSA'.

When I first saw the pic, I thought maybe you had done something that I have done before... 

I have a small house and try to shoot in my basement. After putting a scope on my first airgun, I tried to shoot and get it on paper for when I could take it to farther ranges. The shot sounded instantly wrong and there was no hole on the paper. Not being very smart, I tried again. Again, it sounded wrong. Then I noticed a chair not pushed in at a desk in front of me... I couldn't see the chair in the scope, but two pellets had clipped the plastic back of it. Why didn't I check my lane better? And why did I not go investigate after one sounded wrong? Duh! Those were two mistakes that I have not repeated... (Yet)
 
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At least you weren't the guy who put his finger right in front of the barrel to check if air was coming out! (I'm kinda joking, but I'm sure it's had to have happened to someone somewhere. I hate to admit, but I popped myself right in the finger tip with a 1.6J airsoft gun which still had one 0.30gram bb still in the chamber. Didn't break skin, but what a blood blister and I couldn't touch it to anything for a good month. Never again - it could be a very costly mistake.)

There is a grim news article if you search for it, takes place in upper England or maybe Scotland. Story is a grandfather accidentally shot his grandson in the stomach with a springer. Something bizarre like he told the kid to get over it and walked away. The kid died and the grandfather was sent to jail for murder. There's also some really strange internal family drama going on at the same time.

Thank you for the reminder. Shoot safe all!

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I heard about this story within the last year. I told everyone in my family AND at work about this as a reminder to treat all guns safely. 



I respect you posting, and I also admire that you won't fix it.
 
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