Page 1 of 4 123 ... LastLast
Results 1 to 10 of 31

Thread: ND Incident report: A serious look at dummy rounds and dummies in general

  1. #1
    Site Supporter
    Join Date
    Nov 2013
    Location
    Illinois

    ND Incident report: A serious look at dummy rounds and dummies in general

    Disclaimer: I am a total idiot and deserve the ridicule but I thought there was a lesson to be learned here. Call me stupid if you want, you certainly have the supporting evidence. Flame on.

    So...can you tell something is wrong here? That is a .45 caliber hole in my 1/4 scale dry fire target.

    It was not put there on purpose.

    It was put there about five minutes ago. Nobody is hurt, my ears are still ringing and I'm still wondering how I could be so dumb. The bullet was absorbed in the mass of unwanted textbooks in my basement and a concrete wall lies behind the textbooks, so it wasn't a total fuckup. But a fuckup it was.

    My dry fire routine typically involves the use of "dummy cartridges" to simulate weight in the magazine to make my practice reloads similar to live fire. I typically made them myself out of an expended case without powder or primer or bullet. See where this is going?

    An old reloaded round was laying next to the dummy round on my desk. Picked up my "dummy rounds" and loaded them into the mag, I failed to verify that one round in the bunch was in fact a live round. Probability provided the circumstances that led to it being the topmost round. Practice an unloaded start and SUR-FUCKING-PRISE.

    Boom. The unexpected loud noise.

    I cleared my firearm, set it down, examined myself for holes, found the bullet in a book and said "fuck". Also noticed that my dog was fine and didn't even seem to be alarmed that I had just discharged my firearm in the house. Lazy bum.

    So. Incident report is completed. Summary of suggestions is as follows.

    1. Dummy rounds are NOT to be made by me on the loading press. Just buy the snap caps. Dummy rounds should NOT look like real ammo.

    2. Live ammo is to NEVER be left loose on the table, near the dummy rounds or accessible when dry firing. Should be a given. It wasn't the case. That was a mistake.

    3. I practice with a backstop. It was effective at stopping the travel of the bullet. I shudder to think about what would have happened if not. DRY FIRE WITH A BACKSTOP.

    4. Probably shouldn't dry fire late at night when I'm tired and my focus is decreased. practice will not be good.

    This was not a "didn't verify the gun was empty" gun accident. I intentionally loaded aimed and fired the gun...it just wasn't dry fire.

    I subscribe to a notion or a "Swiss cheese model" in that there are holes in a stack of Swiss cheese that line up and let bad things happen if enough are aligned. I had enough holes in model for a shot to be fired. Not enough holes for the bullet to cause injury or travel through the walls or my home. Thank God for that.

    Any other suggestions on how to be safer, criticisms of my vast idiocy, concerns about further holes in my model, jokes about the stopping power of .45s or laffs about my shot placement (I mean...A zone hit tho right?) are welcome. I'm thinking dry fire maybe just be totally empty mags? I'm a little nervy about inert cartridges at the moment.

    Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

  2. #2
    I'm glad no one was hurt. We're about 3 months out from celebrating the only perfect person's birthday, so we're all potential candidates for this. I have a dedicated dry fire Glock using a Safariland training barrel and Dry Fire Mag. For practicing reloads, I have dedicated dry fire magazines with orange Vickers baseplates. I use ST Action Pro snap caps with neon yellow "bullets". The snap caps only go into magazines with the orange baseplates when dry firing, and live ammo does not go into orange baseplate magazines. I do not use magazines with black baseplate for dry fire. Thank you for sharing your incident.
    Last edited by HopetonBrown; 10-04-2017 at 03:38 AM.

  3. #3
    S.L.O.W. ASH556's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2012
    Location
    Braselton, GA
    Silver lining: it's an alpha!
    Food Court Apprentice
    Semper Paratus certified AR15 armorer

  4. #4
    THE THIRST MUTILATOR Nephrology's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2011
    Location
    West
    Quote Originally Posted by ASH556 View Post
    Silver lining: it's an alpha!
    Literally scrolled down hoping to have been the first to post this.

    edit: yeah, get snap caps. Ideally ones that are high-viz. It would probably still be fine to reload your own if you immediately spray painted them orange or something. but otherwise, yeah, get snap caps. I use ETS mags I got for free as my dedicated dry fire mags, which I find helpful too.

    also, don't feel that dumb. I've had an ND before under similar but even more stupid circumstances. It's OK. Just make it your last.
    Last edited by Nephrology; 10-04-2017 at 07:06 AM.

  5. #5
    Member
    Join Date
    Jan 2013
    Location
    Hickory NC
    I salute you for posting this. It serves as a reminder to all of us that regardless of our safety procedures we cannot let our vigilance wan. I'm glad no one was hurt and nothing of value was destroyed. Your take-aways are valuable to all of us, thank you for posting it.

    It also validates for me why I put my dry fire targets on the basement wall that is below the outside soil level.
    David

  6. #6
    Live and learn. Good that you had a proper safe back stop.

    I keep multiple dedicated magazines(always empty) for dryfire that I load with snap caps which are always loaded from and returned to their factory clam shell.

  7. #7
    I put a .45 sized hole through the basement door into the garage twenty years ago, and covered it with a paster as a reminder. Red snap caps are the only cartridge looking things that go into my dry fire guns now.
    Likes pretty much everything in every caliber.

  8. #8
    Im glad to hear that youre unhurt. And thank you for the reminder.

    J

  9. #9
    Site Supporter JohnO's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2011
    Location
    CT (behind Enemy lines)
    Quote Originally Posted by Nephrology View Post
    Literally scrolled down hoping to have been the first to post this.
    Yeah, me too.

    I have these. However they are significantly lighter than actual rounds.

  10. #10
    Hoplophilic doc SAWBONES's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2014
    Location
    The Third Dimension
    Good job for obeying "Rule 2".

    We all make mistakes sometimes, and good no one came to harm.
    "Therefore, since the world has still... Much good, but much less good than ill,
    And while the sun and moon endure, Luck's a chance, but trouble's sure,
    I'd face it as a wise man would, And train for ill and not for good." -- A.E. Housman

User Tag List

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •