[IrishCop]

Our department had been issued Glock 31 357 SIGs a few months before this happened.

Our department's range officer would bring targets, ammo and ear protection (if you needed to borrow some). We would get our ammo and target, fill out and sign the appropriate paperwork, and wait our turn.

We were scheduled for a night qual shoot. Our range only has 10 firing points so we were firing in strings, I was watching the first string shooting. One of the shooters was a young female deputy. She got her ammo, target and ear muffs, loaded her magazines and got her place on the firing line.

The whistle blew, and everyone started popping caps. I noticed that the young lady was having some problems. Her weapon would fire, and jam. She'd Tap/Rack/Bang, and it would go bang, but fail to eject and feed. This happened three times until she called for the R.O.

Although all sworn personnel carried the Glock 31, we had other non-sworn folks who carried our older SIG P-226's in 9MM. Our R.O. carried some of that ammo in his trunk, too. She had picked up a box of 9's by mistake, and loaded them in her magazine.

The kinda fed, and definitely fired. I was shocked she didn't have a face full of brass and hot gas! mg:

Apparently the extractor held the 9MM in place at least well enough to allow the firing pin to detonate the primer. Guess the bullet caromed down the barrel.

 

[TommyGunn]

Running incorrect ammo through a gun must be a somewhat common problem -- having it work (to some degree or other) an odd situation......
Back in the early-mid 1990s when I was living in Connecticut I took my Uberti repro of a Winchester 1873 to the range. This lever action is made in .44-40, a "cowboy" caliber roughly similar in size to the venerable .44 Magnum but waaaaaaayyyyy different powerwise (and the .44magnum round will not fit in a .44-40 chamber).
I was firing new store-bought ammo. After the shooting string was over I was policing up my brass (I saved it to have it reloaded) and found one odd round that had a nice FAT bulge in the middle.
.41 MAGNUM:shock:
Yeah .... that's what it said on the heel. And IN A NEW BOX!!!!
I did a fair bit of research on what happens when you fire that round in a .44-40 chamber --- including writing the manufacturer of the round.
Turns out the bullet probably bounced along inside the barrel and although that round is a real high pressure round (esp. in comparison to a .44-40 invented in 1873!) the fact that there was no good seal allowed the pressure to escape without any damage.
While I was not exactly a happy camper for having fired a magnum round through that carbine .... I think I lucked out.
I can only believe that rounds were inadvertantly switched at the store where I bought the rounds from people examining them, but I don't know; THAT part of the mystery was never solved.

 

[guntotin_fool]

Indoor range near the house is usually quiet during the day but I got there when some local women's group was having an event. I sat in the lobby watching all the women shooting. Most it was quite apparent for the first.

One was a very well equipped blond who l thought looked familiar. Well she got to the line fired nice slow single shots for the first mag. Did ok from what I could see of the target. The RO or instructor was saying something and she nodded and the next was a double tap, except the second shot was from the burn of the first shell casing making a dive for hooterville if you understand.

Well she drops the gun in the little shelf and whips that top off faster than I could have believed. Well. She's there topless digging in the bra for the casing with her face to the window when she sees me standing there. Yup. New pastor's wife.

 

[guntotin_fool]

Based on the last batch of spammers location, I am beginning to think MacArthur had the right idea.

 

[bearcat6]

A gun store owner once showed me a box of Remington 3006 ammo that had all twenty primers seated upside down. It was that stuff in the yellow and green boxesw. Core Lockt, I believe.

 

[IrishCop]

Based on the last batch of spammers location, I am beginning to think MacArthur had the right idea.

Ain't there some kind of filter that would end this nonsense? Or maybe just blocking all traffic originating in China (if that's possible)?

Yeah, we might could have wrapped up a lotta stuff if we had turned Patton loose on the Russians and MacArthur on the Chinese!

 

[Daniel Watters]

Apparently the extractor held the 9MM in place at least well enough to allow the firing pin to detonate the primer. Guess the bullet caromed down the barrel.

The 357 SIG case is barely 2mm longer than the 9x19mm, so the shorter case should have been supported in the bottle-necked region of the 357 SIG chamber. The bullets could have stabilized just fine given the bore size. However, like you said, the surprising thing is that the unsupported portion of the 9x19mm case didn't blow.

 

[Daniel Watters]

One of the funniest things I've seen at a range was during a Halloween "IPSC" match at an indoor range back in the early 1990s. During a stage that required the shooter to carry a Trick-or-Treat bag, the competitor was using a racegun equipped with the Dave Dawson "Awesome" scope mount. The "Awesome" mount required a large male dovetail to be cut into the side of Tasco PDP2 or PDP3. The optic then slid into a matching female dovetail in the scope mount, and the optic was then restrained by several set screws. While engaging the first array of targets, the optic slid out of the mount, did several flips, and landed neatly in the Trick-or-Treat bag. The shooter then completed the course of fire without a sight. If it wasn't for the bag, the Tasco would have crashed on the concrete floor.

 

[IrishCop]

One of the funniest things I've seen at a range was during a Halloween "IPSC" match at an indoor range back in the early 1990s. During a stage that required the shooter to carry a Trick-or-Treat bag, the competitor was using a racegun equipped with the Dave Dawson "Awesome" scope mount. The "Awesome" mount required a large male dovetail to be cut into the side of Tasco PDP2 or PDP3. The optic then slid into a matching female dovetail in the scope mount, and the optic was then restrained by several set screws. While engaging the first array of targets, the optic slid out of the mount, did several flips, and landed neatly in the Trick-or-Treat bag. The shooter then completed the course of fire without a sight. If it wasn't for the bag, the Tasco would have crashed on the concrete floor.

Did he get any points for the save?

I should have realized the 357 SIG and 9MM were about the same OAL (and that they shared a similar bore size). :banghead: Dyslexia AND Alzhiemers. A terrible combination!

 

[spwenger]

Years Ago...

...I belonged to a club that ran DCM matches one weekend a month. If I was not scheduled to work I'd volunteer as an RSO on one of the two days. One day I go over to a female shooter who has her hand up in the air for assistance - her M1 Carbine has jammed.

On inspection, I discover that she has loaded the rounds alternating one bullet forward, one bullet backward. I patiently point out to her that the bullets must go forward, as I reload the magazine for her.

Next relay, it's the same scenario all over again.

I don't recall how much time went by before I figured out that hubby has forced her to come out to shoot the match so he can order two M1 Rifles from DCM and this is her way of getting back at him.

 

[William R. Moore]

This could probably fit in the beat your head against the wall category.

Long ago, an officer firing the then qual course at an academy that shall remain nameless held up his hand at the start of a rapid fire string. He stated his revolver wouldn't fire rapid. After receiving a comment that if he pulled the trigger, the cylinder would rotate. He stated it wouldn't. He was then asked how he'd managed to fire the slow fire and stated he manually indexed the cylinder for each shot.

To shorten this tale of woe, after being questioned further he stated he'd carried the weapon, on duty, with this defect FOR SIX MONTHS!!!!!!

 

[bearcat6]

Pierce Brooks, former LAPD detective wrote a book about mistakes officers made that got them killed. I believe the title was Tombstone Courage, anyway he told the story of one officer that had been on the force for years who was shot and killed. When they examined his revolver the cylinder was so badly corroded that the had to beat it open with a plastic mallet. The cartridges were also frozen to the chamber walls. It turned out the range officer was a buddy of the deceased and when it came time to qualify the RO just signed off for this guy who evidently didn't shoot for years or clean his piece.

 

[IrishCop]

This could probably fit in the beat your head against the wall category.

Long ago, an officer firing the then qual course at an academy that shall remain nameless held up his hand at the start of a rapid fire string. He stated his revolver wouldn't fire rapid. After receiving a comment that if he pulled the trigger, the cylinder would rotate. He stated it wouldn't. He was then asked how he'd managed to fire the slow fire and stated he manually indexed the cylinder for each shot.

To shorten this tale of woe, after being questioned further he stated he'd carried the weapon, on duty, with this defect FOR SIX MONTHS!!!!!!

You want to laugh at first, then it sinks in...

 

[IrishCop]

Pierce Brooks, former LAPD detective wrote a book about mistakes officers made that got them killed. I believe the title was Tombstone Courage, anyway he told the story of one officer that had been on the force for years who was shot and killed. When they examined his revolver the cylinder was so badly corroded that the had to beat it open with a plastic mallet. The cartridges were also frozen to the chamber walls. It turned out the range officer was a buddy of the deceased and when it came time to qualify the RO just signed off for this guy who evidently didn't shoot for years or clean his piece.

I read a similar account, but it was in a book written way back in the sixties I think, by a NYPD Detective...again, I think. Hell, it could be the same book. This one had a Black and White cover of a cruiser, I think. The story was essentially the same, and even contained a "dramatization" of the dead officer's last visit to the range.

 

[William R. Moore]

I've got a copy of that book at home, the title is "Officer Down, Code 3".

I've gotta do some thinking about some of the other stuff I've seen. Both to remember details and to try and find a way to present it without identifying the guilty parties.

I can recall a couple of guys running assault courses of fire in the early days of IPSC who lost either their spare pistol mags or shotgun ammo enroute. The look on their faces when they reached for ammo that was no longer there was priceless.

Then there was the internationally known competitor who bragged, in print, about his one second reloads. When he showed up for a well advertised match, there was a crowd behind him (with stopwatches for those who remember those things) for an El Presidente. That was pretty much the end of the guy's credibility.

 

[WaltGraham]

During one of the few plate matches I shot we had a guy show up and buy a gun just prior to the match so he could compete.

The indoor range where we had the match was adjacent to the store and I heard this fellow loudly explain to the counter guy that he was an "expert" with the weapon he was just then purchasing (a Ruger 9 of some sort) and required no familiarization.

His first shot dropped a plate; it also sliced open his left palm since the weapon apparently didn't realize he was an "expert".

There was a respectable amount of blood and we patched him up with camo duct tape and some cotton cleaning patches.

Never saw him again.

 

[IrishCop]

I'll tell one on myself.

Back in the Academy, held in Selma, Al, we were having a "fun" day at the range. One stage was a Man on Man using a dueling tree. Come my turn, and everything was going my way. I won against all remaining students, 9 or 10 if I recall correctly. Then one of the instructors decided to shoot against me.

I didn't particularly care for this guy, and was looking forward to beating him too. Just before the shooting started, another instructor came up and whispered in my ear, "You haven't got a chance."

My first shot was a miss. I hadn't missed a shot in all of the previous strings! So were my second and third.

He won.:grumble:

Can you say Jedi Mind Trick? ("The Force can have a strong influence on the weak minded.") :ek:

 

[William R. Moore]

Back when I used to play golf, an older neighbor and I went out to play a round. He was on the college golf team. He drove first, as I addressed the ball, I looked up and asked him if he breathed in or out on the backswing. After some thought he allowed as how he'd never given it any thought. But he sure did the next 18 holes:mrgreen:

I can also recall a side plate match where I did respectably on my first run and was happy since I'd beaten a local gun butcher I didn't particularly like, he returned the favor. Y'all can guess what happened, the folks at the range carried tales back & forth as each of us would throw another wad into the kitty and drop the time a tenth or 2. Someone finally carried a comment that steamed me and I went up and absolutely smoked the pates, ending the whole thing. Probably the best string I'd ever fired or ever will: react, draw and drop 3 pins & 2 plates in 2.45 seconds. While I still remember the time, I was too wired to ask for the breakdown.

 

[IrishCop]

THAT'S the kind of mindset I am trying to strive for! Turn my anger (or frustration or whatever) into focus.

Nice job, Walt! :bow:

 

[Al Thompson]

Witnessed several 1911s go full auto over the years. That's always interesting. :ek:

Ex-wife was shooting a Rossi .357 lever gun at the range and was knocking tin cans around at about 70 plus yards. Buddy stopped by and whispered that he didn't think the rifle was accurate enough for that. I whispered back that neither the rifle nor the shooter "knew" that, so they just did it. :thumbsup:

Buddy of mine agreed to test fire his brothers gun (IIRC a Davis or some such) which the brother had purchased against all advice. I was not on the firing line when the first round of .32 ACP blew the slide and barrel off the frame, but I helped pick up the chunks. I suspected an utter lack of heat treatment for the barrel. The brother always thought we blew up the gun to spite him.