Public Safety Announcement! *GORE WARNING!*

[Curmudgeon]

I may be wasting my time with this, I dunno. This "safety lesson" may already be well-known and common knowledge to everyone. In retrospect, I can clearly see I should have known better myself.

However... on the chance that someone may derive some benefit from my mistake, I present the following:

"Mistake I made, number 1:" Whenever handling your firearm, for cleaning, loading/unloading, or whatever, pay strict and undivided attention to what you are doing with your firearm.
As I recently discovered, installing Microsoft Office 2003 for Windows XP on your wife's new laptop WHILE unloading your SA XD45 prior to cleaning is NOT A GOOD IDEA.

"Mistake I made, number 2:" When racking the slide to eject the chambered round, exercise proper technique when holding and handling the firearm as shown below...

"Mistake I made, number 3:" When doing anything incredibly stupid with one of your firearms, make sure you are NOT home alone!

This is an example of a correct method...





DO NOT USE THIS METHOD, AS SHOWN HERE...



These pics were found on "Cornered Cat's" website, which can be found here...

http://www.corneredcat.com/TOC.aspx


Failing to exercise the utmost care and caution could result in this...

* * * GORE WARNING! * * *

DO NOT SCROLL DOWN ANY FURTHER IF YOU HAVE A WEAK STOMACH OR CAN'T STAND THE SITE OF BLOOD!!
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.







The two pics shown below were taken the next morning, post op...






And below, basically healed. Some tingling remains in the ring and pinky finger, and the hand is 100% useable...






***END OF GORE*** ...and I am very lucky.





Biggest screwup of 'em all, and mistake #4...
Yes, apparently while attempting to eject the chambered round (and holding my weapon incorrectly) I also must have allowed my finger to enter the trigger guard and squeeze the trigger. There was no exit wound. We are thinking my injury was the result of muzzle bast.
>No exit wound
>No broken bones
>No damage to tendons or ligaments
>I have retained ALL movement of all fingers
>Temporary loss of feeling in ring finger and 'pinky' finger due to bruised nerve.
>I 'shattered' my ulnar artery, and suffered significant soft-tissue damage from the palm of my right hand down to about 4" below the wrist. Doctors expect a full and complete recovery of the use of my right hand sometime later this year.

Being right-handed and losing the use of your right hand really sucks! All things considered though, I was incredibly lucky. At least I had the pistol's muzzle pointed in a safe direction (at the china closet!). This round could have gone anywhere, considering my lack of attention at the moment. As it was, I had to get a towel over the wound, call 911, unlock the front door, and attempt to stop the bleeding, all by myself. My wife was at work, due home in about 3 hours.

I'm probably leaving out a ton of information. If anyone has any questions, fire away.

If anyone feels an urge to flame or otherwise "tear me a new ass", this is also welcome. What I did was incredibly lax and stupid, and I can take it.

The pics of "the scene of the crime" were taken by Officer Terry Meyers of York Area Regional Police, who was kind enough to email them to me a couple days later. Yeah, apparently, when you call for an ambulance for a gunshot wound, they send the police too!

I can't wait until this all heals so I can finally get around to taking that safety course.
Talk about locking the barn door after the horses are loose!


Dammit people, stay safe!
It would be great if this post were the only one of it's kind here on PAFOA.

[lildobe]

That sucks man... I'm glad it wasn't worse though!

Everyone makes a mistake every once in a while... be glad yours only cost you some pain and stitches!

Did you ever recover the round?

[Statkowski]

On one hand (no pun intended), your wife was undoubtedly PISSED TO THE MAX at your stupidity (her words, not mine). She had to clean up the mess you made. On the other, she was grateful, hopefully, you were still among the living.

Thank you for making the story and pictures available. Both indeed serve as a fantastic safety lesson.

Slightly related, in every U.S. Army air terminal I've been in (Army Aviation isn't exactly small) they prominently posted pictures showing why it was a bad idea to wear rings on your fingers when working around aircraft, and what happened when the ring snagged on something. Makes your pictures look tame.

[P-11 shooter]

Wait until his wife sees what he did to the china cupboard! I glad it wasn't worse and you have a pernament reminder of what not to do. Kimba~signed in under P-11.

[Mtbkski]

You said to ask so I am.

I can't figure out what you did. Was the injury cause by the blast coming our of the Ejection Port of the pistol? Did your hand slip in front of the barrel? What caused the injury and where did it come from.

You said it was the blast. But from where?

Thank goodness no one was killed. And rep to you for having the balls to show us all that everyone is human.

[Curmudgeon]

That sucks man... I'm glad it wasn't worse though!

Man, you can say that again. The round could've gone into my thigh, COM, head... I try not to think about it.

Everyone makes a mistake every once in a while... be glad yours only cost you some pain and stitches!

Did you ever recover the round?

I did not, but the responding officer did. There is a pic of it on the photobucket site I listed. Not much left of it. It went through the back of a dining room chair, then the lower door of the china closet, then it rattled around in the closet a bit. It was a 165gr "powerball" or some such. It blew apart pretty good.

[Curmudgeon]

On one hand (no pun intended), your wife was undoubtedly PISSED TO THE MAX at your stupidity (her words, not mine). She had to clean up the mess you made. On the other, she was grateful, hopefully, you were still among the living.

You are sooo right! Her chair and china closet.... that's all I've heard about! I had the presence-of-mind to ask the officer to contact her at her work, let her know I was OK, and to meet me at the ER.
I can't imagine her coming home to that mess with no explanation up front. She was incredible! She walked in to the ER room, gently kissed my cheek, softly said, "I love you.", then went around the corner and cried. I hope I can make it up to her.

Thank you for making the story and pictures available. Both indeed serve as a fantastic safety lesson.

Slightly related, in every U.S. Army air terminal I've been in (Army Aviation isn't exactly small) they prominently posted pictures showing why it was a bad idea to wear rings on your fingers when working around aircraft, and what happened when the ring snagged on something. Makes your pictures look tame.

Thanks, um, I think! If anyone sees any benefit from this thread, it is worth it. It's a powerful lesson that I don't just want to keep to myself.

[1861]

Dang !!!!

[Curmudgeon]

Wait until his wife sees what he did to the china cupboard! Thread winner! Kimba you are so right!

I glad it wasn't worse and you have a pernament reminder of what not to do. Kimba~signed in under P-11.

I know, right? Lucky and unlucky, all in the same instant.

[Curmudgeon]

You said to ask so I am.

I can't figure out what you did. Was the injury cause by the blast coming our of the Ejection Port of the pistol? Did your hand slip in front of the barrel? What caused the injury and where did it come from.

You said it was the blast. But from where?

LOL, I know! One thing I can tell you... once the primer is struck, the sequence of events that is unleashed occurs rather quickly!

On top of that, I wasn't paying the attention I should have been paying. So, here it is, about the best I can describe it:

Look again at the "how to do it wrong" pic in the OP. I had the pistol in my left hand, gripped as though I were about to fire it. The backstrap safety has to be depressed in order to rack the slide. Holding the pistol out in front of me and pointing it sideways to my right, I place my right hand square on top of the slide between the sights, and grip it hard, then basically push my right hand to the left. My trigger finger must have depressed the trigger, and BLAMMO!
Judging strictly from my memory, I want to say the gun discharged everything it had out the ejection port, but that doesn't make much sense either. I must have had my right hand much closer to the muzzle than I remember. Probably leaned in to it as well. It is much easier to show you than to explain. Can't blame you if you would rather not be in the same county with me, though!

Thank goodness no one was killed. And rep to you for having the balls to show us all that everyone is human.

Heh-heh. If 'to err is human', I'm feeling like the humanist sumbitch around right about now.