[Cuda66]

A cautionary tale I was a firsthand witness to recently.

See something wrong with this cartridge?

How about now...

And...the backstory.

Was at the range, a buddy brought his 1907 built Colt model "P" (aka--the Colt Single Action) in .45 Colt. He also brought his Ruger Super Blackhawk in .44 mag.

You can likely see where this is going.

Another buddy asked to shoot the Colt. Was told--sure--the ammo is right there on the table.

Two ammo boxes sat right next to each other. One .44 mag, the oher .45 Colt.

The pistol was loaded...and shot 5 times.

We wondered why the Colt shot keyholes. And then, we wondered why they were so damn hard to extract from the chambers...:shock:

Then, we nearly shat ourselves.

Yep. We just put .44 mag rounds through a century old pistol.

We are fortunate that the .44's were handloads on the cool side. VERY fortunate.

All of the people involved were VERY experienced shooters--people that I'd trust my life to...and I think vice-versa.

But...this is why I've changed my SOP to only one caliber out of the bag at a time...because I don't expect to be that lucky twice.

 

[cce1302]

Thanks for the reminder.

I'm glad nobody was hurt, and I hope we all learn the lesson from a mistake we're all capable of making.

 

[fredj338]

Yep, shoot often enough & have enough calibers, this stuff can happens. When I take my 280 & 338-06 to the range, I leave the ammo for one in the car to prevent a potential catastrophic event.

 

[Cuda66]

Yep, shoot often enough & have enough calibers, this stuff can happens. When I take my 280 & 338-06 to the range, I leave the ammo for one in the car to prevent a potential catastrophic event.

I was told a tale of a shooter that owned both a .270 and .280 that grabbed the wrong box of ammo...couldn't figure out why his .270 had a harder kick to it, but shot incredibly accurately....sounds apocryphal, but I wasn't there.

I, personally, have put 9mm through a .40 pistol (borrowed a buddy's Beretta 96, and accidently grabbed one of my M92 mag--I figured as long as I no longer brought my 92 when he brought his 96, I'd be safe--the above example shows why I've gotten a bit more stringent in my safety measures).

I mainly posted this to point out that if you don't pay attention, you WILL "F" up--no matter how much experience you have. Sometimes you get lucky...but sometimes, you won't.

 

[Clinton1621]

Be safe and always on your toes out there fellas... $h!t happens!!

 

[TucsonDirt]

USE THE RIGHT CALIBER FOR YOUR WEAPON.

(Thanks Cuda66 for the safety reminder)

 

[fltbed]

Years ago, I was RO’ing an indoor action pistol stage. Guy came in with a single stack .45 1911. At the load and make ready command, he locked the slide back, inserted a mag and dropped the slide. A live 9mm round zinged out of the muzzle and went rolling across the floor, halfway down the range.:shock:
He gritted his teeth, closed his eyes, hung his head and we started to laugh.

He grabbed his 45 and the loaded mags to his 9mm 1911 by mistake.

No harm done (except to his pride) but it/he sure gave us a good laugh.:lol:

Jeff

 

[Mr Evilwrench]

I put labels on everything; I know what the ammo is, and I have the model, caliber and capacity of every mag right on it, because so many of them look alike. Doing everything I can think of not to be that guy.

 

[OKcherokee]

Sometimes life likes to send you little wake up calls, doesn't it...

 

[Stogies]

That's why I usually do all the loading for guests I take to the range. If you know your guns and your ammo it's no problem but for new people it all looks the same.