[Mitch Drews]

Hello all,
I just had the damndest thing happen to me, and thought in my embarassment I would share it.
Story:
My routine at the end of the day is to oil the outside of my pistol, I CCW so it is exposed to moisture and what not throughout the day. My usual routine is to drop the magazine, then wrapping my off hand around the top of the slide above the ejection port pull back the slide and turn the pistol about ninty degrees clockwise then use the thumb on my dominant hand which is holding the grip of the pistol to lock the slide back. This ejects the chambered round into my hand above the slide, and locks back the slide for final visual inspection before I release the slide and dry fire to commence oiling my pistol. Tonight it seems I didn't get the slide fully locked to the rear which cause a round to get stuck between the breach of the barrel and the slide. Not realizing what happened, I tried to pull out the offending round. When I did so, it caused the slide to slam forward onto the tip of my thumb which was still inside the chamber. For the record, that STINGS!
So here I am with my pistol now hanging off my thumb, and in considerable discomfort. Having only one hand free, and needing two hands in my experience to rack the slide on my pistol, what to do? Luckily, my little brother was still up, so I hollered at him to come into my room. His reply was a non-chalant, "In a minute" or something similar. I kindly replied with, "NOW!".
So we were able to remove the offending pistol from my hand, and free me to turn a shade of crimson I imagine is not often seen coming from the human face, and also to write this tongue in cheek post with a decidedly sore thumb.
I am definitely glad I had someone available to help me with this situation, as I am not sure I could have pulled back the slide on my own. Which would have left me with the option of jerking my thumb free from the action, in which case I'd prolly be writing this after a quick stop in the ER to get my thumb sewn up from what probably would have been 2-4 deep gashes. Only side effects now seem to be what I imagine is going to be some wicked bruising, and maybe some nail damage as the left side of my nail is bent inward to a ninety degree angle.
Thnx for listening to my silly story all.

-Mitchell R. Drews

 

[03RangerXLT]

OWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW
Glad you didn't loose the thumb HAHAHAHA.
OUCH!

 

[jcrich33]

Ouch. Good time to learn how to use the rear sights on the edge of a pants pocket, belt, boot/shoe or a table to rack the slide.

 

[ReloaderFred]

Ah, similar to the M-1 thumb. Very painful indeed.

One of the the things we used to teach when autoloaders first came into common use back in the 1970's, was to be able to activate the slide with one hand. There are two ways to do this. The first is to clamp the frame between your knees and try to work the slide with your free hand. This works, if the rebound spring isn't too strong, like most 9mm's. The other is to basically kneel, and place the frame behind your bent knee, clamping it between the back of your lower thigh and the calf of your leg, and then pulling back on the slide with your free hand. It can be done with practice, but I would suggest practicing with your thumb clear of the action first.

Another way is to place the front of the slide against a hard object, above the barrel, and push the slide back enough to free the trapped appendage.

Hope this helps.

Fred

 

[ajamesp51]

I know that hurts, but now that makes you a real shooter.

 

[ken_mays]

One thing you could have tried was to grip the frame in your other hand, place the edge of the rear sight against the edge of a table or door, and use that to open the slide.

The XD is at somewhat of a disadvantage here because the grip safety must be pressed to operate the slide, though I imagine if you had your thumb stuck in it, it may not have been engaged.

 

[one-eyed-fatman]

A real commando would have simply cut off his thumb to regain the use of his hand so he could rack the slide, retrieve the thumb and sew it back on. They do it on TV all the time. :wink:

 

[RonS]

Murphy rules.

 

[hobocircus]

What I do to clear my pistol.

1. Stand over the bed or sofa (safe landing pad for the chambered round).

2. Remove magazine.

3. Pull back on the slide and let the chambered round fall out through the ejection port or sometimes it will drop down the magazine well.

4. Check chamber again.

 

[Fly-Sig]

IF you are not already aware of it, watch out for bullet setback. Especially in .40, but it could be an issue in 9mm.

Repeatedly chambering a round can cause the bullet to be pushed slightly back into the casing. One trip up the ramp and into the chamber should not move the bullet, but repeated trips can cause significant setback.

When the bullet gets pushed into the casing, pressures go up exponentially when fired. There is a very real danger of the gun exploding in this case.

So if you are using .40 cal I would recommend that the chambered round be pulled out of use and put into a range-only bin to be shot at the range after only one chambering. Some procedure should be used to keep from cycling the same rounds into the chamber time after time.

For 9mm it isn't so critical unless you cycle the bullet many times. I rotate my chambered round to the bottom of the magazine if I unchamber it. But my carry ammo doesn't get many cycles of chambering/unchambering, so I know that the typical round only gets one or two cycles in a year. Every year I shoot my carry ammo and replace it with new.

 

[c22m22c]

i can vouch for the "setback" in the 9mm variant. at least in MY XD. i carry hydroshoks for personal defense. i keep a few 10rd mags on hand for training on the sandy ranges. so constantly chambering my top hydroshok happens. BY ACCIDENT, it fell on the carpet one night, next to another round i had down there...and for whatever reason, i noticed they didn't match in size. much to my concern...mind you. i wouldn't have even looked at it otherwise.

polished the ramp myself, and tossed that round in the woods. it even prompted me to mention the story to the fella's i work with. we carry beretta 92's and to date i've never heard of it occuring with the 92's. however...if it can happen, it will...so i warned others, and now we keep a styrofoam cup with about 25 spare rounds for the guys who complain about funky rounds.

sorry to hear about your thumb though.