Worst Air gun incidents

[Frappy]

What was your worst incident with an Air Gun ..


My story happened in the early 80's when a group of friends and I went to our local hangout which was a large area covered with fishing lakes and woods.

One of the group found a Diana air rifle painted in battle ship grey ! It had been dumped with a load of other household rubbish.

One of the lads ran home and raided his dad's cupboard and brought back two lots of pellets .177 and .22. The .22 fit, fun and games commenced.


We played Army but with a difference 1. we had a gun and 2. we had bangers, some rockets and three lengths of pipe to fire our rocket/bazookas through.


Commence war games !


It lasted about 5 minutes when all hell broke loose, the kid who brought the pellets decided to actually put a pellet in the gun and fire above where the other team where attacking from.


It didn't go over the heads it went into a head!

I heard a voice which I new was my cousin the only scouser ...( I can't put on here the expletives but you can guess).


He popped up out of the long grass with blood pouring from his head the pellet was lodged in the top of it, the only thing I could think to do was pull out the lining from my jacket to soak up the blood.


My cousin being the person he was just grabbed the pellet and pulled it out , then put the first aid lining on the wound and commenced to chase the kid who shot him.

I have never seen anyone run so quickly !

But he was being chased by a 6ft (15 year old) Ginger scouser with blood all over his face !.


As the eldest my cousin took the gun and it was hid in my garden, we did take it out the next day and found out that you should never load a pellet and then hit the rifle butt to the floor !! I don't know how we didn't end up with another pellet lodged in one of us .


We went to the first lake and threw it as far as we could, before someone got seriously injured.


My cousin still has the scar on his head , and I have just turned 50 and only just bought my first air rifle .


Yes I'm being super careful...

Thanks for reading, your turn !

 

[chuggypop]

As a lad I was not allowed an Air Rifle after causing mayhem with an old Relum that my dad bought me. But that didn't stop me "borrowing" one from a neighbours outhouse when he was ingrossed in TV one evening. It was a BSA Meteor and first thing I did was remove the stock to make concealment easier when out "borrowing" Rabbits on the local estate So there I was one evening creeping through the estate woodland when the chap that ran the estate suddenly popped up about 50 yards in front of me. Sliding the Rifle under my arm, in line with my body, I did a 180 and was making my escape when the trigger caught my leg and the gun fired (no trigger gaurd as the stock was off), the pellet went straight up into my armpit area and lodges about 1/2 incg below the surface of my skin causing blood to pour down my arm. I managed to get away but couldn't ask for help as my parents would have killed me for having a gun so I dug the pellet out with my penknife. Must be 47 years ago now but I still remember the pain. After this I put the gun back and got my hands on a .410 shotgun, more fun and games ensued ending up with me in court charged with a string of firarms offences - I was 14.

 

[shotaholic]

Much the same story as @Frappy . As youngsters playing war games with my uncles .177 BSA Cadet Major I got shot in the face by my cousin who is adamant he was aiming for the apples in the tree above me (lying bar steward). Anyway, despite efforts by my dad to take it out I had to go to hospital to have it removed it was that far imbedded. They just cut it out, stitched me up and sent me on my way. Imagine turning up in hospital today with a pellet imbedded in your face!! (but it was over 60 years ago). Still got the scar.

 

[Desmond.22]

When younger one of my mates and I bought an old 77.

Remember we did not cock correctly back then and held end of the barrel in an overhand grip left hand then cock with the right (I know but we just bought out the loot and no prior knowledge) anyway one day not sure exactly what happened but I think half cocked and slipped and fingers sandwich between barrel and cocking aid.

I just remember him scream and dancing round as you do when in such agony.

Ouch !

 

[Sharpsman]

I got hit in my eye brow when I was about 7 by my stupid brother shooting at pebbles around the back of the barns , I remember the pting sound then the pain it went in about half an inch about an inch from my eye .My dad removed it with tweezers wich was painful then beat the crap out of my brother wich I was happy about at the time

 

[Bighit]

Nearly lost the tip of my index finger on my left hand. 1990s ,Returning the cocking lever on my Relum Tornado and I managed to pull the trigger at the same time .

Under lever shot up and my finger stopped the under lever from hitting each other.

I thought I had broken the finger.

I watched the doctor cut the skin to get it to match the other side and put a few stitches in .

Scar is diagonal to the crease in the pic.

 

[Rudolph Hucker]

I've got 2 cousins that are older than me, they're brothers and they were pretty feral when younger - one day one of them decided to shoot the other one in the arse cheek with a pistol cross bow - that was one angry aunty off up to the hopital.

The next day, she's stood talking to a friend at the gate while my cousin is next to her - the other brother (the one with a new hole in his bum) went upstairs and shot him in the head with an air rifle from the upstairs window.

This was early to mid 80s.

 

[AG72]

Back in the 80's me and a neighbour kid protected my grandparents turkeys from sparrows and magpies, we sat inside a barn shooting out from a small gap, I had a Gamo 68 but can't remember what the neighbour shot with, i stod behind him when he was shooting and he shot into the wall somehow and the pellet bounced back right into my lip and i got a nice fat lip... a bit higher and the eye would have catch it... I also shot myself in the foot with a El Gamo Hunter loaded with a thistlebud to see if it hurt, i leave that one for you to find out if you want to, so not to many serious flesh wounds, material things are another story...

 

[Waynemabe]

I mean not air rifle but still a good yarn Was on a firing range shooting 5.56mm as an lsw gunner, the usual words of command - with a magazine of 30 rounds - 15 rounds rapid fire etc etc STOP STOP a mate of mine did his checks but switched from single shot to full auto brrrrrr oooops, few hours later same thing same person- laughed my tits off until the 3RD negligent discharge of weekend until I realised full auto + a weak grip had sent his sa80 high and right towards my head

 

[32:1]

I was very unfortunate and bought a new FiX mk3 wildcat, thats the worst airgun mistake Ive ever made

Chris

 

[Avalon]

I have posted about 'Pablo' before when RabbitWrecker was running a competition, but as it'll disappear into the either soon, here it is again:

Funny shooting stories? Like the time me and my mate - let’s call him 'Pablo' for the purposes of this story - had a bit of a mishap? Pablo lived two doors down from me since we were in first school, we were absolutely 18 at the time of this story and not in any way, shape or form a few years younger as that would be naughty. We were attempting to get something Pablo shot (squirrel? bird? I can't remember) out of a tree and it involved us both climbing said tree. He was being a bit of a fanny about it and taking his sweet time, in my youthful enthusiasm to highlight his complete lack of climbing ability, I scarpered up the tree like a monkey, but in my haste I misjudged a branch's ability to hold me and had to jump and grab another branch. I nailed this move perfectly, or so I thought. When I landed (I was making sure I got my hands on a branch first), I put my feet down and felt something solid underneath, but it didn't feel quite right, slightly squishy and was followed by a scream. I moved my foot to a more firm footing and it felt better, that's when I looked down, just in time to see something reminiscent of Hans Gruber's final fall in Die Hard with Pablo looking up at me arms flailing as gravity did it's thing for the next 20ft. It turns out that slightly strange feeling branch I had planted my size 11's on was wrapped in his fingers.

Now at this stage in life, we males are simple creatures, we generally operate under the misapprehension that we are pretty much invincible. This was a pivotal moment where all present that day learned two invaluable lessons. Firstly we found out what happens when the unstoppable force meets the immovable object, and it doesn't end well. We also learned that we absolutely were not indestructible. It's also a day Pablo probably still remembers to this day for other reasons, but we'll get to that.

Back to Pablo... You see what neither of us had considered at this point was that this tree was up against a boundary fence, and while we had no issues with shooting either side of it, the fence actually existed and was a thing. Specifically it had quite substantial fence posts and three chunky wooden fence bars that must be 2"x1" going across it. Fortunately for Pablo I had seen him land on his feet, but he wasn't moving and slowly he began to emit the most animalistic sound I think I have ever heard a human produce, this wasn't a scream, or a shout, just an unconfined outpouring of pain and fear from his soul. You see unfortunately for Pablo he had landed on his feet, but with legs either side of the aforementioned fence, to make maters worse (is that possible?) he had gone through two of the three fence bars and was now perched on the third unable to move and the end of the middle bar had located itself somewhere that I don't think Pablo was quite ready to explore in that much detail on his body? My other mate had watched all of this from the ground and was now - in that way that men do - caught between grabbing his lower extremities in sympathy and fits of laughter. It took me a few seconds to jump from branch to branch to get down - really this is so much easier when someone isn't in your way. Being an eighteen year old man child and with one of my brethren in mortal danger of laughing himself to death and not fully appreciating Pablos plight, I too was struck down with laughter. We watched, now with tears in our eyes as Pablo tried to stand and failed, slumping back down onto the third bar which only made the sounds coming from him even more animalistic, realising that he was struggling we go over to try and help extract him from his current predicament by moving him forward to to release the 'tension' that up till then was only increased every time he had tried to stand up from the broken second bar sticking further into his bum. We got him free and all he could do was crawl agonisingly slowly behind a car to check out the damage while we tried and failed to stifle our laughter. We tried to carry him home, but it was too painful for him and he ended up crawling down the street to his mum's. He made it to his front door where we explained he had had an accident and fallen from a tree, but didn't go into details. That was the last time anyone saw Pablo for a while. He missed a fortnight of school

This happened in 'the 90's', i'm now in my 40's, as is Pablo, I still see his mother occasionally or his brothers when returning to visit family, they've all settled down and got married/have children and even grandchildren (Pablo was the youngest). I have two offspring of my own. Pablo has married and is very happy, but no mention of any children yet and every time his mother says those words, I have a horrible feeling I know why and my mind replays the mental image of her son crashing through two wooden fence bars, legs a kimbo and taking the pointy end of a fence bar up the wrongun. To add insult to injury the last time I met her, I had my two kids with me.

So yes, clearly I am a terrible human being who is obviously going to hell etc. and yes it would be highly ironic if I ended up shooting free lead from telling a story about my now lifelong fear that my mate is shooting blanks and it's all my fault.....177 please

Ironically one of my jobs this year will be to repair that fence, i'm now thinking I should put a plaque up?

 

[Rich79]

Borrowed a mates old pre safety HW35 when I was about 15, accidentally shot the kitchen window out and hit the toaster knocking that over too.

 

[Slayer fan]

A friend of mine shoot him self in the thumb when cleaning his LOADED pistol. Think he learnt he's lesson that day.

 

[john60]

I was very unfortunate and bought a new FiX mk3 wildcat, thats the worst airgun mistake Ive ever made

Chris

Mine is similar to yours but mine was an FX impact mk1. I didn't own it for long ..

 

[Bighit]

Forget About this one .

@Cammie1314 was shooting my FAC HW80 at steel disc targets . I though I was far enough away and at a safe angle and recording the shots on my phone.

The pellets were being broken on contact and shrapnel from one hit me in the stomach. it had a fair bit of velocity in it.

Just a red dot but could have been worse.

 

[Wilco]

Managed to shoot my patio door whilst practicing my standing position.

The door was open and I was shooting through the lounge into the garden, only 23 yds but practice is practice.

Mid way there was a knock at the door, I placed the gun down, answered the door and had a quick chat with my neighbour.

Then it pizzed down with rain so I shut the patio door..

I then picked up the rifle, shouldered it and proceeded to take aim and go through the motions.. squeazed through the 2nd stage and BANG!! The noise was horrific and the door shattered into millions of pieces..

A blooming costly mistake.. note to self #1 even if it's your gun..make sure its unloaded before pointing it at anything.
#2 no more live firing at home

PS I wasn't aiming at the target on the window. Lol

 

[Slayer fan]

Mine is similar to yours but mine was an FX impact mk1. I didn't own it for long ..

Another one in the same vain FiX maverick and like you I didn't keep it long at all.

 

[Mopane]

I learned a valuable lesson at the expense of a school mate about holding the barrel on a breaker when thumbing a pellet into the breech. About 30 years ago, on a weekend out of school we were enjoying a plinking session in his parents sizeable garden. I had my Original 35 and he was using a BSA breaker of some type. Anyway, he held the stock between his thighs and cocked the gun by breaking the barrel in the usual way. He was holding the forend in his left hand and rummaged a pellet out of his pocket with his other hand...as he was loading the pellet, the gun fired and the barrel swung up and slammed shut on the breech face.
This obliterated the end of his thumb!
It was a horrific wound and despite a surgeons best efforts, the end of his thumb has been absent to this day. I have never forgotten that and ALWAYS hold a barrel or cocking lever when loading since then. Something went wrong in that gun, neither his hands or any other object went near the trigger at the time, it just went wrong. Lesson learned.

Not long after that, I was shooting with my cousin and he wanted to see if a pellet would penetrate the roof of a matchbox dinky car or such (it was a red one!)...
He loaded a pellet and placed the toy car on the concrete slab. The muzzle was about an inch or so away and I stood next to him. He fired and the pellet promptly dented the roof and bounced up into my shin. The pain was instant and though it didn't penetrate my leg, it left a pea sized blood blister which eventually formed a little round scar I still have today.

 

[Rudolph Hucker]

Managed to shoot my patio door whilst practicing my standing position.

The door was open and I was shooting through the lounge into the garden, only 23 yds but practice is practice.

Mid way there was a knock at the door, I placed the gun down, answered the door and had a quick chat with my neighbour.

Then it pizzed down with rain so I shut the patio door..

I then picked up the rifle, shouldered it and proceeded to take aim and go through the motions.. squeazed through the 2nd stage and BANG!! The noise was horrific and the door shattered into millions of pieces..

A blooming costly mistake.. note to self #1 even if it's your gun..make sure its unloaded before pointing it at anything.
#2 no more live firing at home

PS I wasn't aiming at the target on the window. Lol
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That's a big bit of double glazing as well

 

[Frappy]

@Wilco did this last week but thankfully just shot into a fleece blanket.
Usually always have an empty gun."Usually "