The Range Idiot Song (Don't Shoot)

Lessons: Always Check That Chamber

I thought this would be appropriate as the first post in this section of the blog. A good first lesson that many of us learn, and if we're lucky, it turns out as well as mine.

Many moons ago I was working in a gun shop and was being trained to scope and bore sight rifles. I had just been allowed to branch out and do the work alone.

I had a customer come into the shop with a standard hunting rifle chambered in 270. He explained his son was coming home from Iraq and he hadn't seen him in over a year. Being very excited about this, dad wanted to make sure everything was perfect. The son had requested to go deer hunting with his father when he returned, an activity they had not been able to do together for several years. So he asked me if I could just double check the scope for him. Make sure it was attached tightly enough, bore sight it, and then shoot it in to zero for him.

Upon agreeing, he passed the rifle to me. As per usual, I opened the bolt and visually checked to make sure the rifle was empty, then closed it and went about doing the proper paperwork for liability since I would be firing this rifle without him in attendance. I then placed the rifle in the safe of the warehouse for me to work on when the crowd in the shop and range died down.

It was about two hours later that I went to retrieve the rifle. I lifted it up and opened the bolt again.

To my surprise, the round in the photo above with the silver tip popped out. I stood shocked for a moment, then dropped the bottom out of the rifle, dumping out a full load of 270 rounds onto the ground at my feet.

I stood there and looked down at this collection of rounds, still holding the rifle, and the "what ifs" began to flow through my mind. What if... I hadn't opened the bolt the second time? What if... I had dry fired the rifle on the floor when the guy handed me the gun (in many cases we did this when a customer asked us to check function, which he had asked me to do. But by a stroke of luck I had decided to test function on the firing range only with this rifle)? What if... a co-worker had seen the rifle, forgot to check the chamber, and tried the trigger on it?

I realized right away that the owner had also not checked the rifle before driving 45 miles to our shop with it unsecured in his trunk or before handing it off to a complete stranger. But that was something he had to come to terms with. The fact that this round popped out of the chamber right there was the fault of no one but myself.

So what's the lesson? I checked the chamber, right?

1. When someone hands you a gun, a visual check may not be enough. Best I can figure, I mistook the silver casing of the rounds as the rifle's follower and didn't think anything of it. Many guns have colored followers (black, green, blue, white, orange, etc.) that do not match typical ammunition casing colors. But this isn't always the case. The follower for this rifle was, in fact, the same shade of silver as the rounds. So when someone hands you a gun, make double sure. Visually check, then stick a finger in there.

2. The rules of gun safety should always apply. A gun is always loaded, even if you checked it. If I hadn't treated this rifle as if it were loaded... turns out, it was. The results could have been tragic.

I've had those rounds now for many years. I decided to keep the entire magazine of them. Ever since that day, they have stood up on my dresser in my bedroom where I see them every morning. I call them my "reminder bullets." They're there to remind me to check the chambers on every gun every time. And I haven't made this mistake again. I can't tell you what the rifle was or even the name of the owner. But I remember the story as if it happened this morning.

Check that chamber. I'll say it a million times in videos and blog posts. If you watch my videos, you'll note the first step is to always make sure the gun is unloaded. Always. And that's why.