heh, it appears we’re the exact opposite. I press-checked my 1911 twice this morning. (Got it out of the safe, press check, yep loaded, just like it had been last night when it went in there, then set the gun down on the copy of the US Constitution I have on my desk *its a nice hard cover with a dust jacket so it won’t mar the gun or the book…and its very appropriate, don’t you think?* Then I got my holster and spare magazines on. Picked up the gun, again check the magazine and chamber, yep as they should be, holster.)
On Friday I stopped in to a gun shop to talk about trading in my P3AT for a PF9. I unloaded the P3AT during the appraisal and dropped the round in my pocket. When the appraisal was over, I put the magazine back in but didn’t rack the slide. Didn’t want to freak out the other customers.
On Sunday, my wife called down to me from the laundry room–”Honey, there’s a bullet in the dryer!” I don’t keep anything else in the same pocket as my P3AT, so when I emptied my pockets on Friday night I didn’t check to see if anything other than the pistol was in it. If I had, I would’ve fixed it then.
The whole situation was a little bit scary because 1) I didn’t know the condition of my weapon for a couple of days and 2) live ammo ended up in my dryer. Now, the good news in all of this is that the P3AT is my backup, so the chances of me needing to deploy it are smaller than the chances of needing to deploy my primary, but still it’s a lesson learned.
Mythbusters did a test of the heat required to set off a round and it’s in the 500 degree area. The only thing you’d have to MAYBE worry about is something hitting the primer hard enough to set it off. Even then, it’s extremely unlikely to penetrate the wall of the dryer since there’s nothing to contain the pressure and nothing to keep the cartridge solid.
It would have sucked to be sure, but a round in the dryer isn’t much of a risk in my mind. The episode they did this in was when they were testing if it was possible that a gun stored in an oven could go off. It could and the ONLY way they could get it to break the glass was if they just about bolted it down.
THat is why you need to practice failure drills when at the range. I take a few snap caps along and have someone else load (or not) them into a magazine when practicing. You never know when the snap cap is gonna come up and surprise you….
What I think is better is you have the stones to fess up to the world that you made the mistake. Provides us all with a good learning opportunity and reminder. Thank you for doing so.
Did my draw & fire practice one night, finished up. Next day, went out to take care of the usual stuff. That evening drew to drop the mag, empty the chamber and put in a smap cap and saw the snap cap still there from last night.
That was an awakening moment.
random quotes
“I don't care how 'poorly' secured your firearms are, it's the fault of the thief for stealing it, not you for not securing it better.” by Pyrotek85
This is why I love my LCP… easy chamber checks.
heh, it appears we’re the exact opposite. I press-checked my 1911 twice this morning. (Got it out of the safe, press check, yep loaded, just like it had been last night when it went in there, then set the gun down on the copy of the US Constitution I have on my desk *its a nice hard cover with a dust jacket so it won’t mar the gun or the book…and its very appropriate, don’t you think?* Then I got my holster and spare magazines on. Picked up the gun, again check the magazine and chamber, yep as they should be, holster.)
[...] calculated he press checked is pistol once every 4.2 seconds. Well, it is a good habit to get into. Here’s [...]
So here’s the full story:
On Friday I stopped in to a gun shop to talk about trading in my P3AT for a PF9. I unloaded the P3AT during the appraisal and dropped the round in my pocket. When the appraisal was over, I put the magazine back in but didn’t rack the slide. Didn’t want to freak out the other customers.
On Sunday, my wife called down to me from the laundry room–”Honey, there’s a bullet in the dryer!” I don’t keep anything else in the same pocket as my P3AT, so when I emptied my pockets on Friday night I didn’t check to see if anything other than the pistol was in it. If I had, I would’ve fixed it then.
The whole situation was a little bit scary because 1) I didn’t know the condition of my weapon for a couple of days and 2) live ammo ended up in my dryer. Now, the good news in all of this is that the P3AT is my backup, so the chances of me needing to deploy it are smaller than the chances of needing to deploy my primary, but still it’s a lesson learned.
Mythbusters did a test of the heat required to set off a round and it’s in the 500 degree area. The only thing you’d have to MAYBE worry about is something hitting the primer hard enough to set it off. Even then, it’s extremely unlikely to penetrate the wall of the dryer since there’s nothing to contain the pressure and nothing to keep the cartridge solid.
It would have sucked to be sure, but a round in the dryer isn’t much of a risk in my mind. The episode they did this in was when they were testing if it was possible that a gun stored in an oven could go off. It could and the ONLY way they could get it to break the glass was if they just about bolted it down.
Great that you learned that lesson the easy way!
I’ve gotten lax on chamber checking my G19 every time I put it on. I think I’ll get back in the habit!
I don’t think drying ammo will set anything off.
Heck, I’ve laundered probably a good box of .22LR by now and not put any holes in my dryer…
THat is why you need to practice failure drills when at the range. I take a few snap caps along and have someone else load (or not) them into a magazine when practicing. You never know when the snap cap is gonna come up and surprise you….
Any time the gun has been out of my direct observation, I check it before holstering.
Tam:
“Any time the gun has been out of my direct observation, I check it before holstering”
Yup.
On this particular keltec, there is no need for snapcaps to practice failures.
I’m virtually guaranteed one every 25 rounds or so. Which, of course, is one reason I was shopping for a replacement
What I think is better is you have the stones to fess up to the world that you made the mistake. Provides us all with a good learning opportunity and reminder. Thank you for doing so.
Did my draw & fire practice one night, finished up. Next day, went out to take care of the usual stuff. That evening drew to drop the mag, empty the chamber and put in a smap cap and saw the snap cap still there from last night.
That was an awakening moment.