....it makes an ass out of U and ME they say.
I nearly learned that the hard way when i was shooting in the Marine Corps match in Camp Le June NC, in 1995.
The matches were over and we still had one last day before we flew back, so we went down to the 200m Zero range for a fun shoot. There were about 40 of us, some Brits and some US Marines. We had an array of weapons layed out on the firing line, mainly SA80's, M16 and a few sniper rilfles from both sides of the pond.
Being that most of the ammo was 5.56 we had magazines stacked up and it all had to go, lets face it..no one wants to unload and rebox that lot !
Anyway given that there was still lots of ammo to get through and there were lots of weapons lying about I thought I'd have a pop at some of the targets down range on one of our SA80's.
I walked up to a vacant slot and picked up the rifle, bearing in mind there was a British marine lying to my left being coached by a US marine lying next to him on his left.
I inserted the magazine, cocked the rifle whilst it was still pointing towards the ground ( ideally it should have been at 45 degrees to the deck, first mistake). Now on the SA80 there is a little slack on the trigger which you can take up ( a little like a 2 stage trigger) which helps you to squeeze rather than snatch the trigger for better shot release.
Unfortunately I didn't carry out my NSP's assuming that the previous user had returned the weapon to a safe state, ie chamber clear , no magazine and the safetly on ( or as our US counterparts call it, a condition 4 weapon).
This however wasn't the case, the safety had been left off. This was the first and only time I have ever squeezed a trigger and had it go bang by surprise.
My feet nearly buckled beneath me as I watched the dirt 12 inches to the right of the marines head spray up! Realising what I'd done and knowing there were perhaps 20 or so spectators no more than 20 ft behind me, I figured the best course of action was to empty the magazine down range as quickly as possible and get off the point, half expecting someone to run up and drag me off.
As I took aim I heard the US Marine coaching say " if you pull it into your shoulder it.....actually you might want to slide back a bit, the guy next to you just shot next to your head"
At this point I fully expected the marine to stand up and snot me for utter negligence, but he just shimmied back and carried on with his shoot.
When I walked off the point it seemed that only two guys had seen it and were stood like guppies at feeding time but otherwise it appeared to go un noticed.
It took me about an hour for my hands to stop shaking...I had been on the shooting team for 3 years and knew the weapon inside and out, but I allowed complacency to creep in and nearly killed someone in the process. How different life would have been in the barrel had been just a few cm's further to the left.
It then really hit home what the team coach WO Charlie Jennings had always said " Weapons are safe, until you forget how dangerous they are"
I nearly learned that the hard way when i was shooting in the Marine Corps match in Camp Le June NC, in 1995.
The matches were over and we still had one last day before we flew back, so we went down to the 200m Zero range for a fun shoot. There were about 40 of us, some Brits and some US Marines. We had an array of weapons layed out on the firing line, mainly SA80's, M16 and a few sniper rilfles from both sides of the pond.
Being that most of the ammo was 5.56 we had magazines stacked up and it all had to go, lets face it..no one wants to unload and rebox that lot !
Anyway given that there was still lots of ammo to get through and there were lots of weapons lying about I thought I'd have a pop at some of the targets down range on one of our SA80's.
I walked up to a vacant slot and picked up the rifle, bearing in mind there was a British marine lying to my left being coached by a US marine lying next to him on his left.
I inserted the magazine, cocked the rifle whilst it was still pointing towards the ground ( ideally it should have been at 45 degrees to the deck, first mistake). Now on the SA80 there is a little slack on the trigger which you can take up ( a little like a 2 stage trigger) which helps you to squeeze rather than snatch the trigger for better shot release.
Unfortunately I didn't carry out my NSP's assuming that the previous user had returned the weapon to a safe state, ie chamber clear , no magazine and the safetly on ( or as our US counterparts call it, a condition 4 weapon).
This however wasn't the case, the safety had been left off. This was the first and only time I have ever squeezed a trigger and had it go bang by surprise.
My feet nearly buckled beneath me as I watched the dirt 12 inches to the right of the marines head spray up! Realising what I'd done and knowing there were perhaps 20 or so spectators no more than 20 ft behind me, I figured the best course of action was to empty the magazine down range as quickly as possible and get off the point, half expecting someone to run up and drag me off.
As I took aim I heard the US Marine coaching say " if you pull it into your shoulder it.....actually you might want to slide back a bit, the guy next to you just shot next to your head"
At this point I fully expected the marine to stand up and snot me for utter negligence, but he just shimmied back and carried on with his shoot.
When I walked off the point it seemed that only two guys had seen it and were stood like guppies at feeding time but otherwise it appeared to go un noticed.
It took me about an hour for my hands to stop shaking...I had been on the shooting team for 3 years and knew the weapon inside and out, but I allowed complacency to creep in and nearly killed someone in the process. How different life would have been in the barrel had been just a few cm's further to the left.
It then really hit home what the team coach WO Charlie Jennings had always said " Weapons are safe, until you forget how dangerous they are"
