Tell me about your funny or crazy gun malfunctions. I'll tell you some of mine.

[Sigblaster]

Here's another Army one. I hate to keep bringing up the Army ones, but it's where I've had my widest exposure with weapons.

I got voluntold that I was going to be an M47 Dragon gunner. Ok, cool. Went to the subcaliber range, where they basically put a giant blank shell into a dummy M47, and have you track a Jeep-mounted target. I got 20 out of 20 hits, so I was selected to be one of three guys to fire a live Dragon round at the live fire range.

At the live fire range, the first guy fires his Dragon from an M113 Armored Personnel Carrier. This is a wire-guided tank killer missile for those of you who don't know what it is. His guide wire must have immediately snapped upon launch, because it went about 50 meters and hit the dirt. I think I remember the arming distance is 65 meters, but it's been a long time. Regardless, it was dangerous UXO. Had to wait for EOD to come and blow it in place.

The second guy fired his missile from the foxhole. It went maybe 200 meters or so, and I dont know if it was a malfunction or operator error, but the missile suddenly went straight up in the air, then straight down to the ground and exploded. At least we didn't need EOD for that one.

Now I'm getting ready to fire the third and last missile of the day, and I'm sure it's going to F up in some manner. I'm firing from the kneeling position, aiming at a CONEX about 800 meters out. I smash the trigger on the sight, and BLAM, it's loud and my vision is completely obscured by smoke for a couple seconds. Then I see it. The missile is in my sight, and I can see the little thruster motors firing, which is cool but a distraction. I retrain my crosshairs on the CONEX, and a few seconds later, WHA-BLAM, the CONEX is destroyed. I swear, if I would have smiled any wider, the top of my head would have fallen off.

The instructors were very happy too, and I was mobbed by everyone from the instructors to my fellow students who were spectating from the bleachers. It was a good day.

A few months later, ... Well, that's another story. Probably shouldn't tell it.

 

[eddiehelm]

Was in Iraq in 04 manning a .50 for a night mission. Had a clunky set of 7 Bravos and a Kevlar that fit like crap so they didn’t sit well to begin with. The lens cap for the nvgs was attached by a string which I tucked into my Kevlar band. About an hour into our mission we began taking fire. The sky was lit up with tracers and so naturally I leveled the 50 on the source and laid on the butterflys. About 2 bursts in my head gets slammed into the weapon system and I can’t move! I thought I’d been shot... turns out my lens cap came loose and got caught in the belt pulling my nvgs/Kevlar/head into the weapon lol.

 

[STEEL CORE]

I spent twenty one years in the US Army and shot a lot, and I mean anything whenever I got any chance to do it on the range or in Combat. I never had an incident personally but have witnessed many others.
One day shortly before my retirement from the US Army, after I had cleaned my Glock-19 that I was carrying at the time, I was walking to my car and went to insert a magazine into it and reached into my pocket, pulled out the magazine, inserted it into the pistol and as I had been taught slammed it home...only to quickly see I had it backwards in the frame stuck tight as if I had super glued it in there.
I could not get it out, I tried, and had to take it apart, and bang it out using a wooden dowel and a good rubber mallet rap.
The mag was fine, I am fine, my Glock was fine, but that’s my story.

 

[Sigblaster]

Was in Iraq in 04 manning a .50 for a night mission. Had a clunky set of 7 Bravos and a Kevlar that fit like crap so they didn’t sit well to begin with. The lens cap for the nvgs was attached by a string which I tucked into my Kevlar band. About an hour into our mission we began taking fire. The sky was lit up with tracers and so naturally I leveled the 50 on the source and laid on the butterflys. About 2 bursts in my head gets slammed into the weapon system and I can’t move! I thought I’d been shot... turns out my lens cap came loose and got caught in the belt pulling my nvgs/Kevlar/head into the weapon lol.

HAHAHAHAH! LOL indeed. I love stories like this, where I can not only see it happening, but I can see the same type of crap happening to ME!

One time, I was doing MOUT training. I forget if this was at Benning or Campbell. Anyway, there were a lot of pre-made holes in the walls of the buildings, where you could snipe at the enemy, or chuck a practice grenade through. We called them "rat holes", but I'm not sure if that's any kind of official term. I was maybe the third person entering the building, and according to plan, I moved to the right to the corner of the room and crouched down. Of course, my selector was set to full auto, as we were clearing a building. Some OPFOR pops through a door at the end of the room and starts shooting, and I let off a long burst at him. At the end of my burst, there's this loud POP and I'm sprayed in the face with debris. I'm sure that my M16A1 has just blown up in my face, and I'm wondering how bad the damage is. I look down at my rifle, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with it. I wipe my face, checking for blood, and there is none. I look down at the rifle again, and then I notice there's a practice grenade laying on the floor right next to me, with the hole in the bottom pointing directly at my face. Well, I know when I've been got, and that F'er that chucked the grenade through the rat hole definitely got me. I pulled the key out of my MILES transmitter, and stuck it in my harness and sat there moping and beeping until an OC came around and reset me.

 

[Sigblaster]

I spent twenty one years in the US Army and shot a lot, and I mean anything whenever I got any chance to do it on the range or in Combat. I never had an incident personally but have witnessed many others.
One day shortly before my retirement from the US Army, after I had cleaned my Glock-19 that I was carrying at the time, I was walking to my car and went to insert a magazine into it and reached into my pocket, pulled out the magazine, inserted it into the pistol and as I had been taught slammed it home...only to quickly see I had it backwards in the frame stuck tight as if I had super glued it in there.
I could not get it out, I tried, and had to take it apart, and bang it out using a wooden dowel and a good rubber mallet rap.
The mag was fine, I am fine, my Glock was fine, but that’s my story.

Hot damn, King Kong, you shouldn't have to slam a magazine in THAT hard!

You keep doing that, and you're going to have the same look on your face that Kirk did when his pistol ejected his follower and spring!

 

[STEEL CORE]

You only slap a mag backwards into your Glock one time....believe me you won’t ever do it again.
(I can visualize a couple of you right now, looking over your safe and empty Glock with a full mag in your hand saying, “he did what“?!?
Then reversing it and trying to but it in backwards......”Geez your right it could happen”,
a reverse cowboy speed load!

 

[eddiehelm]

HAHAHAHAH! LOL indeed. I love stories like this, where I can not only see it happening, but I can see the same type of crap happening to ME!

One time, I was doing MOUT training. I forget if this was at Benning or Campbell. Anyway, there were a lot of pre-made holes in the walls of the buildings, where you could snipe at the enemy, or chuck a practice grenade through. We called them "rat holes", but I'm not sure if that's any kind of official term. I was maybe the third person entering the building, and according to plan, I moved to the right to the corner of the room and crouched down. Of course, my selector was set to full auto, as we were clearing a building. Some OPFOR pops through a door at the end of the room and starts shooting, and I let off a long burst at him. At the end of my burst, there's this loud POP and I'm sprayed in the face with debris. I'm sure that my M16A1 has just blown up in my face, and I'm wondering how bad the damage is. I look down at my rifle, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with it. I wipe my face, checking for blood, and there is none. I look down at the rifle again, and then I notice there's a practice grenade laying on the floor right next to me, with the hole in the bottom pointing directly at my face. Well, I know when I've been got, and that F'er that chucked the grenade through the rat hole definitely got me. I pulled the key out of my MILES transmitter, and stuck it in my harness and sat there moping and beeping until an OC came around and reset me.

Lol! Good times man. I did some MOUT training in Campbell. Was my first time in full gear, packing a saw and only weighing about 140 at the time. Went to cross a street “tactically” and there was a desk a d some debris stacked close to a wall. In my head I saw my course of action clearly. Sprint across the street, jump the desk, slide against the wall and fall in line with my team... Well, turns out 100 lbs of kit drastically affects your ups lol. I went to hurdle the desk and didn’t come close to clearing it. Smoked both my shins and landed on my face! Real world lessons lol. Miss those days and especially the free ammo now that I’ve been paying for my own range time nowadays.

 

[1nderbeard]

I spent a day at the range with my wife a few years ago. Went to shoot my glock 26 and it would not stop jamming. Every couple of rounds. I took it apart, cleaned it and tried new mags. Finally my wife picked up a casing and asked if it was supposed to say 380.

My brother shot a 9m from my 26 once. The thing actually fired. The round didn't have enough energy to load the next round though. I instructed him on the difference between 9 and 40 that day.
The same guy also mowed my lawn using kerosene in my mower instead of gas...If he wasn't doing me a favor that day I'd have been more upset.

 

[masterdekoy]

I had a round land backwards in a Glock chamber when clearing a G17 once. Didn’t rack the slide hard enough and it just kind of flipped over and stuck when the slide closed.

 

[Ratigan27]

Not "my story," but I was there.

I took a pistol one course; the whole class was on the line shooting steel practicing mag changes. Somehow the instructor noticed that the guys gun next to me did not send a round downrange and called a stop mid drill to find out there was a squib in his barrel. It made me feel much better about the attention to detail the instructors were giving us.