Accidental Discharge Story #2

[Danny Bear Claw]

First off, let me state...  I didn't do it this time.  I have these friends, a young married couple with a 4 year old daughter.  For home defense they keep a pair of 38 caliber revolvers.  Hers is a S&W model 36.  His is also an S&W 38, I'm not sure which model.  They also have a small automatic.  A 380 I think.  They are very safe with their guns, particularly since they have a small child in the household.  They are both interested in SASS but can't afford 4 guns, gun leather, costuming, etc.  So they just watch CAS events when they can.  Recently he told me he would like to have just one single action 45 just to shoot informally for fun.  Of course, I suggested a Ruger Vaquero because it's the best single action there is.  He found a used old model Vaquero 45 and bought it.  We got to talking one night about how the 38 and 380 rounds are sort of minimal as man-stoppers.  Knowing the Rugers can handle the hotter 45 Colt loads I gave him six rounds of Winchester Silver Tip hollow point ammo for his Ruger.  Well I was in the kitchen getting myself some ice water while he was in the living room loading the silver tips into his Ruger when I hear a large BANG!!!     His wife and I run into the living room to find him sitting on the sofa with a stunned look on his face and the smoking Ruger in his hand.   
I don't know how he did it.  He said his thumb slipped off the hammer.  He had no explaination as to why he cocked a loaded single action revolver.  The bullet shattered a salt shaker on his coffee table a few inches from the muzzle, passed through a large candle about a foot further on the table then into his entertainment wall unit a couple of feet past the table where it went through 3 VCR tapes and damaged a fourth.  The round then passed through the back panel of the wall unit, bounced off the living room wall behind the wall unit and landed on top of the end table near by.  Fortunately his daughter was asleep in her bedroom at the far end of the house in the opposite direction from the shot fired. 
Some interesting takes on the terminal ballistics of the silver tip round fired.  It shed it's jacket when it hit the salt shaker.  We found it in a pile of salt where the shaker had been sitting.  The remaining lead slug was well mushroomed when we found it on the end table, and I pointed out that we did indeed need to find it as his 4 year old would and might eat it or something.

Here again is a lesson for us all.  VIGILANCE!

[GunClick Rick]

Do you half cock that one to turn the cyinder?

[Dirty Brass]

The Rugers rotate with the gate open - they have the transfer bar so no half cock is present on them.

[Danny Bear Claw]

I think he got confused by my explaination of the "load one, skip one, load four" method of loading a traditional single action revolver which I had demonstrated to him on a previous occasion.  I really don't know.  We've talked about this incident a few times since it happened but it is still unclear to me why he cocked the Ruger in the first place as I had showed him how the Ruger is loaded with five or six with out ever touching the hammer.