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prbrown09 writes:

I went to the range last night and a .380 case pegged my son in the face about 10 feet away from the firing line. It was very weird as most of the brass my friend was slinging was flying at a “normal” arc, rate and distance. The one that hit him came out very hard and punctured his face. I wouldn’t have expected this kind of damage from a small caliber casing – the rim did the damage from impact, rather than a sharp cut from the case. Quick trip to the ER for 5 stitches and he’s all good. Mom’s not very happy, but now the kid has a fun new story to tell. One thing for sure, I will now carry some medical supplies to the range. Have you ever been punctured by a flying case?

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190 COMMENTS

  1. Nope, but I have been pelted and made to bleed by lead splashing back on me from shooting steel. That’s happened a lot.

  2. Wow, I wouldn’t expect that. I’ve been hit in the head by shells plenty of times, never had so much as a scratch.

  3. Wow that’s crazy. no, have been burned a few times with hot cases, but never actually cut, or seen anyone cut, from one. That must have been a total fluke… Cases don’t usually eject with enough force to break skin, or at least I thought…. Wow. Glad he’s ok. Another good reason to always have your eyes and ears on.

    • Yep, hot cases suck. I was naturally a left-handed shooter, but way back in those childhood years it only took a couple of 22lr casings stuck in the crook of my arm to convince me to learn how to shoot right handed instead.
      Either that, or the purple spot on my shoulder from shooting 50 rounds of hot Turk ammo through an 8mm Mauser while wearing a tank top, would be my biggest mishaps. Knock on wood…..

  4. 2 months ago – brass hit the wall and struck me in face. didn’t know I was bleeding until someone pointed it out. used a compress to stop bleeding. no stiches and thankfully, it was near my hairline/lip so the ‘stache covers it well.

  5. Scope bite to the eye. Remmy 700 in .308. First time I tried it prone I moved up too far. Black eye for a week, broke the skin all along my eyebrow. Hurt like hell and bled like a shaving nik.

    • I took one right between the eyebrows, but I had my shooting glasses on so it left a nice quarter-circle scar. After I pulled the trigger the first thing I noticed was that my teeth were vibrating for some reason. First time shooting 2 3/4 slugs in the 12 gauge with a less than adequate grip on it and a low bench. Haven’t made that mistake again.

    • After breaking my nose with the scope on my father in law’s .270, I realized I has somehow made it into my thirties without ever firing a scoped rifle. Eye relief is a good thing.

      • My .270 got me too. Wasn’t the nose, but right above the eyebrow. No blood, the eyepiece on my Nikon scope is pretty soft and blunt.

        Never did it again, I think everyone has to pay their dues when shooting a scoped centerfire rifle.

        • Shooters need to pay their dues when shooting a scopes center fire rifle…

          Life hack: learn from other peoples mistakes.

  6. A friend had a case wedge between is shooting glasses and eyebrow. Makes for a dangerous situation because your knee jerk reaction is to get it out, except you have gun in your hand. It’s why we always wear hats now.

    • I had the exact same thing happen to me years ago when I was in college, and shooting at a nearby indoor range. It resulted in my one-and-only-thus-far ND, as while flinching from the burn I actually put a round through the roof. Fortunately, nobody noticed. 😉

      That’s why I now wear a ballcap as well as shooting glasses, unless I’m shooting revolvers.

    • Fourthed.

      I’ve also somehow cut myself on at least two Rugers (MkIII and SR9), though I’m not sure exactly how I managed to do that.

    • I wear a hat to the range and have still had cases get stuck between my glasses and forehead. Most of the time a quick jerk of my head will cause them to fall.

      I’m always amazed at the number of people who don’t bring a first aid kit with them.

      • I always bring a full kit with me for two reasons.

        1. If people conceal carry in the off chance they might need it, why not a first aid kit at a place where deadly injuries can happen?

        2. I believe in weird karma. It’s like the moment your car insurance lapses if you forget to pay/renew, you’ll get into a car accident.

    • Same. Except it landed in between my glasses and eye lid. Hurt like hell. Worst injury was when I was testing my 1911 for hollow point reliability. My sig didn’t like the first type I tried(magtech junk) and jammed up so tight I had to smack the back of the slide HARD to get in back into battery so I switched back to ball. First shot with the funk and the casing ejected with serious force and pegged me in the forehead. Had a nice crescent gouge for a week.

  8. Shoot lefty with right handed rifles. Have had hot brass go down my neck or catch in tee shirt and burn a few times. Shoot pistols right handed and have had brass bounce off my bald head but never cut.

    • Same, except it was a stream of hot brass – was firing the SAW left-handed in the seated position.

  9. I managed to have a hot 5.56 casing tossed down my blouse (guy on my left while we were practicing CQB I was on a knee) on a range and burn my nipple… and a platoon mate back in Basic had a 5.56 explode in his face while swapping belt in a 249.

  10. Oh crap.
    I hoe the ER didn’t write that up as another child injured by gunfire.

    • “I hope the ER didn’t write that up as another child injured by gunfire.”

      That’s EXACTLY what I thought when I read this too. It pisses me off that the world we live in is so twisted that we’ve begun to think this way.

  11. As a kid at summer camp. 22 bolt action rifle. Apparently I didn’t have the bolt closed all the way and some of the gas escaped directly into my right eye. I was lucky, burned for a few minutes and I was good to go.

    Good times

  12. Gotta ask-are you *sure* it was an ejected case and not a jacket off the bullet? I can’t imagine a .380 case ejecting with enough force to do that. But depending on target composition and bullet construction it is easy to imagine a very sharp piece of crumpled copper ricocheting and doing that.
    My range no longer allows anyone through the door to the range itself without eye protection, and that pic makes me a believer. Best wishes to your son.

    • I would have had a hard time believing it myself, except I saw the casing shoot straight out at him – the larger injury was the exact width of the case rim.

      • Just coincidence that the wound matches the casing size. I don’t believe that is what cased it. Think about the velocity required to penetrate soft tissue. Ejecting shells can’t move that fast.

  13. Been peppered a few times with birdshot off of pallets at 10-15 yards. I think I’m doing alright if that’s all I’ve got to share.

  14. I was breaking in my you-get-what-you-pay-for Rem 870 Express with a 100 shell Walmart special when a hull got stuck in the chamber. When I attempted to power-shuck (buttstock on the ground, using both hands to manipulate the slide) the stuck hull from the chamber, I caught the meaty part of my left palm between the slide and sharp leading edge of the receiver near the loading gate. I earned a nice bloody gash on my favorite palm.

    Later I used the steel-wool wrapped brass brush in a drill to smooth out the chamber. No more stuck shells.

  15. While testing a Desert Eagle for TTAG, I caught a .50AE case above my right eyebrow after it ricocheted off the lane divider to my right. I didn’t know that it had happened until RF — in his usual laconic style — pointed out that I was bleeding.

    No biggie, just a scratch really, but that was the first and last time that I shot without a billed cap.

    • I watched that vid last night (50 AE). You and your cohorts limp wristing/wranging were making me nervous. The dude in a later video was handling it like a champ. Was he shooting weaker ammo, or just more experienced in handling big bore?

      • There’s a TTAG DE .50AE review authored by someone named “Ralph” where, in the embedded video, we watch the shooter and hear a commenter say “Okay, we’re rolling Eddie … [bang] … [giggles] … “a little more hand on the gun, I think” … [bang] … “try holding on”.

        EDIT: of course, that was just “Eddie” shooting. We haven’t, of course, seen Ralph limp-wristing his sh1t.

      • Wow I can’t believe it looks like the guys about to drop it!
        When I first fired a .50 de (with full power factory ammo) I was actually surprised at the LACK of recoil. I did use the firmest grip I have ever done on a pistol because I was half expecting the thing to fly out of my hands & hit me in the face, but was pleasantly surprised. And at 5’6″ I’m not a big guy either!
        Here’s a vid to prove it: http://youtu.be/_o0MalHPJa8
        Notice the lack of muzzle flip/slipping out of my hands…

    • My very first shot ever out of a rented .50AE Desert Eagle resulted in a case striking me in the forehead on the right side. Fortunately, it only left a small mark.

  16. I was hit in the scalp by a bullet fragment during an advanced concealed carry class. We were taking turns on the shooting exercise, and I was standing toward the rear of the indoor range observing, well away from the flying brass, when I was hit. It bled profusely for a few minutes, but fortunately did not require stitches.

  17. First time shooting the AR at the indoor range at Gander, a casing bounced off the partition and landed perfectly at my cheek weld. The pushed up cheek skin and stock provided a perfect ledge for the very hot casing to land and then sit until I said ouch. (they are hot)
    The burn looked like war paint.

  18. Scope bite from a muzzleloader when I was 10. My very first time shooting a scoped firearm.

    On the bright side, we had some Power Rangers band aids handy.

  19. Funny, I’ve only been injured when cleaning firearms. I have a scar on my left hand from the dust cover on my SKS flying off when I was field stripping. Didn’t realize the weapon was cocked. That sucker went to the bone to, just from blunt force trauma.

  20. Hmmmm…

    Catch hot brass all the time from shells ejecting. No burns to date

    Shooting my H&R Sportsman top break 22 in double action spits hot lead all over your hand, not so much in single action. (? Don’t know why that is.)

    Looking at Kahr 9 for conceal carry last week and rather rough slide scratched my damned finger, but I think I’ll live 🙂

    Oh yeah, I’m sure I lost at least a slight percentage of my hearing shooting trap with various 12 gauges and 16 gauges without hearing protection, which wasn’t too bright on my part. Does that count?

  21. Got my palm pinched a bunch slamming mags home with my sig 220. That plastic checkering gets slippery when there’s blood on them.
    Then I discovered bumper pads.

  22. Only range injuries:
    * 200 rounds of .30-30 through a Model 94 in a couple of hours.
    * Entered an active indoor range without ear protection.
    * Took a range neighbor’s hot case down the front of my shirt.

  23. -Got too close to the scope shooting 12ga slugs (rifled bbl). Besides the swelling right above my eye, no biggie.

    -A couple of stings from hot brass.
    -Got some skin caught between the mag well and base plate.
    -Shot a round of .38spl indoors, without hearing protection.

  24. This one time I was opening one of those hard to open all plastic Federal defensive ammo boxes… and it pinched me. I was trying to manhandle it and lost my grip and closed it on some finger skin. Not very epic. Proud to report no real injuries. I really do hate those boxes though and they seem like they could take $1 of the cost if they used regular cardboard boxes.

  25. Shooting at a coyote from inside the car, thought my wife was screaming at me for (again, no apparent reason), when I discovered the hot 223 brass was ricocheting off the inside of the windshield into her lap.
    LMAO…

    • Winner!

      “(again, no apparent reason)” LOL.

      PS – – thank you for helping stop the flow of illegals.

  27. Not exactly a range injury, but clay shooting still counts, right? My ear plugs fell out and the stock, wet with rain, slipped down on my shoulder and I gave my wrist a nasty jerk as the gun recoiled under my arm.

    • Haha, same here. I was so worried about it getting loose after half a mag dump, that I reached up to check it after making the weapon safe. It didn’t take to let go, but that little amount of time was all it took.

  30. I have never experienced any injuries while shooting.

    I cannot imagine a brass casing from a .380 ACP round ever being capable of cutting a person’s skin — especially the when the rim of the casing impacted the skin first. I think something else happened.

  32. Worst range accident was case of ‘M1 Thumb’ as a teen. Aside from that the typical hot brass type injuries/burns.

  33. I’ve never been hurt myself, but I’ve caused some trouble with my CZ75. It’ll fling brass a solid 10 feet to my right and I tend to pelt anyone in that direction with the casings. Because of this I tend to take the rightmost available lane at the range to inconvenience as few people as possible.

  34. In Army basic training at Fort Dix (a few centuries ago) on the firing line, when buddied up with another shooter, his M1 shell casing fell down the front of my fatigues. I remember the pain as if it was yesterday. I don’t recommend it, not even to masochists.

  35. Got hit in the head with brass from Taurus TCP. No burns and yeah I wear a billed cap. Tore a pre-existing injured elbow keeping my elbow hyperextended while shooting. Very painful web bite from Keltec PF 9. Thumb too. Hand hurt like hell for days after with Keltec. Even with a Houge Jr. That picture looks nasty…I’m with Tom. I hope the idiots don’t report it as a “gun related injury”.

  36. I had a glock 21 kb while a friend was shooting it. He had a few cuts and a nasty blister where the magazine release blew out.

    • Did you find out what caused the kb? Sometimes the concept of catastrophic failures is what makes me nervous about shooting , more then anything else. I have a Glock 29SF, and I know there were some issues with lack of complete case support causing the possibility of lighting of rounds in the mag. Having that happen with 10mm would make for a bad day.

      Personally , worst range injury was me racking and clearing my p226 on the way out and ending up with the side of my hand pinched in the breech. The gun was hanging from the side of my palm. Had to get a friend to come over and pull the slide back to free me. That was not a comfortable experience .

  37. The king of hot brass shells is the Winchester Model 94.

    Try making contact with some freshly-emptied brass casings from the ole’ top eject. Then you’ve felt some hot stuff.

  38. Once got a mild case of scope bite because I was too far forward on my friend’s rifle in .375 H&H.
    He didn’t advise me in advance, laughed uproariously afterward, and still brings it up from time to time.
    (“Be careful with that 10/22, don’t want to get scope bit again! Har Har Har Yuk Yuk Yuk”)

  40. Hmmm. Seems the case had a higher velocity then simply being kicked out by the ejector. Was it a hot load, was timing off, worn slide spring? I hate to second guess, but my Glock kicked them out hardcore, but never with a velocity to really cut like that.

  41. Shooting my dads old Hawken .50 cal before deer season and the nipple had stripped out from age and wear. First shot launched the nipple and a bunch of gases back at me. Thankfully it was mostly caught my safety glasses (nice gouge directly if front of my eye) and i only got a little scratch through the eyelash and some little peppered burns on my forehead

  42. Tried to shoot my Raging Judge Magnum .454 one handed, got a gnarly little gash on the web of my left hand.

    other than that just getting hot 5.56 brass down the back of my collar qualifying on the M-4

  43. I’ve caught the jacket off of a 7.62×39 in the cheek and most of a .45 in the inner thigh but I think the worst was catching a .22 ricochet from a steel plate in the nipple. Actually broke the skin though my shirt.

  44. Worst injury so far is slicing my left thumb open while racking the slide of a “new-to-me” pistol, my hand slipped. I’m really not sure what did the damage, I’m guessing the rear sight. Anyway, I did have medical supplies with me, so the only lasting damage was blood stains on a new white shirt (which peroxide fixed later). I’ve been hit by hot brass from other shooters from time to time, but never been burned, and never seen one cut someone like this.

  45. My only injury was pinching my finger while trying to lock back the slide with a terrible grip/sweaty hand. My fiance had a casing land perfectly on her glasses and got a pretty nasty burn on her eyelid.

  46. Oh, forgot one.
    3rd dergree burn on my leg while doing transition drills with my AR-15 SBR with a full sized can. Right there on the calf. Ouch, still have the scar.

  47. At my second visit to the range with my newly acquired M&P 9, I was trying to remember everything that I was taught in class. I overlooked the proper positioning of my left hand. I placed my left thumb over my right thumb rather parallel to it. Oops!

    I got myself a very messy “slide slice” for that lapse.

    On the way home, I stopped at CVS and got a box of Band-Aids, gauze, and tape – and a Fifth Avenue candy bar.

  48. My worst one was me being an idiot. I was poking around in an opened semi-auto shotgun and must have hit something. The bolt slammed closed on my finger, and the extractor punched through my fingernail into the fleshy part. The irony was that I had just told my gun-noob friend watching me never to do that. I was originally using a cotton swab, but a piece of crud wouldn’t come out so I tried using my fingernail. Hurt like a bitch, but I managed not to yell out or cry.

    My only other injuries have been hot brass burns and bruising from my Mosin Nagants.

  49. Range injuries:

    -Accidentally grabbed barrel of M249 saw during a barrel change during USMC boot camp in 94. Left scalded fingerprints on the barrel and got first and second degree burns to right hand. Operator error.

    -Separate range during USMC school of Infantry – hot 5.56 case from an M16 went down my neck – 1st degree burn – other shooter too close – operator error

    -Police Academy – .223 case from AR down neck during rapid fire range training – case momentarily stuck against skin causing 1st and 2nd degree burns – range set up error

  50. Cut up my thunb on some sharp magazine edges while shooting a brick of 22.

    Also had an overcharged 22 scare the stuff out me when it blew out the back of the brass in my Sig 1911-22.. Powder all over my hands and face but no burns. I feel lucky it wasn’t the 45 ACP rounds that I had been shootng earlier.

  51. Got a 5.56 casing stuck in my collar at Ft Benning, it was six years ago and I still have a nasty scar

  52. Nothing serious, but all the typicals. I’ve taken a scope to the eye and I’ve gotten no shortages of hammer and slide bites. Though the most frequent injury is burns from freshly fired cases.

  53. My son was shot by a licensed gun owner who was former law enforcement. He was standing where the man told him to stand, behind him but when the man had trouble getting the clip engaged and tried to force it in he shifted his body to the right and the gun discharged. Alex was shot in the arm through the shoulder. Scary times. He survived.

    • So the guy pointed a gun at your son and pulled the trigger? Was he charged with anything, or did he at least face a large tort suit?

      A gun is an inanimate object. Except in VERY rare cases (Remington 700, and only a statistically insignificant number of those) a gun does not discharge without a human being performing a physical action to cause that discharge.

      • I saw THAT particular lesson learned in a LGS a few years back by a guy who “knew better” than the employee trying to warn him….. Instant Karma. That store always keeps them zip tied open now when they’re out on the show floor. If you know where to look you can still see the faint blood stain on the light grey carpet.

  56. First time I fully stripped my Rossi 92 rifle I cut myself pretty deep on an internal burr. They don’t clean up their work, but the price reflects the cost saving measure. Stoned and filed the edged down nice, only took 30 minutes, and 3 more cuts to my fingers (minor).

  57. 1-Burned by a case down my collar
    2-Busted my open the back of my thumb at the knuckle experimenting with my grip on my P3AT (wretched little gun, never could get it working)
    3-Shredded palm on an Uzi charging handle (yeah I’m a desk jockey, but why does it need a rasp for a charging handle????)

  58. I had a .FMJ .308 round shed it’s jacket ater striking a metal plate at a distance of 90 yards The shed jacket bounced straight back and hit mein the hand requiring five stitches to close up the wound.On another occasion I had a hot .223 round land on the unprotected side of my arm where it stuck, resulting in a third degree burn. If youre around this stuff long enough, a lot of weird things can happen. STILL enjoy bustin’ a cap though.

  59. Geez. We’ve been lucky. Dad caught a ricochet’d .22 in his belly, but it didn’t even pierce his shirt. Sure rattled us, though. Other than that we just sliced ourselves on the guns methinks.

  60. My Kimber 45 (kimberly) likes to bonk me in the forehead with the spent brass sometimes. The first time it happened it gave me a start. Also i have had hot brass go down the back of my shirt that burned a bit. My girlfriend had hot brass go down her shirt too.

    • I had the same experience when I was (interminably) breaking in my Kimber. Worst one left a small bruise smack dab in the middle of my forehead, and led me to wear a cap every time I shot it. It hasn’t done it for a while though, so now I only have to worry about hot brass ricochets from the side wall of the indoor range. You might try a new set of Wolff springs.

  61. Not a serious injury by any means, just extremely unlikely: my eyelid was burned after a hot .380 casing caromed off the lane divider and came to rest in the space between my glasses and my face; the rim of my glasses pinned the brass against my eyelid long enough for the heat to dissipate into my skin. Again, not severely injurious (just a minor burn), but unlikely to a degree that I consider almost impressive, not to mention the irony of my glasses actually *contributing* to the injury.

  63. Well sorry to hear that your son was hurt a litle. But honestly… life gives you scars. Be it at the range or just walking down the street.

    Now as for my worst range experience… I kind of shot myself in the fact three times with a shotgun. Let me explain…

    Back when I was living in NC me and some friends decided to go up on the hill to burn some ammo and dispose of some old computers at the same time. It was a pretty cold November day and even with the trees acting as a bit of a wind break I soon found all my exposed skin to be completely numb. One to the shooting spot we unloaded the collection of dead monitors and towers. The first of which was an old burnt out CRT monitor. Being first up I filled my Mossy 500 with bird shot and let fly. The shell went off but the monitor seemed to be unaffected. Loading another fresh I let fly again, yet to no affect. Stepping closer I loaded another shell and let fly. That’s when I noticed that my fact was starting to really hurt. Turns out the bird shot was bouncing off the screen and hitting me in the fact. I actually broke the skin in a spot or two.

    • Really hope you picked up all that junk. If not it’s guys like that who ruin. Good shooting spot for everyone. Leave no trace except bullet holes.

  64. Toss-up:

    1) guy on my left was running Wolf thru an AR – those steel casings come out HOT. Burn scar lasted a year.

    2) .30-06 in a Remington 700 kicks a hell of a lot harder than in an M1, Got the sight scar over my eye to prove it.

  65. Didn’t happen to me, but on one AT, due to some moron opening all the boxes of SAW ammo ( some 17,000 rounds) my team had to fire it all off. I guess it’s easier than doing the paperwork. Or atleast that’s what the supply NCO told me. Well into this foray , and well after dark, my buddy was swapping out the barrel on his SAW. Three mistakes. 1 he laid it down next to the new one. 2 he grabbed the old one instead, and 3 for some unknown reason grabbed it by the barrel instead of the carry handle. Instant hand sized blister.

  67. Took a richochet to my thigh about two inches from my junk. Broke skin and a bruise for a few weeks.

  69. Cut cheek from a incoming clay pigeon that I only broke rather than powder at sporting clays took 3 stitches another shooter at the match was a doc and stitched it so I could keep shooting… The takeaway be sure to powder the incoming birds 😉
    And never forget eye protection …. I shudder a bit when I think how casual we were about eye and ear protection back in the 50s… And I was still copying my dad and sticking .45FMJ in my ears well in to the 60s and dad never did change to real ear plugs.

  70. Got a nice cut while putting my bayonet on my mosin. Didn’t get cut from the bayonet though, it was stuck and I was trying to force it on. My hand slipped and got all kinds of cut up on the front sight somehow.

  71. On our very first date my wife got burned by a 38 special casing. It was by the back of it and you could see the outline of the primer and everything. It wasn’t bad, just exciting enough keep her interested in a second date : )

  74. Trying to be a billy bad ass by rapidly shooting magnum slugs out of my m500. Did it alright and looked pretty cool, but then I noticed that the heavy repetitive recoil of doing that without gloves can cut your hands up from the safety and pump being driven into your hands. Sure had a wicked bruise on the shoulder after that too.

  75. Web of the hand from a cheap “pocket pistol”. 2 perfect slices less than 1″ apart. I did manage to lay the gun down before I grabbed my hand and started yelling.

  76. Put my elbow down on a table to brace for a longer range shot while shooting a bottom ejecting 22lr, right on top of hot shell casing from the previous trigger pull, left a nasty burn blister.

    Tagged on the inside of the thigh with some 5.56 jacket splatter off of a steel target from about 25 yards, only about 3 inches south from a very bad spot. The hit didnt puncture my jeans but it did leave a nasty enough welt that I bled through them.

    That is tied for one of my most painfull range injuries, was shooting my rifle off of a rest, and was holding the back bag with my left hand to stabilize the butt of the rifle. By some freak coincidence the web of my hand got smushed between the pretty embossed endcap on the pistol grip and the range bag, had the bottom half of a Winchester galloping cowboy logo embedded in little blood blisters on the web and actually broke the skin and bled a little. I hold the bag much lower now.

    My glock always wears a raw spot on on the edge of my thumb because I grip really high, but that is just something I eventually got used to.

  77. a buddy of mine built a pistol gripped .30-06 semi auto, the sling swivel on the back of the grip damn near knocked out my front teeth

  78. Slide bite from a CZ52. I was recocking to take another shot on a misfired cartridge, which turned out to be a hangfire.

  79. 45 ACP casing bounced off the wall and tipped inside my glasses, luckily missing my eye but restibg on my cheek. No lasting damage, but I had a nice burn mark for a bit.

  80. A ricocheted hunk o’ lead from my Sig 716 made it’s way through two layers of shirt and got stuck in my chest. Not very deep, a little blood but not much. It was a painful surprise though, thought that the range’s traps were better than that.

  82. No way would .380 brass do that from ejection. There’s not enough energy there and they aren’t sharp.

    The injury shown is from a copper jacket.

  83. I was trying out a friends LAR Grizzly in .50AE when the second shot felt like it tweeked my wrist. Then the third shot recoil gave me a cut over my right eye from the front sight. I decided that was enough fun and gave him back his pistol.

  84. I wasn’t paying attention once when I was dropping the legs on a bipod and it punctured right through my thumbnail. I wasn’t jerking it or anyrhing, just lazily opening it up with my thumb in the way and the spring pressure just took over. One bandaid and about 4 months for the black spot under the nail to grow out and I was fine. Live and learn.

  85. During my IL CCW class, took a casing off the head (luckily between haircuts so no damage) and then one down the shirt in the middle of a 10 round rapid fire session. The next 2 shots were a couple inches low, but still hit the target and qualified me.

    Worst was my first gun, sw9ve. Takedown was a pain on those things, and me being new and less experiences I pinched my hand/fingers in the ejection port. Left a couple blisters that lasted for months

  86. Had a “kaboom” with my 1911. Blew the mag out the bottom of the grip and cooked off the top round. Caught some minor “shrapnel” (shredded jackets and pieces of brass) in my hand and face – nothing serious though. Other than a destroyed magazine my Kimber came out fine.

  87. I’ve had the copper jacketing from a round or two hit me from someone else shooting steel. The group we were in had us standing off to the side and some fragments made it that far. We quickly moved further back. No skin breakage, but still unnerving a bit.

  88. Update – we received a call from our pediatrician that we *might* get a call from the police for additional information. I live in a different county from where the accident happened, and the ER was in yet another county. They might be drawing straws to see who gets to make the call.

    Glad we didn’t get a test of his eye protection…

  89. I was at the range with a new toy, a PPS-43, which was chambered for the cheap 7.62x25mm Tokarev round. I was using the magazine as a foregrip when a round exploded inside the gun. The shell casing was shredded into many tiny fragments which all went straight down and into my hand. The range I was at could only offer me bandaids, I drove myself home and spent the evening plucking bits of brass out of my hand with a pair of tweezers and then cleaned and bandaged the wounds. One large piece apparently went much deeper than I realized and when the wound started to leak puss I realized that I needed to get professional care. A large piece of brass was nearly touching the bone, which was deep enough that it took about 20 or 30 minutes for the doctor to get it out. She mistakenly thought that it was a bullet but it was just a part of the shell casing which had crumpled up on itself. I still have a scar from that one.

  90. In the squat position at the range during basic training. Muzzle wandered a bit off from down range. Had the steel pot on. Range officer hit me on the top of the head with his metal “lollipop”. Pissed my pants. Wounded ego.

  91. First was during BCT. Drill Sergeant was using a spray bottle with CLP on the bolts to prevent jamming… I was shooting lefty as I’m left eye dominant. Caught an eyeful of hot clp. Second was splashback from an indoor range using a ‘venician blinds’ trap without curtains. A flattened .40 hit me in the elbow hard enough to break skin and leave a bone bruise.

  92. I recall a time when I was a boy and crossed my thumbs behind the grip of a semi-auto pistol…slide sheared a good chunk of flesh off my knuckle. Other than that, just the general bruising from a very good day with a Soviet M44.

    In Mother Russia, you don’t put stamp of approval on rifle…rifle stamps you.

  93. A local range requires shooting through concrete culverts set through a berm. At the far end of the culverts is an angled steel shield to stop rounds from going high.
    I had a round do just that after firing several rapidly and the round shattered when it struck the shield and sent half of it back into the side of my knee. My jeans caught the fragment but the heat of the round combined with the impact left a dent and scar that I still have 10 years later.

  94. I volunteer at an outdoor covered range. About a year ago had a shooter lodge a .40 caliber Wolf steel case mouth first into one of the 4×4 room support posts from about 18 – 24 inches. Came out of a Glock and dug in about 120 degrees of the the open case mouth. Was a good visual aid for using eye protection until someone pulled it out.

  97. Minor burn to the palm of my hand when trying to lock back the slide of a buddy’s empty PT92 right after putting a full magazine through it. The exposed barrel scorched my palm and I promptly dropped the gun to the concrete, letting out a yelp that caused the entire firing line to look over. RSO’s ensured I was okay and everything was hunky dory.

    Naturally… I’m not going to be buying any Beretta 92’s anytime soon.

  98. I’ve been fairly lucky it seems. Gotten scorched a few times by ruptured .22 over the years. Fired many many different guns, but only one gun that was truly bad – a Norinco 213 Tokarev clone from the late 90’s. Yeah you remember ’em. The ‘safety’ wasn’t, it kicked ever 4th round directly back at the shooter – had a hot shell under my tucked-in T-shirt – danced around in the snow till I was able to pull my shirt out.

    Same gun, day after hot brass incident. Was retracting the slide by the old fashioned overhand method (gun pointed to the left, left hand over the top of the slide) with the hammer down. Toks have very powerful leaf springs driving the hammer, so there was a lot of resistance. They also have some of the tallest rear sights to be found on any gun. I kept pushing harder and harder until finally the spring gave way and drove the rear sight through the heel of my left hand. Big bloody mess, took a long time to heal.

    Tom

  99. Got a bump on my right pinky from shooting steel with a Cetme. Dunno if it was part of the target or the jacket. But it bled like crazy and I pulled a few shards out.

    I thought 50 yards was far enough back.

    I was wrong.

  100. Just a burn (with a blister) from a 9mm case that went down the back of my shirt. I’ve been lucky.

  101. I had a 9mm case land perfectly between my eyebrow and safety glasses. Burned like hell. Because I was in the act of shooting my reaction was to point the gun up and out with my right hand while with my left hand ripping my glasses off and then putting them back on in one deft move. Had a nice burn mark over my left eye for about a week. The worst part was the fact that I was shooting with my parents and they couldn’t stop laughing at the spasm-like reaction I had.

  103. I broke a jawbone at the shooting range once.
    Never did find out how the fellow healed up what with me being banned from the range and all.

  104. I have a 22 LR brand right next to my butt crack.
    Non gun guy brother learned to hold a 300 WSM tighter following stitches above eye from scope. This happened on a camping trip in the desert and we hand to find an ER.

  105. My worst shooting related injury.
    I was hunting with one of my father’s flintlock muzzle loaders. I primed the flash pan twice for some unknown reason. The result was that when I went to shoot a doe I ended up in a huge cloud of smoke. My cheek and two fingers had been badly powder burned. I still have scars on the fingers. The weather was quite cold that year. My face went from numb to on fire. Hearing the hot powder sizzling in my cheeks and fingers is a sound I can still remember. It took 4-5 years for the black flecks in my cheeks to disappear. The venison still tasted great. Never over prime your traditional flintlock…

  106. Not me, but my wife. She received a nasty burn to her eyelid and below her eye when using a range gun. The hot brass ejected weakly, and fell between her eyeglasses and her eye, which she thankfully closed in time. The eyeglasses pinned the brass in place and she had to unload and put the gun down before she could dislodge the brass, resulting in a nice little burn below her eye and a smaller burn on her eyelid.

    My worst injury so far (hopefully) is a stupid case of slide bite, which hardly counts.

  107. Had a Glock 22 catch my finger in the breech as I struggled to work the slide release at a pawn shop. Changed my grip to give more pressure with my thumb and unintentionally put my index in harm’s way when it gave. Bled on the tag a little.

  108. as a newbie, shooting my friend’s G19, got pinched/rubbed, on more than one occasion, by the slide. effing hurt like hell, but still took me a couple more times to REALLY grip the gun correctly. (slow but educable). Never happened to my kids though, they learned from daddy’s mistakes.

    • I don’t care how much of a newbie you are, getting pinched and rubbed by your 19 G friend is not an “injury”.

      Oh, wait. Late-onset dyslexia. Dammit.

  109. I’m profoundly deaf in both ears (multiple audiologists say so). Was NOT wearing ears and stood too close to my buddy shooting .38+p. Hurt like hell. Now I wear ears no matter what.

  110. I once got tiny brass shrapnel in the face when an old 30-06 cartridge ruptured in an old Winchester bolt action. I picked it out myself and was more rattled than hurt. I did have glasses on which probably saved me a trip to the eye doctor or ER.

  111. Went to my local indoor range with my son for a little handgun practice one Saturday. Was on the range proper about one minute, just unpacking the pistols, when I felt something hit the back of my left middle finger. Looked at it to find blood and an inch long superficial cut that stooped bleeding after about a minute with pressure. This is a modern range with water cascading along the lower plate leading to the bullet trap. Distance to the front of the trap is 65′. No one on the range at the time was shooting anything other then handguns. Glad I was wearing eye protection, even though I wasn’t struck there.

  112. I always get hit by splatter when shooting steel, usually just welts, occasionally it draws blood. I’ve had hot shells hit the divider and land behind my glasses, which is the reason I always wear a hat. On occasion, I’ve caught shells down my shirt and had them end up in my bra, but that’s only happened twice and it was at a competition so I ignored it. But I make sure I wear crew neck shirts under v-neck jerseys.

  114. The worst has been a lead splatter from shooting steels that stuck in the tip of my nose. I was spotting from 10 feet behind the line and still took a hit that bled well.

  115. this one isn’t mine but i was riding quads in the deserts( of Arizona) and this truck comes barreling towards my group one of the others who was behind me sees it speeds up to intercept the truck. we all come to a stop to the guy stripping naked in front of my grandad screaming at the top of his lungs you gotta tie a tourniquet around my leg. the guy shot himself quick drawing in the desert all alone no one at his house no one in the state he could cal for help the guy wasn’t bleeding the last time we seen him headed toward the hospital

  116. Lead shaving, between the eyes, from a revolver being shot at the station to my right. Lucky it wasn’t lower it could have gone behind my glasses and hit my eye.

  118. Out of battery discharge on a 10/22, casing blew up and shrapneled my cheek. Cuts and decent bleeding but no stitches or scars.

    Also shot my m44 and the bayo folded on the side stabbed my hand on recoil.

    Also had a 9mm round fall from my pocket into a fire, cooked off and hit my knee, bruised it.

  119. Always. Wear. Eye. Protection.
    When I was a kid my dad and I took a borrowed M1 Garand to the range with our normal gear. I’d never fired a rifle that powerful and loved the first shot. Dad loaded just one to give me a feel for it and only loaded a full clip after seeing I could handle it. On the second round the gun disintegrated. When the bolt came back it shattered the receiver. Metal chunks, hot gas and powder hitting me all felt like I’d been hit by a big padded pillow in the face – I was standing, shooting supported over a bench and ended up a few feet back from my start position, still standing.
    I was really calm (in a bit of shock in retrospect) and I’d never heard my dad move so fast in my life. “Don’t open your eyes, just stay right there. Don’t move.” I could hear him throwing guns and gear into the car before moving me into the car to get to the ER to check my eyes. My prescription shatterproof lenses had been blown off and he was worried about fragments. I was perfectly calm (effect of shock!) telling him it was fine, no problem. All good…
    No long term problem, but that night my eyes felt like they were on fire. It was some of the worst pain I’ve ever had. Evidently flash burns sometimes take time to make themselves felt.
    Lessons – No idea what the deal was with that Garand. I think my father mentioned it was some sort of clone and not a genuine issue gun. And no way to prove it, but my dad (and I) was always convinced that his friend had double-charged a reload. Had we kept the fragments we might have been able to do some sort of CSI to figure why it had failed so badly. Instead I think he just threw them at his friend with some choice words about his reloading procedures.
    Years later my dad began reloading and taught it to me. We never had to explicitly state why it was so important to check and re-check the powder charge.
    No scars or effects from the incident. BUT – one of my lenses that we found later had a heck of a chunk taken out of it by one of the fragments. No doubt at all I’d have lost an eye, at least, without the glasses.

  120. Had a .50BMG detonate inside the receiver of an M2 once. The sand underneath it splashed up and hit me in the face and left superficial abrasions. Demolished the Wiley X inserts I had on and saved my eyes. There was nothing left of the casing except the back end of it still stuck in the breech face and it destroyed the feed cover, bending it almost into a “C”. If I didn’t have my eye pro on, I bet I wouldn’t have to worry about them much ever again lol.

  121. Long story short….I had a tec-9 fire out of battery. But for the grace of God, all I had was a small cut on my hand, wounded pride and a pair of boxers that I’ll never wear again.

  122. 5.56 brass against my neck sucked, and once I put my thumb against the back of the slide on my G42, just to see what would happen.

  124. Another one this time from another brother. Was dove hunting with lots and lots of skeeters. Popped a pimple he thought was an infected bug bite on his neck. Out pops a single 7 1/2 size shot pellet. The best Jerry the best.

  125. had a 22 casing eject funny and hit me in the nose hard enough to bleed a bit. it was an indoor range and i initially thought something bounced back from back stop but my friend saw it and said it was the case.

  126. I rented a .44 Smith at the range, and started having way too much fun. My wallet was seriously hurt after burning through that much .44…

  127. I managed to get a 2nd degree burn on my eye lid thanks to a 9mm case. The indoor range I was shooting at was having AC issues and being Florida in the summer and all it was hot very muggy in the range. My safety glasses were getting a bit fogged up so I had tilted them out a bit from my forehead to try to ventilate them a little.On my next string of fire a case bounced off the lane divider and straight through the upper gap in my glasses. the case landed horizontally on my eye lid and when I blinked it wedged between the bone of my eye brow and my eye lid. I immediate ripped off my glasses thinking that the hot brass was lodged between my glasses and eye lid and would out as the glasses came off. No so. It wasn’t a second later that I realized the burning hadn’t stopped and I swept my hand across my eye that the case dislodged. by then I had a slightly blistered eye lid that hurt ever time I blinked for the next week.

  128. I’ve never had an accident but a couple of years ago when I was in the Philippines on a visit my fiance had a .45 shell case hit her scalp just at the hairline and cause a deep gash. Blood was pouring down her face but she remained calm. The range safety officer ran and got a towel and the security guard called a taxi so we could go to the emergency room.

    At the hospital I berated her for not listening to me about not keeping her hat on while shooting. Her only concern was we had pay for ammo we hadn’t used and she wanted to go back. Two and a half hours later we were back at the range. All the guys gave her a thumbs up.

  129. POS Volunteer Arms tommy gun knock off. It had a hang up chambering a fresh round and set the round off. It shot brass shards out the ejection port causing several nasty cuts. Also scope bite from shooting a .338 mag rifle.

  130. Had a slam-fire/out-of-battery discharge burst the case of a 22lr before it was fully chambered in an auto loader one day. Blast of powder, noise and case fragments right near my face put an end to the days shooting without any major lasting effects.
    Got a hot casing ejected by the guy in the next lane stuck to my arm once that left a nice burn for a few months.

  131. Not a shooting injury but a cleaning injury. I had my finger inside the chamber of a Browning Auto 5 and accidentally hit the bolt release. Didn’t really smash my finger but it did scrape off an awful lot of skin.

  132. Currently going to physical therapy for rotator cuff and bicep tendinitis from an injury with an improperly placed 30-06 six months ago. Sure packs a punch…I like handguns better anyway.

  133. I’ve been shooting over 40 years and I don’t recall any burns or cuts. But I sure do remember the bruised shoulder I had after firing 250 rounds of 12 ga. over 2 days while my dad was trying to teach me how to shoot trap. I was using a light weight field grade pump action and wearing only a “T” shirt because it was hot weather. I could barely raise my arm up to feed myself for about a week after that. Dad shot trap a LOT back in those days and wore a padded vest and was shooting an over-under that probably weighed 4 pounds more than my gun.

  134. I make a habit of splitting a cuticle or two during reloads on the move. Nothing serious but I bleed like a stuck pig. I managed to slice my finger inside the mag well of my AR during a malfunction drill.

    I keep a small trauma kit in my range bag with hand sanitizer and extra bandaids. Never needed stitches though.

  135. 30-06 scope to the face — ouch!!! Like a Mike Tyson punch, blood from a weird cut on my nose, black eye and a severely bruised ego.

  137. took some splash back on the first shot out of a new(to me) 357 snub. i remember thinking… this is gonna hurt,BANG, not badaaaaaawwwwwww crrrrrapppp. hit me about 2 in below my armpit in the ribs. I put the gun on the rail felt top shirt, then under shirt,then skin and felt no wettness.. then i looked down at my feet and found a inch by .5 in wad of lead. no broken skin, just a gnarly bruise. put the 357 away and finished off the session with a 1911.

  138. For whatever reason, and maybe it’s because I have larger hands, I am forever catching the meaty part of my palm in the slide of both my SR9c and S&W M&P 9. The Ruger does it more often, maybe because of the smaller frame. Doggone it that hurts!

  139. Worst I have had is first time at the range/shooting had a spent case lodge in my shoe, felt like someone flicked a cig on my foot. No scar, but it wasn’t fun.

    I have witnessed worse, which is more worrisome in that some are issues of negligence. One time, saw a kid (20-25ish) on a date shooting a large AR. After seeing him struggle with not knowing how to operate the weapon and committing many safety violations in trying to figure it out (muzzle not pointed down range, handling firearm outside the lane box, etc…and yes, I flagged an RSO and he intervened and gave a warning), I saw the kid light off about 20 rounds in quick succession, then proceed to grab the exposed part of the barrel and burn his hand. SMH.

  140. Wife & daughter (on different occasions) caught a casing in the bra – both got second degree burns. Told them no V-necks or low cut T’s. Ditto on deck shoes without socks.

    My wife got hit in the shin with flying back lead that broke her skin. Guy in the next lane had ammo that was breaking up as it left the barrel. It was reloads he purchased at the range.

  141. I gotten slide bite a few times and some cuts from the sharp edge of a weapon or two. Gotten burned by hot brass on the face neck and back. But the worst injury on the range I’ve had was…a bite from a white-faced wasp on the back of my head! I’m not allergic to insect bites as a rule, but when that big sob hit me, my knees buckled, the heart rate soared and I was pretty wobbly for at least 10 minutes.

  142. The very first shot from my brand new Series 70 Gov. Model .45 flew up and right down my shirt, leaving a nice blister. First time I’d shot a .45, too. I still love them to this day.

  143. i’ve got several, some worse than others.

    -sliced my thumb on the receiver of a .22 magnum
    -shooting a p320, brass kept ejecting and hitting me in the head, found a still warm casing in my pocket later
    -my worst one was when i shot a 20 gauge out hunting and not holding the gun anywhere close to correct.I took the butt of the gun to my jaw, severely swollen lips, and couple holes from teeth going through, wonder i never lost any teeth.

  144. I don’t believe that, it is physically impossible for the casing to have enough energy to pierce skin without the firearm disintegrating first. Your son has been hit by a bullet jacket fragment. I have been lightly molested many times from bullet traps at indoor ranges.

    As for happy experiences, I managet to cut and tear my thumbnail by AK charging handle. I am left-handed and tried out putting the support hand over magazine. Fortunately the adrenaline rush masked out the pain.

  145. Just got bit on the knuckle of my left thumb by an ejected shell from the guy next to me at the range yesterday! Burn like an S.O.B. and bled forever. It also bruised up pretty good and hurts like a bastard today!

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