Woman kills herself with .500 Magnum

[Guest TankerHC]

So if you let someone shoot one of your guns and they accidentally kill themselves, then we can expect that you will immediately call the police and turn yourself in for negligent homicide.  Yeah, m'kay....
 

 

Where does the story say she was a "new shooter" or that there is any indication she'd never shot that particular gun before?  Perhaps she's shot with them in the past and there was no reason to expect that to happen.  Perhaps she was a very experienced shooter and was simply the victim of a freak accident that could never happen again.

Or... I have a better thought...

Perhaps this story makes no sense and there is no logical way that a gun can miraculously spin around in your hands to the point that a double action revolver will fire a second time simply from the force of the first discharge.  Perhaps it was a suicide or a homicide being written up as an accident.  Yeah, that makes more sense.  

 

 

It doesn't, and if you notice I point out experienced shooters who have never fired certain guns. I don't give a sh** if your the most experienced shooter on the planet. People think that automatically makes them immune from mistakes. Here's some news. It doesn't. Just because someone has been shooting something for 50 years doesnt measn they have shot everything. In this case she was clearly not experienced with the 500 and had probably never seen one. I can take an educated guess on that, why else would "the gun shoot her in the head", which is exactly what DID NOT happen. She shot herself in the head with a 500 Magnum. People experienced with large Caliber handguns dont let large caliber handguns spin around and shoot themselves in the head. There is also nothing wrong with the trigger on the 500, there were only two things wrong, someone who didnt know how to shoot it and some dumbass who handed it to her with a full cylinder in the first place. 

 

More "experienced" shooters are killed by dumbassery than non experienced shooter on ranges. And not because they spend more time on ranges, because an inexperienced shooter usually has an experienced shooter standing there with them, making sure they dont f*** up. Experienced shooters many times go to the range, and commit dumbassery because they know everything. I personally have never been swept by an inexperienced shooter,  seen one walk downrange while its hot, LOOK DOWN THE BARREL OF A GUN while on a live range, and a ton of dumbassery, because either I or someone else is usually on the range to prevent it,  but I have seen plenty of experienced shooters do that and a lot more, usually the same experienced shooter who is there to prevent the inexperienced shooter from doing it. 

 

TO be truthful, when I first saw this, The stupidity isnt the first thing that ran through my mind, The first thing was that is someones daughter. Nothing to do to help her, now the families have to deal with this. I'm sure no one intended this to happen, but fun can easily turn deadly on a range, and then everyone else has to deal with it. I am not afriad of guns, any gun, but I sure wont deny that I have a "healthy fear" of them. Some call that a "healthy respect". For me, I just don't want to accidentally get my head blown off by someone (Including me) having a good time.

Edited November 12, 2013 by TankerHC

[TMF]

Sorry, I can't conceive of a way to pull a trigger, have the gun flip all the way back into my face, and then pull the trigger again.

There's a video on YouTube where a woman is shooting one. The video is slowed down so you can see it. The recoil is so great that it flips back towards her face and fires again because her finger is still on the trigger. It happens so quick there is nothing she could have done to prevent it. Women shouldn't shoot these guns, it's that simple.

[TMF]

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=d8NDGxzlfo4

[Guest TankerHC]

Here is even more proof, which actually re-enforces E Tenn Patriots comment, you dont have to be a new shooter for this to happen, and which negates my comment about her being a new shooter, but does re-enforce one fact. Experienced shooters commit errors. In this case, I call an error as do some of his fellow arf members (note the comment one round at a time, a recomendation for an experienced shooter) although now I know for a fact the girl mentioned above was a new shooter.

 

This is a guy on arf.com, he is an experienced shooter, he's a big guy, and should have easily been able to control this gun. I didnt want to host the video so you will have to click the link to see it. 

 

Best comment there "The way I see it... if you are going to have something in your mitts the likes of that and you intend to actually shoot it.... you have waived your rights to normal & predicatable firearm consequences.

Glad you didn't ventilate yourself or someone else."

 

http://www.ar15.com/archive/topic.html?b=5&f=16&t=59717

 

The incident that began this thread happened on a range with the girl (A college student), her mother and father watching and 4 other relatives, her brother handed her the gun. Which makes it all the more a terrible incident. 

Edited November 12, 2013 by TankerHC

[TMF]

Here is the video I was talking about. Can't see that she did anything wrong other than be too weak to manage the recoil. Almost killed her or one of the people around her. If I see someone shooting one of these on the range I'm done for the day. I've fired one before but the compensator was decent enough that the recoil was straight back.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wCzOLEoko6o

[HvBikeWlTravel]

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFAApRUH094[/media]

The "Full Auto .500 S&W" Video is surprising.  Never woulda guess you could do that!

[BigK]

Clearly, this is a known phenomenon, since there are so many videos and accounts out there.

However, prior to hearing about this sad and unfortunate event, I wouldn't have ever guessed it could happen.The worst-case-scenario I could envision prior to hearing about this would be that the chick might drop the gun and scratch it all up or maybe sprain her wrist.

I actually feel sorry for the people around when this happened. I don't have a problem with anyone calling it negligence, but I'd bet dollars to donuts that it's ignorance instead.

[Oh Shoot]

Nothing to add to thread, just that whole topic is a revelation to me. Would have called somebody nuts who said there was any revolver you could accidentally double tap.

 

- OS

[TMF]

Nothing to add to thread, just that whole topic is a revelation to me. Would have called somebody nuts who said there was any revolver you could accidentally double tap.
 
- OS

Same here until I saw the vid of the little lady almost making her head into a canoe with a .500.

[Oh Shoot]

Same here until I saw the vid of the little lady almost making her head into a canoe with a .500.

 

And the "big strong man" was the clincher.

 

I shot exactly one round from a Smith .500 number of years ago, kept the casing as a souvenir :). Feller loaded for it, said it was an "average" load, not hottest nor mildest. Can't remember if it was ported or not now, but was impressed with fact that most of the recoil sent barrel up, rather than whole gun back into hand. I remember describing it as "violent" but not "painful". I felt guilty shooting his expensive ammo, only reason I declined shooting it again.

 

And though it did have more carts in it,  it only went off once. :)

 

The most painful handgun I've ever shot remains a Smith .357 Scandium frame. I declined a second shot, even though I had ammo for it.

 

- OS

Edited November 17, 2013 by Oh Shoot

[TMF]

And the "big strong man" was the clincher.
 
I shot exactly one round from a Smith .500 number of years ago, kept the casing as a souvenir :). Feller loaded for it, said it was an "average" load, not hottest nor mildest. Can't remember if it was ported or not now, but was impressed with fact that most of the recoil sent barrel up, rather than whole gun back into hand. I remember describing it as "violent" but not "painful". I felt guilty shooting his expensive ammo, only reason I declined shooting it again.
 
And though it did have more carts in it,  it only went off once. :)
 
The most painful handgun I've ever shot remains a Smith .357 Scandium frame. I declined a second shot, even though I had ammo for it.
 
- OS

I got the opportunity to fire a full cylinder of .500 magnum about a year ago. I didn't feel so bad about shooting the ammo he offered me since he was shooting on my family's range and would always "clean" all the brass for us, which he reloaded for about every caliber. His had either a compensator or was ported; can't remember. It sent all the recoil straight back like a rifle into a shoulder. The recoil was pretty violent, but I can imagine that one wouldn't be prepared for a barrel up recoil with that. Hell, having not seen those videos before I guess it could have easily been me turning my head into a canoe if the barrel wasnt compensated for. So while it being dangerous for just about anyone to shoot I'd say handing it to a little girl and having her fire it just to see her reaction is a bad move, especially if she ends up shooting herself in the face.

[atlas3025]

Maybe a single action for monster calibers is a better idea. Horrible story. Prayers for her family.

[Tncobra]

 My grandfather would put one 357 in at a time for me when I was a kid. I do that now not knowing why he ever did that for me and others.

 

Fast forward 40 years. I put one round in for novice or young shooters without really thinking about it. I do it with .22's or 454's.

 

After watching these videos I realize my papaw was a visionary, or just smart, maybe lucky?

 

RIP .

Edited November 20, 2013 by Tncobra

[Spots]

I put 5 rounds through bigtruucks 4" barreled 500 at the shoot I hosted back in april. It was fun to shoot, and I did all 5 shots one handed. Never would have thought about it rotating on someone to the point of being able to double tap yourself in the face. Wow.

Tapatalk ate my spelling.