fl.huntress

this is posted in the deer hunting forums but it was suggested that it be posted here as well so here is a copy and paste:


Now I know I'm going to get dogged on for this and I deserve all the mean and nasties y'all can come up with but i figured I'd share this one in hopes that it will make at least one of y'all think. Nothin' y'all can say isn't something that I haven't already said to myself.

As most of y'all know I am a safety freak...safety first always!! I mean I'm the one who will wear my harness 7ft off the ground,while climbing up and down, i bring orange when it's not required, i bring tons of precautionary things each trip, etc, etc, etc.
I'm always the safe one and have pride in myself for being that way but............

Yesterday evening I wasn't as safe as I thought I was. Almost took myself out on the walk and stalk back to my truck. I had my Knight Muzzleloader and the screw safety undone like most of the time. I was relying on the front push safety if needed. My arms started gettin' a lil worn out so I put it on my shoulder for a bit. I checked the safety and it looked like it was on. I walked a hundred yards, if that, and switched arms...crossed this lil wet area and as soon as I hit the dryer part of the trail I heard "BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM". I screamed and next thing you know i'm on the ground rubbing my ear/head and hip. I knew something hit me but I didn't know exactly what happended. Scared me half to death. Even though the initial reaction wasn't fear. No time for fear to enter my brain which was kinda cool. I thought someone was shootin' at me thinkin' I was a deer but that's when I noticed it was my gun that was smoking and the emotions went into overdrive. I got the nerve up to check for blood. That's was probably the worst part. After searching and making sure I was still alive I realized the barrel had hit my ear and the bolt nailed me in the hip. In other words I got LUCKY...WAY LUCKY!!! Blessed beyond words. The top of the barrel was thankfully pointed away and up high enough to where the bullet went up and back a lil. I looked my gun over and realized that my trigger and safety were loose so my safety was not on. But for the life of me I can not seem to figure out how the trigger got touched. Only thing that makes sense is that maybe it got caught on my backpack but i'm not sure if I was moving it to the other arm at that time or not. The little details don't really matter at this point. They should have mattered more in the first place. All I know
I never thought I'd ever have something like happen to me. Never in a million years. Winning the lottery would be more feasable (sp?) and if it can happen to me it can happen to anyone.
A part of me wasn't going to tell anyone because I am ashamed, embarrassed, urked at myself beyond words, etc. but I decided that I have to tell y'all so hopefully next time y'all will think about how lucky I got and take that extra moment to make sure you are truly safe cause the next person may not be so lucky. Y'all please be safe!!

cayugad

First off.. thank goodness you were not injured. Also what you are describing is not all that uncommon as some might think. Safety's get bumped and rubbed into the fire position a lot more frequent then people like to believe. I personally have pulled a rifle off my shoulder and found that the safety was in the fire position. I am sure that when I put the rifle on my shoulder it was not like that. It happens.

I've also had the pleasure of standing talking to a hunter in the woods one morning when suddenly his rifle fired. He claimed he did not touch the trigger but his fingers were down there. I think he just did not have the safety on.

For that reason I usually carry the rifle in my hands. With my Traditional rifles I have a tire stem valve cover over the percussion cap and the hammer resting on that. It acts as a double safety of sort. On my inlines I make sure the rifle is on safe if I sling it, but like I said, things like this happen. My two Knight rifles I wind the back screw safety in to a point while I can roll it quicky back off with my thumb if I have the need for the rifle...

Again, I am glad you were not hurt and I want to commend you for bringing this experience out into the open. Everyone of us needs an eye opener during hunting season and realize that things happen and we need to be careful. Good luck hunting...

roundball

I had an MK-85 that was notorious for that...learned that whenever Iwalked with it slung I had to have both safeties on...glad you weren't hurt

Pittsburghunter

That is exactly why one of the 10 Commandments of gun safety is "Always have your muzzle pointed in a safe direction".

Last spring I have a rifle go off on me when I took off the safety. Ends up I had some powder holding the sear down so as soon as I let off the safety boom!! The rifle was pointed in a safe direction thank god.

Poop happens that's why you should always follow safe gun handling procedures.

Paul L Mohr

I commented in the gun section, but will say it again. Glad you are ok. And I don't carry my ML with a cap in it. If I am stalking with it I do not sling the rifle. With proper gun handling you don't need a safety and certianly should not trust them.

The only time I actually carry a loaded weapon is when I am bunny or bird hunting. And the the gun is at the ready position all the time. If I sling it to walk to a new area I unload the chamber and put the shell back in the tube. It only takes me a second to rack a round into it if I have to. This doesn't works so well with a ML though.

And like I said in the other post, do not touch the trigger unless you are ready to shoot something. I know this is not what happened to you though. Just saying it again.

Paul

fl.huntress

i think my biggest mistake was slingin' it with only one safety on...i should have also been checking the gun to make sure nothing was wrong...i screwed up...since i didn't have to use it i assumed nothing got bumped or became loose.
i walked by the spot it happened on my last two hunts (this happened on friday) and could see the spot where i landed...i just stood there and thanked God a hundred times over...all the what if's came to mind...very upsetting and scarey.
all in all i'm glad it happened...i have a small bruise on my arm where the gun hit it but i'm beyond thankful to have been taught this lesson...a lot of people in similar situations aren't so lucky.
thanks for being supportive instead of judgemental and evil.

bigcountry

Thanks for posting. I figured all the experts would get involved.But don't mind them. It takes brass to post about such a thing. You didn'tdo anything that most hunters don'tdo. And any still hunter knows it.But you made me think about my knights. The safety is very open and can easily be knocked off. So you really made me think about it. Thanks

little-d

thanks for sharing your story i hope all who pick up a gun read what has been said hear ,i know there have been mishaps that have costed lives and we learn from others mishaps as wedo our own. I have a mk 85 i have never had a near fatal mishap with it but my little brother and i were deer hunting near our farm in north ms. i was 17 and my brother was 15,now that i look on my hindsite i will never let my son or any other kid get close enough to a gun for something to happen.My story brings tears to my eyes as i type this ,we were walking a logging road when a nice buck jumped from the roadside cover and ran to the bottom of the hill .We both shot at the buck and missed we laughed at our shooting skills .i was using a 30 30 and my little brother was shooting a single shot 20ga.with buckshot. We stood there a little while and decided to walk back up the road through the woods and see if we might jump the buck again. The logging road was muddy and very slick,my brother sliped and fell on his gun ,got up wiped the mud from his face and his gun,he ejected the shell and saw that mud had jamed a hunk of mud in his barrel,we took a stick and cleaned the mud out ,he had a string in his pocket he tied a paper tile to it and clean it good,after that he said he would let me get in front and take the first shot being as he got the first shot at the buck.We walked the woods road a good way and decided to go differance ways maybe we would get lucky and catch up with him.I stood there and watched my brother go over the hill and i started walking the other way about 4 or 5 steps i layed my gun over my sholuder with my hand in the leaver but not with my finger in the trigger guard ,about half way down a little hill i lost my footing and almost fell at that time the gun fired stright behind me at chest level ,i reckon in the excitment i had cocked the hammer and never uncocked it all the while my little brother was following my steps.I have dreams to this day that i killed my only brother.He was killed a few years later in a truck wreck and i think ever day i wake up that iwas the killer of my only brother. So please take more than a few words of wisdom and teach your kidds and whoever else will stand there and listen to words that may save my son or yours from a fate that will spoil you and your family for the rest of your life,and to the ones reading this that has had this happen to them or someone you know pray to the lord for help before you take your on life. little daniel collums( broken limb)

RedAllison

Huntress you mentioned your trigger was loose, I can only assume that either it somehow came loose while hunting or you didn't tighten it back up the last time you cleaned it. Either way that's a human error and in theory a basic design flaw of the "pull bolt" Knights. With the bolt safety screwed into the fire position the only other safety is the safety lever itself. With your trigger assembly loose the sear was the only thing holding the bolt (or hammer if you will) back. On the Knights if they move over a fraction of an inch the bolt will no longer be held back by the sear (or top of the trigger) and the spring will naturally carry it forward onto the primer. If indeed that happened your trigger wasn't pulled, the assembly moved a fraction of an inch and the bolt was released. I also feared that happening on my old Wolverine but in 15 years it never let me down. I will be honest, ANYTIME I was stalking or walking and looking I had the bolt safety unscrewed. But I felt assured the trigger assembly was snug.

Either you need to double check that assembly or if the screw is prone to come loose I would GET RID OF IT!!!

Glad your safe and I doubt you'll EVER allow that problem to occur again!
RA

fl.huntress

i'm definitely NOT blaming Knight or my gun in any way...i take FULL responsibility because it was my gun, i cleaned it and put it back together, and it wouldn't have gone off if i would have been safer....my point for posting is because i'm usually a safety freak and even i wasn't safe enough that day...there's a lot of hunters who are way less safe than i am so hopefully they'll learn from my mistakes and think twice next time and it's a nice lil reminder to my fellow safety freaks that you can never be too safe.