Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire When you broke a gun stories.....

Last night a buddy brought an older and never fired Winchester Model 94 over to show off. It was a beautiful gun with perfect wood and no handling marks. I could tell he was proud of it and he had wanted one for a long time. After I carefully handed it back to him he placed it in a gun in a zippered soft gun case. He failed to zip the bag all the way. We went on to look at a Colt SAA that he also brought over. When he left, he grabbed the soft case and the Winchester fell out of the partially zipped case. The perfect stock hit the ground and split in two. We were both sick, him more than I.

Years ago, myself and a group of friends went to Globe, Arizona to hunt quail in the desert. One of my friends had just bought a brand new Winchester Mod. 23 SxS double 12 ga. shotgun, and hunted with it on this trip.
After a morning of chasing quail, we all met back at the trucks, tired and thirsty, but happy about a successful hunt.
My friend with the Mod. 23 was standing on a pile of rocks, when he suddenly lost his balance and fell, on top of his new shotgun. The sharp rocks did horrible damage to the metalwork and buttstock. We all felt very bad for him, none more so than he.

I keep busting stocks, on the wrist of my 45/70

3rd one on the one I carry most

Guess I'll go laminate as I'm not gonna pay wwg $600 for synthetic that has to be fitted

Traveling with me ain't always easy whether by raft, boat or snow machine and the stout loads I use in it don't do it any favors either

I tease my pard he's hard on gear, but I ain't far behind

If we have gear we reco you can pretty well bet it holds up

All my broken guns are compliments of USPS.

had that happen to a 1947 flat band 94 at a gun show.
m sister started to take it out of a zippered case and i told her i wasn't going to sell it. she forgot to re zip it and the toe slammed the floor bending the butt plate and popping a 2 inch wedge off the stock.
only other gun i have broke was a 788 308 in 1968 with military brass reloads. stuck the case with over pressure and got the bolt lifted. rather then using a rod to drive the case out, i used my boot heel on the handle. broke it off.
Alcohol and youth was involved.

When I fell out of the deer stand, I broke (cracked) the stock on my 30-30. Glued it back together, refinished the stock and forearm, good to go.

I was sneaking out a mountainside deer hunting 35+ years ago on a rocky outcrop. A big plate of limestone I was standing on broke free and it and I started sliding downhill. I went down hard on my backside.
Upon hitting ground I saw something out of the corner of my eye. It was the butt of my Mauser .308 turning flips in the air. The rifle and I hit so hard that it bent the scope down to where I couldn't work the bolt to unload it.
It was my first real deer rifle, came out of Quantico[so the barrel was most likley shot], but still my first real rifle beyond .22.
It hurt, I hurt.

I broke an M16-A2 (broke the lower) in the Gulf war.

I've got stories about being broke and guns, does that count?

Raeford's post made me think of another incident that happened this past fall. I slipped and fell to my hands and knees, one morning before daylight. Rifle flipped off my shoulder and the scope hit the ground. Broke the scope, but the rifle was ok.

As Paul Harvey would say.... now the rest of the story.

Called Vortex, told the lady what happened and the first question she had was, "Are you ok"? When I told her I was fine, she told me where to send the scope. Week later, I had a new one. Good Customer Service!

Shooting 300 grainers in a 629-1 Smith.
Broke the trigger pivot.
Smith fixed the gun for $5.

No issues other than that, hunting.......a few tumbles........nope. So far so good.

While we're crying for each other.... Soon after getting married in 1964 Mrs. Ringman and I were out enjoying being together. We walked into a pawn or gun store. One the wall was a birdseye maple stocked, Mouser in .308 Norma Magnum. The barrel was shinny as a new car. It was only $140. I bought it and a box of 180 grain factory loads.

I installed a nice new Bal-Var 8 in an adjustable mount. Looking good.
While hunting deer I slipped. To keep from falling I stuck the butt of the rifle on the ground at a slight angle. Just enough to snap it off in the pistol grip. When I got back home I had a new walnut stock installed. Good to go.

A couple years later I was having a garage sale. My brother happened by so I asked if he would mind the store while I went to town for something. What a mistake! When I got back my .308 Norma that was hanging on the wall was gone and my 427 Ford engine I was going to install in a car was gone. Practically crying I asked, "Where's my rifle and the 427?" "I did really good while you were gone," he said as he handed me $190. "I sold them for eighty-five bucks each. I threw in your fire extinguisher to the four guys who picked up the engine. They seemed like they were in a really big hurry."

Too bad you couldn't just glue yerself back together aye?

Back when I was a yute, my Jeep J10 tossed a rod through the side of the 360ci V8. I went full redneck and used the birch tree in my backyard and a chain hoist to pull the motor. That motor is no lightweight so it sat in the yard for a couple days as I formulated a plan to get rid of it. Someone stole it.

Aint that the truth!

Besides the ones that have been lost, I think I probably feel worst about the basically new Ruger #1-A my 10-year-old had just killed his first moose with. Shorty after we got home, and before we had a chance to unload the sled-load of frozen meat, a part of which had 'trapped' the rifle, we got a big snow storm which blew drifts across the entire 'backyard', burying everything there...completely. I wasn't too worried about the meat being encased in the drifts and forgot about the rifle also included, so, while the meat was in nice shape when things warmed a bit, the rifle, in a canvas case, didn't fare so well and got a nice 'camouflage patina'. The exterior was so sorry after I cleaned in up that I didn't even care to shoot it, so it sat for a couple of years. However, having shot it considerable since that time, it's a rifle I very much enjoy since it is a very reliable MOA hunting rifle with a variety of loads.

I imagine a lot of those, and the M-4's were broken there.

Understandable though.

Picked up a beat to h3ll Winchester mod. 24 side by side for duck hunting and over tightened the stock bolt and cracked it like tinder. Took a beating on it, cost me $100 1979 dollars.

Not exactly broken but scarred.

I just took delivery of a 16 gauge LC Smith Featherweight from my engraver that I had upgraded to something close to a crown grade. While in my kitchen snapping on the forend something happenned that to this day I can't explain. the forend flew off and bounced off my tile floor twice putting gouges in two places.

A war story, about a damaged rifle.

My cousin was a draftee/grunt in Viet Nam. One day on patrol a firefight ensued. My cousin woke up in a hospital a few days later with no memory of what happened, and lots of bandages.

He was told that a rocket grenade had made a direct hit on his M-16 that he was holding in front of his chest. He had been med-evacced out by helicopter. He had no memory of the helo ride, or anything else.

As he was recuperating in the hospital, some rear-echelon clerk-type interviewed him in the hospital, and informed him that his war was over, he would get a Purple Heart, and that when he recovered some more he would be headed home.

Then the clerk inquired about some of his government gear, in particular, about what happened to his rifle, since it had not accompanied him on the helicopter.

My cousin had no information about his rifle other than what he had been told. Later, about the same time he was being awarded his Purple Heart he got an official letter telling him that he was being charged for the cost of the M-16 that he had "lost". Really?!

He gaffed them off and later they dropped the idea. My cousin came out of the war a physical and mental wreck. He had PTSD and became an alcoholic and a drug addict. He has been on partial or total disability for the rest of his life. Except for one messed up hand his body recovered fairly well, but mentally he never fully recovered.

He has been through many programs, claims sobriety, and then eventually falls off the wagon again.

I imagine the many pieces of his M-16 are still scattered in a jungle in Viet Nam.