I once paid $125 + fees and tax for a nagant m44 which had been pressure washed, sanded, and refinished.... In 2005... When they were going for $50 online...
My friend took me shooting for the first time. It was a 9mm M&P I think...I don't remember. I was very nervous about shooting it. I would take one single shot, very lightly place the gun down and look at the target that was about 7 yards away to see where I hit, my friend would tell me to keep going, so I would repeat that process.
Up until about 2½ years ago, I thought there was a waiting period when someone bought a hand gun, thought anyone could just go to a gun shop and buy a full auto gun, I called rounds bullets, and thought if you dropped a gun, there was a very high percentage it would go off, I didn't know there was a difference between a magazine and a clip, I thought "GLOCK" was just another slang term for gun....everything I knew about guns was from TV and movies.
My friend took me shooting again, and I got hooked, bought my first gun, then joined this forum to learn.
I struggled with muzzle sweeping people quite a bit early on, and still do from time to time (call me out if you see me do it, I'll thank you for notifying me instead of getting bitchy like some might). I practice other safe procedures (finger off trigger at all times unless I am about to shoot), so it hasn't lead to any NDs
I bought my second and third guns from Cheaper than Dirt.
Just remembered, I bought a new hi point once :-/ paid too much for it too. Passed up another tokarev (I had 2 already) at the time for it.
I'll also confess to being 'sold' a broken shell extractor for my over priced nagant m44... 3 nagants and about 800-1000 rounds later and I still haven't used it once. I don't even own a 7.62x54 anymore
I bought from Cheaper than Dirt also when I first started.
One of my worst is converting a cherry 1960s 870 into a tacticool monster. I put on the longest mag extension I could plus a folding stock and plastic fore grip. It stayed like that for years till about 2 years ago when I changed it back. I kick myself for losing the original wood but hope to find another set.
I put a top folder on an old Mossberg once because it looked cool on Jurassic park. It was high and hit me in the cheek on the first shot. Took it off immediately. Learned my lesson.
I put a top folder on an old Mossberg once because it looked cool on Jurassic park. It was high and hit me in the cheek on the first shot. Took it off immediately. Learned my lesson.
I one crawled under a barbed wire fence with my shotgun while bird hunting. I didn't know that the tip of my barrel stuck about 2" into the mud. A dove flew over and I shot at it and blew the end of my barrel up! I cut 3" off my barrel and continued to hunt........needless to say......I got my limit!
I have, through sheer neglect, improperly stored two expensive match pistols at the end of a season only to find them covered in rust at the beginning of the next season.
I have walked into a federal building and right through the metal detectors...then remembered I was carrying.
I have driven away from a range with a pistol on the roof of my car. The policeman who returned it to me clearly thought I was a complete idiot and, at that moment, he was absolutely right.
As a kid, I managed to shoot myself twice, once with a pellet rifle and once with a Daisy BB gun. One hit was to the sternum, the other to my underarm. With rifles, no less; that takes a special kind of stupid.
Bought my first evil black rifle in New Jersey. Took it to the range and fired it without earplugs. Never do that again! Perhaps my biggest gun sin is just living in anti gun NJ. LOL!