When you decide to drive 25 mins out to the desert to shoot, be sure to bring the right gun.

Back story: I've been re-insulating my shop for the past two weeks. It is a messy job. I hate it. Whoever insulated it before, did not know what he was doing or......did not care enough to do it right. Anyway, it has been a sucky couple of weeks so today I decided I needed some west and wewaxation. I have a Walther P99 in .40 that I haven't shot in a couple of years and a whole pile of .40 ammo aging in my loading room. Screwit, I'm going shooting. I dig out the gun from the way back of the safe, visually check to be sure I have the right gun, throw it in the range bag with a couple hunnid rounds of .40 and off I go, itchy forearms and all.

When I get out there I am greeted with the familiar site of my favorite spot with a perfect backdrop of a desert valley. Nice day. Upper 40s temp. I'm stoked. I load up the mag, Insert it in the gun and walk to my imaginary firing line. Go to chamber a round and.......no go. The round is tipped in the chamber with the slide half open. What the.....? Try again. No go. Same, same.

Turns out I had the 9mm P99. Huh. You guys might not know this but .40 will not chamber in a 9mm. Whodathunkit? I have two P99s olive drab. They are identical except the 9mm has a slightly scalloped slide at the muzzle. I thought I check that. At a glance in the safe it looked not scalloped. Out in daylight.....scalloped. Dang. Double dang. I have ammo and the wrong gun. or... gun and the wrong ammo.

Since I never go shooting without a carry weapon too. I had one magazine of .45 in an HK USP .45 compact. Normally I would reserve that for actual self defense but today I dumped the mag re-holstered the weapon, jumped in the truck and drove home.....to continue insulating.

Double dang.

yep....I have done that. Got the S&W M48 and ammo but forgot that I had switched out to the 22 LR cylinder and hadn't changed back.

Return home with no carry protection?

I hope he made it.

Has anybody heard from him?

Only 25 minutes out... does not sound so bad....

I dropped off my dog last month at the kennel (30minutes of mostly in town driving) and was planning to swing over to the gun club on the way home.... had my new Mk-25 packed with mags and ammo... headed to the club and then realized I had forgotten the electric 'fob' card to get the gate to open,.....
I actually have a spare gun with mags and ammo in my range bag for when I bring the wrong gun, magazines or ammo I can at least still have something to shoot. But it don't matter if I can't get in the gate... dang it!

It's much worse when you go to a competition and find out that is exactly what you did.

Bob

A few years ago I drove 130 miles to a shoot in order to play with my BREN gun. Along with the weapon, I brought 2000 rounds of British .303 ammo in sealed wooden crates and a BREN tripod so I could sit on my ass while shooting. After unloading all this stuff, I discovered I failed to bring any magazines. And, since a BREN fires from an open bolt I couldn't even fire it in single fire mode. Damn!

Perhaps that's part of the reason why I always keep a minimum of 100 rounds of ammo per caliber of each gun that I own in my Jeep. Don't want to get caught out in the desert with the wrong ammo or wrong gun!

quote:

Originally posted by Blume9mm:
Only 25 minutes out... does not sound so bad....

I dropped off my dog last month at the kennel (30minutes of mostly in town driving) and was planning to swing over to the gun club on the way home.... had my new Mk-25 packed with mags and ammo... headed to the club and then realized I had forgotten the electric 'fob' card to get the gate to open,.....
I actually have a spare gun with mags and ammo in my range bag for when I bring the wrong gun, magazines or ammo I can at least still have something to shoot. But it don't matter if I can't get in the gate... dang it!

been there, done that on the fob thing,
only it was an hour and 15min drive,

also made a trip with the fob, with the intent of practicing my rapid sitting and rapid prone,

only forget the mags, and ammo,

picked up the wrong bag,,,,,,

fortunately had another firearm and ammo with me to shoot

quote:

Originally posted by MG34_Dan:
A few years ago I drove 130 miles to a shoot in order to play with my BREN gun. Along with the weapon, I brought 2000 rounds of British .303 ammo in sealed wooden crates and a BREN tripod so I could sit on my ass while shooting. After unloading all this stuff, I discovered I failed to bring any magazines. And, since a BREN fires from an open bolt I couldn't even fire it in single fire mode. Damn!

oh, man. That sucked. 130 miles.

I went to the range, set up all my stuff. Didn't see any magazines. Packed it back up to drive home to get the magazine. Part way home, I stopped by the side of the road to recheck. Found the magazines in the bag.

Fortunately, I wasn't as far as 130 miles. more like 2 miles.

BTDT. Drove an hour across town once to a highpower match, only to discover that I'd left the handstop for my rifle at home.

quote:

Originally posted by MG34_Dan:
A few years ago I drove 130 miles to a shoot in order to play with my BREN gun. Along with the weapon, I brought 2000 rounds of British .303 ammo in sealed wooden crates and a BREN tripod so I could sit on my ass while shooting. After unloading all this stuff, I discovered I failed to bring any magazines. And, since a BREN fires from an open bolt I couldn't even fire it in single fire mode. Damn!

That reminds me of the time I hyped the Jr DFs about going shooting with me if they behaved themselves all week. They did so I loaded them and their 10/22s up in the truck and out to the desert we went. They were so excited and sung my praises all the way out. When we unpacked the stuff I realized I had forgotten the mags. All of them. They were not so happy with me on the way home even though I took them to the DQ. I was in the dog house until the next Saturday trip out. For years after they would remind me to take the mags. Even now on occasion one of them will gouge me with a reminder when we go shooting. I hang my head and they chuckle.

I have done similar so many times....Now I lay it all out on the floor before I go , so I know I have everything I may need.

Years back I started leaving a .30 can in the vehicle too with a few boxes of .22 LR, 9mm, .38 spcl , .45 acp, etc.

^^ Would if I could, but we are subject to random vehicle searches at my employer and even the ammo would likely be enough to get me canned. Not that I would mind that so much some days...

I have a range bag that is stupid heavy as it has about 100-150 rounds of the 3 common pistol calibers I shoot and 2 bricks of 22, a 228 Franken gun and a 22 in it all the time, as well as 2 mags for Glock, 1911, Beretta, Sig and 22 1911. For those "DAMN IT" moments when I forget to pack the correct ammo, gun, mags, etc. I can hopefully salvage the range trip from something in that bag.

I did the reverse. I’ve got a P226 in .22lr and a 9mm. Grabbed the 9mm with the .22lr mags and a couple of boxes of CCI mini mags. The mag will go in, but the firing pin just ejects the whole .22 round out the barrel. oops!

My Fiancée asks me every time we leave to go shooting if I brought my gun. She has reason to ask...

quote:

Originally posted by jbcummings:
I did the reverse. I’ve got a P226 in .22lr and a 9mm. Grabbed the 9mm with the .22lr mags and a couple of boxes of CCI mini mags. The mag will go in, but the firing pin just ejects the whole .22 round out the barrel. oops!

That’s actually probably pretty funny to see, as long a story it isn’t your gun.

I have certainly brought the wrong ammo, and forgotten magazines. I also forgot my badge one day to get into the range. The maintenance guy let me in, but that presented a problem when he left the range and I needed the badge to open the gate. I finally found someone to let me out. Forgotten the staple gun, targets etc. I am glad I am not the only one who forgets stuff.

A fellow at local pistol range brought .40 ammo to shoot in his 1911 .45ACP. After firing off a few rounds, he complained to us about the ammo. said the ejected case looked weird.

Then he looked at the casing head stamp.

Oops..