IT HAPPENED TO ME - it could happen to you

Yes, I let a round off in the house one time.  It happened over twenty years ago and I can tell it now, but it was perhaps the best and worst thing that I've ever done relevant to firearms.

Maybe I was young and dumb, but that is no excuse.  I was the new owner of a used Ruger 3 screw Blackhawk 357 magnum single action revolver.  I had shot it quite a bit over the period of several trips to the range.  This particular time I had returned home, unloaded, taken the cylinder out, and cleaned the barrel.  I cleaned every nook and cranny!  Satisfied that it was as clean as possible, I lightly lubed the action and put it back together.

There was a small (about 12" square) mirror on the wall in my room.  In true cowboy action I promptly thumbed back the hammer and took a bead on my reflection in the mirror and squeezed off.

CRACK, BOOM, CRASH!

I had just fired a round of 357 magnum from my 'unloaded' revolver through the mirror, into the sheet-rock wall, toward the center of the house.  The bullet went through the wall and dented the next wall in the hall outside my room.

Luckily, no one was hurt.  My pride, my ears, the mirror, and the wall took a beating.  The mirror was replaced and the wall repaired.  It was the absolute worst feeling a gun owner can have.

But, I said that it was possibly the best thing to happen also.  I DO NOT  recommend this, but it was a lesson I WILL NEVER FORGET.  I violated every safety rule.  I never handle a firearm that this memory doesn't return.  I was lucky, but the what-ifs haunt me still.

Don't let this happen to you.

jeff