John_Wayne777
01-24-08, 07:23
A couple of threads on TOS have caused me to spend a lot of time scratching my head lately.
A gentleman on TOS posted a thread wherein he showed pictures of this injury:
****WARNING: If the sight of blood bothers you don't look at the following pictures. Frankly if this sort of thing worries you then you are probably on the wrong website.*****
http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee82/kaizerandkitty/Thumb6.jpg
Apparently he was shooting a S&W 460 XVR and somehow managed to get his thumb near the gap between the cylinder and the forcing cone. The gas escaping from the gap between the cylinder and the forcing cone ripped the end of his thumb apart in a rather painful looking injury. After initially blaming the weapon and talking about a lawsuit, the individual finally saw the light and owned up to this being the result of operator error....although he still contacted S&W about helping with the medical expenses....:confused:
Now what truly surprised me wasn't the injury...but legions of replies to that thread where people, many of whom claimed to have been around firearms for a long time, seemed completely unaware that the front of the cylinder was a danger area on revolvers. Every revolver manual I have seen from the last 30 years has had big warnings about keeping anything you don't want shredded away from that area of a revolver...and yet there seem to be a large number of people out there who didn't get the message.
Even scarier was the fact that a good number of people didn't seem to know that just the muzzle blast of a firearm could cause significant injury. Many seemed incredulous at the very idea that extremely hot gas under incredible pressure could pose a danger to human flesh.
I'll admit that I've not spent much time talking to others about these phenomena, but for the life of me I cannot believe there is such widespread ignorance about this.
Do we assume too much?
A gentleman on TOS posted a thread wherein he showed pictures of this injury:
****WARNING: If the sight of blood bothers you don't look at the following pictures. Frankly if this sort of thing worries you then you are probably on the wrong website.*****
http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee82/kaizerandkitty/Thumb6.jpg
Apparently he was shooting a S&W 460 XVR and somehow managed to get his thumb near the gap between the cylinder and the forcing cone. The gas escaping from the gap between the cylinder and the forcing cone ripped the end of his thumb apart in a rather painful looking injury. After initially blaming the weapon and talking about a lawsuit, the individual finally saw the light and owned up to this being the result of operator error....although he still contacted S&W about helping with the medical expenses....:confused:
Now what truly surprised me wasn't the injury...but legions of replies to that thread where people, many of whom claimed to have been around firearms for a long time, seemed completely unaware that the front of the cylinder was a danger area on revolvers. Every revolver manual I have seen from the last 30 years has had big warnings about keeping anything you don't want shredded away from that area of a revolver...and yet there seem to be a large number of people out there who didn't get the message.
Even scarier was the fact that a good number of people didn't seem to know that just the muzzle blast of a firearm could cause significant injury. Many seemed incredulous at the very idea that extremely hot gas under incredible pressure could pose a danger to human flesh.
I'll admit that I've not spent much time talking to others about these phenomena, but for the life of me I cannot believe there is such widespread ignorance about this.
Do we assume too much?