The Day my wife (nearly) shot my *** off

As an early Christmas present back in November, my wife and I received a Mossberg 702 Plinkster .22 caliber rifle from my brother-in-law, Skippy. We went shooting, and took my children Sara (11) and Zack (9) along with us to learn the basics of gun safety and learn how fun firearms can be when used safely.

Now, Sara had some reservations about going shooting, chiefly regarding the safety of firearms. After a resolving-concerns session where we identified that her chief issue was a fear of shooting someone else, we talked about how to avoid doing that when sport shooting.

It was a great time! We took Skippy’s Ruger 1022 (a fun rifle in its own right, which is now on permanent loan to us to go plinking with our kids), our Mossberg, a 9MM handgun, a .22 handgun, and four shotguns. We shot clay pigeons, and in general had a great time.

Now, for my wife, this was the first time she’d gone shooting other than a BB gun 20 years ago, and she was having a little trouble with the pump action on the 20-gauge shotgun she was shooting. So she sat down just behind the firing line where we were standing getting ready to shoot the next pigeon, and started working the action to try to pump the next shell in.

BLAM!

The 20-gauge shotgun exploded the ground just behind the firing line and sent a massive spray of mud and shrapnel forward. A large portion bounced harmlessly off the side of an ammo can. Quite a bit more of the force was absorbed by the ground.

And, unfortunately, a substantial part of the shrapnel from the blast was absorbed by my buttocks and left calf. At first, I didn’t understand what happened, and then, slowly, my brain began to register the fact that my butt felt like it was on fire. I set down my gun (safety off, unfortunately, I was in a bit of shock) and paced back to the car, wincing.

After careful examination, I was only very slightly bloody and bruised from the incident. I have a long streak along my left butt cheek where I was grazed by some kind of sharp shrapnel, and a few blue patches from bruising.

So I’ll qualify: other than my near-death experience, it was a great time. Now that springtime is here, we need to go shooting again soon!