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"A St. Louis, Missouri guy on my AR-15 forum had a bad accident with his S&W 460XVR Magnum yesterday. He was shooting with a two handed hold and got his left thumb up near the lower front of the cylinder. The normal (powerful) gasses blowing out at the barrel/cylinder gap ripped the top of his left thumb off. I've added some of his posts & some pics.
"No joke, about 1/2 of my left thumb is gone .... what's left is a friggin mess.
It's pretty hard to type, and I'm only posting because you never know, it might save somebody else a thumb. I was using a 2-handed grip, fired off a Cor-Bon DPX .460 ;and the blast came violently out the side of the gun.
At first my thumb was so covered in blood that I couldn't see how bad it was ... and I wsfll of adrenaline and felt no pain. And honestly it looked really bad, my whole hand was covered in blood and it was kinda gushing.
The blown-off thumb was on my support hand. I'll re-create the grip tomorrow to see where my thumb was, but it's not like I didn't already know not to get any body part near the cylinder gap. And even if I totally screwed up and did, taking my thumb clean off seems a bit excessive?
Just be careful with those 460's. That case operates at such high pressure, it's just asking for trouble.
BTW, I bought my 460 new and had exactly 12 rounds through it. Info about the gun, it's a full-size 460 with the 8 3/4' barrel and factory installed compensator. It's one of the Whitetails Unlimited models. Ammo was 200gr Cor-Bon DPX.
The gun only had 12 or 13 rounds of the Cor-Bon through it, and 10 .45 Long Colt rounds through it. So it was essentially still brand new.
Saw a hand specialist while there today. Lots of ways to try and save what's left, but first I just have to hope it doesn't get infected in the next few days ... then surgery early next week.
The hand specialist I spent a few hours with last night said that in gunshot wounds there is always a lot more damage than is first visible ... same with things like fireworks going off in your hand. A lot more flesh around the wound is dead, and will rot and fall off over the next couple days. That's why it's so important to keep clean, and that's also why they can't do surgery now. If they wrapped new skin over dead skin it would just puss out, possibly turn gang-green, and they'd have to start all over again.
This is an example of how he was holding his revolver. Wrong, wrong, wrong!
This is what's left of his thumb.
26 comments:
Ouch. Just, ouch.
A reminder for us "bottom feeders" to be careful when gripping a wheelie - before I started shooting revolvers, I never even thought about the blowback from the cylinder gap.
I feel for the guy - and thank him for sharing the story - maybe it'll help prevent someone else from the same fate...
-- C
The pics don't look right to me. He would have to be holding the trigger guard with his support hand to get his thumb that far forward.
Sucks that he hurt his hand, but something doesn't add up right for me...
just my .02 YMMV
well, sorry to say this, but the guy's an idiot. If you don't know how to shoot, don't shoot, or ask someone who does.
Clowns like this give us sensible shooters a bad name.
Good post(if real). I have one of these with a longer barrel. They are large and powerful guns and can be quit front heavy to help compensate for mussel lift. I can see holding it forward of a normal grip trying to support it. I'll keep this post in mind from now on. I don't think I'll try it.
USE CAUTION IF THIS WAS RELOADED AMMO The primer must be seated well or the recoil can slam a round against the rear of the frame hard enough to fire a round not lined up with the barrel.The bullet will leave the cylinder and travel along the outside of the pistol, shame on your thumb if it's in the way... There has been a few cases of the happening with the 500 s&w dew to some brass using pistol primers and some using rifle primers, I dont think the 460 has the problem but the primer must not stick out beyond the rear of the brass..
Just saw this on mythbusters just a moment ago. It can happen
Thanks for the info. I was shooting the other day with gloves on and took a shot to the thumb and it was numb for about 30 minutes. Fine now. These guns do build pressures. Mine was a reload 240 gr. H110 46.6 gr. middle of the road load. I just was not being careful!
Wow! Glad he shared his misfortune with us. I could easily see myself doing the same thing. I occasionally grip revolvers the same way, with my weak hand fingers across the front of the trigger guard. I push inward from both sides to steady the revolver. Very sloppy grip, but it's pretty steady. I always knew better, but the risk of occasionally being burned has never been a worry. Think I'll break myself of that habit now!
This may sound unreal but until you've been too close to another shooter's six-gun and been sprayed in the face with hot burning and unburnt gunpowder, well, don't think it's not a hazard.
If you want to see what it could do, fire a blank at an empty soda can point blank and see how "little" damage there is...
Also don't listen to Miller and put your finger on the trigger guard of a semi auto either. It will make your shots pull low.
I've seen the double discharge "waterdog" referred to, real scary stuff.
As an instructor I can use these photos to help illustrate the proper grip for a revolver. Thanks for having the courage to post this.
Ouch! That is awful! I hope you get it to heal very very soon.
Thank you, but, no, it wasn't me. I don't know who it was. Someone sent it to me and I thought it was important enough to pass along.
bet he wont do that again
WOW, I was taught and warned of cylinder blow back mostly older weapons with a little play in them yet I still learned a similar lesson a friend and I stepped out of my truck him and his .357 on one side and me and my .44 on the other popped a few rounds off and was hit in the face with his blow back didn't feel so good you really have to be careful.
I had an experience with Cor-Bon ammo with my Taurus 44 Mag, brand new gun. Fired 6 rounds of 44 Special, 6 rounds of Hornady, then 6 rounds of 300 gr. Cor-Bon. The Cor-Bon cases would not extract. I had to go home and poke them out with a cleaning rod. Contacted Cor-Bon, and they had me send the box back to the factory, and shipped me a new box. The new ammo worked fine in my gun. On the original ammo I noticed a faint line around the case just about where the bottom of the bullet would be. I suspect either the cases were just a bit small or the bullets were a bit large creating a slight crimp on the bullet such that a slightly higher pressure resulted. The new box that Cor-Bon sent did not have this feature. I have no problem with Cor-Bon, and think they produce excellent ammo. I worked in a manufacturing plant most of my life, and realize that every once in a while something gets out the door that should have been caught before it was shipped to a customer.
I noticed the blast from the cylinder on a friends 44 mag years ago and have been mindful of the potential for injuries near the chamber of any revolver. The 460 is a monster and something I recently purchased as well, thank you for sharing your story. It is tempting to get an unorthodox grip to try and absurb the recoil but I'll stilck to the basics and deal with it or just shoot 45LC (Nah, lol). I'll make sure to warn friends to stand well behind when firing this awesome piece of work!
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Happened to me I lost my left thumb at the joint
Happened to me I lost my left thumb at the joint
Exactly Right!
If he wasn't aware of the dangers, and fires it like he would a normal pistol.... accidents can happen. its a bit rough to go straight to the idiot train on this one. its not like they teach you about it when you buy it. hell I'm all about firearm safety and doing things right but even i didnt know this was a thing till about 1 year ago, i was just lucky someone who knew about it told me. if he did it while knowing about the danger then yes, idiot.
That happened to me with my 44 RedHawk. Accept it didn’t blow my thumb off. I did have some powder burns though.
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