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I’ve been experimenting with carrying a smaller gun. The weather’s warming-up and my Glock 30SF prints like the New York Times. Which is to say somewhat, but not as much as it could. Anyway, I’ve been carrying my Glock in an outside the waistband DeSantis Speed Scabbard for well over a year. Day in, day out. Sunup to sundown (and beyond). So when I switched to pocket carrying a Smith & Wesson 642, my routine was broken. Lo and behold I was out and about when I suddenly realized I wasn’t packing heat. I’d left my Smith . . . in my safe. ‘Cause I live by the rule that a gun’s on your body or in a safe. Of course, if I didn’t follow that rule religiously, I might have, say, left my gun by the shower by mistake. Or some such thing. Do you know someone who—theoretically—left their gun somewhere by mistake?
In military training environments, it is not uncommon for guys to tie para-cord to their rifle and attach it to their belt so that they don’t leave it behind. We called it a “dummy cord.” It seems like a solution in search of a problem, but when you are operating on one hour of sleep or less for days on end, it can come in quite handy. I ended up doing it for a lot of the “high-ticket” items we were forced to carry, like night vision goggles, binos, gas masks, etc.
When I was teaching Basic, if a candidate left their rifle more than an arms length away (except when properly stacked outside the mess, etc.), we would reconfigure the sling so that it attached the rifle to the candidate’s neck. Hard to forget then.
I had a PSG that had a similar way of handling this issue. A 15 foot length of tow chain and about 15 200 series locks. It totaled like 25 or 30 lbs.
Are you kidding? I misplace my piece about as often as I misplace my glasses, which is to say about every day for a couple of minutes. Always in my home, of course.
When I lived in a large house, I used to have a spare pair of glasses for finding my glasses. Now that I reside in smaller surroundings, I’m glad that I don’t need an extra gun to find my gun. Although I do. Have extra guns, that is.
I like to think of all the guns that I’ve fondled in the shops, and sadly put back onto the rack, as being “misplaced”.
Some key rings have a find me feature where if you push a button on a remote (if you can find the remote) the key ring will beep. Maybe a similar remote device that will cause a discharge would help in locating the firearm. Might be a drawback or two to this plan…but! @Patent Pending
Unfortunately during Desert Shield/Storm I left a Beretta 92 on the back floor board of a car. Being junior enlisted I normally carried an M16, but a new job assignment had me in civies and wearing a sidearm. I got a 2nd hand rear-chewing and lived another day.
Happy shooting, dv
A co-worker laid his service pistol on the back of the toilet in a store. After he finished and went about his day, the guy realized his pistol was not in the holster. He returned to the store and the gun was gone! I don’t remember how many days of suspension without pay he received as punishment. One time, I went to the federal courthouse to testify at a grand jury and I placed my pistol in a security box in the lobby. I then locked the box and took the key with me. It was the wrong box! The U.S. Marshals secured my stuff and they gave me a big lecture about security. Most embarrassing.
I’m nearly 45 years old and have been around guns & shooting since about 8 and have had CCW for about a decade. I have never misplaced a firearm. That said…
I bought a used car once and found a fanny pack under the driver’s seat that contained a Colt Detective Special & 20 or so rounds of ammo. Unfortunately I was friends with the person I bought the car from and I returned it to him. He had no clue the gun was “misplaced”, let alone gone…
Some people apparently have too many guns (not me of course), who’d have thunk it? 😉
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matt_
No
I was with a buddy who was carrying a TCP in a wallet holster. We stopped in a restaurant for lunch. After we left he realized the gun (holster and all) had fallen out. I called the manager of the restaurant (also a friend) and about the time I said “Go look at our table” I heard a waitress scream “IT’S A GUNNNNN!!!!” The manager held on to the gun until we got back.
You should have went back to the junk yard your self. I wouldn’t take the guys word either until I saw the remains of the car. I live in PA too and I go to junk yards with my pops. Some of them seem shady. Ive come back after a month to see my car still there. They part it out hardly do they send it straight to be trashed if the body is still good because they can sell the tires and mirrors and each part bit by bit.
I have never lost or misplaced a firearm but did find two “lost” ones in my grandparents attic after my grandmother passed away. I know she forgot they existed and I still have those two weapons.
I have read in our local rag about one LEO that left his entire pistol belt in the head which was found by a cleaning lady who then called the news and police because she had an issue with self-righteous cops and wanted to bring ones stupidity to light.
Another LEO left his department issued shotgun on the squad car trunk lid well investigating a bank robbery which was then stolen and to this day never recovered that I know of.
I’m slightly embarrassed to admit that just two days ago I “misplaced” a gun for the first time. I returned from work and changed clothes to go out to dinner with my wife. When I sat down at my table at the restaurant I discreetly reached to my side to ensure my shirt was covering my firearm, only to find…an empty holster.
I realized that I’d neglected the last step in my “remove gun from holster, remove holster from belt, remove belt, remove pants, put on new pants, put on belt, place holster on belt, put gun in holster” routine. Sure enough, my 642 was patiently waiting on my chest of drawers for me when I returned home.
My children are grown and gone, so the unsecured gun posed no threat to anyone or anything…excepting my ego.
I misplaced a bunch of paintball guns once. I have two identical molded plastic cases.
I was going up to a church camp to run paintball so I stuck paintball guns in one case. The other case still ad guns from trip to the range the day before.
Imagine my surprise when I opened up the wrong case to show off my paintball guns…
In a rush to meet up at the church building before heading to the camp, I grabbed the wrong case. Fortunately it was a 10min detour.
About a year ago I was driving home from the grocery store. For some reason I reach for my gun just to check, and darn. No gun, just an empty holster. Then my mind went crazy as to where could I have left it? Could it just fall out and I not notice? What to do when I get home?
Got home, didn’t take long and I found it in the bathroom. I forgot I stopped at home in between errands.
My friend lost a gun. He always hides his gun in a locked gun rug cause he doesn’t have a safe. Now he can’t find it. He’s got the keys, just not the gun. Nice 6 inch S&W nickel plated in .357 mag. He bought a new gun when it had been missing over a year.
I haven’t lost one, but I a kid i know found one by our bus stop when I was in middle school. Being a normal, well socialized kid, whose mom taught him about gun safety, I told him to keep it pointed at the ground and asked him to hand it to me and keep it pointed at a safe direction. I dropped the mag, locked the slide to the rear, and set it back down all while some parent shrieked OMG A GUN! Cops came and picked it up, and laughed when I tried ‘finders-keepers’
Yesterday morning I ran into something like this. I was packing up my shootin’ bag to do some plinking in the desert and for the life of me couldn’t find my Ruger Mk 1. It’s always been in a black pistol rug and when I found the rug empty I went into full blown “oh shit! oh shit! oh shit!” Turns out in my early morning coffee-hasn’t-kicked-in-yet state of mind I’d forgotten I’d just got a Ruger hard plastic case for it. That was a feeling I hope I never have again.
Whenever I’m out and about and have to take a dump in some store bathroom I always stick my Bersa .45 in my pocket for the express reason that I can’t ever forget and leave it on top of a toilet.
I haven’t lost one yet and I hope I never do. I just read Ralph’s review of the 642 from 2011 and it seems like a cool little gun. I own a ton of revolvers but I’ve never considered carrying one (3 are 500’s and a big ole 44), but now I think I should give it a try.
I’ve never personally “lost” one, but my father put his kimber solo in a “safe place” and couldn’t find it for about a week. Turns out he had put it in a cabinet next to his bed in his motor coach. Which was indeed a safe place since the coach was locked in a private garage, and he and I are the only ones that go in there. It was a worrying feeling to say the least.
A month or so ago we were at the Local indoor pistol range with a 6 person group taking up 2 lanes round robin. After 2 hours of shooting we are cleaning up and packing my range bag. It won’t zip. Ok so pull everything out to arrange so it will and lo and behold there is a gun rug I do not know. I ask my guests and it is not anyone else’s, knowing its not mine I open it and there is a pistol and multiple magazines inside. Turn the whole thing over to the range officer.
Yeah, about 20 years ago I was working in corrections and carried off duty. My truck had to go in for service at the local dealer and I asked if I could have a loaner car as my truck was a under warranty; they gave me a friggin Lincoln Continental. I was working in a lousy part of Hartford and had to come through the crime ridden north-end to get to the facility. Needless to say I carried to and from work and on this particular occasion I screwed up. When I brought the car back to the dealer and picked up my truck, the truck was in repair for 4 days, I left the .38 Charter Arms revolver in the console. The service manager found the revolver and put it in his office, he called me and I went in and apologized and thanked him for not calling the authorities. He explained to me that he too is an avid shooter and that he’d hate to see someone get in trouble for a stupid mistake…I completely understand the ramifications if someone other than this person were to find my gun. From that day on if I carried it out of the house it came in to the house when I arrived as well. No more “truck guns”. Twenty years ago things were very different but the lesson I learned is a tattoo…
My dad and I were cleaning out my granddad’s place and we found 5 more guns than anyone else knew about and 2 that my dad only vaugly rembered from childhood
Never misplaced a gun…can’t imagine how I ever would. My carry piece stays in one spot until it goes into my holster, then it goes from my holster to that one spot. My other guns have their own set places.
No guns misplaced. I have had one of my Dad’s guns come up missing out at the farm, but I think my stupid Uncle sold it, and it was not his to sell!.
Back in 1991 I left a gun case on top of my car and drove off. It was not there when I came back….I don’t want to talk about it.
Knew a guy while I was in the Army – this was in Germany a couple of decades back – who got out of his Hummer to talk to someone during a brief rest stop and left his M-16 leaning against the vehicle. He forgot about it until the convoy was a mile down the road. Of course the rifle wasn’t there when they went back…
This was during a REFORGER exercise, IIRC. I also recall hearing that the whole exercise was actually shut down briefly until the weapon was recovered – it turned up pretty quickly; a motorist found it and took it to the nearest Polizei station – but you can imagine the consternation that ensued. Not least on the part of the soldier involved, and his entire chain of command…
Yeah. For the life of me I cannot find my little pocket 380. It is either stolen or in a chair cushion I haven’t checked. I still have both mags for it, but no gun.
Wow, this got some pretty interesting answers. Now try the big one: Who has had a negligent discharge?
Your keyboard. Because remember it is not the person’ fault, it is the object’s fault. We bear no ill will towards you, just your writing implement.
I found a Browning 20 gauge in case that had fallen off someones car. No information on it at all (this was 20 years ago.) It was in turn stolen from my apartment at college a year later. (I tracked down the person who stole it, but the police would not pursue it.)
Never had a negligent discharge. However, I was taught to handle weapons at an early age, by my father, an airborne ranger.
Holster, night table, or safe, unless I’m at the shooting or cleaning bench.
-D
I see several stories in the news every year about someone who forgot their gun – these all seem to involve either leaving it in a restroom or on the trunk of their car and then driving off.
The other common factor in these stories is that the person who forgot the gun is nearly always a police officer, and they leave the gun in a courthouse restroom or on the trunk of their patrol car. Of course, these folks are highly trained professionals, so you shouldn’t try this stuff yourself.
Worked for a police department in Southern California for 30 years. Had a person who decided that the road to promotion was to become a ‘yes man’ to the command staff and to become a pain in the posterior to active, hard working patrol officers.
As his excellent record of getting coffee and constantly agreeing with the Command Staff during meetings caused his sudden and mysterious rise in rank, he CONSTANTLY left his duty side arm in the men’s bathroom.
I think he never missed it because he didn’t know how to use it.
He was so well loved by rank and file that even though a quick check of the serial number in the computer would reveal the officer assigned the firearm, the gun was always booked into the property room as “found property” (causing a report to be accomplished, which would then be a public document under the Freedom of Information Act) every time he did it. (My guess is that it was “run” and then booked).
The Chief was angry that “his buddy” was treated like that, but the men were just following policy regarding “found property – firearms”.
What goes around, comes around.
This guy is a loser. He is all about making money on youtube. First he makes a video staining he is selling the gun in question and the video says in the description box the that it is sold. He also torture tested the gun, btw which i would image in would make it hard to sell. Then miraculously it’s not sold……rather he forgot about it in his car, which he later sold with the gun in it maybe. Then claimed it lost or stolen and tried for an insurance claim with the NRA. Something dosent add up, and I mean other than the utter stupidity and irresponsible behavior of “forgetting” where you gun is. I think this guy made it up to get views and to try to get money out of the NRA for a new gun. I want to see the police report. Should be easy to get, since the posted his address on his YouTube channel page. BTW: If you think this is ok, you are part of the problem.
If what you say is true, there’s a possibility this guy committed fraud too. IF he did sell the gun and later reported it lost/stolen to the cops, I’d hate to be the one who bought it. IF it was sold, hopefully the guy who bought it got some kind of personal paperwork/receipt for the purchase, to prove where he got it from.
IF he’s lied about the sale to begin with, OR lied about its loss, this guy needs to answer for it. This kind of behavior can be unwanted/unwarranted ammo by the antis.
I spent my working life at an airline terminal. I can’t tell you how many calls we got from an FBI agent or similar LEO who had left his/her pistol in a seat back pouch and asked us to retrieve it for him/her. Several times a week, just on my shift.
Often, we would get the call after the airplane had left on another flight, or been moved to another area for maintenance and cleaning. Our cabin cleaners were outsourced subcontractors, and they always kept what they found, including guns.
It was also very common for another passenger to find a pistol in the bathroom. Now and then, there would be an incident where the LEO went back to retrieve the pistol, and it was gone. That meant another passenger had the gun. The airport Police often had to get involved, and, of course, it became comic. Astute stewardesses always checked the lavs after a known carrying LEO had used the lav. Sometimes it would turn out that a stewardess had found the gun and given it to the captain, who just let the LEO stew in the results of his own forgetfulness, made an official report over the radio to notify the proper authorities. In this case, the LEO faced the possibility of action from his agency, depending on the agency.
Some investigated, and some let it slide.
A worst-case scenario that never happened would be if a LEO escorting a prisoner would leave his gun in a bathroom, and then the prisoner would be the next user of the bathroom, and find the gun.
I was planning to go shooting with a friend of mine. I was at his place and we were getting ready to go, but he couldn’t find his gun (Walther P99). Looked all over his house, had no idea where it was. After a few minutes, I mentioned that the last time we went shooting, we had taken his dad’s car (which had since been sold), and how it would be kind of funny if he had forgotten to take it out of the trunk.
He found the gun about a week later. It was in his gun bag, which was in the basement…in a box…under a pile of other boxes.
As I was leaving one day I did my holster check and found it missing holster and all!
I panicked and searched half the house. I knew I had it on earlier so I hadn’t bothered checking the locked gun room yet(where it was)….. I was wearing my snubbie on my ankle instead of my full size in the shoulder rig and had swapped out that morning……I felt like a moron.
To this day I can’t figure out how I didn’t notice the weight but I guess complacency can do strange things when you’re used to carrying either/or depending on the weather.
In high school my friend lost his father’s Walther PPK while we were out hunting one day. This was a gun with Nazi ties to it because it had the swastika emblem on it. Needless to say his dad asked him if he knew where it was about a year later and he told his dad that he knew nothing about it. His dad went on believing that he had lost his own gun. Good thing they are very wealthy.