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Hello All,

Here's an update ..... I took the newly acquired rifle to the range for a test run, and I had an accident with it.

I was convinced the rifle was un-fired, and a trip to the range has confirmed this. First thing I noticed is that none of the rear sight blades were notched.

What happened next is a lesson learned, and one I will share in hopes that it might prevent someone from having a similar accident.

I loaded the rifle 4-down & 1 up and pulled the safety to the rear which put the rifle on SAFE. I pulled the trigger to ensure the safety works, which it did no problem. However, as I brought the gun up getting ready to shoot - I flipped off the safety .... and .... THE GUN FIRED without touching the trigger. HOLY CRAP ! ! !

The rifle was loaded with 400g soft point Federal Factory ammo which I had previously chronographed at 2400 fps. That's 68 ft/lbs recoil. The unexpected discharge of the "off-shoulder" rifle recoiled violently and flew out of my hands. The free recoil resulted in my trigger finger slamming into the floor-plate release button - which opened the magazine and threw the contents onto the bench and concrete. The floor plate release button cut into my finger at the first knuckle, and the side of the trigger guard cut into my finger ahead of the second knuckle. The back of the trigger guard slammed into my middle finger which was severely sprained and started swelling quickly.

When all this happened, the gun was not yet against my shoulder, it was slightly above waist level. The recoil spun me around and the rifle flew out of my hands. Fortunately as I turned, I grabbed and caught the rifle by the muzzle about the same time as the recoil pad hit the concrete. The violent recoil slammed the side of the rifle into the cell phone which was in my right hand shirt pocket. The phone was smashed into pieces. The telltale signs of the cell phone impact are now permanently visible in the side of the stock, which if you look at my earlier pictures, you will see was previously unmarked.

I did a little first aid with my anti-virus hand sanitizer, and good old duct tape. This allowed me to test fire a few more rounds - by single loading without touching the safety. Sighting the front bead over the un-notched standing leaf rear sight blade, placed the bullets 10-1/2" high at 25 yards. A little mathematics with the calculator indicated the blade would require a .19 inch deep notch to be zero sighted point-blank at 50 yards.

When I arrived back home, I investigated the problem. It didn't take me long to discover that the safety was not the issue - it was the trigger. The rear-tip of the trigger was rubbing against the inside of the bottom of the trigger guard bow. When the trigger was pulled back - it stayed stuck-back inside the trigger guard. It stands to reason that this is what happened at the range. When I put the gun on safe and tested the trigger, it stayed "back" in the trigger guard, as if "pre-pulled" which left the sear disengaged. The only thing holding back the firing pin was the safety. Consequently, flipping the safety off, released the firing pin, and fired the rifle.

This was an easy fix. I removed about 1/32 of an inch off the rear-tip of the trigger so it is free to move without touching the trigger guard. Even with my 55 years of shooting experience, and hundreds of thousands of rounds fired, my lesson learned from this is: "When checking the safety on a new rifle for the first time, do it at home with an empty gun, not at the range with a loaded gun." The marks on the rifle will remind me of this every time I take it to the range.

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"You never pay too much for something, you only buy it too early."