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It had been about 2,000rds since I had cleaned my .22/45 Ruger. I tore it down and thought I'd pull the trigger out. Well that spring that holds the trigger also holds the mag release. I didn't get the spring in place right at the mag release end. After about 100rds the mag release button popped out in my hand.

Tore it all down again and that's when I seen the little hole that the spring goes into. Why I didn't catch that on the first tear down is anybodies guess. OLD age is all I'll say..

Re: the thread title.
That's what I do best, stupid stuff.
Same as you, the next teardown to fix mistakes becomes a real learning lesson. I've learned a lot from mistakes. Most likely will learn some more.

More than once and most likely will again..Got a nice basement in my home and do my woodworking and gun working there, got lots of bullets. But, it is too damn cold and the snow is almost up to my butt to go out and use some of them. I am getting cabin fever, severely. Warm weather, my bud and I usually get in at least 3 or 4 range sessions per week. Range is close by so we do a lot of one hour or so sessions.

Back many years ago I took my then 10 year old daughter to a Highpower rifle match, which just happened to be a Garand version, back before there were John C. Garand Matches. As I was explaining the internal workings to her after the match, I said never touch this follower or it will snap shut on your finger. No sooner did I say that I'd lightly brushed the follower with my thumb sliding the follower to one side of the magazine recess. SNAP! That bolt smashed my thumb, trapping it in the breach as if I was caught in a rat trap. My daughter looked at me and said, "Did that hurt Dad?" I said, "Uhh huh," which was about all I could muster at the time without letting a torrent of extreme words out of my mouth. That was the first and only time I'd ever gotten the "M1 thumb", what a time to have that happen, It took about five months to lose and regrow a new thumbnail but I got two lifetimes of learning out of that experience.

R,
Bullseye

Wow that's bad timing. Did you tell your daughter that you wanted to illustrate why not to touch the follower ?

Yes, but I want admit it

Just proves you're a normal person, we all do stupid stuff. It's just really nice when there's no permanent harm!

Is there ever a "good" time for a smashed thumb nail? I've had a couple
before, and know. It must have taken all your reserves to not let out a cuss word.
Haka

What made it even more vivid is that day was particularly cold. Nothing worse than the throbbing of a smashed thumb on a frosty day.

R,
Bullseye

Well, what about when you are taking something apart and the little spring,ball bearing,whatever flies out and goes to wherever in your shop things reside never or seldom to be found again, or, at least several hours lost in the search. Worse yet, I usually have to ask my wife with her "good eyes" to find the missing.

Well I guess we all have a story or two to tell so now I don't feel so bad.. That's just one of the little ones and I am not even going to mention the big ones.

This one is so dumb that I'm almost embarrassed to admit to it. I had decided to take my 22-250 to the range with me. Now, I love to shoot that rifle, but I do not do it very often, so when I plan on taking it I have to make sure to toss the ammo for it in my range bag. I get to the range, uncase it, install the bipod, put up targets and you guessed it...no ammo. Now I'm sure that most of us have forgotten to bring ammo for a particular weapon to the range, but what made this particularly bad, is that the next trip to the range, I brought the same rifle, uncased it, attached the bipod, put up the targets and of course, had forgotten the ammo again. Duh!

I finally did shoot it on the third trip...lol

Y

Years ago one of my pals was planning on doing some load testing after work with his 44 mag blaster and he put the pistol in it's bag on top of his car while he loaded all of his gear. You guessed it, in the dark hurry to get to work he forgot the pistol which left the scene somewhere in his 25 mile commute never to be recovered

One trip to my range last summer, I totally forgot any hearing protection. Luckily a generous soul there donated a pair of disposable plugs to my need. Seemed only fair, since his chosen gun that day was a muzzle loader. Ever since, I've kept a couple pair of $3 plugs in my range box, just in case I ever forget my muffs again.

Thanks to you guys I've recalled what certainly is up there in the ranking of stupid. I had a Thomson Contender with a 223 ported 16" barrel. I was doing some load development and had my best muffs as this was without doubt the loudest thing I've ever shot. This was a hot Texas day, and the muffs came off between shots to wipe away sweat. I just got back from looking at targets and neglected to put my muffs on due to concentrating on results. The resulting blast was not just uncomfortable, but was painful in the extreme. I'm certain that my hearing suffers today from that one stupid shot. I traded for 22RF barrel to assure that I would never make that error again.Regards