There's a guy that lives near me that I've halfway known for a long time....our daughters have been friends for a long time but I had never been more than a casual acquaintance with the man. Lately he's been teaching me reloading......he's been reloading for many years and when I went to his house for the first session or two he seemed very very careful and serious. So he's teaching me to load some 45 acp. His reloading room is a small extra bedroom in his home. One or two of the rounds I loaded looked a little iffy to him, so he wanted to chamber it into his pistol to see if it would seat and cycle correctly. So he gets his Colt 1911 45, brings it into the small loading room, and unloads it. This room is maybe 10 x12 at the most and has a single bed on one corner and a reloading bench and shelves on the other. He loads the round I made into the gun and cycles it through and decides that it looked fine. So I turn around while he starts to reload the pistol with the original ammo that was in it. He keeps it as a protection weapon in his home.

So I'm working the loading press while he's loading his gun two feet behind me when the gun fires. You might imagine the sound in that small room. He is shocked and claims that while he was cycling the slide, it just went off. He swears his finger was not on the trigger and the gun must have malfunctioned. Given that I'd not really known this guy very well, at that point I'm thinking "yeah, right, I doubt the gun malfunctioned. You likely just got careless." I didn't say anything, but that's what I was thinking. It shook up the both of us having a gun go off when we didn't want it to in such a small room. He claimed that nothing like that had ever happened to him. He also said he'd had that gun for years and put over 1000 rounds through it with no problems. He had also dry fired it a lot practicing.

Luckily he was using proper technique by being very careful to keep the muzzle pointed in a safe direction. Even though I had not been around him long, everything I'd seen of him so far showed good careful gun handling techniques. At the time the gun went off, he had it pointed away from both of us toward the mattress of the bed. He says he's sure he didn't have his finger on the trigger when he racked the slide and the gun must have malfunctioned and he was going to take the gun to a gunsmith to find out what was wrong.

So the next few days I asked his daughter, who is about 30, if she had ever seen him fire the gun indoors or done anything foolish with the gun. She claimed that no, she had never seen him do anything unsafe with a gun. So she corroborated his story and what I'd observed of him.

So at this point, one of the following must have been true:
1) A guy who had not shown any signs of negligent gun handling must have been negligent.
2) A gun which had not shown any signs of malfunction must have malfunctioned.

At the very least, it shows that we should always be extra careful with guns, always always always follow good gun safety techniques, always point guns in a safe direction, always. That is what kept someone from being hurt or killed.

So the gun gets back from the gunsmith and the report from my friend is that the gunsmith racked the slide a large number of times and it eventually did a "slam fire" and set off a round when the trigger was not being pulled. Supposedly the part that keeps the hammer back (a seer?) was ever so slightly worn and did indeed slam fire for the gunsmith.

So that's all I know. We can speculate about the motivations of my friend and the gunsmith, but nevertheless 1) and 2) above are true. ALWAYS be careful with firearms. Gun safety MATTERS all the time.

It can happen at any time to anyone...even the safest person! That is why you always have the muzzle of ANY gun pointed in a safe direction unless you are intending to kill something or someone!

I don't understand the part I've bolded above. Motivations??

I'm glad it didn't have a tragic ending, what did the 45 acp bullet do to the bed?

Did the friend lie about the smith's report, did the smith lie in order to sell some parts or bail out his customer?

This ^^^^ The simple fact is he was handling it pointed in a safe direction regardless if it fired on it's own or his finger accidently pulled the trigger. If he had pulled the trigger even by accident then why send it off in the first place...

Thanks for the heads up concerning slam fires.

I handle firearms 4 out of 6 days. Look in the chamber, put my finger in the chamber, cycle it again, and repeat the process. My rifles are stored dry fired. And even then the muzzle is pointed at the ground when I squeeze the trigger.

YOU CANNOT BE TOO CAREFUL!

I am glad no one was hurt or killed.

Thank God he demonstrated the most critical of gun safety rules "POINT THE MUZZLE IN A SAFE DIRECTION AT ALL TIMES"

If only the pig Alec Baldwin had done the same a wife and mother would still be with us today

We can all make mistakes but our safety conditioning most be that the mistake has minimal consequences

The bullet made a clean hole through the mattress, hit the carpet and flattened against the concrete beneath it, and bounced about a foot. We found the bullet in just a couple of minutes. The mattress is still usable….just a small hole. That mattress kept the bullet from ricocheting and going who knows where. The case was hard to find…..he has a lot of reloading stuff on a lot of shelves, plus a TV and some boxes, etc. It took him two long days to find that casing, but he wouldn’t stop till he found it. He wanted to make sure it had been hit by a firing pin, which indeed it had.

Shook the both us of up and we redoubled our commitment to gun safety.

[So the gun gets back from the gunsmith and the report from my friend is that the gunsmith racked the slide a large number of times and it eventually did a "slam fire" and set off a round when the trigger was not being pulled.]

Years ago I bought a XDS right after they came out. A few weeks later there was a recall on them. Had to do with a slam fire. The Dr. that found this out happened to shoot his mattress also and no one was hurt. This prompted the recall so I sent mine back to do the recall and all is well.

Some of the old custom made match 1911's were known to occasionally fire when chambering the initial round. I don't think it was technically a slam fire, but just that the triggers were so light they would release from the impact. I know of one gun shop that had a hole in the floor behind the counter from a match 1911 they were checking out and loading. One of the old timers in the shop had cautioned them not to load it inside, but they tried it anyway....

No such thing as a 'slam fire' with a 1911 as they do not have un-attenuated free floating firing pin (as on an AR15).

HAMMER FOLLOW is what most likely happened and is common on 1911's with a sear that is worn (or more likely modified). Even so....the 'half [censored]' notch should have caught the hammer if no finger on the trigger. Not impossible for it not to engage though.

Or...if the pistol has an over travel screw on the trigger...if adjusted improperly can cause issues as well.

Good that he was pointing the muzzle in a safe direction.

I wonder about that trigger. Some guys and their 1911’s, I swear some of them are just way too light and short. Might not even need to stick your finger in it, just rub against from the side.

Never had issue with my Gold cup, but I have never adjusted the screw in trigger or need to. Factory set is fine with me and "should " be safe! Have heard stories of 1911's firing just letting slide down...hammer following slide scenario and causing this. I was taught with any semi auto pistol grip it properly when you release slide. My father fell on me like ton of bricks when I John Wayned the slide one time. Said this ain't the movies boy hold that hand gun! Just in case it wants to go bang!