An odd gun accident (death)

[Stand_watie]

Newaygo man killed in muzzleloader accident had found joy in his family, relatives said
by Theresa D. McClellan | The Grand Rapids Press
Wednesday January 14, 2009, 10:11 PM

Courtesy Photo
Jason MielkeNEWAYGO COUNTY -- An unemployed construction worker, Jason Mielke often found discarded items that he could strip down and sell for scrap, in hopes of adding extra income for his growing household.

So when he found a muzzleloader rifle in the Dumpster outside his girlfriend's apartment, he recalled conversations with his father about deer hunting with one.

http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2009/01/newaygo_man_killed_in_muzzlelo.html

The 28-year-old brought the gun to the home of his father, Ted Mielke, in Big Prairie Township, where they worked together cleaning on Tuesday.

But what happened next was tragic, said Rhonda Mielke, Jason's stepmother.

"The barrel was in a vice grip and they were working on getting a piece removed. They were heating it up with a torch and it made a sizzling noise and backfired in my husband's face," Rhonda Mielke said.

The father yelled at Jason, who turned as the muzzleloader fired....

"He walked right in front of the barrel. My husband is torn up. He held him and kept telling Jason it would be all right, and Jason said it hurt. He lost his oldest son and his best friend," said the stepmother

[PTK]

Not odd at all. Fool didn't check if it was loaded before working on it WITH A TORCH.

[Leatherneck]

Standard Stupid. Too bad, as ever.

TC

[Standing Wolf]

The barrel was in a vice grip and they were working on getting a piece removed. They were heating it up with a torch and it made a sizzling noise and backfired in my husband's face

She should sue Glock.

[RaspberrySurprise]

Sometimes stupidy hurts, sometimes it kills. Sadly this is a case of the latter. Why oh why did they not check it to make sure it hadn't been left loaded?

[El Tejon]

Shouldn't stupid hurt?

Odd?  No.

[HankB]

I remember a Darwin Award where some dim bulbs were cutting open a bomb or grenade with a cutting torch . . . KABOOM!

Bomb did what it was designed to do, i.e., break things and kill people.

[Manedwolf]

Many people have found loaded muskets. All firearms, no matter how old, are loaded until proven otherwise.

Never handle firearms carelessly. The sorrow and suffering that have been caused through the innocent but heedless handling of firearms by the young! Only four days ago, right in the next farm house to the one where I am spending the summer, a grandmother, old and gray and sweet, one of the loveliest spirits in the land, was sitting at her work, when her young grandson crept in and got down an old, battered, rusty gun which had not been touched for many years and was supposed not to be loaded, and pointed it at her, laughing and threatening to shoot. In her fright she ran screaming and pleading toward the door on the other side of the room; but as she passed him he placed the gun almost against her very breast and pulled the trigger! He had supposed it was not loaded. And he was right--it wasn’t. So there wasn’t any harm done. It is the only case of that kind I ever heard of. Therefore, just the same, don’t you meddle with old unloaded firearms; they are the most deadly and unerring things that have ever been created by man. You don’t have to take any pains at all with them; you don’t have to have a rest, you don’t have to have any sights on the gun, you don’t have to take aim, even. No, you just pick out a relative and bang away, and you are sure to get him. -Mark Twain

[Tallpine]

I had a TC Hawken stolen.  It was loaded, but no cap on the nipple.

I often wonder if the kids that took it blew themselves up 

[tokugawa]

I always wonder about that when watching antiques road show- all those old guns, anybody ever stick a ramrod down the bore to see if there is a charge in it?  Guess folk think if it is not an EBR it is not deadly.