South Dakota officials say 3 tourists injured at fundraiser featuring Old West shootout

AP/WaPo ^ | 6/20/11

[OKSooner]

Thanks for helping me out with that and for the correction on whether Brandon Lee died due to his own recklesness. "I retract my earlier post."

I obviously confused / conflated it with the "John Erik Hexum" incident.

[PapaBear3625]

Next time load some blanks in those Hoglegs, okay?

At short range, blanks can also seriously injure or kill. Even when you know (or think you know) the gun is loaded with blanks, Jeff Cooper's rules of gun safety still apply. In a scene, there should be a safe backstop, and you should aim for the backstop, NOT the other actor.

[IYAS9YAS]

I obviously confused / conflated it with the "John Erik Hexum" incident.

Heck, I confuse myself most days. I can remember the firing order on a small block chevy (which I haven't worked on in years), but can't tell you what I had for lunch yesterday.

[B4Ranch]

289 ford 1-5-4-2-6-3-7-8. Yesterday was Sunday, I think.

[Ol' Dan Tucker]

As someone has already noted on this thread, that's how Brandon Lee died. Thought he was gonna be a funny guy and cap himself in the head with a "blank" - which would, one would suppose, have been a "blank" at 50 yards, but up against his cranium, guess what?

No, you're thinking of Jon Erik Hexum who was killed when he put a .44 Magnum prop gun loaded with blanks to his temple and pulled the trigger.

Lee died because the prop men made dummy cartridges from live rounds by pulling out the bullets and dumping the powder, then re-inserting the bullets. The problem was they left live primers in the rounds. Someone else played with the gun and fired the dummy rounds in the prop gun used by the movie bad guy, lodging a bullet in the barrel.

The scene was filmed and the prop gun was loaded with blanks, but no one checked the barrel for obstructions. When the bad guy fired the blanks, the bullet stuck in the barrel flew out, striking Lee in the abdomen and lodged in his spine.

[Condor51]

Interesting link on those 'accidental shootings'.

And as to 'not aiming at the actor -- If you've ever watched Fist Full of Dollars (like a dozen times), you'll note that in the first Gun Fight that Clint Eastwood has with Baxter's men, in the closeup from behind the gun, Eastwood's Gun Barrel is aimed nowhere near the actors who are supposed to be getting shot as he's fanning away.

Granted the point of aim could be off just due to the fanning of the hammer. But in any case the barrel wasn't pointed at the actors who were 'dieing'.

[IYAS9YAS]

I’m pretty certain that most of the mouse motors, and even the rat motors that Chevy had from the 60s up were 1-8-4-3-6-5-7-2 (also worked for a 1969 383 in my Road Runner). Of course, the BB Plymouth was counter-clockwise on the distributor, where the Chibby was clock-wise. You only make that mistake once.

[Little Ray]

Depends on what your doin’ with ‘em. I’ve heard that some Fast Draw games use a case, with a wax plug and a primer.

Some of the people in SASS use Cream of Wheat on top of their black powder so that it compresses properly. Unless its compressed, black powder charges can explode.

[Wonder Warthog]

"But 'responsible' gun fighters giving a show would never 1) Aim At The Spectators and 2) Be far enough away from each that the wadding in the 'blank' wouldn't reach the other. Note that 'responsible' is the operative word."

Oh, I agree completely. Just elucidating the reason why the perception that "blanks are safe" just ain't so. As is pointed out downthread, even the expansion of gases at close range can "do plenty damage".

There are probably a bunch of folks out there who are "firearms ignorant" enough to not know the reason why (even here on FR).

Which is why the "prime directive" of gun safety is "never point a gun at anything you are unwilling to see destroyed", whether said gun is (supposedly) empty, loaded with blanks, cop-killer dum-dum bullets, or armor piercing rounds.