Blowed-up pistols
When you run an active gun shop you get to see a lot of handguns damaged after having been dropped, shot out of battery, fired with an obstruction in the bore or fired with a big overload of powder. In all of the cases I have seen the shooter has never been injured more than a very minor scratch or two.
If you shoot a lot, you to will have some sort of accident sooner or later since we do make mistakes! Most of the accidents I’ve seen involve a simple bulged barrel due to shooting with an obstruction in the bore. That blockage is normally a bullet fired from a case with only a primer and little or no powder [Read Charley’s Handloading column in this issue for more on the matter Ed]. The shooter is concentrating on marksmanship and is “zoned out,” failing to notice the squib load that has not pushed the bullet out of the barrel. Thinking he just had a failure to extract, the shooter manually ejects the spent case and chambers the next round. Kaboom! You got yourself a new barrel.