I knew the cylinder on the Snubbie was acting a little stiff. I didn’t think it would draw blood. Which was why I sort of stared at the drops on the firearm as my thumb really started to sting. I looked at the open cylinder, and at my left thumb, and thought, “Well, that’s from me, and it stings, and I’d probably better wash whatever that is off. And finish loading and working on what I’d come here to work on.”
And of course I’d not replaced the Bandaid box in my range bag. I know better.
The good news – the problem only happened when I was trying to open the pistol in order to reload. However, I’ve been informed (and am certain, based on personal experience), that angry hogs, feral dogs, rabid possums, and the like do not respond well when politely asked to stop attacking so that a technical difficulty can be worked out. “Pardon me, would you mind waiting over there while I adjust this so that I can reload? Thank you ever so much, sir.” Ah, no.
So, when the cylinder started hanging up, I checked everything check-able, rotated it one space, tried again, rotated it one space, and finally found the proper chamber that would allow it to open with a minimum of difficulty. The thing popped open – Yeah! and sliced my thumb in the process. Not so yeah.
My first reaction was to blink, stare a little at the drops on the handgun, and wonder “Where did that come from, and what is it?” Followed by, “blood, and me.” I trooped over to my range bag, saw no bandages, and betook myself to the handwashing station. I washed the offending finger, grabbed two paper towels, and returned to tidy the pistol and finish my day’s work.
The pistol is going to a gunsmith, because as I cleaned it later that day, the mechanism got stiffer and stiffer. It appears that something in the opening mechanism is just a little off kilter, and needs to be replaced by someone who knows what he’s doing. That’s not me.
I’m happy to say that, even with am injured thumb, the rest of the session went pretty well, and I did not bleed all over the place. If the thing had blown up in my hand? I’d probably have reacted slightly differently (as would the gent three bays down.) And so too the range boss. He hates it when people leave a mess behind.
Cat Rotator's Quarterly 
Yes, that sounds like it needs some gunsmithing TLC. Be careful of gunshot residue inside the cut, though – it should be cleaned out thoroughly with antiseptic, and watched while it heals. They can turn nasty, as I’ve found out to my cost in the past.
If you had slow reaction time to a cut, either you were concentrating very hard on your task, or you are tired tired tired. Comments that you have made about Day Job lead me to think that you are tired.
Generally speaking, Mr. B12 is your friend, but there are also all sorts of foods that will give you more energy. And don’t worry so much about Day Job that you don’t get enough sleep.
It was more focus in this case. There’s a reason I’ve been sleeping 10 hours per night since the end of the semester.
Or else it was a sharp cut, or masked by other pain: pinching or severe surface irritation.
That’s true; sometimes you don’t feel those super-sharp cuts. But usually I feel ’em all because I have a pretty low pain threshold for cuts; so I tend to assume everybody does.
Take Care!
Reminds me of the old song that goes, “There’s BLOOD on the saddle, and BLOOD on the ground…”, the rest of which I remember not.
Ouch. Get Well!
I once had the ejector pin start to back out on a Smith Chiefs’ Special, causing a similar problem. Disassembled, cleaned, carburetor cleaner, and a drop of blue Locktite fixed it.
John in Indy
Gunsmith is the right answer!
Oh, hey, I saw something funny. I was watching Victorian Farm, and they started talking about seeing a mackerel sky at haying time. And I’m looking and looking, and not seeing it, because I think of a mackerel sky as little itty bitty high clouds all stuck together in a scale pattern, and they were showing these big honking blotchy round clouds stuck together like a giant tic-tac-toe board covering the entire sky, instead of in a long thin strip or two, and their mackerel sky was not nearly as high up!
Apparently the weather poem is the same in the UK and the US, and the weather pattern’s not super-different, but… man, maybe they have bigger mackerel there or something. Also, it looked like it was going to rain right away, not in 8 or 12 hours.
Two countries separated by a common language.
We don’t get the classic mackerel skies out here, because our rain comes from a different weather pattern. I do remember seeing it in Georgia, and going, “Oh! So that’s what it looks like!”
> rabid possums
FYI, there aren’t any authenticated cases of North American opossums (didelphis Virginiana) carrying rabies. Their body temperature is thought to be too low for the virus to survive.
That’s a bit different from what I was told in Iowa. A possum was acting odd in broad daylight, staggering, coming close to small children, lunging at the adults. The farm wife shot it, sent the head off, and was told, “We’re not 100% sure it was rabid, but good call.” They had a second possum appear in the farm yard two seeks later, also sick and acting odd, and shot it as well. So whether or not the animals were truly rabid or not, they were sick with something. (I worked with the husband of the farm wife, and she told me about the events. This was 1999-2000.)