Mark Rieker target shoots from a shack built some 30 years ago by nearby neighbor Dick Teitzel and friends off Big Hanaford Road. His younger brother Justin Rieker waits his turn late Sunday afternoon.
This was updated 11:30 a.m. on Monday March 28, 2011
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CENTRALIA – A 43-year-old man was seriously injured today when a 50 caliber rifle malfunctioned while some friends were target shooting northeast of Centralia.
Lewis County sheriff’s deputies and aid responded to the 2:30 p.m. call to a shack and spread of remote rural property used as a shooting range off Big Hanaford Road at Tono Road.
“The guy pulling the trigger didn’t get hurt, it was the guy standing next to him,” sheriff’s Cmdr. Steve Aust said.
Aust said it appeared the firing pin struck the round before it was properly seated and it basically exploded inside the gun, with the force of it moving sideways.
The victim, who is from Point Roberts, Wash., sustained injuries to his upper body, taking pieces of casing in his chest and eyes, along with possibly puncturing a lung, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. His name was not released.
Riverside Fire Authority Capt. Scott Weinert said the patient was taken to Providence Centralia Hospital and then airlifted to a hospital up north, but he wasn’t sure which one.
He had serious injuries, Weinert said.
The sheriff’s office said the victim had put the gun together himself and was using it for the first time.
After shooting four rounds, a friend of his was getting ready to fire it. When the bolt would not close, the gun’s owner knelt next to it not realizing the firing pin had not retracted on the previous shot, according to the sheriff’s office.
It happened when he forced the bolt closed.
“You’re talking about a bullet casing that is several inches long and you have all that pressure in there,” detective Sgt. Dusty Breen said.
A 50 caliber rifle is about as big as an ordinary person can legally possess and use, according to Breen.
The lower portion of the gun is a AR15-style and the upper portion manufactured by Bohica, Breen said.
The National Rifle Association describes 50 caliber rifles as among the most expensive made and primarily used by long-range target shooting experts.
Point Roberts is a small piece of Whatcom County on a peninsula accessed only by water or through Canada.
Nearby neighbor Dick Teitzel said it’s only the second accident he can recall at the make-shift range he and friends built some 30 years ago.
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter