An accidental discharge with a 308 Steyr Scout was fired in the midst of Jeff Cooper's seminar on the Scout rifle concept at the Palace Station casino in Los Vegas during the recent Soldier Of Fortune convention.
"It was loud," said a witness "I mean really loud-- a 308 in a small room like that".
According to witnesses, Cooper had concluded his presentation and quite a few attendees were crowded around the podium to ask questions and examine on actual Steyr Scout Cooper's personal rifle that he had brought to display. The rifle was unloaded, however, there was a loaded magazine in the rifles stock A distinctive feature of Cooper's Scout concept is spare ammo in the butt stock.
One attendee withdrew the spare magazine and, not realizing it was loaded, inserted it in the rifle's action, according to witnesses. He then closed the bolt chambering a round and decided to test the trigger pull.
The errant round zipped right through the false ceiling and lodged in a desk in the casino's administrative office, which was unoccupied at the time.
"We got the hell out of there when we saw hotel security running down the hall," said the witnesses. "We don't know what happened after that".
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COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group
