A 21-year-old man shot himself in the chest during a suicide attempt. He had been sitting in a bistro with his friends when his girlfriend broke up with him by phone. He became intoxicated, said goodbye to his friends and went to the restrooms in the back of the bistro. After a while, he tumbled back out into the dining area and told his friends that he had shot himself. Then he collapsed. Resuscitation measures were initially successful and he was taken to hospital, however, he did not regain consciousness and died very soon after admission. An automatic pistol (Fabrique Nationale d’Armes de Guerre Herstal, Belgium; model: 1922; Browning’s patent depose), the projectile (cal. 7.56), and smaller parts of the gun were later found in the restrooms. Medicolegal autopsy showed that the man had shot himself through his clothes into the thorax. Upon firing the automatic pistol, the recoil spring from within the firearm had been hit by the bullet and was pulled through the entry point into the thoracic cavity, where it was protruding from the deceased’s chest (Fig. 1). The recoil spring had pierced the lung tissue, which was wrapped around the coiled end (Fig. 2). The projectile had destroyed the 3rd left rib, pierced the pericardium, and then opened the left ventricle (Fig. 3). In addition, the bullet had travelled through the left side of the diaphragm, the fundus of the stomach, the upper pole of the spleen, and again through the diaphragm into the left chest cavity where it had pierced the upper and lower lobe of the left lung (Fig. 4). The projectile then became lodged in the left latissimus dorsi muscle, where it was discovered at autopsy. 1.560 ml of blood was extracted from the left thoracic cavity, and 450 ml of bloody fluid was extracted from the right thoracic cavity. The recoil spring was remarkably twisted when it was removed from the chest. The tip of the projectile showed indentations matching the front end of the spring that was protruding from the deceased’s chest, thus demonstrating that the bullet had caught the spring as it was fired from the barrel (Fig. 5). The cause of death was a gunshot wound to the thorax. The manner of death was suicide.