A few questions about pistols, probably for any of our gun-toting American cousins... 1) Would you keep a bullet in the barrel (sorry, chamber) as well as the clip? 2) if you did, how would you remove it, or check it was there?
1. Do you mean in the chamber? That would depend on how likely you are to fire it and how quickly or unexpectedly you anticipate the necessity of firing it to be. And whether the model has a safety or not. My cop friends always have a round chambered... I can tell you that much. 2. Look down the barrel and see if there's a bullet there or rack the slide partially back to see if there's a bullet in the chamber. I'm not terribly sure of the second answer when it comes to different weapons. My shooting experience is limited. I might be the only person where I live that doesn't own a gun (or bring it to the grocery store for that matter!)...
No. Otherwise you'd never be able to remove the bullet from the chamber without firing it. But I'm not an expert. There may be certain models where the mechanics are different.
I kind of assumed you would have to turn it upside down and let gravity do the job, rather than the bullet just popping into the air like it's spring loaded?
My post here is useless, but I remember being impressed, in the movie Tremors, by what I perceived as Bert's habitual level of gun safety. He gave an empty gun to the obnoxious teenager to give him the courage to run (without telling the teenager it was empty, of course). Even though Bert knew the gun was empty, when the angry teenager gave it back perhaps three minutes later, Bert nevertheless re-checked it before he tucked it into the back of his pants. Yeah, I don't know what my point is--aside from the fact that I'm trying to remember exactly what motions Bert took to check. But I think that was a revolver. Edited for useless correction: apparently I mean Burt.
You an remove the bullet on most weapons from the chamber (exception being muzzle loads, but even then you might be able to rattle it out). Depends on profession as well, when keeping a round chambered. Military and police don't usually keep a bullet chambered, unless in active combat situations. Having a weapon ready with a full magazine (or clip depending on when your story takes place), will be present in the weapon. Though in a criminal/mob they may have a fully loaded and chambered round. Revolvers however are always chambered, just as are single shot and bolt action single shot. To un-chamber a round in a typical pistol, you have to pull the slide after dropping the magazine to ensure a fresh round is not chambered. Also you have to catch the extracted bullet from a pistol/rifle, as it will be ejected similar to a spent one. On rare occasion the bullet will not be ejected (similar to a feed jam), the bullet must be removed manually. So unless you're looking for a reason for a civilian to have a fully loaded and chambered weapon at the ready. the answers are clear. Know that most pistols have magazines and not clips.
No, never. I always unload my weapons fully. Clip is next to the gun, not in it, and the chamber is always clear. I've always been told to do that. If you put a bullet in a fire (like your house burning down) it'll go off, if it's in a barrel, it'll fire with full force. There is a slide on the top of the gun usually. Make sure the safety is on, then slide it back. If there is a round in the chamber, it will be sitting right on top. If you pull the slide back hard, it should pop out, but if you are just sliding it back slowly, it will stay put, but it's not really held there, turning the gun upside down will cause it to fall out. Rifles and shotguns can also hold rounds in their chambers. How it works depends on if it's bolt-action, pump-action... On a .30-06, you can pull the bolt back and access the chamber.
Hi, former (non-combat) Marine, former police dispatcher, and recovering gun nut here. But it is spring loaded, basically. There's a thing called the extractor that grips the base of the cartridge. When the slide (or bolt) pulls back, that pulls the empty cartridge (if the weapon has been fired) or full cartridge and bullet (if you're just unloading the weapon) back out of the chamber where it bangs against the ejector. That pops the cartridge out of the ejection port. If you pull the slide back partially, you look into the ejection port and see if there's a round in the chamber, then let the slide go back into battery again. I seem to recall Steven Seagal doing this in a number of his movies. I don't know who this guy is, but he shows that technique in this video. Also worth noting is that the Glock, along with some of the other more modern pistols, has a loaded chamber indicator, basically a tiny button that pops up on the top or side of the weapon if there's a round in the chamber: Cops always have a round chambered, but they keep their pistols on safe (if the model they're using has an external safety) or de-cocked, which puts the weapon into single action mode (requiring a long, stiff pull on the trigger to cock and then fire the gun) for the first shot. It takes two hands to work the slide on a semiautomatic pistol, and you don't want to have an empty chamber if your other hand is holding a flashlight or a struggling suspect. Here's a good short class on your question:
Whoops, also, here's how to clear a revolver, which, as @Cave Troll mentioned, always has a round in the chamber if it's loaded:
Thanks all, I now feel like I have enough information to accidentally shoot my hunting partner in the face. On the magazine/ clip issue, people regularly interchange the two don't they (whether correctly or otherwise)?
Y Yes they do. It's one of those things that drive some gun people batshit, and others really don't care. I tend to be persnickety, but on this issue, I fall into the second camp.
It often depends on the familiarity with guns on the part of the speaker, in the same way that no one who knows anything about firearms ever uses the phrase, 'packing heat'. The round in the chamber question may also depend on the gun. I carry a 1911-style handgun, and properly carry it in what's known as 'condition one': round chambered, hammer cocked, safeties on. A gun without a round chambered makes a dandy paperweight.
Ain't it great how a hundred and seven year old design is still a modern pistol? Not the most modern, but it's one of two that I own (Broomhandle Mauser is the other), and there's no question which one stood the test of time better.
Presumably a number of revolvers are still as old or older designs. Another thing that Holywood and some fiction writers often get wrong - you can't effectively silence a revolver (excepting that weird thing made for west german special forces, the nagant 1895 and a few other specialist types), so if you want your protag to have a silenced weapon it needs to be an automatic
After I got to know gun owners, I realized something like that is just normal everyday behavior for them. You never "know" if it's empty. You might also never "know" if there's a round in the barrel when there should be. So you check even if it seems paranoid to the outsider. And keep your finger off the trigger. Also, keep your finger off the trigger. On a sidenote, I was watching Fauda on Netflix and god damn, all that gun handling looked really realistic from what I could tell. So turns out the guys who created the show used to do the very job the characters in the show do, so I guess no wonder.
I've trained my muscle memory so thoroughly that I'd probably be useless now if I was in a shooting situation. First thing I do every time, even if I personally have just field-stripped, cleaned, reassembled, and set the gun down for a moment is to pop the magazine (if applicable) and open the bolt/slide to check that the chamber is empty. It would take a conscious effort not to.
25 years in the Navy, rifle and pistol expert medal. I keep my Walther P38 auto in a box, with a loaded 9mm magazine, but not inserted, and my wife keeps her Taurus .357 loaded, but with one empty chamber under the barrel. If there were, for example, riots, or I was anticipating some kind of trouble, I would take them to a higher state of readiness. But day to day, in my neighborhood, there is not a need, and it doesn't take but a second to load and chamber a round. When deer hunting, I load the shotgun with three rounds, and chamber one when I leave the house. When I come back from the field, I eject all cartridges before bringing the weapon inside, and put them on the nightstand next to the (positively for sure) unloaded shotgun. I had the awful experience 35 years ago watching my two year old son come around the corner in my neighbor's house lugging her fully loaded .357, giggling as I walked up to take it away from him.
random point about this - i thought gun ownership was really tightly controlled in Japan, is that not the case ?
It is, I'm an American expat. No guns here for me, my collection is back home, and I get to shoot about once every two or three years.. My skills are nonexistent these days
i feel your pain - i'm British and pistol ownership is nearly impossible here ... i regularly shoot with rifles and shotguns but my pistol shooting these days is limited to air and soft air