My friend and business partner bought a new-in-box Beretta 92FS that’s been in storage for over ten years. (He’s a little disappointed that his has the safety stamps and MADE IN THE U.S.A. on it, while my earlier one lacks the ‘read the manual’ safety notice and says MADE IN ITALY. ) He’s determined to make it fire blanks so we can use it in the film. He did this before with another Beretta, putting a set screw down the bore. It didn’t cycle.
He was reading a message board where someone was asking how to convert a firearm into a blank-firing firearm. (Incidentally, I’ve used ‘Holywood-style’ blank firing adaptors in my AR-15s. It’s a little top-hat thing with a hole through it that fits between the barrel and the flash supressor.) The guy on the message board was getting a bunch of non-answers. People were being evasive. Finally he posted something like, ‘I hate it when I ask a question and prople come in not giving answers.’ So an armorer posted that a set screw with a hole through it goes into the breech-end – just like my friend thought.
So today he came over with some taps and tapped the chamber-end. Tapping was very easy. Next comes the set screw. He tried to drill through it, but it’s tough. We went to the hardware store and bought a set of Dewald titanium bits. No joy. My cheapo drill runs at only one speed, and my cordless drill keeps running out of juice. He’s frustrated because he only has about ¼-inch left to drill.
So he decided to try a blank without having a hole through the set screw. There was a faint pop, but the slide didn’t move. When he went to eject the round, the slide didn’t move. We surmised that the unrelieved pressure forced the case walls fast against the chamber walls. It also blew out the primer. Obviously, there has to be a hole in the set screw so that the blank will cycle the action. But what size? Originally I thought he should drill a different sized hole in each of the four set screws he has. We just don’t have the drill power to do that. There needs to be a hole big enough so that the case doesn’t stick, but small enough to provide the backpressure to operate the action. I’m guessing a 1/16" hole.
He’s off to shoot a wedding now. Perhaps my drill’s battery will be charged enough to finish the job.
Too bad about doing this to a brand-new Beretta. I’d have bought a spare barrel and used that. But the original barrel doesn’t have any numbers or other markings on it, so I guess it doesn’t matter. All I really care about is that it’s safe. (Well, as safe as a blank-firing gun can be.)
Johnny, do you remember my friend’s advice in the other column about blank firing? Start with too big an aperture then work smaller. If the aperture is too small pressure has nowhere to escape and this could have been much more serious than it was. Blown our primers and ruptured cases can injure the shooter. Please be more careful with how you experiment with weapons. He suggested an 1/8" aperture as some 9mm subguns use this size so I’d start larger than that and work my way smaller
You might also explain to your friend that a recoil operated weapon won’t cycle if you don’t let anything come out of the end of the barrel. Think about this for a second, with the barrel plugged all you are doing is pressurizing a the closed barrel. With no reaction from a projectile or a gas jet there is no reaction to push the breech rearwards so it can unlock from the barrel and cycle.
I think you are both lucky the gun didn’t blow up in your faces. Please don’t clinch your Darwin awards okay.
That was my original idea. Actually, my original idea was to get blank-firing non-guns. But we’ve only found tthree paces that have exactly what we need. One is in the U.S. and only accepts Western Union wire transfers, and it sounds a little hinky. One is in the U.K., and the other is in Hong Kong. There may be trouble with Customs. Nevertheless, we’re attempting to get the ones from Hong Kong.
Thanks for suggesting the 1/8" hole. I’ll suggest that to my friend. FWIW, the AR-15 BFAs were about 1/16". Approximately the same amount of powder in the anemic G.I. blanks as in the full-power Stembridge 9mm blanks I have. But there was plenty of gas available to go all the way down the barrel and back through the gas tube. (Well, usually.) For the first test (which I was apprehensive about) he used a crappy Fiocci blank.
Gods, it would be so much easier (and safer) if we could just buy already-manufactured – and already tested and proven – blank barrels.
Yo, Johnny. Dunno squat about machining gun barrels. Know a bit about being around and being fired directly at with full-load blanks. ( I know you know this, I’m sharin’ for the curious and unawares in the room ).
Regard this as a weapon with lethal force. A full-load blank ( or, partial load for that matter ) has the impact force needed to crush a hole in the side of the skull. Similarly, the projectile force throwing the bits of gunpowder and bits of stuff that are crammed into a cartridge is sufficient to blind you if you catch a faceful of the bits and stuff at close range.
They’re darned cool, they fire like real guns. Just…show due respect if ever you are around a gun that " only has blanks in it, so don’t worry! "
Worry anyway.
Good luck with the project- hope you can bypass importing from overseas. The costs and heartaches- especially with firearms- is a nightmare.
Cartooniverse, who has been shot at with Civil War rifles, .357 pistols and 9mm Glock automatics…all blank loads.
Indeed. There have been deaths caused by blanks. The ones I know about involve a ‘squib round’ – an empty round with a live primer – lodging a bullet in a revolver barrel (revolvers don’t require BFAs) and then having a full-power blank put behind it. It’s just like shooting a live round.
I’m lobbying for very strict rules on-set. I don’t want the actors to have a gun – even in a holster – when we’re not filming. After the take, I want the guns to go directly to me, Pard, or our technical advisor/gun expert/trainer. We have realistic-looking airsoft guns for when the actors just need to carry. Considering the subject matter, there’s not a whole lot of shooting in the film. Of course, no live ammo will be allowed on the set. This will be checked, double-checked, and triple-checked. I don’t want any guns pointed directly at an actor or camera (or camera operator). We can use different angles to accomplish this.
After breaking a few drill bits, we finally got a hole in the set screw. It’s larger than 1/16" but smaller than 1/8". We tried a low-power Fiocci blank and a full-power Stembridge blank and it didn’t cycle. Got a massive flame out the front, though/
A lightened recoil spring didn’t do the trick, nor did a lightened hammer spring. Pard Jerry lightened the hammer spring some more, but we didn’t fire any more blanks. After firing six, we decided it would be better to conduct further tests at the studio – in its non-residential neighbourhood and with its thicker walls.
We want to get it to work with the cheap blanks. Stembridge blanks go for something like $75 for 50.
Oh, that’s easy. That would be the Mariette 18-shot pistol, of course.
Johnny, I did an interior sequence where I was shot at from about 6 feet away. Production purchased some 1" thick Plexiglas and we shot from behind that, draped entirely in the ever-present Duvateen to eliminate reflections back into the lens. It was loud even with proper ear gear, but the footage was unnerving and realistic. Nobody was there but myself and my focus puller. It only took a few takes, and after a few there were so many pockmarks in the Plexiglas anyway that we couldn’t get any more takes off.
You are wise, to keep the real blank firing weapons out of the hands of the actors until the last possible moment. I admire your safety ethic.
You do know that if you are shooting film and you see the flame burst from the barrel as you are filming, that the film saw nothing of it, right? Use videoplayback to insure that during the moments when the gun is being fired, little to no flash is shown on the playback tape.
Actually a friend and I made a film on super-8 back in the '80s. I had an FN-FAL and a few surplus .308 blanks. The actor comes through the trees and sees his friend in danger by a stalking enemy. He shouts his friend’s name and fires the FAL. While we had BFAs for the AR-15s, we didn’t have one for the FAL so it wouldn’t cycle. I positioned the camera at a safe distance, and off-axis from the muzzle. Got a great flash that made a nice star pattern because of the flash supressor. I’ve mentioned this film before. It’s the one that my friend had in his backpack when it was stolen.
Pard Jerry was ‘goofing around’ with the actor/co-writer for the current project a few weeks ago. He had the guy stalking round the studio with an airsoft SIG. He PhotoShopped a very simple muzzle blast and lightened one frame and added sound f/x. It was very convincing.
Turns out we didn’t need to lighten the springs. Indeed, the hammer spring is now too light. Oh, well. They’re cheap. Instead… well, let’s just say that some hard bits needed to meet Mr. Grindingwheel. (Oh, the pain!)
We took the Beretta to the range to test it, installing a full-strength recoil spring. The blanks feed perfectly, the slide moves, the spent blank is ejected, and the next blank takes its place. But the 1/8" hole is too small. Just for kicks, our first try was without the set screw. (I thought the other mods might be enough.) Didn’t work. So we put our BFA in. Unfortunately the parts are getting slammed. A larger hole is in order.
Anyway, it works and only needs a bit of fine tuning. And lots of testing, disassembly and inspection, more testing, more disassembly and inspection… Safety, safety, and more safety.
) He’s determined to make it fire blanks so we can use it in the film. He did this before with another Beretta, putting a set screw down the bore. It didn’t cycle.
