OK, I’m not a gun nut. Actually, I’ve never shot or handled a gun. Furthermore, I can’t really remember having actually seeing a gun aside from possibly an old musket in a museum or something. Nor do I have any desire to do any of these things. Nevertheless, I’m still interested.
The question is, How do guns work? Now, before you direct me to some links to howstuffworks.com, I’m looking for some practical information.
How to you eject the magazine from the gun. For example, on a pistol, is there a button you press that releases a catch and it just slides out or do you have to pull is out.
What is the little slidey-thingy that seems to cock the gun. On the semiautomatic pistols, its like the whole top half of the gun that slides. I guess this loads a bullet in the chamber, but what is the point. The gun won’t fire without it? How would you go about unchambering the bullet?
How is the above thing differ from the old style revolvers where as I understand it, cocking the gun I guess makes is easier to pull the trigger?
What other things are necessary to shoot a gun? I know about the safetly catch, are there any other buttons or switches. I’m sure it depends what kind of gun (pistol/rifle).
It all boils down to this–one of my long time curiosities. I’m thinking of something like from an action movie: I’m being chased by the bad-guys. Suddenly I find some type of gun on the ground. It’s unloaded or unprepared, but all the necessary things are present (ammo etc.) Would I, being some Joe Shmoe, be able to fire the thing? I mean could I figure out which buttons to press or how to reload the thing? I know accuracy with a gun takes lots of practice, but could I conceivable just figure it out on the fly?
I’ve played a lot of video games and thats where my info comes from. In Counter-strike, (I guess its realistic) when you use a M4 rifle, he pulls the magazine out, shoves a new one in, hits the bottom of it with his palm, pulls the slider-thing and then taps something else. And booom! Shooting?
Is this too simplistic?
Oof. I can’t tell you much about most handguns, but I know all about the M16A2.
I won’t bore you with muzzle velocity, weight, or range; I’ll just run you through the basic operating steps. Maybe that’ll help you. (This also, I believe, applies to the M4 and M16A1).
Okay, you have the rifle in your hands. You reach into your LBV (or pocket, or whatever) and grab a magazine, assuming that it’s already been loaded with 5.56 ammunition. The ditty I was taught for this was “Look, Push, Pull, Secure.” You look at the magazine to make sure there are rounds in it, you push it into the magazine well, pull on it to make sure it’s secured and won’t fall out.
There was also a ditty for preparing to fire the M16: Slingshot, brass check, tap forward assit, sweep sights, check sights, weapon on safe, muzzle elevated. Most of that shit goes right out the window in combat, but it’s still good to know for the ranges you practice on.
Running through the steps:
Slingshot: Once the magazine is in, you pull the charging handle (your slidey-thingy on a rifle) all the way to the rear and let it snap back, which chambers a round.
Brass check: You pull the charging handle back just a little bit to look into the chamber and make sure a round is property seated. Your ejection port cover will be open.
Tap forward assist: Essentially worthless. Just makes sure the round is in securely.
Sweep sights: makes sure that the day sight is up in the rear sight aperture.
Check sights: Verifying the sights.
Weapon on Safe, Muzzle Elevated: Standard range rules.
Set the weapon to single shot, aim downrange (proper sighting is a whole different issue, and entire books have been written about this, so I won’t get into it) and fire.
But wait! The gun jams. Oh no!
You pull another ditty: Tap, rack, bang. You tap the magazine into the magazine well, pull the charging handle back, and attempt to shoot. If this fails (which it will; I’m not too very impressed with the quality of M-16’s), well, you’re assed out. Fix some bayonets and get charging.
To eject the magazine, there’s a little button on the side of the well. You press it and pull the magazine out.
Great! Thanks for the info. Perhaps someone could give me some info about pistols and perhaps answer some of the other items (unchambering a bullet etc.)
How to you eject the magazine from the gun. For example, on a pistol, is there a button you press that releases a catch and it just slides out or do you have to pull is out.
Most handguns have a button that releases the magazine. It can usually be reached with the thumb and is near the trigger.
What is the little slidey-thingy that seems to cock the gun. On the semiautomatic pistols, its like the whole top half of the gun that slides. I guess this loads a bullet in the chamber, but what is the point. The gun won’t fire without it? How would you go about unchambering the bullet?
the slidey-thingy is called the slide, it is used to chamber rounds. It can also be used to cock guns that are hammer less (like the Glock and Sig in counterstrike). You have to pretty much rack a gun to chamber a round. The action of racking is the same as the semi-auto action that is cause by firing a gun. Without racking a bullet is never in the chamber so the gun can not be shot. To unchamber a bullet you would drop the magazine and “rack” slide. *
How is the above thing differ from the old style revolvers where as I understand it, cocking the gun I guess makes is easier to pull the trigger?
Some old style revolvers were single action only. That means with pull of the trigger you would release the hammer and fire the round. So you had to cock the revolver manually. There are two types of guns today, double action or single/double action. In single action mode the hammer goes back to the cocked position or can be cocked manually. In a double action you cock and shoot all with the trigger pull… this is more or less *
What other things are necessary to shoot a gun? I know about the safetly catch, are there any other buttons or switches. I’m sure it depends what kind of gun (pistol/rifle).
Make sure there is a round in the chamber. Check saftey, some guns have saftey that will not allow you to shoot unless you are holding the gun. All these are pretty obvious. Oh, make sure you know where the slide realese is so when you change clips you can release the slide. This can also be accomplished by pulling back on the slide. Rifles are diffrent in the way they look so the mechanisim may be harder to lockate and oparate.
It all boils down to this–one of my long time curiosities. I’m thinking of something like from an action movie: I’m being chased by the bad-guys. Suddenly I find some type of gun on the ground. It’s unloaded or unprepared, but all the necessary things are present (ammo etc.) Would I, being some Joe Shmoe, be able to fire the thing? I mean could I figure out which buttons to press or how to reload the thing? I know accuracy with a gun takes lots of practice, but could I conceivable just figure it out on the fly?
Most likely yes, but if time is a pinch you would be in trouble and would most likely miss him anyway *
I’ve played a lot of video games and thats where my info comes from. In Counter-strike, (I guess its realistic) when you use a M4 rifle, he pulls the magazine out, shoves a new one in, hits the bottom of it with his palm, pulls the slider-thing and then taps something else. And booom! Shooting?
Is this too simplistic?
Counter-strike is pretty accurate more or less, the M4 reload is nearly impossible to be done that way but the motions are right. It is very simple to shoot a gun, but to shoot it accurately isn’t. *
You are asking about several types of guns, mainly semiautomatic pistols. Not all guns work the same.
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Most magazine fed pistols have a magazine release button on the left side of the rear part of the trigger guard. Many European pistols have the relaease at the lower rear part of the grip as a side button or a hook underneath. In most cases the magazine should drop free but this isn’t always the case.
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The slide does several things. When a cartidge fires it pushes the bullet forward through the barrel and pushes rearward on the slide or bolt. The slide may have a mechanical locking mechanism that delays how quickly it moves but in almost all cases has a spring that pushes it forward.
As the slide travels back it pulls the empty case from the barrl with a hook shaped extractor. The case contacts a fixed ejector opposite the extractor which helps kick the case out of the ejecttion port.
The slide cocks the hammer or striker that will fire the next round. On some cases the hammer does will never stay cocked but such double action only pistols are less common. On typical double action semi autos the hammer may or may not stay cocked depending on the position of the safety selector.
When the slide is all the way back spring pressure drives it forward. It pushes the round from the top of the magazine into the barrel.
The correct procedure for unloading a sem-auto pistol is as follows:
remove the magazine
While holding the grip with your finger out of the trigger guard pull the slide all the way back with your other hand. The chambered round will eject.
(optional) you may use your thumb to raise the slide release so the slide does not go forward. This will leave the chamber open so you can see the gun is not currently loaded.
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There are lots of different kinds of revolvers but they can be grouped into single action, double action and double action only. A single action pistol requires the hammer to be manually cocked before firing. Cocking the hammer rotates the cylinder so the next round is lined with the barrel. A double action pistol can operate as a single action or it will cock the hammer as the trigger is pulled. This requires more pressure on the trigger than single action operation. A double action only pistol has no provision for cocking the hammer manually. The hammer may have no spur to grip it by or may be concealed within the frame.
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Not all weapons have a “safety catch.” Some weapons have manual safeties and some have purely passive safety mechanisms while some have none to speak of. Correct operation is specific to the type of weapon
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Maybe, maybe not. If you picked up a glock pistol, a common police weapon, and it was loaded and a round chambered you would only need to pull the trigger. Other types of pistols may have manual safety mechanisms that have to be operated before it will fire.
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Actually that is the slowest way to operaate an M-16 style weapon like the M4. I have a semi-auto M4 replica but the operation is the same. After the last round in the magazine is fired the bolt is locked open. The shooter drops the magazine with his trigger finger, pressing a button above the trigger on the right side. After inserting the new magazine the shooter must only depress a small lever on the left side of the reciever to allow the bolt to slide home and chamber a round. It’s much faster and actually more reliable than operating the charging handle, the “slider thing,” on top of the rear part of the reciever. Not all weapons operate that way. The H&K MP5 does not hold the bolt open on firing the last round. The best mode of operation is to open and lock the bolt open with the handle at the front of the weapon while dropping the magazine. Insert the new magazine then slap the handle so the bolt slams closed. Attempting to insert the magazine with the bolt closed is extremely difficult.
Most pistol magazines have a magazine release button that is located on the left side of the pistol, within thumb reach of most right handed shooters. When depressed, some magazines will fall right out, some you must pull out. NOTE: Dropping the magazine does not mean the weapon is NOT loaded, as a round could be in the chamber, and depending on the make/model, you MAY be able to discharge the weapon without a magazine in place.
It is called the slide on most semi-auto pistols. With the slide back (or open) if you insert a loaded magazine into the pistol and release the slide stop, it will slide forward and load a round into the chamber. You are now COCKED and ready to fire a round in most semi-auto pistols. When you squeeze the trigger and the weapon discharges a round down range, the slide is actuated by a mechanical or residual gases from the explosion, causing the slide to go rearward, ejecting the spent hull casing. The spring in the magazine pushes a new round towards the chamber, and the slide goes forward, loading the new round into the chamber ready to fire. This happens in the blink of an eye. If you do not have a round in the chamber and insert a loaded magazine, in order for the weapon to fire you must insert a round into the chamber via the slide mechanism. Most semi-auto pistols will not fire without a round in the chamber. To unload a round, drop the magazine, then pull the slide rearward which will eject the cartridge.
1. How to you eject the magazine from the gun. For example, on a pistol, is there a button you press that releases a catch and it just slides out or do you have to pull is out.
Yes, there’s a release button for the catch that retains the magazine. Unless that catch is broken, you can’t simply pull the mag out–if you could, it’s possible it could fall out.
2. What is the little slidey-thingy that seems to cock the gun. On the semiautomatic pistols, its like the whole top half of the gun that slides. I guess this loads a bullet in the chamber, but what is the point. The gun won’t fire without it? How would you go about unchambering the bullet?
It’s called the slide. Its motion ejects the spent casing from the chamber, loads the next cartridge into the chamber, and cocks the hammer. It moves in reaction to the firing of the bullet. It can also be moved by hand, which is what you would do to eject an unfired cartridge (with the magazine out or empty if you want the chamber to be empty).
3. How is the above thing differ from the old style revolvers where as I understand it, cocking the gun I guess makes is easier to pull the trigger?
In a revolver, all cartridges are chambered upon loading. The chamber assembly revolves to allow each in turn to be in firing position. In a double-action revolver, pulling the trigger first cocks then releases the hammer. If you have already cocked the hammer, you don’t have to do that amount of work with the trigger, so it’s easier to pull. In a single-action revolver, the trigger only releases the hammer, you have no choice but to cock the hammer by pulling back.
One big difference is in reloading. With a semi-automatic (as well as full automatic), if you have another previously loaded magazine at hand, reloading is a very quick process of removing one magazine and installing another. Although there are devices to rapidly eject spent casings and load fresh cartridges into revolvers, it’s still a more involved process and can’t be done as quickly and easily as replacing a magazine.
4. What other things are necessary to shoot a gun? I know about the safetly catch, are there any other buttons or switches. I’m sure it depends what kind of gun (pistol/rifle).
Some revolvers have a hammer safety, in which the hammer is pulled partway back to a half-cocked position. It might then have to be either fully cocked or released in order to fire. I’m not aware of other non-obvious items, but I’m not a gun expert.
<b>Boobka</b> is right about that last part. I have no experience with handguns, but rifles, unless you know the basic fundamentals of marksmanship, can be frusturating.
If you were all all curious (and because I feel like writing verbose answers today):
For a rifle, you need three major fundamentals: aim, breath control, and trigger control.
Aiming: you need proper sight alignment. You need to have center mass with your front sight post and have the fsp in the middle of the rear sight aperature.
Breath control: very important. Your breathing can fluxuate the rifle’s point of impact all over the place. In short, take a deep breath, release half of it, and fire.
Trigger control: Don’t just pull the trigger and let go; you have to follow through, pulling it tight against your shoulder. Just snapping off a round is gauranteed to make it go anywhere.
There are a number of secondary funadmentals, like stock weld (where your cheek rests on the stock); having a firing sling (wrapping the sling around your arm for better support), proper stock seating (how the stock rests against your shoulder), and bone on bone contact (keeping muscles and pulse from getting in the way).
Correct. The magazine has a button release. I should also pont out the the Hollywood-style practice of slapping the magazine in hard is strongly discouraged among serious gun and rifle users. Apply some force to make sure its locked, but that big full-arm schwack! is complete hooey.
In any repeating firearm (i.e. not a revolver) the cartridge (consisting of a brass casing, a powder charge and a lead bullet) has be loaded into position. When the first round is loaded (or chambered) the shooter has to pull a cocking handle (for a rifle) or a slide (for an automatic handgun) back. The magazine has a spring in the bottom, so the cartridges are pushed upward. In automatic weapons, some of the force of the explosion is redirected so the slide get pushed backward, the now-empty shell casing is ejected, and the next round can pop into the chamber. The magazine has a little catch built into it so when the last round is fired, the slide gets pushed back and stays. In movies, you’ll see a gun that is emptied stop with the slide locked back. The shooter must then remove the magazine, insert a full one, press the release, and the slide will move forward, chambering the first round.
If there is a round already in the chamber, pulling back the slide manually will eject that round, but it will also load the next round from the magazine. If you need to unload a gun, remove the magazine and pull the slide back two or three times to eject any chambered cartridge. The Hollywood bullshit of a bad guy cocking a gun for dramatic effect usually makes no sense, especially when he does it two or three times in one scene. All he’s doing is wasting perfectly good cartridges. Shotguns are the most misused. Although for most models, the shooter has to pull the slide back after each round, one often sees bad guys cocking them for effect even if they haven’t fired at all.
In a single action revolver, the hammer has to be pulled back until it locks. A light squeeze of the trigger will then fire the bullet. A double-action revolver combines these steps and a pull of the trigger will cause the hammer to rise and fall. However, this affects accuracy since the amount of force one needs to apply to the trigger is much greater. Even in double-action pistols, you’ll get better accuracy if you cock the hammer and then use a gentle trigger-squeeze to release it (i.e. treat it as single-action). Double-action means you can get all six rounds (or five, or eight) off faster with rapid trigger-pulls, but if they all miss, what’s the point?
In any event, the pulling back of the hammer causes the cylinder to rotate, bringing the next bullet into play. Revolvers are simpler devices than automatics, and far less likely to jam. They are also slower to reload, so there;s a trade-off you’d have to consider.
If you go to a well-regulated range, they’ll require you wear earplugs or headphone-like ear defenders. They may want you to wear safety goggles as well. The mechanical operation of firearms is overall pretty simple. There will typically be only four or five controls; trigger, cocking handle/slide, forward assist, magazine release, safety etc.
Sure. Whether or not you’ll be able to fire accurately after running at full speed is open to debate. Exactly how to operate the weapon depnds on what type it is, but for a typical autmoatic, you’ll have to grip the top of the gun and yank it (the slide) back hard and release it. The safety switch (if there is one: some handguns don’t use them) should be somewhere near the back of the weapon above the grip. If the bad guy says “your safety’s on,” don’t be stupid and look at it, as this will give him a chance to jump you. Keep at least ten feet away from him at all times. I personally recommend putting one slug in him (aim for his torso) as a warning.
And for God’s sake, don’t hold an automatic sideways. Some people think this looks cool, but it actually looks like an idiot who doesn’t know anything about guns. In addition to blowing your accuracy, you might get hit in the face with the empty shell casings.
Nah, that’s pretty much how it works. A more realistic game is America’s Army which lets players run around with M16s and AK47s. They jam a LOT, especially the M16, usually at the worse possible time.
The “slider-thing” is the cocking handle. The “something else” is almost certainly a control known as a Forward Assist, which basically nudges the bolt forward a few millimeters, just in case the round didn’t load completely. The assist is just a minor corrective device. It’s a good habit to nudge it after loading a new magazine.
Another thing: some pistol safeties are up=safe, down=fire and some are the opposite. Sometimes you can tell which is which because in fire mode you can see a red dot next to the lever.
The tug or thump on the magazine to make sure its seated is mostly an M-16/AR-15/M4 thing. They do need this, but most military style rifles don’t. AK-47 mags may be a little slower to insert since you have to insert them front edge first and rock them in, but once the latch clicks you’re sure it’s in right.
I should point out that when you are holding a badguy at gunpoint with an unfamiliar weapon and he says “the safety’s on”…don’t take the gun off him and stare at your weapon so he can get the drop on you. Simply shoot him in the leg. If the weapon doesn’t fire, quickly switch the safety to the other setting.
Sorry to be such a nit-pick here, but the operative word is squeeze, not “pull.”
While focusing on the front site, and with the front site “on-target,” slowly start squeezing the trigger. If the site goes off-target, stop squeezing but do not allow the trigger to return forward; simply stop squeezing and “hold” the trigger stationary. Resume squeezing when the site is on-target again. Repeat this process until the gun fires. All you have to keep in mind is that you should be squeezing when the site is on target, and you should not be squeezing when the site is off-target. This is called trigger control.
Bad advice. For maximum reliability you should first aim for the body’s energy center (heart/lung shot). If that doesn’t work (he’s high on PCP, for example) you should aim for the head.
msmith537: I should point out that when you are holding a badguy at gunpoint with an unfamiliar weapon and he says “the safety’s on”…don’t take the gun off him and stare at your weapon so he can get the drop on you. Simply shoot him in the leg. If the weapon doesn’t fire, quickly switch the safety to the other setting.
Crafter_Man: Bad advice. For maximum reliability you should first aim for the body’s energy center (heart/lung shot). If that doesn’t work (he’s high on PCP, for example) you should aim for the head.
Well, yes, the heart or head if you need to decisively stop him. But I understood msmith’s suggestion to be a way to check the safety, and if it’s actually off to punish the jerk for lying in an attempt to distract you. If you’ve got someone covered, you don’t need to shoot his heart just for telling you the safety’s on.
It worth pointing out that unless you are experienced with handling and shooting guns you may well miss if you aim for the leg (at which point you could be in serious trouble), where as the central body mass is a much larger target to aim for.
Also, shooting someone in the leg isn’t always “non-deadly force”. It is possible to sever an artery in the leg, potentially causeing massive haemorrhaging.
Huh? “Punishing” someone by shooting them in the leg?!?! WTF??
Protecting your life w/ a weapon is serious business, Gary T. You should never fire warning shots and you should never fire “mercy” shots. Furthermore, the goal of all shots is to “decisive stop him.”
You shoot to stop the threat. Period. And the most reliable “first shot” is to the body’s energy center (heart/lung).
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