Racking The Slide.

F

FUD

Moderator
Being away from home on a business trip, I've been watching a lot of bad (and some good) movies on TV. Has anyone ever noticed that characters in movies are constantly racking the slide on a pistol but no bullets are ever ejected ... Hero walks into a dark area with gun in hand and slowly looking around for the danger. Then a noise is heard and our hero racks the slide. No bullet is ejected which implies that the entire time our hero didn't have a bullet in the chamber and would not have been able to shoot if somebody popped up somewhere. I've been seeing this stuff constantly. Don't movie makers realize how stupid this is?
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[This message has been edited by FUD (edited March 14, 2000).]
 
I can only hope that the BG's that follow the actions of movie BG's follow this trend also.

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Ne Conjuge Nobiscum
"If there be treachery, let there be jehad!"
 
Sure I've noticed. If the gun was empty, what the heck were they doing getting so close to the danger zone with an empty weapon. I suppose it's all for the same reason why a lot of TV cops have shoulder holsters. Good for the camera. You can show the upper body and still get the gun in the picture.

Notice on Saving Pvt. Ryan the scenes where the sniper was shooting from the tower with the Springfield. The Unertl scope was probably used because it's longer and you can see part of the scope in the shot. The original M81/M82 scope which was on the rifle during the Normandy landings is too short to show up in the tower sequence. I guess the director wanted the viewer to know that a sniper was at work.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by FUD:
Has anyone ever noticed that characters in movies are constantly racking the slide on a pistol but no bullets are ever ejected ... [/quote]


Bullets do NOT eject from a pistol unless there is a round in the chamber and the trigger is pulled.

A round consists of cartridge brass, gunpowder and a bullet (projectile).

Racking the slide on a pistol carried chamber empty (no round in the chamber) would not eject anything.

Racking the slide on a pistol with a round in the chamber would result in a round being ejected (aka cartridge), not a bullet.



[This message has been edited by dvc (edited March 15, 2000).]
 
Here's a good Hollywood gaffe: Hero offscreen, camera on BG doing dastardly deed. We hear sound of racking slide, BG stops dastardly deed, hands go up.

Camera now on Hero who has levelled his...are you ready? His REVOLVER at the BG.

HIS REVOLVER!!!
 
John, that sound was... uh... the sound of the hero flicking his wheelgun closed, yeah, that's it. ;)

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"If your determination is fixed, I do not counsel you to despair. Few things are impossible to diligence and skill. Great works are performed not by strength, but perseverance."
-- Samuel Johnson
 
I also noticed how some actors get about 10 to 15 shots out of a revolver with out reloading. I even saw one show where the guy shot 7 times with a double barreled shotgun without reloading. Ow well at least they have the actor holding onto the right end of the thing. The other thing that bugs me is how some guy or girl (who of course has never fired a gun in there life) picks up some dead bad guy's pistol shoots another bad guy off a roof 150 yards away. Thats showbiz!
 
its also amazing how every gun the people in movies get is broken.... for some reason the hammer always seems to be down even right after they shoot a round. this even seems to happen with SA guns. now why would anyone walk around lookin for BGs with the hammer down on a 1911. the good guy would have to cock the hammer before he could shoot (which he manages to do in 1/1000th of a second before he shoots). well whats it matter to the good guy anyway if he doesn't even have a gun since his leather coat or pack of gum in his pocket always seem to catch the bullet before it hits him.
 
I tell you what....the thing that kills me is when someone on TV shoots someone with a SA, lets say maybe two/three rounds, the slide always locks to the rear when they are done firing.....like all they had when they began firing was 2-3 rounds. I guess they think that we are all naive and clueless...
don't get me started!!!

JJC
 
FWIW, many of the "guns" used on TV and in the movies are dummies. Some use acetylene or propane to make the flash, with the sound added to the sound track during editing. Some operating dummies, like those seen advertised in the gunzines, are used. Others are plastic or rubber dummies. (The female police officer on the old "Chips" carried a rubber dummy gun; she refused to even touch a real gun.)

The main reason for conversion from blank-firing guns is the insurance problem. After some real shootings with blanks (yes, a blank can kill) or with live ammo that was brought onto the set, insurance companies have insisted on better safety measures. One of these, obviously, is to ban from the set all guns that can actually fire ammunition of any kind.

Jim
 
I like when cops rush into room with Glocks out and the sounds of weapons being cocked right before they yell "FREEZE!!!!!!!!!" THink it happened in the Matrix, then again alot happened in that movie......
 
yeah its weird how guns make so many noises that i only notice when i see them on tv. ya know how all guns make that wooshing sound when they are drawn from a holster, how ever time a gun is moved around in someones hand it makes the sound of metal hitting together like there are loose parts in there, and how many guns (even semi autos) have to be cocked after each shot or at least every other shot as if they were a single action revolver. strange how i don't notice that at the range i have to be more observant next time.
 
My personal favorite is when the character has picked up an AK, AR or single action pistol. After he runs out of ammo, the gun is still in battery but he keeps pulling the trigger.

CLICK
CLICK
CLICK

And never even has to recock the single actions weapons.
 
Yes, I've noticed that one a lot. 1911's Glocks and Berettas all going click, click, click when empty. Well, I guess the Berettas could be DAO models, but not the rest.

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Warthog
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Get yourself a Glock, and lose that nickel plated sissy pistol.
 
One of my favorite Hollywood "amazing gun" moments was in "Raiders of the Lost Ark" when Indy has the shootout in the Nepal bar with his S+W revolver. He's ducking behind this column blasting Nazis, and then he locks open on a 1911!? Then he inserts a fresh mag, and pops out again shooting his S+W revolver at the Nazis!

I wanna know where I can get a revolver that magically changes to an auto just for the last shot before the reload. That's a might good trick.

Edmund
 
The reason you see so much slide lock in movies is that the prop guys load just the number of blank rounds for the scene.

Thus, they shoot to slide lock.
 
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