Quote:
Originally Posted by wind953
I heard somewhere that in real steel, if the hammer is cocked, you can pull back the slide and check the chamber, and it won't load the next round if the chamber is occupied.
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Not exactly, if you pull back the bolt in a rifle, to check the chamber status, you'd only pull it half way, otherwise the round will be ejected just as if it was fired. The magazine, similar to your AEG magazine is pushing the rounds up, and if the bolt goes behind the base of the bullets in the magazines, the round will attempt to load itself. Depending on the gun, especially on semi-automatics the bolt is designed to go beyond this point as its ejecting the shell and then it moves forward as it grabs the next round and loads it in the chamber.
So, pulling it back completely slowly (ie by hand) can lead to a jam due to the fact if you go beyond the base of the bullets in the magazine, the bolt going forward will try to grab that round and double feed.
Which is why on semi-automatics your supposed to let go of the bolt and let it "slam" home, instead of simply pushing it forward, for reliability of the loading process, and for the fact if it goes too slow you cannot be certain if bolt rotated completely and is properly clocked. Possibly causing a slam fire.
Quote:
Originally Posted by wind953
Either that or there are loaded chamber indicators on certain guns.
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Most firearms don't have loaded chamber indicators per-say, the only check if the hammer is cocked or not. Reason being, is that you want as smooth as possible chamber when the round gets fired.
Take the FN49, the precursor to the FAL has this indicator, which detects if the rifle is cocked.
By the way, notice the safety, not only does it stop the hammer from falling internally, but also blocks the trigger physically, and it also prevents most peoples hands from easy access to the trigger area. Also doubles as a never forget the safety, as you will feel it the moment you put your finger on the trigger and know the safety is on.
Generally speaking, if the gun is cocked, it means there is a round in the chamber, if the gun is not cocked and the bolt is closed, it means that there is no round in the chamber, at least not anymore.
Dimitri