What happens when you try to shoot a semi-auto gun that has a full magazine, but no round in the chamber?

Question

What happens when you pull the trigger of a semi-automatic handgun that has a full magazine, but no round in the chamber?

Fuzz, I am confused. If I never pull the slide to move a round form the magazine to the chamber how would a round become present in the chamber, or am I missing something here? I understand gun safety and the four rules, so that lesson can end. But after watching a movie I saw someone load a clip full insert the clip but never pull the slide back, and in the next scene they were shooting. As someone mentioned below about the expelled gases being what moves the slide and discharges the shell as well as load the next round (I also was under the assumption that the recoil did this in most guns, not the gases). I know alot of things in the movies are completley fake, but this made me curious as to what would happen if the slide was never pulled back after loading a new clip. I was wondering if there was another mechanism inside the firearm I was not aware of, that would bring a round into the chamber after the trigger was pulled (kind of like a revolver does). Sorry if this is unclear.

Answer 1

In this scenario you better pray you are only target shooting or hunting small game. Any other scenario and the sound you hear if you hear it at all will be most unpleasant.

Answer 2

You stated you saw this on a movie! Then you must have been paying really close attention to catch that the firearm fired when it should not have! You already have some good answers. No semi or automatic hand gun will fire unless the chamber has been seated by a round. As one of your answers already stated, it's the gas from the first round being fired that chambers the next round. This is the reason why on the last round being fired, the extractor locks the slide open indicating " No more rounds".

Answer 3

If no round is in the chamber, no round is fired. The firing pin is often slightly damaged, but nothing else happens. The movies/tv are never anything to go by. They do a lot between scenes that you never see on screen. My nephew grew up watching Starsky & Hutch on TV, and so wanted a gun like Starskys'-a S&W M39-because he thought it would fire three rounds with one trigger pull...like it did on tv. In real life, the gun only fires one round per trigger pull, and the sound editor put the sounds of three gunshots into each one gunshot scene. Never believe what you see on screen. Somewhere there may be a model of gun which has a slide cocking mechanism you can activate with the press of a button, but I have not seen/heard of any. If such existed, and were used, you would see the slide moving...in real life. This is just sloppy editing in the movie. The gun was ******, off screen, between takes, when the camera was not on it and running.

Answer 4

The mechanism that makes it either automatic or semiautomatic is the gas expelled from the last fired round...

The first round must be loaded manually.
After that the gas will reload the next round....

But heed Old Fuzzes advice...
All guns are loaded!!!

Edit:
The recoil you are talking about is the build up of gas from the explosion ...This is why a bolt action "kicks" more than a semiautomatic does...On a bolt action you absorb all of the recoil or spent gas.....

If you watch the movies you can also see sparks flying off of automobiles when hit by gunfire...Lead against steel causes sparks?

You will also see some guy pouring gasoline on the ground and igniting it with a lit cigarette....In the real world a lit cigarette will just go out in gasoline...If the gasoline doesn't just evaporate.......

Ah...Hollywood!!!

Answer 5

When you have a gun with a full magazine and an empty chamber and then pull the trigger without removing the magazine and checking the chamber, the gun will probably fire because there was actually a round in the chamber. And, of course, who ever you were pointing the gun at will grow a hole in their body.

ALL GUNS ARE LOADED. . .


Ahhhh, the movies. They do all kinds of weird stuff with guns. What you saw was called a "continuity error". Kind of like the hero is wearing a red shirt and in the next scene it's a blue shirt. Inserting a mag into a gun then firing without racking the slide is a common error. Gun errors are rampant in movies, like the use of a Colt Peacemaker in a Civil War battle. One of my favorites was a cop show in which a detective is chasing a bad guy from one room to another. He has what looked like a S&W, J frame, snubby revolver as he enters one room, when we see him enter the second room the gun has changed into a full size Colt 1911 automatic. Good trick.

Answer 6

Odd question with odd answers.
It depends on the type of weapon. Some fire from a closed breach and some will fire from an open breach.
Open breach means the bolt is held back by the trigger sear and when you squeeze the trigger the bolt slams forward, loading the round and firing it.
(an example would be the Sten or Sterling arms type of weapon.)
If it fires closed bolt you can not be sure. Most of them you have to jack the first round manually but not all of them. Some of the military weapons hold the bolt open until you insert a new clip and jack the first round for you.

Treat all weapons as if they are loaded because you can never be sure unless you can see an empty chamber.
Otherwise the question needs a specific weapon for a real answer.

Answer 7

After you pull the trigger, it should click and then you have to rack it. That will cause a bullet to go in the chamber...Unless it's a gun that automatically loads a round when you put the clip in which I highly doubt.
Don't try to trick your friends by doing this...You will kill yourself.

Answer 8

I have to agree with the unanimous sentiment here.

You should always treat a weapon as if it had a round in the chamber, it's not just feel-good rules that pop recites to you. You'll have a hard time convinving a judge that you weren't responsible for a round lodged in someone's body because you didn't think there was a round in the chamber.

I wouldn't even test something like this, but it doesn't sound like you have otherwise you wouldn't be asking. I don't mean to sound condecending, which I'm sure I do. We just don't need anymore firearm accidents.

But please... treat your firearm as if it's ready to go off.

Answer 9

the way this could happen is this :

guy shoots 7 of 8 rounds in a MAGAZINE...
dumps 'almost' empty mag and replaces it with a full one.
rock and roll.
the chamber was not empty...the last round from the previous magazine was in the chamber but not yet fired.

Answer 10

. U_bin has it right; 'click'. It doesn't automatically load itself. You have to 'jack' the slide to chamber a round. That cocks the hammer, too.
Then, 'Boom'>