| From: | "Paul J. Adam" <shadowrn@********.DEMON.CO.UK> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Re: Firearms, etc. |
| Date: | Sat, 7 Dec 1996 13:25:46 +0000 |
Unseen <toabo@****.UTEXAS.EDU> writes
>>Nope, unless you lock the action too. Otherwise you have the quite loud
>>(in some circumstances) clackety-clack of the action cycling.
>
> OK, for those of us for whom the concept of guns doesn't go much
>beyond the "Bang-bang, you're dead!" games of youth, what exactly does
>"locking the action" mean?
When you fire a semi-automatic weapon (like an automatic pistol) the
slide recoils to eject the fired case, then moves forward to chamber the
next one. Even in a caseless weapon you have to get the next round in
the chamber somehow.
This makes a fairly loud and distinctive mechanical noise, which you
might want to eliminate (on a quiet night you can clearly hear a weapon
being cocked at four hundred yards).
So, you lock the slide in place, making the gun into a single-shot
weapon but making less noise when you fire.
Only necessary if you have a good enough silencer, of course.
--
There are four kinds of homicide: felonious, excusable, justifiable and
praiseworthy...
Paul J. Adam paul@********.demon.co.uk
