For my YouTube Video on how to know if a prop gun is stage safe, follow this link
Guns can explode. You didn’t know that, did you? Even people who deal with guns everyday can forget that, but it still remains true. Granted, it is extremely rare, but it is a fact that anything that fires an explosive can itself explode, including starter pistols firing a commercial blank. That shouldn’t immediately put you off of using a firing gun on-stage, for after all we all know that car tires and gas tanks and engines explode on passenger vehicles all the time, and the flying pieces can kill as easily as shrapnel from a bomb. Yet we still load up our families and drive them to the mall. So we must remember that although unlikely, an exploding prop is one of the possibilities that may occur anytime a shot is fired. Risk is a factor in every decision, and it helps us little to ignore the possible.
Every once in a while we at Weapons of Choice would get a call from someone looking for “a replica gun that can fire but doesn’t use a blank”, which I guess means something that can make a big noise but that doesn’t actually fire anything. I wish that could be possible, but the few “non-guns” designed so far are very unreliable, difficult to maintain, costly and do in fact have explosives. For the time being, if it makes a sound, it comes from firing a blank, which produces rapidly expanding hot gases leaving the gun. And that is where the danger lies.
We’ll get to how guns for stage work in a minute, but first let’s get some terminology straight and other confusions cleared up.
What is caliber, or, How can a 38 be a 22?
“… the script specifically calls for a 38, but the technical director said we shouldn’t fire anything louder than a 22, but the stage director doesn’t want a small gun for that scene and would prefer a 45. What are they talking about !?! “
There is always a great deal of confusion concerning the choice of handguns in plays, often compounded by the description in the script. Part of the problem comes from the playwright perhaps not knowing much about guns, but much of it comes from the shorthand terms that police departments and armed forces use. Some of these terms have become part of our common usage through the sheer blanket force of movies and television, which ironically have so much power that they in turn affect newspaper and even gun-enthusiasts’ terminology. The result is that most people think they are talking about something specific when actually they are only describing the generic or incidental.
Suppose for a moment that you’re helping a friend find his car in a large parking lot. He tells you that he owns a V-6. Then to be more helpful, mentions that it is a Ford V-6. He thinks he has told you a great deal, but he has only described the engine. You still don’t know if you’re looking for a sedan, a pick-up, a sports car, a van, what color it is, how many doors, etc. Ford Motor Co. used the V-6 in a lot of car and truck models, and right now you need to identify the car by look, not by what’s under the hood.
The same problem happens when we talk about guns. If you tell me you need a Colt 45, you have told me the manufacturers name and the barrel interior diameter. I’ll have a good idea that you are probably taking about one of two guns that at different times have been described that way. But since there are actually two dozen different gun models that could just as accurately be called Colt 45’s, I’d much rather know in what year the play is set, who the character is, and where did he get the gun.
The biggest confusion begins when we try to identify a style of handgun by its caliber. We read “shot by a 38” or “was carrying a 357 magnum”, and we attach a mental picture of what the gun must look like. Unfortunately, caliber numbers refer only to the internal diameter of the barrel, measured in hundredths of an inch, and so describes the width of the bullet it requires. The bigger the number, the bigger the bullet. It has nothing to do with the look of the gun or the barrel length. Most gun manufacturers make several different styles of guns, and then will make each style in several different calibers, both English and metric, to appeal to the widest possible market. Since the same basic gun layout might be outfitted with any one of a half dozen different sized chambers and barrels, it is impossible to look at a photograph of a gun and identify its caliber. So where do we get this “shot by a 38” business? Well the papers might be correct in saying that someone was shot by a .38 caliber bullet, and that it logically came out of a .38 caliber gun. The most common of .38 caliber handguns is the revolver that was for the better part of the 20th century the standard issue revolver of most police forces in the United States. So ubiquitous had this gun become for police officers that when they speak among themselves of a .38, they are referring to the gun frame style with which they are familiar rather than the bullet. But there are many completely different styles of guns that can just as correctly be described as a .38 caliber handgun.
The US army issues a side arm to its officers, and after the turn of the previous century had decided not on a revolver (the bullet chamber revolves before each bullet is fired] but on a semiautomatic pistol (the bullets are fed from a clip inside the grip]. The job was granted to Colt Firearm Company. Colt had already made successful pistols for the government since 1836. So which is the “Colt 45” mentioned in the script? The western cowboy gun, or the square frame modern looking semi-auto? Model 1870, 1873, 1878, 1894, 1898, 1902, 1911? They all look different, and are all “Colt 45’s”.
The .44 magnum is not a more powerful handgun than the .45 caliber revolver, but merely a caliber (slightly smaller that the .45] that was made famous by the Dirty Harry movies. In those films, the weapon of choice was a long barreled heavy frame revolver, so naturally this is the popular image of what a .44 magnum gun must look like. (Actually, .44 magnum ammunition is slightly more powerful that the larger .45 ammo at equal powder loads, but this has to do with weight/load/velocity calculations that are very boring, so let’s skip that for now.]
Movies and television have also forced the idea on us that a larger gun is a more powerful gun, but again the size of the gun frame has nothing to do with the size of the bullet or how much gunpowder is behind it. A long barrel will make a bullet fly more accurately and further, so would be chosen for target practice or hunting, and a short barrel is going to be inaccurate at even mid-range distances. So it is not uncommon to see massive revolvers that are only .22 caliber, or tiny guns that can fit in your palm that are .45’s.
European manufactures use metric measurements; they measure their bullet diameters in millimeters rather than in hundredths of an inch. In order for US armed forces to be able to use NATO stock in the event of a war, the Army has switched to metric guns. A lot of semiautomatic handguns are made for 9mm ammunition, so we hear of a “9” as being a semi-auto pistol. But English or metric, a bigger number means a bigger bullet. Below are some (very rough) equivalents:
.22 cal = 6 mm
.32 cal = 8 mm
.38 cal = 9 mm
.45 cal = 12 mm
Note: caliber refers to the inner diameter of the barrel. Well, sort of. Because the barrel has grooves in it, the bullet is made slightly larger than the inside of the barrel. That way the bullet can dig into the grooves and start the spin necessary to give the bullet a stable flight. All of this means that the listed caliber number is actually not the real measurement of the barrel nor the bullet. Take a set of calipers and you’ll find some interesting numbers:
common name barrel bore diameter bullet diameter
.22 cal .217” .225”
.32 cal .315” .322”
.357 magnum .348” .357”
.38 cal .373” .375”
but even here there are differing manufacturers’ variations, so that the .38 caliber bullet which fires perfectly in one gun might cause problems in another.
One other part of the confusion in identification is the name of the manufacturer. Popular styles beget popular clones (just ask the makers of Scotch tape or Xerox copiers], so when one company comes out with a popular gun, every other manufacturer follows suit. The common name would often be associated with the maker that made it first or sold the most, but for example an Iver-Johnson .25 might refer to one of several pistol or rifle styles that Iver-Johnson Co. made over the years. So you would need to know what the common terminology was in the year the show is set if you want to know what kind of gun the character is talking about. Wait, it gets worse. The name Derringer can mean either the manufacturer (which made several different styles of handguns), or one of three different percussion single-shot pistols of the 1800’s, or a completely different style of two-shot cartridge pistol of the 1900’s. Add to that the problem of three different manufacturers trying to use the Derringer name, and then newspaper reporters using the name to mean any pistol small enough to fit in a coat pocket, and it gets really fun.
What is a Gun?
All guns have the same basic layout in common – a hollow tube that has one end closed. If gases can be made to rapidly expand inside this tube, anything solid between the gases and the open end is going to fly out with force. Using compressed air is one way to create that effect, but compressing gases is difficult and inefficient.
Anything that burns releases expanding gases, but how do get something to burn in a small area that has no outside oxygen? The most common way to create expanding gases is by burning gunpowder, which actually creates its own free oxygen as it burns. And the most common projectile is one made of lead. For a pistol or a rifle, the lead is in the form of a single bullet. For a shotgun, there are dozens of small projectiles called pellets or simply “shot”. Modern ammunition combines the powder and projectile in one easy to load cartridge. Gunpowder is actually a bit difficult to set-off, so a quick igniting compound, called a primer, is set-off first, and that is what really ignites the gunpowder. The hammer of the gun strikes the primer to begin the ignition, and the trigger is what releases the hammer to start the whole chain reaction going. Got it? Finger pulls trigger, which releases hammer, which strikes primer, which ignites powder, which sends lead flying out of barrel.
Let’s take a look at the cartridge, since we’ll need to know what’s in real ammunition before we can understand what a blank is. If you think about it, a loaded cartridge has all of the components of a hand grenade; it merely lacks a way of igniting itself.
Bullet – The conical shape of the modern bullet allows it to fly through the air with a great deal of stability, especially if it can be made to spin as it leaves the gun. The inside of gun barrels have gently twisting grooves (called rifling) that start that spin, and the bullet actually digs right into the grooves as it is forced out when shot. This helps get the spin going and also seals off the spaces from the grooves, preventing the expanding gases to leak around the bullet. That means that all of the force from the explosion can be transmitted directly to the bullet. So that the bullet can dig into the grooves, it is normally made of a soft metal, such as lead. The fact that the bullet gets carved by those grooves is what lets ballistic experts determine what gun fired what bullet. It also means that a thin layer of lead gets stuck inside the barrel after each shot, which has to be cleaned out periodically.
As I said, most bullets are made of lead, which is very cheap and malleable. Some modern bullets have tips or cases that are made of brass, steel, and even titanium, and some are made of layers in combination. The bullet diameter is the caliber designation, and bullets of one caliber can only be used in a gun of the same caliber. The length of the bullet, however, can vary widely, as can the shape and angle of the bullet nose. These different bullets have different penetration and flight capabilities.
After a bullet has been fired, it will usually be deformed on impact. The recovered deformed bullet is then called a slug. [I love those scenes in movies where the detective pulls out his penknife and digs out a slug embedded in a door frame, peruses it for a moment and then declares it to be “a 32” or whatever. Priceless, and completely impossible. Slugs are usually so deformed that only intense microscopic examination and careful measurement can determine the caliber.]
Compression piece – For shotgun shells only. Usually plastic “snow” or a hefty piece of plastic with spring-like design that helps keep all of the parts of the shotshell in place as it is being assembled. It flies out of the gun when fired but has nothing to do with the firing itself. It drops out of the way long before it can reach the target.
Pellets – Once fired from a shotgun, the pellets will all fly in the same general direction, but since their shape is spherical they each tumble in flight, each disturbed by the blast behind it and the turbulent wake of the pellet in front of it, which leads to a scattered pattern. That’s just what the hunter wants, a fuzzy distribution so he has a much better chance of striking his quarry than he would if he were to depend on a single bullet hitting a target.
The pellets can be purchased in different sizes, depending on the size of the intended quarry, but the thickness of the cartridge must always be an exact diameter match for the shotgun in which it will be used.
Wad – a stiff piece of cardboard or cloth that compresses the powder and also keeps it separate from the pellets. It also drops to the wayside once the charge is fired. Although used in shotgun shells, wads are also used in some, but not all, commercial blanks. These wads can sometimes hold onto a burning ember for some time after firing.
Powder – The explosive charge. The amount and composition is carefully calibrated by the ammunition manufacturer to not simply explode all at once but to produce an ever expanding force so as to keep accelerating the bullet during its travel down the barrel. It is considered an explosive burn rather than a true explosion. Gunpowder can be set-off by high heat or by an electrical charge. It also requires no oxygen to burn (the chemical reaction actually produces its own free oxygen), making it ideal for the airtight confines of the loaded barrel. That’s why a gun can even be fired underwater, or for that matter in outer space.
There are two basic types of powder that you will come across – blackpowder and smokeless. Blackpowder is the kind used for over a thousand years, and leaves a nice thick gray cloud of smoke around the gun and plenty of dirty residue inside. Smokeless powder gets its name by comparison only, for any gunpowder creates some smoke, although “smokeless” smoke dissipates very quickly. The residue from any burned powder (called “fowling”) is corrosive to steel, which is why guns need to be cleaned after use.
Either style of powder needs to be confined somewhat in order to produce enough pressure to create a gunshot sound. Even a large quantity of gunpowder poured on the ground will not cause an explosion if ignited with a match. You’ll get a lot of flame, heat, smoke, and a very strange hissing sound, but no bang. (Yes, it’s true: you can outrun a trail of burning gunpowder.)
Primer – A very thin coating of a quick igniting compound is allowed to dry onto a thin piece of metal. When this is struck by or against another piece of metal, the friction causes a spark that in turn creates sufficient heat to ignite the gunpowder.
The hammer of a gun actually strikes the reverse side of the primer, the part that doesn’t have the igniting compound. So what really ignites the primer? Cartridges are constructed so that there is a little bit of distance between the inside of the primer and another piece of metal. Dropping the hammer squashes the primer onto the other metal, and that friction is what causes the spark.
Shell – This term gets a bit mangled. It should refer only to the combination of the primer and the outer casing that holds the powder. Shells are made of brass for pistol and rifle rounds, and of plastic or cardboard for shotshells. When a gun has been fired, the spent rounds [minus the bullets] are often found near the gun, and these empty casings are correctly called shells. Because the shotgun shell looks the same before and after being fired, it is common to call the fully loaded cartridge a shell. Less excusably, the un-fired rifle bullet/casing combo [live ammo] is also sometimes called a shell.
Down the road, the military designers are looking to eliminate the casing completely, simply fusing the primer and the bullet onto either end of a solid block of formed gunpowder.
So here’s how a typical modern gun works:
A round is placed in the barrel, either manually or by the automatic or semi-automatic action of the gun. The hammer is pulled back and then locks in place but under a great deal of tension from the powerful main spring. When the trigger is squeezed, it releases the hammer, which, driven by the main spring, drops down onto the primer of the cartridge. The quick igniting compound is crushed between two pieces of metal and produces a modest spark which in turn sets off the main powder charge.
As the powder burns, the expanding gases dislodge the bullet from the casing and propel it down the barrel. It also causes the bottom of the soft lead bullet to expand, sealing the barrel and forcing the bullet into the interior barrel grooves. The grooves (“rifling”) have about a 1/4 turn from start to finish in most pistols, but that is enough to have the bullet fly out spinning. The expanding gases also cause a pressure wave which, when it hits our ears, our brains translate into a “gunshot”.
If we want the sound of “gunshot” without anyone getting shot by a bullet, we can use the same gun firing system, but instead of using a bullet, we use a blank cartridge. Let’s take a look at what a blank looks like compared to the real ammo shown above:
Parts of the blank cartridge:
As you can see, a blank is a cartridge that is only missing the bullet, Sometimes a small cardboard or plastic wad is used to hold the gunpowder in, but sometimes the brass end is merely crimped closed without a wad, and sometimes a false wax “bullet” is used to seal the tip and also make the blank look and act more like a real cartridge.
Without a bullet, a blank is perfectly safe, right? Well, NO! A blank has all of the explosive force of a regular bullet, just without the projectile. That force can do a devastating amount of damage. Let’s go through the list:
Ears – These things are loud, and there are only so many times that your ears can handle loud noises before permanent hearing loss sets in. And keep in mind that the loudness is comparable to a candle in the dark: from thirty feet away, it provides a comforting glow, but from two feet away can be blinding. Because of that intensity, always remember that firing even a “quiet” blank near someone’s head puts them at great danger of permanent hearing loss.
Eyes – The expanding gases are hot, and the louder the blank, the further the gas travels. Not only can it damage the eye by burning, but tiny fragments of unburned powder can be embedded into the lens. So find out where the gases go and keep the eyes out of the firing line.
Skin – The hot expanding gases don’t travel in a straight line, but twirl in a chaos of turbulence. Add to that the fact that many stage guns direct the blast “safely” to the floor. The hand that fires the gun can get scorched, and it isn’t even in the firing line. The heat can cause second degree burns if the skin is close to the barrel or chamber.
Fire hazard – The burning gunpowder can set stuff on fire, like fabric… or paper … or hairspray-treated hair. Make sure that nearby objects have been made fire resistant.
Static electricity – It is very hard to get a blank to fire. Something has to strike the primer just right and with a considerable amount of force in order to do so. Even external heat from a nearby fire won’t set one off until the temperature gets extremely high – sitting around a regular campfire isn’t hot enough to concern those gun-toting cowboys, although a building fire can cause ammunition stored inside to explode. Static electricity is another matter entirely. It can build in unexpected places and lead to some interesting results, as this anecdote will illustrate:
When we at Weapons of Choice bought blanks, we ordered only in small quantities: about fifty thousand rounds at a time. One shipment several years ago of the 6mm variety (tiny .22’s) came in the normal way – one cardboard box lined with bubble-wrap, filled with 50 cardboard cartons of plastic tins, 10 tins to a carton, 100 blanks inside each plastic tin. When we opened the large box, we noticed that one of the cartons was singed and blackened. Further inspection revealed that inside one of the tins, eight blanks had fired without being struck, causing a small fire that broke through and melted the plastic tin and began to char the carton. Somehow a static electric charge had built up at that spot and set off those blanks. If the rest of the plastic and cardboard had caught fire, it might not have been hot enough to ignite any other blanks, but the burning plastic would have melted and quickly spread the fire to the rest of the cargo container. This is why blanks can never be shipped using any kind of air service. Although this kind of incident is extremely rare, it can happen. Better it should happen in the back of a delivery truck on a highway rather than in the cargo hold of a jet at 25,000 feet. This is also why you should store your blanks in a fire-proof container.
By the way, when real bullets are caught in a fire, the gunpowder will explode, and some of the brass can certainly fly off as fragments, but the lead bullet itself won’t go very far – maybe less than a foot or so. Without being confined in a gun barrel, very little of the explosive force is directed towards the bullet. Instead it will want to move out in an expanding sphere. The force will always move in the line of least resistance, and that is through the thin brass casing. The lead bullet has comparatively too much mass, therefore too much inertia, to be effected by the small amount of force that happens to be directed its way. Those movie scenes of smallarms ammunition thrown on a fire and then the bullets flying everywhere are a complete fantasy.
Let me tell you a few more stories concerning blanks. The first is about a successful young actor named Jon-Eric Hexum. In the early eighties he parlayed a solid career as a hunky print model into a starring role as a hunky TV spy in a show called “Cover-Up”. His character used a .44 Magnum caliber snub-nosed revolver, which one evening was loaded with blanks. During a break in filming, he was killing time by just sitting and joking with the crew. In the middle of kidding around, he pulled the gun out and put it up to his temple, as though playing Russian roulette. Unfortunately, his finger did squeeze the trigger, and the gun went off. It was not a block-barreled gun, so the expanding force traveled down the barrel and pushed against the thin soft tissue of the temple. The skin was not broken, but the force traveled like a wave into the skull. The pressure shattered a thin piece of bone and forced a fragment deep into the brain. I want to make clear that there was no bullet in the gun, just expanding gases. He died almost instantly, and the body was taken off of life support a week later.
The mistakes committed, at a network studio no less, are unforgivable. The gun was supposed to have been taken from the actor during any break in filming. But more importantly, the actor had from the beginning been allowed to play with the prop guns as though they were toys. Instead of firing him at the first offense, the producers kept the actor, ignoring the many complaints from his co-star.
The second story is a little better known, but certainly bears repeating. Brandon Lee [son of martial arts superstar Bruce Lee] was in production for “The Crow”, and one scene required that a pistol be fired at him. An earlier scene was a close-up of the same revolver being loaded. This is a common enough event in action films, but in this case a long chain of mistakes came together to cause a tragedy.
The producers of the film hired (mistake one) a not terribly experienced person as the weapons provider. He had brought in (mistake two) a real non-modified gun, and had ordered both some blanks for the shooting scene and some dummy bullets for the loading scene. The blanks arrived on time but the dummy bullets didn’t. Instead of notifying the director (mistake three) so the scenes could be rescheduled, he purchased real bullet cartridges, removed the lead bullets, tapped out the powder, and then reattached the bullets to make his own – Ta Da! – dummy bullets (mistake four).
The loading-of-the-gun scene took several takes – taking the rounds, loading the chambers, closing the revolver, over and over again ad nauseam. At the end of the day the dummy bullets were tossed aside without a final count (mistake five) and the revolver was put away without inspection (mistake six). If either of these last two safety measures had taken place it might have been noticed that one of the dummy cartridges was missing the lead bullet. You see, the weapons guy didn’t disable the primers on those “dummy” bullets he had made (mistake seven), and when some primers are fired they make barely any sound at all. That in fact is what happened – at least one time during the many takes the hammer was allowed to strike the dummy bullets. On one of those, the tiny little explosion of the primer was able to ignite the thin leftover gunpowder residue that sticks to the inside of the brass casing. The tiny puff that this created was just enough to break loose the lead bullet from the already once loosened casing and push the bullet an inch down the barrel. One of the technicians thought that he heard a little strange sound, but decided that, since he wasn’t an expert, he shouldn’t say anything (mistake eight). So there the bullet rested, like a ticking time bomb. The gun was put away without a complete cleaning (mistake nine), or even a basic safety check of inserting a pencil down the barrel to check for debris (mistake ten)
On the day of the shooting scene, the gun was brought in and without further inspection (mistake eleven) was loaded with commercial blanks, perfectly appropriate powder charges with no bullet head or any other projectile on it, not even a paper wad. Since blanks can’t hurt anybody, the actor was handed the gun without giving him a safety lecture nor performing a “chamber check” (mistake twelve). He was told to shoot directly at Brandon Lee (mistake thirteen). When the gun was fired, the expanding gases of the blank crashed into the lead bullet in the barrel. The bullet flew out of the gun and directly into Brandon Lee’s heart.
If any one of the thirteen mistakes had been averted, Mr. Lee would be alive today.
Our third story strikes closer to home, for it takes place not on a film set but in the auditorium of Desert Hills High School in Utah, where in 2008 a production of Oklahoma! was completing its run. As you probably know, the show requires several gunshots at critical moments of the play. While the school district maintained a strict no weapons policy, for this production the school approved the use of a real .38 caliber revolver to be used for the sound effects, loaded with blanks and fired from the light booth. This approval was granted so long as the following conditions were met:
1) The owner of the gun (a parent) was to personally bring the gun and take it home for each rehearsal and performance.
2) Only the owner would load and fire the gun.
3) At no time would a student be allowed to possess the gun
Very quickly, all three conditions were broken. The owner’s daughter (a student) was allowed to bring the gun to campus instead of her father, and 15 year old Tucker Thayer (who was running follow-spot) was put in charge of loading and firing the gun for the tech rehearsals and performances. Young Tucker was familiar with firearms, but had not dealt with blanks before. Several students complained that he was playing with the gun, sometimes pointing it at other students. That the drama instructor did nothing to put a stop to that is horrific enough, but it also shows that the teacher was well aware that what safety protocols there were had been grossly violated.
One hour before the final performance, a shot was heard from the light booth. Tucker Thayer was found with a gunshot wound to the head, self-inflicted, the damage caused from a blank fired from the real gun. He was pronounced dead by 10:00 pm that evening. Even though this was a good kid, a responsible kid, a kid with firearms training, what the instructor and the gun owner both failed to take into account was that he was a kid. Kids (and a lot of adults) will play with guns if given a moment to do so.
Here are some of the excuses given after the fact:
1) This was a horrible accident, but no one is at fault.
2) They used blanks, therefore the school was obviously deeply concerned with safety.
3) High school drama instructors are not trained in technical theatre, therefore couldn’t know about the danger.
4) Even theatre technicians don’t know anything about guns or blanks (too often sadly true).
5) Students often get into trouble, and teachers can’t control everything they do.
6) The gun was a “prop gun”, so it shouldn’t have been able to hurt anyone (this is a common failure to distinguish between a real gun used as a prop and a stage prop gun built with multiple safeguards).
Unfortunately, the real reasons for the tragedy were ignored both before and after the death. If the drama instructor had spent fifteen minutes on the internet, he could have found a mountain of information on safety protocols for theatres. If the director had bothered to pay less than $30, a far safer blank-fire only starter pistol could have been rented for all rehearsals and performances. If the school board had taken time to educate themselves on the nature of the weapons they were banning, they could have established a more intelligent set of guidelines. Instead, the instructor decided to put his trust in the hands of the owner of the firearm and then in the capabilities and maturity of a fifteen year old. The school district created a blanket ban on weapons, and then made exceptions without knowing what is was they were supposedly regulating.
All of these tragedies happened from using commercial blanks in regular guns, meaning that the barrels were not blocked. But using a blocked barreled gun is still no guarantee of safety, for whatever force doesn’t travel down the barrel has to go somewhere. While certainly far less lethal, a lot of accidents happen every year with blanks fired, and it always comes down to people forgetting that blanks are not designed to save people’s lives. Blanks are designed to prevent holes from being blasted into walls. If you put a human near the blast, that person is going to lose.
Choosing a Blank
Heated words are exchanged … a gun is pulled out of a jacket pocket … a shot rings out! And then the audience can’t hear the next five minutes of dialogue because of the ringing in their ears. How do you know what blank to use when you need an on- or offstage gunshot?
Although it may sound strange coming from a company that makes its money in part by selling blanks, the best sound effect for a gunshot comes not from a gun at all but from your soundboard. Of course, not your old reel-to-reel or cassette player. Taped sound is hard to cue-up and is unforgiving if there is any technical glitch. No, I’m talking about a good modern sound system that accepts an exact cue search from a CD or internal memory. Such a sound can be generated at the sound operator’s touch whenever it is required. With the right equipment a good sound designer can make the gunshot appear to come from any point onstage or off.
If, however, the choice is made to use an actual or live gunshot for the effect, please remember that less is more. Some directors and fight choreographers want very loud gunshots for nearly every show, so please remind such people that audiences need the impression of gunfire, not the real thing. As a matter of fact, most audiences prefer not to be deafened in order to experience verisimilitude. So what caliber should you use?
A brief explanation of caliber: again, it is a number that describes the width of a casing or bullet. In the English or American system it is listed in the hundredths of an inch diameter measurement of the inside of the gun barrel. So .22 caliber is a little less than 1/4 of an inch wide, 38 caliber is a little more than 1/3 of an inch wide, etc. Metric measurement is the same except listed in millimeters.
Caliber describes the diameter of a circle, not the area, so all things being equal a .32 caliber blank is not 50% louder, but over 200% as loud as a 22 caliber blank of the same height. What the caliber also fails to tell you is how long the blank is, so it tells you nothing about the volume of powder inside the cartridge. Ammunition manufactures can make a blank as long as they wish, and filled with as much gunpowder as they wish. For this reason, 32 caliber blanks are actually over six times as loud as the 22 caliber blanks made by the same company.
Some blanks come in volumes reduced from standard, and are called either half-loads or quarter-loads, but there is no industry-wide standard here, so the volume of a “full” load changes with each manufacturer. You would have to know what the standard is for that particular company’s brand of blank at that caliber before you can guess what the half load will sound like. A half tank of gas in a Hummer is going to be a lot more expensive than a half tank of gas in a Vespa. A half load .32 caliber blank from Winchester is about fifteen times as loud as a full load 22 blank from Pobjeda.
Notice that the term used is half-load, not half-loud. Having half of the powder doesn’t mean that the noise produced is going to be half of the full load, for there are other variables that affect the actual sound that the audience will hear. If both full and half loads are packed into the same size cartridge without adding any filler, the extra air in the half-load acts as a kind of shock absorber to the explosion, reducing the sound level considerably. On the flip side, some blanks use primers that make quite a bit of noise themselves, so going from half to quarter load can end up being not very different at all.
For most theatres, .22 caliber blanks are all you are going to need. This is good because they are the least expensive, and can be found at many sporting goods stores. However, there are three commonly found 22 blanks available nationwide and they have very different sound characteristics, even though they are all considered full-load. Your local sporting goods or gun store will usually carry only one brand.
By the way, there exist both rimmed and rimless ammunition in several caliber designations. On rimless ammo the base of the cartridge is the same diameter as the case. Rimmed ammunition has a base wider than the case, which keeps the cartridge from sliding too deeply into the chamber. Semi-automatic ammunition cannot have an exposed rim that would interfere with the loading mechanism, so rimless ammunition was designed for that use.
Why do you need to know this? If you are looking for blank ammunition for your stage gun, you need to know that the two styles cannot be interchanged, even if they are exactly the same caliber. 9mm rimless can’t work for your 9mm revolver.
Some common blanks:
shown in increasing order of loudness: #11 percussion cap, musket cap, 6mm, .22 cal crimped, .22 cal blackpowder, .32 cal blackpowder, 8mm, 9mm half load, 9mm full load, .45-.70 quarter load, 12 gauge, .303 British. The first two are not really blanks, but are shown here for size comparison. Also notice that the full load 9mm is actually a little smaller than its half load equivalent.
Many gun rental suppliers make their own blanks for their own stock, and there are a lot of casual jobbers who hand-load bullets of every caliber for hunters, and can make blanks as well if asked, therefore blanks can be found for every style of gun ever made and virtually any level of sound. But, as you can imagine, hand-loaded blanks are going to cost you. So your first step should be to find out if there are mass-manufactured commercial blanks available. Line up your source early on, for even these will run out on occasion. Blanks that come from foreign manufacturers can experience export delays of several months. American manufacturers, such as Winchester, survive because of military contracts, not the civilian market. So when there is a hot war (for example the prolonged Iraq and Afghanistan actions), all production is focused on fulfilling government contracts. Making blanks for track meets, dog training and theatrical productions is low on their priority list.
Some of the more common varieties include:
• The 6mm Pobjeda and Flobert brands are crimped blanks from a variety of importers, and packaged in a variety of other brand names. They are manufactured in Bosnia Herzegovina and Germany respectively (yes, they will fit in a .22 handgun). At one time they were made by a company called Precise, and they are still commonly referred to by that name. They are only as tall as they are wide, come 100 to a canister, and look like tiny little acorns, which is also their common American nickname. They produce the least amount of sound you can get in a commercial blank because there just isn’t room for much gunpowder. This is about as much sound as you can get away with in 50 to 150 seat houses, especially if the first row is close to the actors. The one drawback is the quality of the sound produced – it has only high register notes so tends to sound “tinny”.
• The CCI brand short .22’s come in boxes of 100, but are about twice as tall as the acorns. Since more powder can be packed inside, they produce a slightly deeper and louder sound. From 100 to 500 seats, this will give a reasonably effective gunshot. The same factory also packages the same blanks under the Remington name.
• Please be very careful here – don’t simply go by the brand name. CCI and Remington also make a full line of .22 caliber blanks made for construction nail guns, but these have much harder cartridge casings that can ruin the inside of a starter pistol or real gun. Found at most hardware stores, avoid these “power loads” at all costs.
• Winchester brand short .22 blanks come fifty to a box and use not modern gunpowder but old-fashioned blackpowder. This gives a wonderfully rich sound with deep resonance and leaves a nice cloud of smoke hanging around the gun for a few minutes. It is considerably louder than the CCI blank, and for houses of from 200 to 800 seats or more, this is an excellent effect. Blackpowder is much dirtier than modern gunpowder, and the residue is more corrosive than that of regular powder, so scrupulous cleaning after every performance is a must. Winchester periodically threatens to permanently discontinue production of these blanks, and one day they may actually do so.
All .22 blanks are rimfire, meaning that the gun has to strike the edge of the primer, not the center. If you have a .22 caliber centerfire revolver (which would be a real gun, not a starter pistol, so you shouldn’t be using it in a theatre anyway), you’ll need to find specialty .22 caliber centerfire short blanks (very expensive, since they have to be hand loaded and no one wants to handle these tiny things). You can always try to use the rimfire in your centerfire gun, but the misfire rate will be quite high.
There was a time when all ammunition was rimfire, but except for .22 caliber all are now centerfire. Centerfire systems are more reliable than rimfire, and cause less damage to the gun over time. So why are .22’s still rimfire? Because they are tiny cartridges, and it gets really hard to set in a primer on a casing that less than a quarter inch in diameter.
Because rimfire blanks are struck along the edge rather than the center, the hammer strike deforms the shape of the cartridge. For that reason, rimfire cartridges are never reloaded, unlike centerfire cartridges.
Note that the .22’s are designated “short”. The reference is in regard to the length of the brass cartridge. There are .22 caliber long rifle blanks available, but these are too long to fit into the chambers of starter pistols.
• I’m going to repeat myself here to remind you that there is another style of .22 blank that is commonly available in hardware stores. “Power loads” are designed for use in some nail-driving guns and also for a machine called a “decoy launcher” (used for training retrievers). These blanks come in different loads and are packaged in different colored boxes to help in distinguish between them. They must never be used in firearms of any kind, real or theatrical. These things are not built to make noise; they’re built to propel an object with far more force than even a real bullet would. The machines that they go into have barrels with very thick walls to be able to withstand the explosion. Your starter pistol doesn’t. The use of these blanks in a starter pistol or stage gun will destroy your gun, and it puts the user and bystanders in danger of being hit by fragments when the pistol finally explodes like a hand grenade. I know that it’s tempting to use them, especially since finding proper blanks can be difficult and these power loads are cheap and right down the street. But don’t do it. Not even once. I once had a beautiful Remington lever-action rifle that had its receiver destroyed by just one shot from one of these “power” loads. If you have some of these in your collection, throw them out.
• 9mm rimmed blanks are made for the Italian 9mm blank-fire revolvers, and are also accurately called .380 blanks, so these can be used in 38 caliber revolvers. [Revolver is the key word, for these blanks do not fit into 9mm semiautomatic pistols.] They come in full and in half load, but again half load does not mean half as loud. The half load cartridge is the same height as the full-load, so the powder is packed more loosely. This means that the powder burns more slowly, so ends up being equivalent in sound to the .22 blackpowder blank. The full load is ten times as loud, and in an indoor theatre it sounds like a cannon going off. It seems to work best for outdoor venues or if you really need to simulate a chest-shaking explosion. Make sure that the actor firing the gun doesn’t have to hear anything you say for about five minutes after firing. Either that or give him full hearing protection.
• There are blanks made for .38 caliber revolvers, but as these are designed for real guns, the casings are too long to fit into theatre starter pistols. A lot of theatres accidentally buy them, and then leave them in the props cabinet for some future props master to deal with. If you have nothing better to do with your time, you can always trim off the excess brass with a small diameter pipe cutter.
• .32 caliber is somewhere in between the loudnesses of .22 and .38 (9mm), and would be a good compromise sound if it weren’t for the scarcity of .32 caliber blank-fire pistols. The blanks are made both by Winchester in a very loud blackpowder version, and in modern “smokeless” powder by Pobjeda/Precise.
• Blank-fire semi-automatic starter pistols are only available in 8mm. The great thing about the 8mm blanks is that they are only made for these pistols, and these pistols can only take these blanks, so no real gun ammunition can ever be accidentally loaded into one. The drawbacks are many: stovepiping, jamming, availability, and that the 8mm blank is extremely loud, almost as much as the 9mm – deafening. Half loads are not available, and would only cause more problems in your gun even if they were.
• Shotgun blanks are readily available in 12 gauge, and the sound is deafeningly loud. Because the casing is made of plastic, it is fairly easy to reduce the load. But an especial care should be taken with shotguns. Shotgun blanks are not made for stage, therefore usually have a lot of inert material that comes out of the barrel, which can be deadly if anyone gets in the way. And that inert material is flammable and can still smolder after landing on the ground, with a very real fire danger. Shotgun blanks have another drawback in that they are the same size and shape as real shotgun shells. It’s only too easy for someone to inadvertently stick a real shotgun cartridge into the replica and end up causing an awful lot of damage.
When a very strong sound is required, obviously the higher calibers can provide enough noise to simulate cannon-fire even in a 2000 seat outdoor amphitheater. The basic equation doesn’t change: more sound means more powder burning and creating more very hot gasses leaving the gun.
As I said, if a gun is chambered for let’s say .45 caliber, it can use only .45 caliber, but can fire effectively with a half or quarter load (or even just the primer with no powder at all) of that same caliber – with one important exception. Semiautomatic pistols and their blank-fire stage equivalents (8mm) require the force of a full-load in order to kick out the spent cartridge and bring up the second round automatically. Reducing the amount of gunpowder in the blank by even a small amount will mean that the gun will fire only once and then have to be reloaded manually for each subsequent shot. For several shots from a semi-auto, it’s full load or nothing. And full load from an 8mm in a small house is simply too much sound. [We’ll talk about the other problems with semi-auto’s in a later section.]
One way to get around that is to use a replica made to look like a semi-auto but really is just an empty casing with a .22-caliber starter pistol revolver inside. It looks close enough like a semi-auto, but since it is really a revolver, it can fire full, half or quarter loads without difficulty.
The quality of the sound produced by any particular blank will vary with each show, for the angles of the set will direct the sound in different directions, and the materials used in construction will either reflect or absorb sound as well. Test fire some blank choices once the set is in place to hear how it affects the house. [Always use ear and eye protection when firing blanks.]
What if the sound is too loud? Well, if you’re not dealing with a semi-automatic (see above), you can try to remove some of the powder within the blank and it won’t affect the performance of the gun. Don’t try to remove the primer; your time is more valuable than that, and you run a high risk of exploding the blank. Instead, simply dig into the other end of the blank with an awl or large nail to create a hole big enough to tap out the amount of powder you want to, then seal it up again. [Because the casing is brass and will not spark, I usually just bore right into the end of the blank using an electric drill, although this freaks everyone out. I consider this relatively safe, since at the very low speed of the drill the brass does not heat up anywhere near the point where it would need to set off the gunpowder, but then again I don’t ask anyone else to do the job for me. I do make sure not to drill all the way down to the primer, which then could indeed ignite from the friction of the drill bit, and that in turn would ignite the powder. This has happened to me once, and I was very grateful for the quality of safety glasses I was wearing]. NOTE: if you seal up the hole on your newly reduced blank with hot glue or rubber cement, expect to clean out the gun a little more aggressively than normal, for you’ll need to clear out the melted plastic from the works.
Tapping out half of the powder will not necessarily mean that you’ll get half of the sound, because the amount of gunpowder is only one variable that determines the amount of sound. For some blanks, the primer itself is so loud that you can tap all of the powder out and still have quite a pop. On others the primer is almost silent. On some blanks the sound volume can be reduced by simply stirring (loosening) the compacted powder and sealing it up again. Experimentation is required, but use safety goggles, ear protection and gloves.
How Loud is Too Loud?
[There is a lot of information below, but I don’t want you to miss the main point. Protect your ears! If a sound causes pain, it is causing damage.]
Below are the results of readings we’ve taken on several of the commercial blanks we’ve provided. When possible, we tested the blanks in three ways:
First we fired the blanks with the decibel meter at a distance of only two feet from the gun. This way we can get an idea of what the shooter experiences when he or she fires the gun with arm outstretched.
Then the same type of blank was fired in a typical blackbox style theatre at a distance of ten feet from the meter. In smaller houses, we figured that this is what another actor sharing the stage, or even the first row of the audience, would hear. Blackbox theatres are not only small, but the sound is also contained – a lot of the sound is bouncing off of the walls and coming right back at the audience, heightening the perceived sound level.
Finally, we shot off some blanks in a 600 seat theatre with the sound meter fifty feet away from the pistol. We were going for “middle-of-the-house” perception. Thinking of it now, it’s a completely arbitrary distance, but there you are. We wanted to demonstrate the effect of the inverse square relationship of sound (if the distance from the source is doubled then the intensity is quartered). But remember that a lot of things affect the sound that reaches the audience’s ears, starting with the shape of the set.
As you can see, the further you are from the gun, the lower the decibel level.
Stage Gunshots:
Percussion cap only
– shooter – 2 ft 85 dB
– blackbox – 10 ft 83 dB
– proscenium – 50 ft 72 dB
Percussion w/ 1 tbsp powder
– shooter – 2 ft 92 dB
– blackbox – 10 ft 88 dB
– proscenium – 50 ft 75 dB
6mm (.22 cal) crimped
– shooter – 2 ft 88 dB
– blackbox – 10 ft 85 dB
– proscenium – 50 ft 75 dB
.22 cal crimped
– shooter – 2 ft 88 dB
– blackbox – 10 ft 87 dB
– proscenium – 50 ft 78 dB
.22 cal blackpowder
– shooter – 2 ft 95 dB
– blackbox – 10 ft 90 dB
– proscenium – 50 ft 85 dB
.32 cal blackpowder
– shooter – 2 ft 115 dB
– blackbox – 10 ft 113 dB
– proscenium – 50 ft 93 dB
9mm (.380 cal) crimped
– shooter – 2 ft 135 dB
– blackbox – 10 ft 128 dB
– proscenium – 50 ft 100 dB
9mm crimped half-load
– shooter – 2 ft 96 dB
– blackbox – 10 ft 93 dB
– proscenium – 50 ft 85 dB
9mm primer only
– shooter – 2 ft 86 dB
– blackbox – 10 ft 85 dB
– proscenium – 50 ft 72 dB
Keep in mind that the decibel system is a logarithmic scale, in this case in multiples of 10, much like the Richter scale for measuring earthquake intensity. Something at the lowest level of hearing perception is designated as 0db, something 10 times as loud as 10db, 100 times as loud is 20db, 1,000 times as loud is 30db, and so on. But that’s not what we perceive. Compared to our other senses, we’re really bad at measuring loudness. We can differentiate between loader and softer, but not in the amount of the difference. The softer 22 caliber blanks are not really all that loud, even in a small theatre. But the suddenness of the sound can still shock the audience … more than the volume. We’ve done decibel checks on both firing live blanks and also taped sound, and found that the audience will perceive a live blank-fire to be louder than even a higher-volume taped gun-shot. I believe that it is because there is a faint background buzz or hum that comes out of the speakers just before the taped sound effect is heard. That faint sound prepares the audience’s hearing, albeit subconsciously, to expect some sort of sound change. Live fire, on the other hand, catches them completely by surprise.
Perceptions of Increases in Decibel Level
“Imperceptible Change” 1dB about 50% louder
“Barely Perceptible Change” 3dB about twice as loud
“Clearly Noticeable Change” 5dB about three times as loud
“About Twice as Loud” 10dB about ten times as loud
“About Four Times as Loud” 20dB one hundred times as loud
Since decibel numbers mean nothing without putting them into some sort of context, here are some readings from other sources (measuring sound is notoriously difficult – the same examples from different sources vary by as much as 20 decibels).
Environmental Noise
Whisper (3-5′) 20dB
Normal conversation (3-5′) 60-70dB
Busy Street Traffic 75dB
Telephone dial tone 80dB
Level at which sustained exposure may result in hearing loss 90 – 95d
Average television setting 75 – 95dB
Power mower 107dB
Power saw 110dB
Pain begins 125dB
Pneumatic riveter at 4′ 125dB
Noisy squeaky toy at 2′ 135dB
Jet engine at 100′ 140dB
full-load 12 gauge shotgun at 2 ft 158 db
“real” pistol shot (.38 – .45 caliber) 154 – 165 db
Ear drum can perforate 160dB
Death of hearing tissue 180dB
Loudest perceived sound possible 194dB
And keep in mind that gunshots are sound spikes, not sustained sound levels. The longer you are exposed to a loud sound, the more damage it causes. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has set limits on the level of sound that can be allowed in a workplace, based both on loudness and duration.
OSHA Daily Permissible Noise Level Exposure (hearing protection not required)
Hours per day Sound level
8 90dB
6 92dB
4 95dB
3 97dB
2 100dB
1.5 102dB
1 105dB
30 minutes 110dB
15 minutes or less 115dB
single sound spike 115dB
What does this all mean? Wear ear protection. Ear plugs are pretty inexpensive, but be sure to read the information that’s on the package before you buy. Different plugs and headphones reduce sound by different amounts, and they are listed as ER-5 to ER-25. The number after the ER- is the amount of decibels that will be reduced when you wear the device. Make sure that the plugs you hand out are enough to reduce the level of anticipated sound to a safe range.
Notice that OSHA does not allow 120db sound spikes at a work environment unless the workers are adequately protected. Beginning at 125db, a single sound spike can cause hearing damage. Most of the .22 caliber blanks fall below that threshold, but under the right circumstances can still be painful to the ears. How are you treating your actors?
Black-box theatres
Most theatre throughout the world takes place in spaces that hold fewer than 150 seats. These spaces are usually converted from other uses, but even when built specifically for live performance, they are by their nature intimate spaces with close proximity of the actors to the audience. Projection for the actors is usually not a problem, for every seat can hear every whisper. Imagine what a gunshot sounds like.
Obviously we need to keep the sound as quiet as possible, which means at most using .22 caliber, and the softest variety of those that you can find. Even then, the sound can be so “bright” or “sharp” as to be painful for some listeners. So get creative. Perhaps the sound can come from behind a flat, or from the wings, or piped in from the sound system.
Powerful vibrations caused when a gun is fired:
For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. In a real gun it means that however much force is transmitted to the bullet, the gun and the shooter have to absorb it on the recoil. That recoil travels in a straight line in the opposite direction of the bullet. Now when you hold most guns, the barrel rides a little higher than your hand. When the shot is fired, the gun wants to move backwards, but the grip gets blocked by the skin between your forefinger and thumb. The barrel still wants to travel backwards, so the gun starts to pivot at your hand. If you have a firm grip on the gun, that’s what makes your hand jump up a bit after the shot. If you don’t have a good grip, the gun merely spins out of you hand and flies over your shoulder (or hits you in the face).
In a block-barreled stage gun, however, the force isn’t even transferred to a bullet, so most of that force is slammed into the gun frame, forward of the blast. That’s why firing a stage gun has almost no recoil – the blast is pushing the gun frame both forward and backward simultaneously. That abuse causes stress fractures to build up in every part of the gun, far more than a real gun would ever have to endure. On very well built firearms [those costing over $450] the individual components are of sufficiently strong material to withstand the constant battering. The less expensive guns used for stage simply are not manufactured to such demanding standards, and can be expected to first loosen and then break down simply from normal use. Some of the cheapest barely survive even one production.
Did a blank not fire? Getting a dud:
You can test a gun, but you can’t test the blank you are planning on firing. There are actually a lot of reasons on why you might get a misfire even if the hammer has struck the blank, one of them being that the blank itself was simply defective; another being that the hammer didn’t strike with enough force.
If you do get a misfire, check the blanks that were in the gun after the performance. The business end of the fired blanks will usually [but not always] show the residue of burnt powder and the torn edges of metal resulting from the explosion. Then check the primers. If the hammer struck, it will leave a dimple either in the center or on the edge, depending on the gun. If those dimples all look the same, that means that the blank was possibly a dud, and you should throw it out.
But duds are very rare in modern cartridges. If you get more than one misfire during the run of a show, it usually points to one of four malfunctions in the gun, not the blanks. It could be that the mainspring that drives the hammer has finally lost some of its strength and simply can’t drive the hammer hard enough anymore to set off the primer. If you look carefully with a magnifying glass you can actually see the difference in the depth of the dimple on the primer from the dud compared to the successfully fired blank. Most gun shops can replace this spring very easily, even from the exotic Italian and German guns.
It could also be that something is gently scraping against the hammer as is drops. A good cleaning and visual inspection for particles of grit should remedy the problem.
The more common cause of misfires is one that plagues revolvers, that of the cylinder not advancing [turning] correctly. Referred to as the “timing” of a revolver, even a slight loosening of the mechanism can lead to the hammer missing the primer. Not by much, but enough to lead to a misfire. On real guns or some of the better built starter pistols this is a somewhat costly repair usually to one of the ratchets responsible for turning and then setting the chamber. For stage guns manufactured outside of the country, the repair is going to cost more than the value of the gun.
A less common cause could be that some of the chambers of the revolver are not permitting the blank to set fully in the chamber holes. When the same blanks fail on first attempt, but then fire normally on the second try, this is almost certainly the cause. What’s happening is that as the blanks are loaded into the cylinder, something is keeping them less than 1/64 of an inch from completely setting in. The push of the hammer drives the blank in on the first strike, and probably dimples the cartridge, but that little movement was enough to keep the primer from igniting. What is getting in the way of the blank properly seating in the chamber during loading? Almost always it is due to a tiny burr that has developed on the edge of the chamber hole. It will be very small, so you may need a magnifying glass to see it. How did it get there? Because over time too many actors have dry-fired the gun while playing Shoot-out at the OK Corral backstage, and these are rimfire guns. So the hammer has been slowly chipping away at the chamber edge. How to fix? By simply smoothing out the hole with a rat tail hand file (takes a long time) or re-drilling the chamber hole with a drill bit that is exactly 22/100’s of an inch in diameter.
There is actually one other cause of misfiring that has nothing to do with mechanical malfunction nor dud blanks. Instead, it comes from purchasing blanks not appropriate for the gun you are using. This especially happens when someone brings in a real .22 caliber gun and tries to fire commercial .22 caliber blanks. Real .22 caliber guns are usually centerfire, but all .22 caliber blanks are rimfire, as are theatrical blank-fire guns. As the blanks are very small, striking the center of the primer is still fairly close to the rim, so most of the blanks will fire anyway. But the misfire rate is high, often close to 30% failure. When the same blanks are fired from a rimfire gun in good condition, the misfire rate is barely 0.01% – that’s right, less than one in ten thousand.
Old Blanks
You might have some half empty boxes of blanks in a drawer somewhere, leftovers from a previous show. How long can blanks last?
There is nothing in the blanks themselves that naturally decomposes. This isn’t nitroglycerine, so it won’t suddenly explode after a few years. Only two things can set-off a blank if it isn’t in a pistol – extremely high heat (such as from an intense building fire) or an arc of static electricity. That is why most safety and fire regulations require that blanks be stored in a fireproof container. They don’t want to have to worry about your desk drawer suddenly setting off a Fourth of July celebration when they come in trying to put out a trash can fire. [Actually, that probably wouldn’t do it. It would take the entire desk itself to be on fire to create enough heat to ignite the ammunition.]
The bigger problem is moisture, the concern being that enough moisture will enter the cartridge and render the powder useless. Of course, air brings moisture, so for long-term storage, an airtight container with an air-moisture remover would be the best, but a zip-lock bag with a paper towel in it in a dry fire cabinet is not a bad alternative. Check the blanks themselves every once in a while – if they are corroding, you should be able to see the brass turn darker or even bluish brown right at the line where the primer is connected to the brass cylinder. Even then, you don’t necessarily have a problem, but you have [slightly] increased the chances of an occasional misfire. If there is a problem with the blanks, that is the worst that will happen, and you’ll know that there is a problem during the rehearsal process. When in doubt, fire off a few of the ugliest ones. Still in doubt? Throw ‘em out and buy some new ones. Check your local waste disposal authority as to how they want you to handle disposal [they usually frown on incineration].
Don’t load your own blanks, or reload spent blanks. Yes, it is possible to do it, and if you don’t have anything else to do, you can save quite a bit of money [assuming you value your time at less than two dollars an hour]. But you have also added a tremendous liability on your head. If anything goes wrong, you can expect lawyers to come down hard on anything that smacks of cost-cutting over safety – even if the blank itself did not contribute to the accident. People who load blanks and ammo for a living don’t ever want to use spent brass casings. Why in the world would you take on that risk?
Cleaning out the Firearm
Those of you who have real guns know that cleaning them is a long, boring, and essential part of owning one. For blank-fire guns, the cleaning process is a short, boring and essential part of using one. The difference is that real guns must have the barrels cleaned to nearly surgical levels if the gun is going to fire safely and accurately. Stage guns have false barrels, and usually the powder residue has no way of even getting into them, so eighty percent of the work of cleaning a real gun doesn’t even apply.
Start by completely unloading the gun and looking for obvious signs of damage and powder residue. Some blanks are dirtier than others and leave quite a cruddy crust of carbon that needs to be brushed or chiseled off, but even the cleanest blanks will leave a film of grey smoky residue on the gun. So scrape, brush and wipe every part that you can get to without disassembling the gun. WD-40 works great as a combination cleaner/lubricant. If the gun is a revolver, run a bit of cloth through the holes where the blanks sit – there’s going to be some residue there as well. When you think you are done, get a clean cloth and some more WD-40 and wipe everything down one more time. If the cloth comes up dirty, you’ve missed a spot. Finally, squirt some WD-40 into those areas you can’t see but that house the moving parts such as where the trigger and hammer pivot. Too much WD-40 is a good thing. Some will leak out overnight, so you might as well wrap it in some cloth or a paper towel to catch the overflow.
That’s all there is to it. As I said, short, boring and essential. If the gun has been fired for rehearsal or performance, it must be cleaned before that gun is put away for the night. This is something that cannot wait until morning, for both modern gunpowder and blackpowder residue are extremely corrosive, and permanent damage starts to set in within a few hours if the gun is not cleaned.
Different Stage Firearms And Their Use
But First A Reminder – Firing blanks from real guns.
In this chapter we’re going to limit the discussion to those guns either specifically designed and built for theatrical use or permanently modified so that they can neither chamber nor fire real ammunition. Most deadly stage gun accidents come from the use of unmodified real guns that have stupidly been brought to a theatre. Don’t ever bring a real, live-fire gun into the theatre, even if unloaded.
There are many times when that rule is broken, usually when someone has found that Uncle Jim’s deer rifle is the perfect prop for the show, but also sometimes when the director wants to see flame or flash coming out of the barrel of the gun. A stage gun can’t do that, so the director will override that safety concern in favor of the flash. But a flash also means that some hot gases are moving in that same direction, and that means that it could propel a pebble or a nail if someone through neglect or malice should drop one into the barrel. And debris in the barrel can lead to an even more deadly outcome. I already described two famous deaths of actors using real guns loaded with blanks, both of which were caused by pointing the gun directly at a human. But that is certainly not the only danger. Having the barrel of a real gun plugged with mud or snow or a wad of tape or even Styrofoam can cause a tremendous forward compression of the air space in front of a fired bullet or blank. Before the gases even have a chance to leave the barrel, it can cause the barrel itself to explode like a hand grenade. Have I made it clear that under no circumstance should a real gun be fired on-stage?
Blank-fire stage firearms have different levels of safety, depending on how they are designed. The best will not only have a completely blocked barrel (absolutely no muzzle flash) but also a partially blocked chamber so that a full-length real bullet simply cannot fit into the gun.
What About “Non-Guns”?
There are replicas of firearms that can make a sound but do not use blanks. Known generally as non-guns, they were supposed to be the final savior for all performers needing to safely fire a weapon. For film use, they’ve been not great but pretty good. Unfortunately for theatre, the results are far less satisfying, and the hype has turned out to be greater than the reward.
Non-guns are battery operated devices that electronically ignite prepackaged squibs within the housing of the replica. Squibs are very small explosive charges used for a variety of pyrotechnic effects. In the case of a non-gun, an electric circuit is completed when the trigger of the replica is pulled, causing the squib hidden inside to explode. Depending on the manufacturer, there might be some flash visible from the barrel.
Because the squib can be packaged using a very small amount of explosive, non-guns are considerably more safe than what had been the film industry standard – using unmodified real guns loaded with blanks. Film makers want the muzzle flash, so have no use for block-barreled stage guns. But non-guns have five big drawbacks for stage:
Ö They are not safer than using blanks in a block-barreled stage replica. The general rule always applies – if you can see a flash, you are exposed to hot expanding gases. Hot expanding gases push solid things out of their way, and if that is the skin of your hand or your partner’s retina, that flesh is going to lose.
Ö Squibs are explosives, and most fire marshals require someone to have a pyrotechnic license in order to handle them. Squibs are also more dangerous than blanks when not inside the replica, and explode more easily when exposed to heat or static electricity.
Ö Non-guns are less expensive to rent than real guns, but far more than block-barreled stage guns. Non-guns are for the most part financially out of reach for most theatres.
Ö Electrically activated squibs are prone to failure at any time, and nowhere more so than in non-guns. All of the components need to be made smaller than for regular pyro effects, for the charges, the wiring, and the battery must all fit inside the replica. So the thin wiring can crack, the connections loosen, and the battery can lose its charge. The non-guns are temperamental enough that they are used only for the moment where the film actor actually has to fire the gun. For running around and general use, identical dummy guns are used.
Ö In the event that a non-fire from a non-gun takes place, the actor has no recourse. On a film set, it simply means that they can take a break, fix the problem, and do another take. Not possible on stage, of course, and the actor can’t just pull the trigger to go to the next blank the way he could with a stage firing revolver.
Non-guns also have limitations for film. The outside of the gun replica is a solid shell with no moving parts, so there is no way to pretend to load the gun, no brass cases ejecting after each shot of a semi-auto or automatic weapons, no movement of the carriage of a semi-auto or turn of the chamber on a revolver, etc. After an initial excitement, the major studios are turning away from non-guns and going back to real guns. Younger directors will often go with completely inert replicas, feeling comfortable with CGI adding muzzle flash and sound in post-production.
What about firing caps from those replica guns?
We get this question a lot at Weapons of Choice, and I completely understand the temptation. You’re working a show that needs a single gun shot, and you have these great looking non-firing props made in Spain. Maybe it’s a musket or a revolver, and you know that it’s just a prop but it does have a working trigger and hammer. You don’t need a big sound for this show, so why can’t you just stick a cap or small blank where the hammer is going to strike and turn the prop into a noise maker?
Two reasons. First, the mainspring for these replicas probably isn’t strong enough to set off the cap or blank. Second, if by chance the charge should go off, the replica parts cannot handle even the very small blast that will occur. Those weak metals will fragment and fly all over the place. You risk shrapnel being fired into the user’s eyes.
Operating Stage Firearms
You will find these next two paragraphs repeated many times in this book, so get used to it. After each performance or rehearsal, first inspect the weapon for any obvious signs of damage as you unload the weapon. “But I didn’t load the gun for this rehearsal”. Always assume that somehow, someone has loaded the gun since the last time you held it. After unloading, take an old stiff toothbrush and scrape away any powder you see. That’s right, even an unused gun can suddenly show some corrosion from powder residue that was missed on a prior cleaning. If you spot any rust, sand it off with some worn emery cloth or fine steel wool.
I always advise never actually pointing any weapon at anyone at any time. This goes for real guns, blank guns, toy guns, swords, knives, rubber chickens, any weapon, any time, anywhere. The depth perception limits of the audience allow for a little upstage cheating, and I believe it’s important for actors to receive consistent instruction (tongue-lashings) wherever they work so as to avoid Jon-Erik Hexum and Brandon Lee type fatalities.
Revolvers
For all revolvers, always load all chambers before each performance. Goofy ideas such as loading only for the number of shots required for the scene, or loading every other chamber for some unfathomable reason, is just asking for trouble. If the gun is fully loaded and something goes wrong, the actor can just pull the trigger again to get the gunshot.
There are many theatres that modify that advice just a little bit, and suggest loading every chamber slot except the one on which the hammer is resting. The concept is valid, for that slot is not supposed to be the first shot on a revolver. The chamber of a revolver turns to the next slot each time that the hammer cocks back, either in single or in double action. With the hammer resting on an empty slot while the actor is just wearing the gun, it can prevent an accidental shot if he should accidentally drop the gun. This is great in theory, but too many times the chamber finds a way to roll backwards before the time to fire, and then the actor fires the gun on an empty space. It shouldn’t happen, but it does.
By extension, always unload all chambers after each performance, even if the gun wasn’t fired. If some blanks were shot, you’ll need to clean the gun. Remember that blanks have a soft metal casing, which expands when fired, so some of the spent blanks may stick in the chamber. Just pry them up with a knife or any strong flat edge.
Single Action/Peacemaker/Cowboy style
These come in 9mm and in .22 caliber, and are all single action guns, meaning that you can’t just pull the trigger to get the hammer moving. On the plus side, it allowed gunslingers to twirl the guns, as the pressure on the trigger wouldn’t cock the hammer. But don’t let your actors twirl the guns. They will drop them and break them. They really will; they’re actors.
Ö Loading – These guns can be loaded in one of two ways:
The quickest is to simply locate the chamber door on the right side of the gun, behind the chamber and forward of the hammer, and swing it down to the open position. Pull the hammer back to the first “click” (half-cock), which allows the chamber to spin freely, and then simply insert a blank into each empty chamber slot. Unloading is the same, of course, but you’ll notice that most of these guns have an ejection rod located beneath the barrel, allowing you to help push out the fired cartridges. These ejection rods are rather weak, and some of the spent blanks can get jammed in the chamber, so you may need to jimmy the blank up with a knife edge first.
The other method is to completely remove the chamber from the frame for loading and unloading. There is a small axis pin release button located on the left side of the frame, just in front of the chamber. Push this button and you’ll be able to pull the central axis pin forward. Remove it completely from the frame. Open the side chamber door on the right side of the frame and swing it down. The chamber can then simply roll out of the right side of the gun. You might have to pull the hammer back just a touch so that the firing pin will clear the chamber, but don’t pull back too far or it will block the release of the chamber and possibly damage the working of the gun. When the chamber is out, you can easily unload, clean and reload the gun.
Ö Operating – As this is a single-action gun, the hammer must be pulled back manually to the second “click” (full cock) each time before you pull the trigger. It is the action of pulling the hammer back that rotates the chamber, so the trigger doesn’t really “operate” the gun, it just releases the hammer. Therefore it’s always a good idea to keep your finger outside of the trigger guard while pulling the hammer back.
Most people will be able to pull the hammer back using the thumb pad while maintaining a normal grip. Others, with weaker hands or shorter thumbs, will have to relax their grip and ease their thumb around, hooking it over the hammer in order to draw it back.
There is actually one other way to fire the gun – fanning the hammer. I’m sure you’ve seen this on Westerns. The gunslinger holds the gun in the right hand and with the left palm slaps the hammer back as fast as he can, firing off six shots in a little over a second. Is this even possible?
Technically yes, but only on some types of single action Western guns. This is actually a technique that comes from the earlier style revolver – the percussion muzzle-loaded blackpowder style. Since the trigger doesn’t do anything except release the hammer after it’s cocked, fanning the hammer simply removes the trigger from the equation. The trigger is squeezed and held throughout, and so that each time the hammer is slapped back, the chamber turns, and then the hammer drops down to strike the bullet. As simple as that and as fast as the left hand can fly. Most revolvers built after 1870 could no longer be fanned this way, but some could (the Peacemaker, for example), so if you see it done in a movie, it’s still plausible. But you shouldn’t do it with your blank-fire cowboy gun, for that replica just can’t handle the stress.
This action is extremely abusive to the working parts of the gun. In order for the turning cylinder to lock in place for firing, the hammer must go all the way back to the full-cock position, but not any further. With the trigger held, you can’t tell when that moment is reached. So to be on the safe side, the hammer really has to be slammed back as far as is possible with each slap by the left hand before releasing it so it can fall on the chamber. This stresses not only the hammer but also all of the parts associated with turning and locking the chamber. Within a couple of rehearsals parts will break. So don’t fan the hammer unless you are rich and want to buy a lot of these guns.
This is also a good time to remind everyone not to twirl the gun unless it is part of the action of the show. Sooner or later, it will drop and the hammer will break.
Ö Troubleshooting – The revolving chamber is supposed to lock in place when the hammer is pulled back to full-cock, but as the hammer drops the chamber is released again. Sometimes the chamber moves slightly during that small fraction of a second, enough so that it causes a misfire. Unfortunately, nothing can be done about this.
The center axis rod can be inserted too far during loading. There is nothing to stop the axis rod on these guns from going all the way through to the base of the hammer, where it can interfere with the speed of the hammer dropping onto the blank. Even a slight pressure against the base of the hammer can cause a misfire. To keep this from happening, make sure that the center pin locks into its correct place when loading – when it does, the small release button on the side of the gun will pop back up to its normal position.
The hammer can get jammed in the half-cock position. Slightly depressing the trigger as you pull back on the hammer to full cock will normally free it, but on occasion you might need to rock the chamber slightly back and forth as you pull on the hammer.
Double Action Revolvers
NEF starter
Available in either .22 or .32 caliber, this solid starter pistol was quite simply the finest blank gun ever made. Manufactured by H & R, Inc., but still keeping the older name of New England Firearms, these were constructed using the same frame and components as their regular real pistols. If your theatre is lucky, you have one of these in your props cabinet, and that means you have a noise maker for life. The tolerances are tight, the parts are strong and the guns are easily repairable by any competent repairman willing to manufacture new parts. Oh, did I not mention? Once Remington Firearms bought H & R in 2008, they decided to immediately halt manufacture of starter pistols or their replacement parts. They have switched to a new pistol of inferior design and cheap materials, and so the world has lost forever an exceptional starter pistol.
Ö Loading – Depress the center pin catch (which is a button on the left side of the frame in front of and above the trigger) then pull the center axis pin (located under the barrel) forward and out of the frame. This allows the cylinder to roll out and drop into your hand. Insert the blanks into the chambers and return the cylinder to the frame. Although the frame is completely symmetrical, it’s usually a little easier to move the cylinder in and out from the right side of the frame. The central axis pin should slide right back into place without having to depress the center pin catch. But make sure that the pin catch pops back up when the pin is in place.
Ö Operating – This is a double action revolver, so all you have to do is squeeze the trigger once for each shot. Squeezing the trigger requires good hand strength, for the main spring is quite strong. Some of that tension can be lessened by firing in single action, that is to say, cocking the hammer back first with the thumb, and then squeezing the trigger. Most people will be able to pull the hammer using the thumb pad while maintaining a normal grip. Others, with weaker hands or shorter thumbs, will have to relax their grip and ease their thumb around, hooking it over the hammer in order to draw it back. Always keep your finger outside of the trigger guard while pulling the hammer to prevent an accidental firing.
Ö Troubleshooting – Since the chamber locks into place for each shot, there’s not much that goes wrong with these. However, sometimes the central axis pin is not inserted all the way in, and that can prevent reliable firing. Make sure that the center pin locks into place when returning the chamber to the frame – when it does, the small release button on the side of the gun will pop back up to its normal position.
Every once in a while I’ll get a panicked call from a client saying that the gun was working fine, then they unloaded it, cleaned it, and now the gun is frozen and won’t work at all. The cause is always the same – the chamber was placed backwards in the frame. It’s easy to do, very embarrassing, and if you own one of these things you’ll do it at least once in your life. Just make sure that the flat face of the chamber faces the barrel, and the recessed face with the ridge faces the hammer.
Snub Nose Starter
This model, whether in .22 caliber, .32 caliber, or 9mm, does not lock the revolving chamber into place, so misfires can happen at any time. The 22 caliber style is made especially poorly, and breaks down very quickly. For piece of mind, have a back up sound ready.
[NOTE: There is a quantum difference between the two versions of the .22 caliber pistols made by the same company. These revolvers, the “Champion” model, cost between sixty to eighty bucks, and with scrupulous cleaning and not allowing actors to play with them can last quite a while. There is another .22 starter pistol, the “Olympic” model, made by the same company and costs less than $30, but is of such poor quality that it rarely lasts more than one production. While the regular snub noses are good for most theatres to keep in stock, the little ones are worth nothing.]
Ö Loading – Directly underneath the barrel lays an ejector rod. Tug on this rod forward (in the direction of the barrel) and the cylinder will release and swing out to the left. Sometimes you may have to give it a little shove with the fingers of your right hand. Insert the blanks into the chambers, then close the cylinder by simply swinging it back closed. Don’t “flip” the gun closed. You can do that with well built, real guns. This one is neither, and you’ll just ruin the advancing sear.
NOTE: The ejector rod itself is double spring loaded and made of several parts, and while loading and unloading can accidentally become unscrewed and come apart, with the very small springs falling out and getting lost. It is a very common occurrence, for naturally one has to pinch the end of the rod in order to pull it out, but you don’t have to touch it at all in order to close the gun. So with each opening, the rod can slowly unscrew a quarter turn each time, and then one day the entire assembly flies apart without warning. So take care while pulling the rod, and tighten the assembly every once in a while. If you lose the springs the gun cannot operate properly.
To unload: Pull the ejector rod and swing out the cylinder to the left. Now push the ejector rod toward the hammer to raise the blanks slightly out of the chambers. The brass of the cartridges will have expanded slightly on firing, so you might need to dig out the spent round with a knife edge.
Ö Operating – At least this part is simple: just extend your arm and squeeze the trigger. This can be fired in either single or double action.
Ö Troubleshooting – The mechanism for locking the chamber in place for firing is so weak that it wears down rapidly, but even when new it cannot prevent the chamber from rolling out of position, so misfires tend to be very high with either model of this gun. Sometimes the reliability of the first shot can be helped a bit by firing in single action rather than double. Very few gunsmiths bother trying to repair these things, especially since, as parts are not imported into the USA, the gunsmith would have to manufacture his own parts. That will cost more than buying a new gun.
Patrol
Although a few of these meaty police style revolvers with four inch barrels were made in .22 caliber, they broke down so quickly that normally you’ll only find the stronger .380 caliber (9mm) models still in use, in 4” and 6” barrel lengths
Ö Loading – To load the Patrol style revolver, you will need to swing out the revolving chamber. Look at the left side of the gun and you will see a trumpet shaped piece of metal on the frame between the chamber and the hammer (above the trigger.) This “trumpet” slides back (towards the hammer), which releases the revolving chamber. At the same time, push the chamber from the right side and it should drop over to the left. Now simply fill the open holes in the chamber. To unload, repeat the steps, and once the cylinder is out locate the ejector rod, which is an extension of the central axis pin. Push on the rod and it will lift the blanks slightly from the chamber.
Ö Operating – Either pull the hammer back and then squeeze the trigger or simply squeeze the trigger. Most people will be able to pull the hammer using the thumb pad while maintaining a normal grip. Others, with weaker hands or shorter thumbs, will have to relax their grip and ease their thumb around, hooking it over the hammer in order to draw it back. Always keep your finger outside of the trigger guard while pulling the hammer.
Ö Troubleshooting – There is not much that goes wrong with these pistols until they physically break down, at which point you’ll need to get someone to attempt a repair. Specific repair parts are not imported, but many of the parts are very similar to others that are available for real guns, so on occasion a fix can be done.
Semi-Automatic Pistols
Semi-auto’s are by their nature extremely unreliable, even the very expensive ones. You should always have a back-up sound ready.
Ö Loading – The blanks are housed in a clip that fits inside of the grip of the pistol, so you have to load the clip first, then load the gun. There is either a release catch at the base of the grip, or a release button near the left side of the trigger. Drop out the clip and feed in the blanks from the top. Look at the top of the clip and you’ll see that the opening is tapered, and that there is a plate inside. Press down on that plate to feel how it is pushed up against the tapered opening by a rectangular spring that runs the length of the clip. You’re going to fill the clip by taking one blank, laying it flat but offset slightly forward against the plate, pushing it down and then sliding it in until the thin part of the taper holds the blank on its own. Continue with each successive round: push then slide, push then slide, push then slide. As the clip fills and the spring compresses, it will get harder to do, but you should be able to get at least seven blanks in the clip, more on a larger pistol. Then return the clip into the gun by sliding this clip up into the grip.
Ö Operating – As with any firearm, always keep your finger outside of the trigger guard until you are ready to fire. Although the clip is loaded, the first round needs to be “chambered-up”, or actually entered into the chamber in the firing position. While holding the gun firmly in the right hand, grab the top part of the gun with the left and gently but firmly work it once toward you and then back to its normal position. Don’t let go of the carriage and let it snap back into place as they do in the movies. As a matter of fact, never force the action on a semi-auto, but always gently and firmly guide the moving parts where they need to go. NOTE: the pistol is now cocked; if you squeeze the trigger now the gun will fire, unload the spent blank, load the next round and re-cock the gun, all automatically. On models where the hammer is exposed, you have the option of gently easing the hammer down if you don’t need to fire immediately, but in order to do that you have to very gently and oh so slightly squeeze the trigger. On these models, remember to pull the hammer back again before you squeeze the trigger or the gun won’t fire. Because all of this can lead to an accidental shot, practice this gentle lowering of the hammer many times first with the gun empty.
To unload: simply remove the clip, but remember that you may still have one live round in the chamber ready to fire. To remove this one, gently work the carriage of the pistol back and forth two or three times. The blank should pop out up and to the right of the gun.
The blanks are closed with crosshatched plastic ends. These ends normally just crack open when the blank is fired, but sometimes a little bit melts during the blast and is shot into the blocked barrel. Not enough to see, but over the course of several shows enough to build up inside the chamber and the barrel. It can be enough to cause the blanks to jam inside the firing chamber and not eject after the shot.
When cleaning, be sure to squirt some WD-40 into the chamber and work a bottle brush inside to loosen anything that might get in the way of where the blank has to travel.
Ö Troubleshooting – Several things can go wrong, and unlike revolvers there isn’t much that the actor can do about it while onstage. Semi-automatics, even the real ones that the police use, are notoriously prone to jamming. NOTE: Always remove the clip before inspecting or working on the pistol.
* Stovepiping – this is where the round being brought up from the clip gets tossed out of alignment and starts to move sideways into the chamber, quickly jamming the works. The carriage will remain partly open during a stovepipe. Very rarely the actor can gently move the carriage back and forth and the jammed blank will release and fall out of the gun, but this works best when the gun is held upside down, and that isn’t very practical onstage. Most of the time the gun is simply not usable. It will have to be taken offstage where you can dig out the jammed round with a knife or screwdriver.
* Failure to eject prior round. When a blank is fired, the brass often expands slightly. If it expands too much, the cartridge stays jammed in the chamber. Unfortunately, the rest of the gun doesn’t know that, and it busily brings in a new blank that it tries to force into the space occupied by the spent round, further jamming it in the barrel. The actor’s reaction is to keep working the action back and forth, which does nothing but make the matter worse. The gun will have to be taken offstage and the rounds removed.
* Failure to seat fully in chamber. You’ll know that this is happening when the round goes into the chamber, you squeeze the trigger, and nothing goes bang even though the hammer has dropped. Then, without working the action, you pull the hammer back and fire again, and this time the blank fires just fine. What is happening is that the blank is not seating fully into the chamber after it comes up from the clip. The first hammer drop pushes the blank all the way into the chamber, and the second drop of the hammer finally fires the blank. If this happens more than once, it means that the chamber probably has some debris that is slightly blocking the chamber. Clean it out thoroughly and you are ready to go.
Two Shot Derringer
Ö Loading – Look at the right side of the gun and you will see a black latch lever just above the trigger. Turning this lever down and forward will release the barrels. The barrels pivot up near the hammer, so just swing them up and you will see the two holes into which you will place the blanks. Be sure to load both barrels so you won’t have to worry about a misfire. I suggest using the smallest blank available, as the gun cannot handle the vibrations from repeated firings of heavier loads.
Ö Operating – As this is a single-action pistol, you’ll need to pull the hammer back and then squeeze the trigger. Note that the discharge on this pistol is vented to the top of the gun, not to the side.
Ö Troubleshooting – This replica is supposed to fire a second shot by automatically moving the firing plate to a new position after the first shot, but we’ve found that the reliability of the system on these replicas leaves much to be desired. Treat it as a single shot pistol, but load both chambers so you won’t have to worry about a misfire. Sometimes that means that both chambers will fire at the same time, but the amount of sound is still low due to the very small blanks that are normally used in these props. And as the construction of these things tends to be a bit loose anyway, you might want to stick to the smallest blank you can find so as to reduce the pounding the gun gets from the blast.