[benfranklin]

[ QUOTE ]
Thanks for that info.

I was watching Alias when some dude fired off a round or two, then pointed the gun a bit more, then after that he cocked the hammer back for emphasis. now THIS is useless, right? (as it should have already been cocked back from the previous shot)

What about the pumping action of a shotgun? Same deal?

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If he fired off a couple of rounds from a semi-automatic, the hammer would already be back.

If it is a revolver, the hammer stays down after every shot, and pulling the trigger moves the hammer back and then releases it. A revolver can also be manually cocked, making the trigger pull for the next shot single action, and as discussed earlier, requiring less trigger pressure. With most hand guns, a single action shot is usually more accurate than a double action because of the reduced forced necessary to pull the trigger.

A pump action shotgun must be manually pumped after every shot to eject the spend shell and feed a new one into the chamber. If you shoot it once and don't rack the slide, you can't shoot again.

When the bad guy sneaks into the room and the hero racks the slide to make that nasty sound, he either did not already have a shell in the chamber, or he just ejected a live round for sound effects.