of what use is it?

Its absurd, but you have to be familiar with the firearm to pull it off.

Being that most semi auto issues are operator error.......it makes some sense to understand the mechanical workings of a pistol.

There are many accounts of soldiers in combat having to disassemble their guns in the dark and occasionally while blind after the guns become clogged or disabled. Aside from that it is a skill set with a very limited applicability in the LEO or citizen (or spy) realm IMO.

Familiarity mitigates operational and maintenance errors.

also it’s a fun/interesting/ thingy to keep you engaged in whatever media you are consuming.

Theatrics, it’s common in…well, theater.

I'd have better odds of success with a Glock rather than a 1911 and I'd rather not have a idiot scratch from trying.

roval said:

is it ever done in the military? to what end?

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Some, this varies depending which military is being spoken of.

The "military end" is typically in building "group identity"--"we" can all do this thing (or some portion of it) and that makes "us" different from "not us."

There's some practical effect, too. If you trip and fall into a muddy trench in the dark (a lot easier to trip in the dark, too, especially into a creek, mud hole, or trench). So, while having any number of other distractions to keep your attention upon, you may need to wash crud out of a firing pin channel, or clear scum, vines, etc., out of bolt lugs, or some similar thing.

The ability to do this as "reflex" while under fires, or in the midst of hostiles, or not getting left behind your Squad or Section has value.

Now, how much value winds up being a thing that can be argued. And argued endlessly.

Having been intermittently blind for nine months as a child, I learned to do many things by touch and sound.
I still retain most of those skills.
I've never applied these abilities to firearms, though.

roval said:

watching movies or reading novels, the hero or heroine being trained in firearms could " disassemble and reassemble any make of handgun in the dark" ( i think Jason Bourne) or show the character dissasembling and reassembling the firearm with a blindfold as part of their firearms training. apart from a fun contest what use will this be for?
is it ever done in the military? to what end?

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I used to bet my Platoon Sergeant I could do it in under 5 minutes and if I did I got the day off.

Got a lot of days off that way.

Every so often for platoon training they'd have an M60, an M16 and an M1911 in pieces in a pile on a table and we had to separate the parts and reassemble them.

roval said:

i would think you are more at risk of losing some of the parts as it may roll away or get lost in mud in the dark but i guess if you have no choice you have to do it.

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Under fire you have to at least try. The other option is to have a gun that for sure won't work.

CDW4ME said:

I'd have better odds of success with a Glock rather than a 1911 and I'd rather not have a idiot scratch from trying.

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I've never even considered doing a disassembly/reassembly without looking......so I tried it, and at least with my gun it's pretty easy just not real quick since your reinstalling the slide release by feel.

roval said:

that's cool. is it just to build the utmost in familiarity then?

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Probably. No one ever specifically said that. I always assumed they did it to jerk our chain

I always practice assembling my 1911 hanging upside down six feet off the floor.
That way if I’m ever caught in a trap in the jungle I’ll have something to do while I wait.

I spent 23 years in the military (1987-2010), most of it as a SF weapons sgt., to include being a instructor at the course that produces SF weapons sgts. We never did this. It sounds like an exercise that would likely result in lost/launched gun parts, and possibly broken weapons- at least the possibility of an eye injury from a launched part would be mitigated. A test that we did do when I went through training was called the "pile test", where a handgun, SMG, rifle, and MG were fully disassembled, placed in a mixed up pile, and the student was required to fully assemble 3 out of 4 to pass, with a time limit. I had a 1911, a M3 SMG, a Garand, and a M1919A6 MG (WITH headspace set)- over 100 individual parts. I believe the time was 20 minutes. I thought this test was stupid when we did it and I still think it was stupid. When I went to work there years later, it had been removed from the course.

I've never disassembled anything blindfolded, but i know for a fact I've disassembled my SKS without looking. That's just a force of habit, I'm very familiar with my rifle.

When I bought it, I didn't have any ammo. Had scrounged up about $450 to specifically buy an SKS. I wanted nothing more in the world at that time. Guy named Wes sold it to me, showed me the works. We had a long conversation about life and all, one of those one of conversations you'll most certainly never forget. Sold it to me like a week before the pandemic began.

Back when I was working for Our Crazy Uncle the Company billeted next to mine was run by a hard horse Captain.

I remember watching them do M16 disassembly and reassembly with a pillow case over their heads.

Of course, I also watched them march off and straggle back, in full MOPP gear, combat loaded, on a reported 15 mile stroll on a 90 degree summer day.

Never blindfolded, but I did have to do it with an M16, in a tent, full of teargas, wearing a leaky gas mask. That count?

Not blindfolded, but those Russian kids are definitely getting a different life experience than kids here.

We had to be able to do an M16 in complete dark long ago when I was in the US Army. I guess the more recent fellows did not have to do it, but we surely did.

How long does it take to do this blindfolded or in the dark? I know how long it takes me to assemble one in the light of day. It must have been a long night…

We did it in the army in the late 70's, at least down to replacing the firing pin on m16's.

Doing a weapon strip for time increases familiarity with the weapon. Doing it blindfolded/in the dark/hanging upside down is just bragging rights. For most Army infantry, field stripping an M4/M16 in two minutes (one for disassemble and one for reassemble) is a pretty typical standard.