Dumb question, would this work?

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MFC Bastion

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I have no handguns yet to try this on and I wouldn't want to at the range because it sounds like a really stupid idea anyway, but with that said:

If the slide is locked back, you insert a magazine, hold down the trigger, and then unlock the slide- would it fire?

My limited experience with firearms leads me to think that either it would fire as soon as it went into battery, or that you wouldn't be able to pull the trigger with the slide locked back.

Probably pointless and not very safe, but it would sure look cool in a movie...
 
No.

the disconnector prevents that from happening on nearly every auto; otherwise, it would be a runaway machine pistol... make sense?
 
haha, I read this thread and didn't even think about the full auto.

If you held the trigger and it fired again after the action cycled that would be just like full auto.
 
MFC Bastion

The only weapon that comes to mind that was capable of doing that was the old Winchester Model 1897 pump shotgun. Since it didn't have a disconnector, if you held the trigger back, it would fire every time you racked the slide and chambered a fresh shell.
 
i am not aware of any pistol that will allow that, aside from the glock 18, of course. still, id advise against trying it, accidents happen.
 
In days of old, when AMU armorers and Bullseye smiths only had heavy steel triggers to use in 1911 pistols...it was common practice to hold the trigger back when releasing the slide to chamber the top round in order to prevent the trigger from bumping the disconnect and rotating the sear out of the hammer hooks...thus preventing hammer follow and sear damage when the half-cock notch grabbed it.
 
The HK P7 will fire if you holddown the squeeze cocker and trigger at the same time.
 
Add the Ithaca Model 37 to the list of shotguns with no disconnectors.

In short, no, the pistol will not fire, unless it is a select fire (full auto) handgun. Same goes with any other semiauto, be it handgun, rifle or shotgun. The only guns I know of made completely without disconnectors are open bolt MG's and SMG's and some pump action rifles and shotguns. The open bolt guns are not available for civilian ownership outside the NFA registry anymore and the pump guns are either older (50 plus years) originals or faithful reproductions of the 50-plus year old guns. The Taurus Lightning is one such pump rifle reproduction.
 
To quote 1911 Tuner In days of old, when AMU armorers and Bullseye smiths only had heavy steel triggers to use in 1911 pistols...it was common practice to hold the trigger back when releasing the slide to chamber the top round in order to prevent the trigger from bumping the disconnect and rotating the sear out of the hammer hooks...thus preventing hammer follow and sear damage when the half-cock notch grabbed it.

This was common practice, as stated, with bullseye shooters. We were also taught to hold the hammer on the 1911 when hitting the slide release.
 
Ok, thanks all! That makes a lot of sense. Hah, it never occurred to me that the action would have to cycle again after it fired!

But that's interesting about the shotguns. Would you fire it that way? It seems like there'd be situations where you need every millisecond after you pump it to get a shot off.
 
Isn't that how you check a 1911 to make sure you put it together correctly after stripping? unloaded of course.
Pull the slide back, pull and hold the trigger, release the slide the hammer should stay cocked back. If the hammer falls, take the gun apart and try again.
 
^^^Except on paintball guns it was a selling point. It's called "autotrigger" and was standard on most high-end pumps.
 
We were also taught to hold the hammer on the 1911 when hitting the slide release.
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That was done to keep the slide from dropping the hammer back onto the sear as the slide runs forward and off the hammer.

A built-in damage control feature was that when the slide is over the hammer, it's past full cock, and the hooks aren't on the sear.

The reason for it is because the hammer isn't cocked smoothly. It's slammed backward and bounces off the grip safety tang. If it fell directly onto the sear, it wouldn't take long to beat the hooks and the sear to Helen Gone. Later on, the smiths started altering the hammers to place them within just a few thousandths of an inch from the sear with the slide holding it so it would have less distance to fall...and the need to hold the hammer was eliminated.
 
winchester model 90

I've got a winchester model 90 that will fire every time when you hold the trigger down and pump the slide action.
 
But that's interesting about the shotguns. Would you fire it that way? It seems like there'd be situations where you need every millisecond after you pump it to get a shot off.
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My dad has an old Winchester shotgun like that, and he says that there was a guide(s) in Africa that would use it like that for wounded leopards. Apparently the client would shoot the leopard, and it would crawl off into deep brush, and when the guide would go after it, they would use that shotgun because the leopards would tend to leap out of nowhere, so you needed to unload it as fast as possible. I imagine in those high adrenaline situations, you could empty the tube really fast.
 
My father was given a Winchester 1897 in 16 gauge once.

He found out it was "broken", and thought "No wonder that guy gave it to me! Damned thing's broken, firin' every single time I pump the darned thing."

So he gave it away.
 
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