"Lock and Load"?

[Fast Frank]

I was thinking about this term when I heard somebody say it the other day at the gun show.

Sure, we all know what it means... or do we?

I think there's something missing in this saying.

Yeah, we know that LOAD means "Put bullets in the gun".

And turning the safety on LOCKs the slide closed on my .45, right?

But wait a minute... if I lock it first, I can't load it!

I'm hoping that somebody here knows where this term originated from, and can tell us why it's not "Load and Lock".

What about it? Anybody know?

 

[Nate1778]

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/lock_and_load

 

[harmonic]

What I heard somewhere is that the term came from WW2 with the M1 Garand.

With that weapon, you lock the bolt open by pulling it back. Then you load the rounds via a clip.

Hence, lock and load.

 

[Vern Humphrey]

"Lock and load" means to engage the safety lock and load your weapon. It applies to rifles -- with the M1903 Springfield, the M1 Garand, the M14 and the M16 it is possible to engage the safety lock (at half safe with the M1903) before loading the rifle.

 

[rcmodel]

It could even go back to cap & ball or flintlock days.

You must put the lock on half cock before loading and applying the cap to the nipple or priming the pan with powder.

rc

 

[Hungry Seagull]

Or shell into the chamber of shotgun, and then close the action and load the tube of your magazine.

All with safety on of course.

 

[Rellian]

It could even go back to cap & ball or flintlock days.

somehow I doubt Washington bellowed out "Lock and Load boys" before they embarked across the Delaware....

 

[rcmodel]

Don't think it has anything at all to do with shotguns.

It was a common term in the Army in 1964 with M-1's & M-14's, and I'm sure well before that as Vern mentioned.

But like I said, I would not be greatly surprised of George Washington's troops were not "Locking & Loading" at Valley Forge either.

rc

 

[Hungry Seagull]

Must be a automatic weapons thing then.

GW needed to do something around that season to make a victory to save the cause. Otherwise all would have been lost. Grabbing a bunch of Hessians did it.

Valley Forge was a place of great struggle, sadness, sickness and so on etc ad nauseum. But they came out of there and never looked back again. I visited that place once. That would be enough for me.

Alot of the good things the USA rides on today came from those days 200+ years ago. We should be thankful for what they have done for us.

 

[yeti]

somehow I doubt Washington bellowed out "Lock and Load boys" before they embarked across the Delaware....

Washington, no, but Henry Knox.........

 

[Rellian]

washington, no, but henry knox.........

lol

 

[Rellian]

Seriously,
I have no doubt that the practice is much older than the term, yet the OP was about the terminology. In all my research into the revolution did I ever come across the term 'Lock and Load'. Whatever they may or may not have practiced, they did not say it like that.
(sorry... I am a bit of a purist)

 

[rcmodel]

Actually it was Von Steuben who screamed in his best drill Sargent voice:

'Schloss und Beanspruchung!'

rc

 

[Rellian]

ahhh, yaahh.... Das is Korrekt!

 

[Shadow 7D]

With the M-4 and my unit, it was locking the bolt to the rear and loading a full mag, placing you on condition yellow (not ccw alert states), where you could pull the charging handle, or press the bolt hold open, and be ready to fire. Safeties were on fire.

 

[SquirrelNuts]

somehow I doubt Washington bellowed out "Lock and Load boys" before they embarked across the Delaware....

Washington had a Ma Deuce on his boat, so you are correct. The term lock and load would not have applied.

 

[Rellian]

Washington had a Ma Deuce on his boat, so you are correct. The term lock and load would not have applied

great!.... I've got soda all over my keyboard!

 

[61chalk]

My memory recalls "Lock", your 30rd magazine(M16, you pushed up the mag, until it locked into place) an "Load" was pulling back handle an chambering the first round.."Lock an Load your 30rd magazine!!!"...those were the days....

 

[Jim K]

The term originated on military rifle ranges, when shooters are instructed to load the rifle but to make it safe until the order to fire is given.

In the days of the Krag and M1903, the command was "LOAD AND LOCK", load the rifle then "lock" the safety.

That changed with the M1 rifle, which could be loaded with the safety on, so it became "LOCK AND LOAD." That has remained, since the M14 and M16 rifles can also be loaded with the safety engaged. It has nothing to do with "locking" the magazine or the bolt.

I have not heard of any usage of the phrase for guns older than the Krag, and would appreciate hearing valid references dating earlier.

Jim

 

[danbrew]

it means that you're getting ready to go into harm's way on behalf of your country.

 

[Jim K]

Only if the rifle range at Ft. Jackson is in harm's way. No one would be silly enough to be barking range orders in combat.

Jim

 

[Vern Humphrey]

Washington had a Ma Deuce on his boat, so you are correct. The term lock and load would not have applied.

The Ma Deuce has to be "double loaded" -- you have to cycle the action twice to put a round into firing position. George would have had them double load, but safety the gun with a cartridge case shoved between the butterfly triggers and the recoil buffer.

 

[john44402]

61chalk, same memory here.

I remember it as "Lock and load one 20 (or 30) round magazine".

Except, the bolt was already to the rear on our M16's. So we "locked" the magazine in, and "loaded" by releasing the bolt, chambering a round.

 

[John-Melb]

I think the term goes back much further than that.

Remember, flintlocks were primed (with powder from a paper cartridge) and the weapon put on half cock, prior to dumping the remander of the cartridge down the barrel and drawing the ramrod.

 

[Rellian]

The mechanisms existed yes.... but that does not mean they would look at it as such or even use the cadencial assonance in the way we do. The implication of lock and load for us is two distinct steps, for them even immediate preparation was a bit more complex.
They used terms like priming pan, and frizzen. In their parlance it would be more accurate to say "prime and ram", or even "ram and cram" (if you're really looking for the catchy phrase here) than "lock and load". (The actual command given by the officer was "Prime and load"). Loading for them was a series of several steps as opposed to our seating a single magazine. 'Lock and Load' is a rather (historically speaking) modern term in truth. We could say of the minuet men that "they were ready, locked and loaded". But I really do not believe they ever would have said it of themselves.