What does “Cocking the gun” actually do in movie scenes. Why wouldn’t you just pull the trigger?
In: Engineering
First off, this depends greatly on the type of gun involved. I’ll break that down after I explain your original question.
A round of ammo for a modern firearm contains a “primer”. This is a little piece in the butt of the round that contains a “percussive explosive”, meaning that if you hit it, it will explode. That explosion ignites the gun powder, and propels the bullet forward.
Your gun basically contains a little needle that slams into the primer and causes it to fire. When you “cock” the gun, are pulling back the “hammer” that will hit that needle, and putting tension on a spring that will cause the hammer to move forward and hit that needle. A mechanism engages to hold the hammer back, and pulling the trigger removes that mechanism, allowing the hammer to jump forward.
Now for the “it depends on the type of gun part”. Not all guns have an external hammer in this day and age. For example, Glocks are “striker fired”, which means that instead of normal “hammer” that you can touch, it’s all internal. Meaning that you can’t “cock” a Glock, except for when you cycle the action to load a round into the chamber. So a Glock is basically “always ready to go”, and you can’t “cock” it for dramatic effect. However, you will hear cocking sounds in a lot of movies when the character is using a Glock, because it excites the audience.
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