[Gun Talk] A question about firearms

Ok, I have no firearms experience but I know some of you do and am hoping someone can satisfy a curious mind...

I've seen that a bolt action sniper rifle without a magazine can still be fired by chambering individual rounds one after the other - now, I'm basing this on a scene from The Hurt Locker (which I believe to be authentic, but unsure), so please correct me if wring. The rifle in question was a .50cal.

My question, is if this is possible with any/all other types of firearm?

For example, if you have a handgun and bullets but no clip, can you chamber a single round to fire, then chamber another etc.?

The same with an assault rifle/carbine - weapon and rounds but no mag to hold them...

Thanks SEC!

AFAIK, yes. I'm not the firearms expert you're looking for though.

Think so, yeah.

Thanks for the responses, guys!

Hopefully someone can confirm 100% either way

From what I'm reading, I'm not seeing much of a definitive answer, but it seems plausible to me. I wouldn't think that ALL guns could do it, but I seen no reason that single-loading through the ejection port wouldn't be possible on a lot of guns.

I'm guessing Art, Grey or Lemon would know. Maybe message one of them?

Most modern firearms can be loaded one round at a time if necessary, it's just more cumbersome and time consuming to do so.

A semi automatic handgun, the M9 for example, can be manually loaded one round at a time if you so desired. All it would require is to pull and or lock the slide to the rear and load the round manually. Some states such as NY and I think California require this (For example, California prohibits detachable magazines that can hold x amount of rounds. Manufacturers got around this by introducing a "Bullet button" which requires you to have a tool in order to detach said magazine, but makes it so that it's not readily able to so otherwise)

My AR15 may also be loaded, if necessary, one round at a time in the event I do not have any magazines or the ones I currently have in my possession have been damaged. It would just be much more difficult to operate the firearm in that manner as it was not intended to function that way.

There are many hunting rifles out there that do not have an internal magazine, they are typically used because of their simplicity and inherent accuracy (Less moving parts means less that could interfere with barrel harmonics among many other factors that affect the firearms accuracy)

Old rifles such as the Springfield M1903, Kar98(k), M91/30 Mosin Nagant all have integral magazines, the Lee Enfield Mk. I and it's associated variants being the only exception having a 10 round detachable magazine.

All of these rifles may be loaded one round and fired one round at a time. In fact this was the US doctrine prior to WWI and to some extent during WWI. Soldiers were to use the rounds loaded into their magazines as a last resort, such as in the case of being over run by a hostile force. Otherwise they were trained and instructed to only fire once, load a new round manually and repeat the process.

The Lee Enfield' detachable magazine actually had a small chain that was fixed to it and the rifle since the powers that be during the time was afraid that the soldier would drop and lose the magazine.
Hope this answered you question

Art, that's amazing - thank you so much for taking the time out to post all that!

Very interesting read and totally answered my question and then some, thanks again

Any time man, I'm always glad to help answer questions about firearms, in fact, I encourage people to educate themselves about them. There is a lot of fear in the public eyes when it comes to firearms in general, if I can dispel any of that, then I'd gladly go through thousands of questions and do my best to answer them if not point you to someone who could answer said question.

I want to answer too!


...Yes.

Ha, thanks Metal! Your contribution is appreciated as well

Art, that's a great attitude - I'll be sure to throw any more questions your way

...It can...but that is just unnecessary......and takes way to long to put rounds down the range.