Most of the times, the guns the are shooting show no signs of any recoil.

Can they make blank ammo that does indeed recoil ?
and they just choose not to use it.

Or does the lack of a projectile prohibit recoil ?

The lack of a projectile severely diminishes recoil. There's no projectile being pushed forward, so therefore no Newtonian "equal and opposite reaction" in the rearward direction, after all.

You still get a little bit of "felt recoil" on some semiauto blank guns specially set up to cycle through the pressure of the blank, due to the mass of the slide or bolt moving back and forth, but it's not nearly the same as firing a real bullet.

And nowadays, the new trend is to not even use blanks any more. Many shows/films these days use completely non-firing prop guns, sometimes with electrically-actuated moving slides or the like. The muzzle flashes and gunshots are then added in during post-production, with overdubbed sound effects and CGI digital muzzle flashes. This is safer than trying to rely on blanks, with the accompanying safety concerns. And this also lets you set up close-range gunshots, like all the contact-distance body and head shots in the John Wick films, which would be harder to do safely with blanks. Not to mention not having to deal with all the random spent blank casings littering the set while you're trying to do carefully choreographed stunts in the midst of the shootout.

quote:

Most of the times, the guns the are shooting show no signs of any recoil.

What I think you're see more and more of is the gun not actually using blanks at all - just the sounds effects of a shot and pyrotechnics to simulate hits.

And example that comes to mind is the gunplay in The Dark Knight Rises.
(USP in the plane at the beginning, the Stock Exchange scene, etc.)

Like Rogue said, a proper blank will cycle the slide and give the appearance of a gunshot.

EDIT - he beat me to it while I was typing.

I believe even the real blank firing movie guns are modified with lightened slides and/or lightened springs to be able to cycle properly with blanks.

quote:

Originally posted by Snake207:
and pyrotechnics to simulate hits.

Squibs are even on their way out. Most bullet impacts, on actors as well as scenery, are done digitally these days too.

Much easier to coordinate and synchronize, and more realistic looking.

quote:

Originally posted by Dwill104:
I believe even the real blank firing movie guns are modified with lightened slides and/or lightened springs to be able to cycle properly with blanks.

Correct for semiautos. With the barrel completely or almost completely occluded, so the pressure of the blank is funneled towards moving the slide or bolt rearward. They're also commonly modified to straight blowback.

Might have got one right, Harry Callahans 44 shows recoil in the range scene of Magnum Force..




Link to original video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gs8AqzN9Ga4

I never caught that before,
Not a .44 special but a " light special"

That designation has me curious

"light special" AKA "cowboy loads?"

I miss the days of the old Westerns where every shot was a ricochet. Even the ones that end up in the bad guy.

quote:

Originally posted by bendable:
I never caught that before,
Not a .44 special but a " light special"

That designation has me curious

I remember that comment well because it destroyed the entire series for me*: The “most powerful handgun in the world,” and now you’re not shooting full power loads, but powderpuff handloads‽

Sad, just sad.


* Well, almost. It was an interesting touch to include that sort of detail in a movie like that, so I forgave them a little.

quote:

I remember that comment well because it destroyed the entire series for me*: The “most powerful handgun in the world,” and now you’re not shooting full power loads, but powderpuff handloads‽

Well, he obviously didn't want to blow the guy's head clean off.

Friends don't let Actors play with Prop Guns:

The untimely death of actor Jon-Erik Hexum



On October 12, 1984, the cast and crew of Cover Up were filming the seventh episode of the series, "Golden Opportunity," on Stage 17 of the 20th Century Fox lot. One of the scenes filmed that day called for Hexum's character to load bullets into a .44 Magnum handgun, so he was provided with a functional gun and blanks. When the scene did not play as the director wanted it to in the master shot, there was a delay in filming.

Hexum became restless and impatient during the delay and began playing around to lighten the mood. He had unloaded all but one (blank) round, spun it, and—simulating Russian roulette—he put the revolver to his right temple and pulled the trigger,[7] apparently unaware of the danger. Blanks use paper or plastic wadding to seal gunpowder into the cartridge, and this wadding is propelled from the barrel of the gun with enough force to cause injury if the weapon is fired within a few feet of the body, particularly a vulnerable spot, such as the temple or the eye.

At a close enough range, the effect of the powder gasses is a small explosion, so although the paper wadding in the blank that Hexum discharged did not penetrate his skull, there was enough blunt force trauma to shatter a quarter-sized piece of his skull and propel the pieces into his brain, causing massive hemorrhaging.[2][8] Hexum was rushed to Beverly Hills Medical Center, where he underwent five hours of surgery to repair his wounds.[8] On October 18, aged 26, six days after the accident, Hexum was declared brain dead.

quote:

Can they make blank ammo that does indeed recoil ?
and they just choose not to use it.

In a blank cartridge, the only mass to generate recoil is in the negligible mass of the wad and the almost infinitesimal mass of the powder charge. You'd have to put a projectile in it to give the necessary mass, and then it wouldn't be a blank.

quote:

Or does the lack of a projectile prohibit recoil ?

Yes.

Heck, I can simulate recoil with a finger gun; why can't they?
I have seen attempts at depicting recoil movement in some movies. Saving Private Ryan had a bit, but not fully realistic.

Bruce Lees son was killed from a blank gun as well if I remember right.

I have been seeing a lot of airsoft guns starting to get used as well for both tv and movies. The gas blowback guns cycle the slide and do have a small amount of recoil.

quote:

Originally posted by sigfreund:
Heck, I can simulate recoil with a finger gun; why can't they?

Probably because these ‘stars’ have never experienced the recoil of a real firearm.

Dig Clint in Where Eagles Dare.


Broadsword Calling Danny Boy

You have to suspend your disbelief a little when he dual-wields the MP40s at 1:53. If the cartridges were real, the muzzle climb (from only holding the gun with one hand at the rear) would have sent more shots into the ceiling than the Germans.

How come Harry isn't deaf? They're unloading 357 Magnums downrange in a confined space and he's got no ear protection.

Rookie mistake.

quote:

Originally posted by egregore:
In a blank cartridge, the only mass to generate recoil is in the negligible mass of the wad and the almost infinitesimal mass of the powder charge. You'd have to put a projectile in it to give the necessary mass, and then it wouldn't be a blank.

I don't load blanks, but in my real cartridges, the powder charge is more than 1/10 the weight of the bullet. Its momentum adds significantly to the felt recoil (as well as the enormous muzzle flash!).

flashguy

quote:

Originally posted by PakRatJR:
Bruce Lees son was killed from a blank gun as well if I remember right.

Something like that. Lee was killed by a squib round, created by the prop crew foolishly manufacturing their own dummy cartridges from live rounds for a previous scene that showed the gun being loaded. They just pulled the bullet, dumped the propellant charge, and reinstalled the bullet, leaving the live primer. Subsequently the hammer was dropped on one of these rounds, with the primer charge being just strong enough to lodge the bullet into the barrel. No-one had the foresight to pull the squib.

In the final scene, the gun was loaded with .44 Magnum blanks, i.e. full power cartridges with primer, propellant, but no bullet. As soon as the gun was discharged at Lee, the squib became for all intents and purposes a nearly full power Magnum round, striking him in the abdomen and subsequently killing him.

quote:

Originally posted by kkina:

Something like that. Lee was killed by a squib round, created by the prop crew foolishly manufacturing their own dummy cartridges from live rounds for a previous scene that showed the gun being loaded. They just pulled the bullet, dumped the propellant charge, and reinstalled the bullet, leaving the live primer. Subsequently the hammer was dropped on one of these rounds, with the primer charge being just strong enough to lodge the bullet into the barrel. No-one had the foresight to pull the squib.

In the final scene, the gun was loaded with .44 Magnum blanks, i.e. full power cartridges with primer, propellant, but no bullet. As soon as the gun was discharged at Lee, the squib became for all intents and purposes a nearly full power Magnum round, striking him in the abdomen and subsequently killing him.

Thanks, I knew there was a "odd" thing about it but couldn't remember what it was