Can a shooter tell the difference between shooting a blank and a regular lead round?
I've never shot guns much and never a blank. (Where do you even get them?) I would think that the recoil of a real round would be much stronger than that from shooting off a blank. Is it?
2021-03-03T17:53:35Z
This was in the context of firing squads, where the story is that one of the men is issued a blank so no one knows who killed the victim. I always thought it must be a myth.
2021-03-04T13:26:32Z
It sounds like the use of blanks may occur but, if the rifleman is paying attention, he should be able to tell if he fired a blank or not.
Anonymous2021-03-04T03:31:14Z
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Yes, a blank has very little recoil compared to a normal rifle round. Yes, that is a myth.
A blank definitely has far less recoil than a round with a bullet.
I saw a YouTube video where someone picked up a M-134 Minigun and fired it with blank rounds. If you were to pick up and fire that same gun without blank rounds, you would go flying backwards and be knocked down (that gun must be mounted for it to be controllable).
The firing squad story is no myth. It was and still is being used in many countries' military and civilian law. In the US, the most recent execution by firing squad was a civilian case in Utah that occurred in 2010 and it was done just this way. However, it is not just 1 member of the firing squad being issued a blank but could be 2 or more. I also remember reading a case how only one person in the squad was issued a real cartridge. This is one of the reason why the officer-in-charge's duty is to carry out the coup de grâce if the firing squad did not kill the condemned.
As for felt recoil, the military and law-enforcemnt also has made it such that the felt recoil is less distinguishable between a real and blank cartridge. They do it by using a wax bullet and also difference in the charge/propellant which makes the difference in recoil less pronounced and so the members of the firing squad would not notice unless they have some experience and deliberately concentrate their attention to the recoil in which case they may notice the difference. But then why would anyone want to know they were the one who made the kill?
Yes you can tell a difference but if you remember a wad from a blank killed the Asian actor in The Crow. His name slips my memory at this moment but I know it.
Yes someone should be able to easily tell if they fired a blank rather than a regular .30-06 cartridge. However, I can imagine in a real firing squad situation with a lot of nervousness and adrenaline that someone who fired a regular cartridge could convince themselves they only fired a blank to keep their conscious clear.
I believe this either a myth. A blank looks visually different than a regular cartridge, so they could not fool anyone simply by issuing different ammo. They would have to preload the execution rifles and randomly hand them to the shooters, which is also firearm handling no-no.