8 Firearms Myths Hollywood Still Can't Get Enough Of

Sometimes, when watching a Hollywood action movie you could be forgiven for thinking that you were actually sitting through Harry Potter. Ammunition reproduces by magic, with hundreds of rounds being discharged without any concern for the actual contents of the magazine.

In reality, of course, the majority of automatic firearms will empty a magazine in five seconds with some sub machine guns models clocking in at two seconds flat. Hence, at the rate action heroes consume ammunition they should be shadowed by dump trucks loaded down with literally tons of the stuff.

But there is another aspect of Hollywood’s trigger-happy ways that is rarely, if ever, mentioned – heat.

With a bona fide explosion taking place in the firing chamber and hundreds of rounds being pumped downrange, the heat can quickly render the barrel hot enough to comfortably cook an egg. Fail to let that heat dissipate and you run the risk of rounds ‘cooking off,’ that is firing without the trigger being pulled, stripping the riffling from the barrel or even melting it. For this reason even machine guns are fired in 6 to 9 round bursts with 4 to 5 seconds between them.

While it is unrealistic to expect Hollywood to abandon the fireworks of bright muzzle flashes and endless sparks, film-makers can, at the very least, have someone burn themselves on one of those smoking barrels, if only for a nod to the nitpickers.