Will a dropped gun fire?

No.
Even if the shock knocked the hammer off the sear at full-****, it would fall to half-**** and not go off... the trigger has to be held back until the hammer strikes..
Most modern firearms have multiple safeties anyway, e.g the lever on a Glock trigger, or the grip safety on a 1911.
 
Le_Petit_Lapin said:
You mean that pistols don't have unlimited size clips...? :(
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Conscript said:
Magazines ;)
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I have fired many real weapons in my time, I have yet to see a dropped weapon go off. Not that such a thing would be allowed to occur in my situation. A modern rifle, such as the SA80 mkII have safetly features which prevent this.

Besides, a gun is a fairly large thing, such as GPMG, Bren or Howitzer and I would not like to drop one of those. The HE shells alone for a 105mm weigh 35 lbs.
 
It's pretty much required by law in many countries that all new weapons have some sort of safety mechanism preventing it from firing when dropped or handled rough so I would imagine this is becoming increasingly rare. Old shotguns however... completely different story..
 
The manufacturers specifically test their weapons so that they do *not* go off when dropped.

However, in some competitions, the competitors will modify their firearm's mechanism, so that it takes nothing but a feather light touch to engage the trigger. This is illegal in many places, and has been the cause of a significant number of accidents. Another side effect is double firing, particularly with pistols.
 
my friend nearly shot himself in the head a couple of weeks ago. His rifle was leaning on the car that he was shooting from, he was walking back to the car after closing a gate and the rifle began to slip, so he reached to grab it, in doing so took off the safety. It hit the floor and it went off about 3 inches from his face, straight up into the air.
 
BigglesPiP said:
If you're into live firing at all, then you assume that it will.
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^

and you make damn well sure you aren't going to drop it in the first place!

The main reason for concern when dropping a firearm is not that it will go off though, it's that you'll get dirt in the barrel, or distort it enough to cause a breach explosion (which = face full of fire)
 
A bolted rifle with a hair trigger would be something not to experiment to see if it would :)
Besides in prone, you're not going to drop it and other than that, you'd use a saftey tag in the breach.

To answer the question though, yes, some can.
 
The WW2 Sten gun had an unfortunate ability to blatt out its entire magazine if dropped when cocked. Also use of same with modern day ammunition (different powder loads I'm guessing) has been known to fire the whole magazine after you pull the trigger and release - the increased charge causes the bolt doodad to cycle rounds into the breech and fire. Excess recoil or something.
EDIT: open bolt was the problem
 
Rebelius said:
You mean you can't just put a silencer on an assault rifle and make it quiet?
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Eugh, I hate that in movies and games (especially supposedly realistic ones). There's a lot more to the effective use of a supressor than just screwing it on.

Plus their effectiveness is ridiculously exaggerated most of the time; they don't tend to silence anything.
 
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