If you watch action films at least from time to time, not to mention an in-depth knowledge of small arms, then you have probably seen the shutter delay. True, not everyone knows what it looks like, what it is for, what advantages and disadvantages it provides. Such ignorance should be eliminated.
What is this?
When firing from different types of automatic and semi-automatic weapons (both pistols and machine guns, shotguns), the bolt moves back with each shot. In this case, the spent cartridge case is ejected, the hammer is cocked (do not confuse it with the trigger), and a new cartridge is sent to the barrel. This happens as long as there are ammo in the magazine.
As soon as the last one is fired, the bolt does not return to its original position, but seems to get stuck in place. This is the shutter lag.
On different types of weapons, it is carried out in different ways, and sometimes it is not carried out at all. Among the pistols, one can cite the Makarov pistol, TT, HK4, "Mauser M1910", "Beretta M1934", among submachine guns - the Slovak "Scorpio", and amongassault rifles - M16 and subsequent modifications, as well as AK-12.
In some modern weapons, the slide delay is even modified by a special mechanism that ejects the magazine after the last cartridge has been sent to the barrel. This is not very convenient (during intensive movement during the battle, it is not always possible to find a lost magazine), but it saves an extra second - you do not need to first detach an empty magazine to insert a full one. But this is found in relatively few weapons.
What do you need
What is the purpose of the shutter delay? Usually, in order to send a cartridge to the store, it is necessary to distort the shutter. It would seem - no problem, because a trained person takes a fraction of a second. However, as practice shows, in battle this can become a real obstacle. On the one hand, a person may simply be confused and not understand why the machine, into which a full magazine is inserted, refuses to shoot. On the other hand, on some types of weapons it is quite difficult to distort the shutter, for example, in gloves. A striking example is the well-known M4. With combat "shaking" it can be quite difficult to distort the shutter.
It is to solve this problem that the shutter delay is used. To send a new cartridge into the barrel, you do not need to distort the shutter. Some weapons are automatically removed from the delay as soon as a new magazine is inserted into them - the most convenient, but at the same time difficult option. In other typesyou need to press a specially provided button that removes the weapon from the shutter delay.
That is, the fighter saves a fraction of a second to pull the shutter. In modern fleeting battles that take place not in forests or fields, but in cities or even buildings, such time savings may well save a person's life.
An additional function is to signal to the shooter that the cartridges have run out and a new magazine needs to be inserted, and not keep pulling the trigger, hoping to fire a few more shots.
Advantages and disadvantages
What is the advantage of the PM, TT, AK-12 and other types of weapons, it is already clear from the above.
Alas, there is a downside. It consists in the accidental ingress of foreign objects (garbage, dirt, dust) into an open mechanism - not protected, as usual, by a shutter.
The fact is that at the moment when the store is empty, and the fighter loses the opportunity to fire further, the best thing he can do is move to cover, fall, or at least crouch, making it difficult for the enemy to fire. It is at such moments that it is very difficult to ensure that the weapon is protected from dirt and debris. And this may well lead to the fact that it simply jams. Moreover, it can only be put in order by partial or even complete disassembly - in battle there will simply be no time for this.
However, this happens relatively rarely, so the advantages of the shutter delay (saving time when reloading and the messageempty magazine arrow) outweigh the only drawback.
In conclusion
This article describes what a slide lag is, in which of the most famous types of weapons it occurs. Now you have an idea about the main pros and cons of such a constructive solution.
