cocking gun

A general term for a variety of actions used to chamber/prime firearms before firing them. This may include:

• Manually pulling back the hammer of a revolver
• Racking the slide of a semi-automatic handgun
• Racking the slide of a pump action shotgun
• Cycling the bolt of a bolt action rifle

Examples

Usually performed after loading a magazine to chamber the first round, but can also forcibly remove an existing round or clear a jam. May also depict a handgun slide being forced back during normal operation for dramatic effect.

See Also

• locked slide
• reloading

The following tags are aliased to this tag: racking_slide (learn more).