Lock and Load

[brown dog]

"Syria air strikes: US still 'locked and loaded' for new chemical attacks - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-43771840 "

 

'Lock n Load'  has always struck me as a nonsensical term, and now the White House is using it.

For modern small arms, well, just about any weapon, unless describing a make-safe, it's 'back to front'.

Wikipedia gives a flintlock cannon report as a possible origin (ie reporting guns ready: The guns have their locks fitted and have been loaded), or a John Wayne film putting it into modern parlance based on Garand range orders.

Anyone?

 

 

 

[Reloader54]

I associate "lock and load" with the current Hornady range of products. 

a more accurate term might be "cocked and locked"   like we used to have with 1911 s/a pistols back in the good ol' days.

 

[VarmLR]

John Wayne to one side...

Lock and load to me has several connotations...the most obvious being in relation to flintlock muskets which are described as locked (cocked) and loaded as ready to fire.  However, I have heard the term relating to "locking" of magazines in a mag well prior to loading.  We never used that term in the British Army where loading a magazine was....errr... loading a magazine.

Back to John Wayne...I've heard this used a number of times in relation to the Garand where the cocking lever had to be locked back before inserting a fresh clip of rounds, hence lock and load.  I can see this as an order being barked out more than I can for a musketeer to bother to shout out "locked and loaded!" or an order to lock and load given (surely it would be just to "make ready" or to "load"?)

There's a few naval uses too pertaining to the device used to remotely fire a cannon by pulling a cord, called a gunlock, although earlier naval tradition was to use a lighted taper on the end of a pole, or a Lintstock, which could also be used.  The response to an order to make ready may have originated where the gun operator shouts "locked and loaded" where a lintstock was used in place of the gunlock to confirm that the cannon was ready to fire.

[Ballistol]

I always associated it with the M1 Garand, which was my first rifle, but after a quick search I came across this saying that it actually originated with the Ma Deuce. In itself, it seems quite plausible. 

“The M2 Browning .50 Caliber Machine Gun, which started manufacture just prior to the end of WWI. The operating instructions for the M2 - were to lock the bolt latch release with the bolt latch release lock (located on the recoil buffer) before loading the gun by cycling the cocking handle. If you do not lock the bolt latch release before loading, the bolt is captured to the rear by the bolt latch, as for single shot operation, and does not actually load a round. While many people falsely attribute "lock and load" to the Garand, the M2 machine gun (and "lock and load") predates the Garand by over 20 years.”

There are several historical interpretations of its origin, and I suppose we will never know for sure, it has many parallels to “The whole 9 yards” which has several explanations to its origin.

[bradders]

Lock and Load makes perfect sense when you understand American Military terminology

Lock: Apply safety selector to safe

Load: Load and make ready

It means that you never have the weapon in  condition where there is a live round chambered with the safety set to off/fire.

I see it all the time where people load and make ready/chamber a live round and then set the safety catch/selector to safe...after the round is chambered

It is a sensible approach to minimise mishaps

[bradders]

On 15/04/2018 at 1:53 PM, Reloader54 said:

I associate "lock and load" with the current Hornady range of products. 

a more accurate term might be "cocked and locked"   like we used to have with 1911 s/a pistols back in the good ol' days.

 

You can't Lock and Load a 1911 in the way I describe, and they are inherently more unsafe due to that

[Kalahari]

I always thought it was from the navy days of muzzle loading flintlock cannon. The lock was always kept wrapped up away from the gun so it would not get rusty. So it was lock (screw the lock into place) and load.

 

Probably completely wrong though.

 

David.

[Reloader54]

43 minutes ago, bradders said:

You can't Lock and Load a 1911 in the way I describe, and they are inherently more unsafe due to that

maybe I should have said  "condition 1"  

 

[brown dog]

11 hours ago, bradders said:

Lock and Load makes perfect sense when you understand American Military terminology

Lock: Apply safety selector to safe

Load: Load and make ready

It means that you never have the weapon in  condition where there is a live round chambered with the safety set to off/fire.

I see it all the time where people load and make ready/chamber a live round and then set the safety catch/selector to safe...after the round is chambered

It is a sensible approach to minimise mishaps

That would make sense, but, in my mind, an AR safety won't go 'on' unless the hammer is cocked (?).

Any idea what the range order is that's actually written in the yank operating instructions?

[bradders]

2 hours ago, brown dog said:

That would make sense, but, in my mind, an AR safety won't go 'on' unless the hammer is cocked (?).

Any idea what the range order is that's actually written in the yank operating instructions?

From what I've seen while shooting with the US Army, rifles are always stored in the armoury with safety applied, so the only time the safety selector is ever released is to fire the weapon

No idea about orders, it may be in a manual somewhere, but I don't have it 

[brown dog]

1 hour ago, bradders said:

From what I've seen while shooting with the US Army, rifles are always stored in the armoury with safety applied, so the only time the safety selector is ever released is to fire the weapon

So, stored cocked?

[bradders]

For the most part, yes

I did see them on one occasion drop the hammers and when they were re-issued out the Armourer would perform an prove clear and apply safety before handing them over to the soldiers

There's nothing wrong with leaving then in a "cocked" condition, it doesn't create wear on the hammer spring, only repeated cycling does that. it's really only the British that give the command "Ease Springs", but there again they also insist on a declaration about "empty cases" too!

[terryh]

Mark,

’ease springs’ might be left over from earlier times when the V leaf spring was the main ‘sprung’ component? (As a guess?)

[gunner]

On April 15, 2018 at 1:53 PM, Reloader54 said:

I associate "lock and load" with the current Hornady range of products. 

a more accurate term might be "cocked and locked"   like we used to have with 1911 s/a pistols back in the good ol' days.

 

Exactly what i thought when i seen the topic title - lock n load concentricity gauge !

[MarinePMI]

On 4/24/2018 at 2:16 AM, bradders said:

From what I've seen while shooting with the US Army, rifles are always stored in the armoury with safety applied, so the only time the safety selector is ever released is to fire the weapon

No idea about orders, it may be in a manual somewhere, but I don't have it 

Interesting.  We (the Marines) never stored the rifles cocked.  As it was passed to the armorer for storage, the weapon was checked that it was cleared/empty, and the trigger was them pressed to allow the hammer to fall, before placing it in the rack. 

AFAIK, the "lock and load" reference we used, was to "lock the bolt to the rear", insert the magazine, and then load the rifle by releasing the bolt (which obviously stripped  around from the magazine and chambered it).  This insured that the bolt was completely in battery, and not partially so, due to short stroking the charging handle or easing the bolt into battery (which would most likely cause it not to go into battery with the topped off magazine.