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Comment by jvanderbot | Hacker News Reader

Off topic, but this is why all guns sound like they are just a bucket of screws being shaken around. It may surprise movie goers to realize that guns don't make noise unless you cycle the action or fire them.

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I can't think of an example of this off the top of my head, do you have one?

I'm just coming up with a lot of counter-examples - anytime a character with a gun is sneaking around in silence, when not actively using the gun. Like, I can't think of a time a character tried to sneak around but took a step and their gun rattled...

I think he's referring to the ka-clack of gun cocking noises that is used when a weapon is drawn, even if it's a weapon that doesn't have to be cocked.

Sometimes, if the other person doesn't get the hint, they cock it again!

It's the sound they make when they are picked up or handed out.

Guns being handled (picked up, shifted to the other shoulder, handed out, just any time they're being handled) tend to make lots of little clacking noises in movies and TV, as if all the parts are really loose and rattling against one another.

It's the little subtle clacking sound that some games play when player moves around or a gun is handled in some way. Like here: https://twitter.com/intellegint/status/1576087308121432065 - when the player starts running there's a rattling noise

This is one of those things that's hard to recall, but impossible to miss once it's pointed out. In that respect, I'm sorry. Watch this video from the otherwise-on-point John Wick.

Everything just .. rattles. Even the magazines, like they're just bags of bullets or something.

Nevermind the noises the knives make when he picks them up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIalODmFrZk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IDtenBMN0o

The noise when he tilts the rifle is a really good illustration, thanks.

Some of the other ones I honestly never even noticed, like picking it up off the stand - I would've thought that was just the stand shaking from having it taken off.

The simple "punch" sound is even more obvious example of movie sound design tropes. I remember getting into a fight as a child and being surprised at how quiet hitting a dude was.

"I wouldn't use a gun that sounded like that" - me to my wife just about every time we watch an action movie

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