GURPS guns question

[ZidIles]

I have been wondering what the +1 after the number shots before you need to reload on some of the guns means. A bunch of them have it, and I have not been able to find anything that says what it means? Am I just missing something completely obvious?
Thanks,
ZidIles

[1337 b4k4]

I don't have the books handy in front of me, but if I had to guess, it's a reference to the idea that some guns can be carried with "one in the chamber". That is, say for example you have a semi automatic pistol. Its magazine has a capacity of 7 rounds. You can load 7 rounds into the magazine, load it into the gun and rack the slide, loading one of those rounds into the firing chamber. You can then remove the magazine, load another round to replace the one you just loaded into the chamber and now your gun can be fired 8 times before you need to reload. If you look at gun manufacturer sites, this is usually listed as a gun having a capacity of 7+1.

By comparison, a revolver does not have a firing chamber (or more accurately, each position is its own chamber, so a 6 shot revolver only ever has a total capacity of 6.

[ZidIles]

Okay, thanks :)

[Nerd-o-rama]

It's a common way of writing the ammunition capacity for guns that use a magazine. The number before the + is the number of rounds held in the magazine, and the +1 indicates the gun can hold an extra bullet in the chamber ready to fire.

For example, say a Beretta 92 has a capacity of 15+1. That means you can put in a magazine of 15 bullets and fire 15 bullets. If the gun already has a round chambered (say, you take a completely empty gun, add a 15 round magazine, fire some of it, and reload after less than 15 shots), there will be 15 bullets in the fresh magazine, plus one in the chamber, for a total of 16.

When you put the gun away, incidentally, you want to always make sure to manually clear the chamber after removing the magazine, or you'll have a stray bullet sitting around in your gun.

EDIT: /quickdraw'd