Loaded Chamber Indicator
Seems everyone thinks they’re a dumb idea. Even me. That is, until I read the latest American Rifleman and it had a review of the Kel-Tec RFB. The author noted that the only way to check the chamber was to remove the magazine, flip it over, and look up the magazine well. I can see an indicator being handy there but I would not rely on it as a substitute for gun safety.
October 28th, 2009 at 9:22 am
Yep, I had exactly the same thought: “The one time I WANT an LCI on a gun, they leave it off!”
October 28th, 2009 at 9:25 am
For the sake of a long barrel in a short rifle, bullpups give you slow mag changes, awkward manuals of arms, either non-ambi operation or complicated workarounds to make them southpaw friendly.
But since American gun owners and many foreign militaries tend to buy guns based on looks and CDI factor, they’ll continue to sell well.
October 28th, 2009 at 9:40 am
The only time I could see checking the chamber is to see if it’s empty for storage in the safe. So pulling the mag should have already been accomplished, right?
Otherwise, the position of the top round in the double column feed magazine should be a good indication of if there was a round stripped from it into the chamber, assuming one is keen on which side the top round sits on when the mag is full.
If it’s a “OMG I Need to know that the gun is loaded NOW” thing, just run that charging handle thing to the rear then let it go, then tilt the gun forward. If a round falls out, it wasn’t empty. If no round falls out, and you had ammo in the mag, tada, it’s no longer empty.
October 28th, 2009 at 4:57 pm
Seems to me to be something of a quantum physics problem. The LCI can indicate a high probability that the weapon is loaded. But not a certainty, always the chance the indicator has failed in the loaded state, i.e., you’re going to want to visually inspect before going into a gun fight.
But there will always be an unacceptable uncertainty as to whether the weapon is unloaded (the indicator could fail in the unloaded state) until you actually visually inspect the chamber. Even a high probability that the weapon is unloaded is still an unacceptably high risk of unintentional discharge.
In the end, what are you going to trust, the magic indicator or your own lying eyes.