How To Tell If A Bullet Has Been Fired

One of the class members asked me how you can tell if the bullets in a revolver have been fired. That's a good question.

Swing open the cylinder and look at them. The ones with dents in the middle (like those on the right) have been fired. The ones that are not dented in the middle (on the left) have not been fired.



You could also just look down the business end of the gun and see the tips of the remaining bullets, but that is generally not recommended!

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Update with one more photo:

This is what you will see when you swing open the cylinder of a revolver with all "fired" cartridges: