It may be hard for actors to check firearms....a lever action, having tube magazine with cartridges not readily visible would have to be unloaded and reloaded by the actor each and every time its passed to him. What about war movies with high capacity magazines? The actor would have to strip the magazine, to examine each and every cartridges and feed them back into the magazine. There shouldn't be live ammo on site, period. No live ammo.
You're correct. The armorer is the wheel horse. It is a complicated job. If the armorer is incompetent, things on a set can go south very quickly. The result .... Rust.
L.W.
"Always go straight forward, and if you meet the devil, cut him in two and go between the pieces." (William Sturgis, clipper ship captain, 1830s.)
