Can someone who knows guns comment on these recent statements by HGR and DH? I don't know how you are supposed to check a gun, so I'm confused--are they saying that both of them checked the gun, but may not have done it correctly?
Various types of guns are checked different ways. Checking means determining whether or not it is loaded, and in the case of a movie set, loaded with dummy rounds, blanks or live rounds.
Modern revolvers are easy to check. One opens the cylinder, then checks for rounds of any kind in the cylinder.
But.... the set guns, whether truly vintage or reproduction, may not have been fully modern. Evidently cylinders of vintage and some reproductions cannot be removed. They are checked by manually rotating the cylinder and noting whether there are any rounds in it.
The principle behind checking other guns besides breech loading shot guns (open the breech and look) involves an added step: The magazine (looks like a box) must be removed and the bolt worked / firing chamber examined.
Pump shotguns, old west lever actions and modern repros of lever actions have a tube that must be emptied- and then the bolt worked / firing chamber examined.
Many bolt action rifles do not have magazines. I believe they are checked by working the bolt to eject the unfired rounds, then checking the firing chamber one last time