History Main / ThrowAwayGuns

* ''Film/TheRaid1954'': During his LastStand against the raiders, CowardlyLion Capt. Foster tosses away each revolver as he empties it. {{Justified}} as he is [[HandicappedBadass missing his left hand]] and so cannot reload during a firefight.

* ''Film/TheOutlawJoseyWales'': Josey Wales carries a total of ''four'' revolvers, each with six rounds. Justified in that the film is set in the late 1860s, when revolvers were all cap-and-ball types that took several minutes to reload.

* In the ''Series/{{Firefly}}'' episode "War Stories", Zoe tells Wash "Six shots, then just drop it" as she hands him a revolver. Her husband is inexperienced with firearms, so it would probably make more sense than teaching him use a quick loader in the short time they have.

* In the ''Series/{{Firefly}}'' episode "War Stories", Zoe tells Wash "Six shots, then throw it away" as she hands him a pistol. Her husband is however inexperienced with firearms, so it would probably make more sense than teaching him to load in the short time they have.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrots'': In "Escape to the House of Mummies, Part II", a mook throws his empty gun at Brock and is [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHkt5oEv_sI admonished by a fellow mook]] who tells him "I have more bullets, ya know. You gotta stop doing that." The first one admits he knows he shouldn't, but he can't help it because [[RuleOfCool it looks so cool]].

-->-- ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'', "[[Recap/TheVentureBrosS2E4EscapeToTheHouseOfMummiesPartII Escape to the House of Mummies Pt II]]"

* ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'', "Escape to the House of Mummies, Part II": A mook throws his empty gun at Brock and is [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHkt5oEv_sI admonished by a fellow mook]] who tells him "I have more bullets ya know. You gotta stop doing that." The first one admits he knows he shouldn't, but he can't help it because [[RuleOfCool it looks so cool]].

** ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam0080WarInThePocket'' features the Kämpfer, an assault-type mobile suit and the very definition of GlassCannon. In order to keep its overall weight down, it carries a pair of shotguns and bazookas, all of which are discarded after use; once these are expended, all it has left are its beam sabers and head vulcans.

* ''Film/{{Tremors}}'': When a giant man-eating SandWorm breaks into the basement of the CrazySurvivalist and his wife, they seize one firearm after another from their WallOfWeapons and blast away at the creature, which is only a few feet away -- sometimes reloading, but other times tossing the gun aside and grabbing a more powerful weapon. At all other times in the movie the two show proper weapons handling; this case is justified in that they ''are'' right in their own basement, so they can just retrieve the guns after they've killed the worm.

* ''VideoGame/JaggedAlliance2'' averts this one in theory, as it's possible to have your characters try and clear the jam, but it's surprisingly difficult to do so and each failed attempt costs Action Points.[[note]]Presumably this is because only really serious malfunctions are actually represented in-game, and simple misfires or failures-to-extract that can be cleared just by manually working the action are abstracted.[[/note]] In practice, you're usually better off switching to another weapon until the end of combat and patching it up afterwards. Reloading also takes more Action Points than just drawing your sidearm instead, but limited inventory space and the shortage of truly ambidextrous mercs make going the full HeroicBloodshed route AwesomeButImpractical.

** In the original ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam'', beam weapons can only be recharged by the extra-large reactors on ships, not mobile suits. Amuro has a tendency to toss away the beam rifle when it expended its ammo, probably because the Gundam lacks any apparent place to holster the weapon. From ''Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam'' onward, smaller, magazine-style energy packs for the beam rifles are introduced allowing them to be reloaded on the fly & this trope becomes much less prevalent.
** ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam0080WarInThePocket'' features the Kämpfer, an assault-type mobile suit and the very definition of GlassCannon. In order to keep its overall weight down, it carries a pair of shotguns and a pair of bazookas, all of which are Throw Away Guns; once these are expended, all it has left are its beam sabers and head vulcans.

* Tediore guns in ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands 2}}'' are an interesting case in that they ''weaponize'' this. Their guns are "[[AllThereInTheManual cheap, plastic pieces of crap]]" that are thrown away rather than reloaded (with a fresh version of the same gun digistructed into your hands afterwards) and the gun will explode on impact with something living or after a short while. You can throw them at enemies when they don't have a full magazine, and they deal more damage depending on how much ammo was left in the magazine. This is often used as a viable tactic in combat, allowing a player to quickly eliminate a particularly powerful or annoying enemy. The tradeoff, however, is that it means reloading uses up the ammunition that was left, and indeed using the preceding strategy will burn through your ammo supply incredibly quickly [[DamnYouMuscleMemory if you have the habit of reloading compulsively]].
* In the cinematic trailer to ''{{VideoGame/Brink}}'', a Resistance heavy empties an assault rifle and just lets it fall out of his hand before reaching for a shotgun [[SticksToTheBack stuck to his back]].

* Youtube channel [[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJbUNSs8zA_FlSMzsoyag9A The Gun Collective]] frequently plays ads for their sponsors at the start of their videos. One of their ads for AcceptableTargets has very [[RuleOfFunny tongue-in-cheek]] visuals including this trope as seen between 0:15 and 0:45 [[https://youtu.be/nAA_Dhpzd0U?t=15s here]].

* In the original ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam'', Amuro has a tendency to toss away the beam rifle when it expended its ammo, but this is justified since it can only be recharged on the ship (that, and the Gundam lacks any apparent place to holster the weapon, meaning that having a hand free to use a LaserBlade is cleanly a better option). In later series, smaller, magazine-style energy packs for the beam rifles are introduced allowing them to be reloaded on the fly & this trope becomes much less prevalent.
* ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam0080WarInThePocket'' features the Kämpfer, an assault-type mobile suit and the very definition of GlassCannon. In order to keep its overall weight down, it carries a pair of shotguns and a pair of bazookas, all of which are Throw Away Guns; once these are expended, all it has left are its beam sabers and head vulcans.
* ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamWing'' has the Wing Gundam and Gundam Heavyarms, both of whose main guns (the [[{{BFG}} buster rifle]] and [[GatlingGood beam Gatling]] respectively) have no means of being reloaded and occasionally get ditched in order to reduce weight. It's noted in the case of Heavyarms that Trowa doesn't modify the Gundam's balance for the weapon (or something to that effect), so when he drops the beam Gatling he gets a a massive speed boost. When Heero has to use Heavyarms during his duel with [[TheRival Zechs]], Trowa installs a hidden beam saber in the left arm in place of the small combat knife it normally carries, which was revealed when the Gatling was jettisoned.

-->--''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'', "[[Recap/TheVentureBrosS2E4EscapeToTheHouseOfMummiesPartII Escape to the House of Mummies Pt II]]"

* [[PlayerCharacter Alcatraz]] from ''VideoGame/{{Crysis}} 2'' can [[RemovableTurretGun pick up and wield heavy machine guns]]. When it runs out of ammo, he simply tosses it aside and goes back to using standard weaponry.

* ''VideoGame/JaggedAlliance 2'' averts this one in theory, as it's possible to have your characters try and clear the jam, but it's surprisingly difficult to do so and each failed attempt costs Action Points.[[note]]Presumably this is because only really serious malfunctions are actually represented in-game, and simple misfires or failures-to-extract that can be cleared just by manually working the action are abstracted.[[/note]] In practice, you're usually better off switching to another weapon until the end of combat and patching it up afterwards. Reloading also takes more Action Points than just drawing your sidearm instead, but limited inventory space and the shortage of truly ambidextrous mercs make going the full HeroicBloodshed route AwesomeButImpractical.

* In the original ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam'', Amuro had a tendency to toss away the beam rifle when it expended its ammo, but this is justified since it could only be recharged on the ship. In later series, smaller, magazine-style energy packs for the beam rifles are introduced allowing them to be reloaded on the fly & this trope becomes much less prevalent.

* Done justifiably by Buster Kilrain in ''Film/{{Gettysburg}}''. His wounded arm made it difficult for him to reload a rifle (and they were running out of bullets anyway), so he went up and down the line, grabbing rifles from the fallen, checking if they were loaded, and if they were, firing it before dropping the gun and looking for a new one.

* In the UsefulNotes/WorldWarII-based games in the ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty'' series, the player is often forced to drop whatever weapons he started levels with for German ones most simply because, with rare exceptions, there's no way to replenish the ammo for the former without actively letting your allies die. It helps that, most of the time, TheEnemyWeaponsAreBetter – after all, the Allies have no good parallels for [[GameBreaker the MP44 assault rifle or the FG42 automatic sniper]].

* Downplayed in ''VideoGame/MaxPayne3'', where Max's loadout is limited to two handguns and one long gun. While the handguns get shoulder holsters for him to stash them in when he's not using them, the long gun is simply held onto by its foregrip when he's not using it; thus, going GunsAkimbo with pistols requires him to drop whatever long gun he currently has.

->'''Mook 1:''' I have more bullets you know. You gotta stop doing that!
->'''Mook 2:''' Yeah I know, it just looks so cool!
->'''Mook 1:''' Well ''go get it!''
->'''Mook 2:''' ...Fine.

* Pistols manufactured by Hi-Point have the stigma of being of very low quality in most firearms circles, due to the fact they cost less than most other polymer framed guns made by bigger names like Glock or HK and are largely made of softer, inferior metals and cheaper steel (compensated by using a ''lot'' of it in their construction, resulting in a very chunky, brick-like profile). Naturally, a joke exists in these same circles that the "proper" way to reload one is to throw the gun in the general direction of the attacker.

* Downplayed in ''VideoGame/MaxPayne 3'', where Max's loadout is limited to two handguns and one long gun. While the handguns get shoulder holsters for him to stash them in when he's not using them, the long gun is simply held onto by its foregrip when he's not using it; thus, going GunsAkimbo with pistols requires him to drop whatever long gun he currently has.

* Subverted in ''Film/{{Red}}'' when Victoria is exchanging fire with the Secret Service. Every time she runs out of ammo, she calmly exchanges her [=MP5K=] for another held by her colleague, who reloads for her while she's emptying that weapon.