Recently I got access to three prop guns and I thought it would be valuable to roll on them to get as much source as I could from them for weapon mech/reload sounds. I made this video to show some of the different sounds I was able to capture with them.
The sounds you are hearing in the video are from a pair of LOM Usi Pros (ORTF Configuration) going into a Mix Pre 6 v2. I also rolled with a Sanken CO 100K at 192khz 32bit.
They do sound a bit plastic like, but if you manage to layer a bit of metal on the start and tail of the sounds you could definitely get some heavier sounds with them.
I recently got the Sound Devices Mix Pre 6 V2 so that I could roll at 32 bit. 32 bit is a new game changer that the Field Recording community is quite excited about. It is available in the Sound Devices Mix Pre 3 v2, 6 v2 and 10T v2. Zoom also offers it in their F6 model which is quite popular.
If you are wondering what makes 32 bit recording so special check out this video from Sound Devices:
32 bit is awesome for recording source like Weapon Reloads because the sounds the Prop Guns produce are highly dynamic. The extended range stored in 32 bit files allows me to focus on preforming the sound rather than worrying about clipping part of the sound I am recording. I am extremely excited to have this new tool and workflow as part of my recoridng process.