Help!
I thought I put this in chat but it came up here. Can you please move it or send me instructions? Sorry and Thank You!
Though i do not have much experiance with AK's i do know that with a mag. inserted in the weapon there is no way to tell if it is loaded or not. That is why you need to clear a weapon by bring the bolt back and looking up the barrel. So a weapon with a mag could be completly loaded or have 1 round or none and the only way to tell is to drop the mag and look.
I am not sure on the safty though. I do not think it can be seen from the front (i.e. if it was aimed at you)
Absolutely false.
The moment he used the word "clip", he disqualified himself as an expert.
For an AK, and just about every semi-auto and auto rifle and handgun, one needs Xray vision to see if a round is chambered. There's a reason why one has to pull the charging handle and look at an angle into the breech in order to "clear" such a weapon.
As far as the safety, I know that an M-16 safety is a small, black 3-position rotary switch on the "face" side for a right-handed shooter, which would hardly be visible at any distance, especially if the rifle is shouldered.
the writer really needs to get a few more gun skills before they try to "finesse" such a scene. (I also write - mostly unpublished thus far - and it always bugs me when someone starts making stuff up that defies common sense)
This ONLY works on the A-Team reruns, and even then it's unreliable! ;-P
/ sarcasm toward the OTHER writer
I had a cop tell me one time at a crime scene they found a gun and the safety was 'on'. One of his fellow officers picked it up and quickly found out that the safety was broken. The cops words were 'never trust a gun you do not know'.
Also, AKs go from safe to full auto to semi, as opposed to ours that go from safe to semi to full auto. It would be hard for anyone downrange to judge exactly where it is, unless it's well lit and you're very close. A pretty useless point, anyway, since you can go from safe to accurate fire in a fraction of a second, if you already have your sight picture.
As far as a round being chambered, the only, and I mean, only way you ever know that for sure about the status of a weapon is if you saw the chamber was empty, and then watched someone load. Otherwise, there's no way to know, and only a fool would bet his life that he's facing an unloaded gun.
Round chambered, absolutely not. Safety off, easier if viewing the right side of the weapon, but barely possible if viewed from the front. The last time a weapon was pointed at me, although I know a good deal about firearms, I noticed very little except how big the "hole" in the end of the barrel was. :)
If I am not mistaken, the AK47 has a selector lever. The lever is on the right side, above the grip, and it is pretty large. From the right side, the character might be able to tell that the weapon off safe. Dunno 'bout from the from the front, but maybe.
You can't tell if there is a round in the chamber as the weapon fires from a closed bolt and you can't see the bolt from the front, anyway.
Also, AK-47s are kinda old. Nowadays they use AKMs (AK-47s modified for easier production - still kinda old...) and AK-74s and AKSs. Your fellow writer needs to do some research.
All you gotta do is get real close and look down the barrel while shining a flashlight in at the same time. (A little awkward, but can be done if you perservere!) If you can see a pointy, shiny, copper-colored thingy waaay down there, that would be the tip of the bullet, so you know it's loaded. If all you see is darkness, then either the gun is unloaded, you're not doing it right, your flashlight is dead, or you're dead. /s
More seriously, one should always assume any firearm you have not kept your eye on since you cleared it yourself personally (or watched cleared at close range) is loaded and respond appropriately.
Let me guess, he thinks that "bullets" get loaded into the "clip"? First, there is no way that a round is going to chamber correctly unless the magazine is fully seated. Second, with the possible exception of a masochist fond of dropping a loaded magazine onto his feet, nobody intentionally leaves the magazine partially unseated (more than once). But all of that aside, looking down the front of the barrel from almost any distance, it is just about impossible to tell if the safety is off. He probably either made the story up or did a lot of embellishing.
If you hear a fairly loud CLACK, that being the sound of the safety lever being moved into the central position [full-auto] or all the way down [semiauto], then the weapon is in one of those two *FIRE* positions. There's no loaded chamber indicator. 
If the story line absolutely requires an AK, then the concern for having a loaded, ready weapon pointed at one's tender parts should come from hearing that nasty snapping click, sometimes near as loud as a spring mousetrap going off.
If the glance at the weapon that tells it's loasded is the primary concern, then the weapon should be a Mauser bolt-action military rifle of the sort commonly used by the millions during the first half of the XX century. THough several different types of safety devices have been arranged for military Mauser bolt-action rifles, the prominent striker that protrudes about 3/4 of an inch from the rear of the bolt handle when cocked is the giveaway. Though not an indicator that the chamber is loaded, as can be found on a few handgun designs, that's about as technically close as can be found on a very common weapon.