yes, they only hold one round at a time
no, it was loaded, which is odd..
anyway, as with the other riddle, they were out on a ship and a storm came, yadda yadda yadda. The Man's spoce/son died after a bad blow to the head from a random piece of metal. The other guy said, "You've been through a lot, get some sleep, I'll take care of the body andcatch some turtles to make some soup."
Immediately after being rescued (strenge, eh?) they went to get a bite to eat in the shore-front resturaunt. When he ate the soup, the man realized it was his loved one in the first one, pulled out the flare gun, and shot himself (ouch!)