Took a shot, weapon almost being dead (7)
I believe the answer is:
guessed
'took a shot' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'weapon almost being dead' is the wordplay.
'weapon' becomes 'gun' (gun is a kind of weapon).
'almost' means to remove the last letter (most of the word but not all of it).
'being' becomes 'esse' (philosophical term for being or existence).
'dead' becomes 'd' (abbreviation in government records).
'gun' with its final letter removed is 'gu'.
'gu'+'esse'+'d'='GUESSED'
(Other definitions for guessed that I've seen before include "Surmised" , "Hazarded, estimated" , "Made estimate or hazarded opinion" , "Thought" , "was a speculator" .)