Using unity without Bolt - unity3d

Question

I am new to Unity, but not to C#, so I would love to avoid using Bolt. I don't mind spending the extra time making sure that my animations are correct.
I am trying to get a gun to shoot (the animation part [aka recoil])
As you probably can see that there are no parameters (in the first image). In the parameter box (where it says list is empty in the animator window), I clicked on the '+' to create a new parameter trigger (called it "M1911SHOOT")
However it does resolve the Parameter does not exist error message but nothing happens afterwards
Here is my code
M1911.cs
public class M1911 : Weapons
{
private const string IDLE = "M1911IDLE";
private const string BASIC = "M1911SHOOT";
// Start is called before the first frame update
void Start()
{
IDLEANIM = IDLE;
BASICATKANIM = BASIC;
weaponName = "Weapon";
damage = 15;
heavyDamage = 35;
weight = 5;
staminaCost = 5;
range = 3.5f;
atkDelay = .7f;
type = WEAPONTYPE.MELEE;
Init();
}
}
Weapons.cs
public class Weapons : MonoBehaviour
{
protected enum WEAPONTYPE
{
NONE,
RANGED,
MELEE
}
protected string weaponName;
protected int damage;
protected int heavyDamage;
protected int weight;
protected int staminaCost;
protected float range;
protected WEAPONTYPE type;
protected bool isAtking;
protected float atkDelay;
protected string BASICATKANIM;
protected string HEAVYATKANIM;
protected string IDLEANIM;
protected string CURRENTANIMATION;
private Animator _animator;
protected void Init()
{
CURRENTANIMATION = IDLEANIM;
_animator = GetComponent<Animator>();
isAtking = false;
}
public int Attack()
{
if (!isAtking)
{
isAtking = true;
ChangeAnimation(BASICATKANIM);
return damage;
}
return 0;
}
void AttackComplete()
{
isAtking = false;
}
public void ChangeAnimation(string newAnimationState)
{
if(newAnimationState == CURRENTANIMATION)
return;
if (isAtking)
{
CURRENTANIMATION = newAnimationState;
Invoke("AttackComplete", atkDelay);
}
_animator.SetBool(BASICATKANIM, true);
_animator.SetBool(IDLEANIM, false);
CURRENTANIMATION = newAnimationState;
}
}
Player.cs
public class Player : CharacterAttributes
{
public Weapons weapon;
// Start is called before the first frame update
void Start()
{
Init();
}
// Update is called once per frame
void Update()
{
Move();
if (Input.GetMouseButtonDown(0))
Attack();
}
void Move()
{
//Movement stuff
}
void Attack()
{
weapon.Attack();
}
}

Answer 1

Wrong method in Weapon.cs
Needed
_animator.Play(BASICATKANIM);
instead of
_animator.SetBool(IDLEANIM, false);
I wanted to play an animation, not play around with the parameters for the animator