While not gun heavy, frequent reference to guns of various types in Stephen King novels. So many misuses of names, actions, methods. I know, I know, but I've been a fan of his work for 5 decades.

I think he does it on purpose now.

quote:

Originally posted by apprentice:
I used to get a kick out of the weirdness of the 'Executioner/Mack Bolan' pulp novels.

I just remember he was going to have implied hot physical sex once per book....

quote:

I used to get a kick out of the weirdness of the 'Executioner/Mack Bolan' pulp novels.

How much holdover do you need at ~800 yards for a .444 Marlin?

At that point, it becomes launch angle..

quote:

Originally posted by egregore:
An episode of Forensic Files made the claim that "silencers are illegal because they don't leave rifling marks on the bullets."

My brain immediately said “what a bunch of… well, they wouldn’t actually leave marks on bullets, would they? Hooey, anyway!”

Took a class at HK when they still had the training division. It was a tactical shotgun class and Benelli was the flavor of the month for the week. Had the assorted alphabet guys, few local and state Leo’s. And this one dude who wrote for Matt Helm or Bolan series, I forget which. He participated, wasn’t totally clueless but his weapons handling was marginal. To his credit he was there to learn and have a better grasp of what it took to run a shotgun. As were we all.

quote:

Originally posted by egregore:
How much holdover do you need at ~800 yards for a .444 Marlin?

That’s one of the fun things to do with a ballistics calculator.

Based on Hornady’s data for the 265 grain FTX bullet load for the 444 Marlin at 2325 feet per second muzzle velocity the Applied Ballistics solver says that under “standard” atmospheric conditions at 800 yards the bullet would drop about 588 inches from the horizontal.*

If the gun were originally zeroed for 200 yards, that would require a further elevation of 62 minutes of angle at 800 yards, or about 519 inches (43 feet). Part of the elevation could be gained by dialing up the elevation of one’s scope, but most scopes commonly used for hunting with a 444 Marlin rifle wouldn’t permit anything close to an addition 62 MOA elevation, especially as some elevation would have already been used for zeroing.

So, “launch angle” is probably a good way of putting it.

* The 265 grain FTX bullet is touted as being significantly more ballistically efficient than a flat nose bullet of the same caliber (0.430" diameter) and therefore would drop less in flight. By way of comparison, the 0.308 caliber 168 grain Sierra MatchKing bullet used in the Federal 308 Winchester Gold Medal Match load with a muzzle velocity of 2600 fps would drop about 280 inches at 800 yards, or less than half of the Hornady 444 Marlin load. The Federal GMM load is not considered to be a particularly flat-shooting round either.

I have read all of Stephen Hunter’s novels and all of Larry Correia’s, especially the Monster Hunter International series.
Rather than becoming dispirited by errors regarding firearms, I have been inspired. My grail weapon is now a Carl Gustav 84 mm recoilless rifle, with choice of ammunition as follows:

The M3 MAAWS fires the following ammunition:[29]

HE 441D RS: High explosive round with air burst capability, 800 6 mm steel pellets, and reduced sensitivity (RS) explosives[32]
HE 441E: High explosive with programmable air burst and 4000 3 mm tungsten pellets[33]
HEDP 502 RS: High-explosive dual-purpose round that has impact and delay modes, with reduced sensitivity (RS) explosives
HEAT 551: High-explosive anti-tank – rocket-assisted projectile
HEAT 551C RS: High-explosive anti-tank – rocket-assisted projectile, with reduced sensitivity (RS) explosives
TP 552: Target practice – rocket-assisted projectile
HEAT 751: High-explosive anti-tank – rocket-assisted projectile, with tandem warhead to defeat ERA
ADM 401: Area defense munition – ADM 401 has 1100 flechettes and ADM 401B has ball bearings[29]
ASM 509: Anti-structure munition (Thermobaric),[31] with impact and delay modes
MT 756: Multi-target – rocket-assisted projectile, with a tandem warhead to defeat buildings, bunkers, and light armor
SMOKE 469B: Smoke round
ILLUM 545C: Illumination round
TPT 141: Target practice, tracer round
SCA 553B: Adapter to fire 7.62 mm tracer ammunition for training

Agree. Lee Child and the Jack Reacher novels come immediately to mind for me. Just weird mistakes out of the blue that really jar me out of the story.

As an aside, I really liked Stephen King's (I know, his politics blah, if inclined to discuss please make another thread) description of the "Windsucker" silenced revolver in Firestarter. A very detailed description of a custom made silenced .357 revolver, a Python I think (I read it a long time ago) and the problems associated with making /using it. It has stuck to me a long time.

quote:

Originally posted by sjtill:
I have read all of Stephen Hunter’s novels and all of Larry Correia’s, especially the Monster Hunter International series.

Both of those authors are absolute solid gun guys.

^^^^^^
Another solid gun guy is John Sandford (aka John Roswell Camp). He is prolific with several series of novels. The Prey series is over 20 books and follows the life of Lucas Davenport, a Minneapolis detective. Sandford's novel are my go to airplane books.

I find writers who know little about gun less annoying that writers who know a little about guns but think they know a lot about guns, and hinge their whole plot/plot twist on that scant knowledge.

First or second episode of "The Walking Dead",
There's a scene at a roadblock with local sheriffs (I believe Rick was there too), one of the sheriffs told the rookie to take the safety off his Glock.

quote:

Originally posted by CPD SIG:
First or second episode of "The Walking Dead"
...

And MANY subsequent episodes. Among the horrible errors were 50 cal rounds bouncing off the grill of a jeep.

quote:

Originally posted by CPD SIG:

First or second episode of "The Walking Dead",
There's a scene at a roadblock with local sheriffs (I believe Rick was there too), one of the sheriffs told the rookie to take the safety off his Glock.

It is a little known fact that Glock has a division that manufactures pistols with safeties. These pistols are sold exclusively to authors, and TV and movie producers.

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:
It is a little known fact that Glock has a division that manufactures pistols with safeties. These pistols are sold exclusively to authors, and TV and movie producers.

Well, there really are some Glocks with factory manual safeties, produced in small numbers primarily for foreign government contracts.

Glock even offered one of these version for the US Army MHS trials, for which a manual safety was a requirement, which later became the G19X (sans safety) after Glock lost to the P320.

It's not most, though. So any author/scriptwriter writing about "taking off the safety" on a Glock is more likely to be making an error than referencing some niche contract safetied Glock.

These are typically equipped with a thumb safety, of which there have been several variations over the years.

US Army trials Gen 5 G19MHS:


Sao Paolo (Brazil) Police contract Gen 5 G22:


Saxony-Anhalt (Germany) Police contract Gen 5ish G46:


Thai National Police contract Gen 3 G19 and G17:


Tasmanian (Australia) Police contract Gen 2 G19:


Austrian Army trials Gen 1 G17:



But they did produce at least one version with a push-through crossbolt safety, these Gen 3 G19s for a Taiwan National Police contract:

“Thats a Smith and Wesson and you’ve had your six”!
It was a 1911.