guns and bullets and clips, oh my...

[Toni McGee Causey]

I've been shooting a 9mm Glock, and have very little hands on experience with other guns, save my 410 shotgun and a 22 rifle and pistol. I haven't purchased the Glock yet, though (I've gone to the firing range a few times and practice with theirs, now that my son has moved and taken his with him--I used his a lot and liked it) (he's a cop)... and I've decided I need to go back to the range and tone up. (I used to be a pretty decent shot with the 9mm, but am slowly getting slack-ass lazy.) I've also decided that maybe I need to expand my gun knowledge to other models.

What's your favorite gun and why? (Or if you hate them, your criminals' or your protags' favorites, and why?)

What are common mistakes made in fiction / common terminology mistakes which drive you batty?

[John Foxjohn]

I'm wondering if this post was started by the Toni Causey who spoke at the
Northwest Houton RWA.

Anyway, what drives me nuts is when writers don't know the difference between
a magazine and clip. They are not the same.

[Toni McGee Causey]

Hey John, yep, that's me.

And for the record, what's the difference between a magazine and a clip. (At this point in my WIP, I am perfectly capable of screwing up even my own name on the title page, I am that tired.)

[Tony Burton]

A magazine is the device which slips into the weapon, be it a handgun or rifle, and holds the rounds to be deliverered into the chamber. It's spring-loaded. (All of them are, as far as I know, but I could be wrong.)

A clip is a device that holds rounds so they can be used in a magazine. A clip actually is something that goes into the magazine and stays there, holding the rounds in place. (The M1 rifle is a primary example.)

Adding to the confusion is the existence of the "charger", which looks like a clip, but is designed to hold the rounds in place so they can be pushed into the magazine of a weapon which DOESN'T use a clip. Clips and chargers look alike, too.

AND... there are even little clips that hold revolver rounds to facilitate loading revolvers in a hurry. They're usually called half-moon clips.

Confused? It gets that way.

[Lee Lofland]

I've never been fond of the Glock - not at all. I prefer a Sig Sauer or Beretta 9mm
even though they're a little more expensive than other models. The Beretta is a
fairly large pistol so it can be a problem for people with small hands. The
Sig is very comfortable and very accurate.

There is no safety on a Sig. It drives me nuts when I see that written. I don't
believe the Glock has one either. The Beretta can be purchased either way.

[Bill Cameron]

The Portland Police carry Glocks, and when I took the Citizens Police Academy here we fired Glocks at the range. It was my first time with one, and I liked it. No safety, aye. We fired the 17 and I found it fairly easy to make consistent groupings.

I'm not an experienced shooter by any means though. I've fired a SIG 9mm, which I remember as being easy to shoot as well. Not so much luck with revolvers, especially larger caliber. Probably I'm a too much of a wuss. ;)

[Bill Cameron]

Yeah, the CPA was great. I recommend it to anyone if they offer one in your area. The officer instructors were great. Very open, very hands on. Great insights into the job. I loved it.

In Portland, I believe they can carry whatever they want for their backup weapon, but their main weapon has to be their issue Glock. I'll have to double-check my notes though to be sure.

[J.D. Rhoades]

"Silenced revolvers." AFAIK, there ain't no such animal.

[Ian Baker]

Only when the shooter's run out of ammo.

[Stephen Blackmoore]

Actually, there's the Nagant from the early 1900's (??), which you can now get replicas from a Czech company. When the hammer was pulled back the cylinder was pushed forward, creating a gas seal, forcing the pressure out through the barrel rather than the gap between the cylinder and the frame like most revolvers.

Silencable? In theory, since it's the escaping gas that causes the problem, though, it wasn't designed for it.

This moment of Geekery brought to you by reading too many goddamn books.

[Harry Hunsicker]

Other than the issue with guns that don't have safetys like revolvers and Glocks, I would have to say my pet peeve is characters who fire cannons at the bad guy yet are not affected by the muzzle blast or recoil.

If I had to pick just one from each category to own, it would go something like this:

SEMI AUTO PISTOL: A Glock in 9mm or .40 caliber. The gun was designed for police carry and to be as safe as a double action revolver.

REVOLVER: Five-inch Smith & Wesson Model 27. Good enough for Skeeter Skelton, good enough for me.

SHOTGUN: Benelli Super Black Eagle. Kicks like a pissed off ex-wife, but virtually indestructible.

RIFLE: AR-15. The civilian version of the US Army's standard battle rifle.

PLINKER: Ruger 10-22. Bang bang bang. Death to the beer can!

[Tony Burton]

Yep, the 870 is a good, reliable pump. The military uses them and a similar model by Mossberg (model number escapes me at the moment.) I have two 870s. One is a standard, 26-inch barrel with interchangeable choke tubes and the other is a deer-hunter's model with the short barrel. Besides hunting deer, it's great for home defense because it's easy to maneuver with the shorter barrel and as it is designated for deer hunting instead of upland game birds, you can legally take out the limiting plug to allow more rounds. My wife is not a pistolero, but I figure with the short-barrelled 870, she can do a lot of damage even if she's a little shakey with the sights.

For plinking beer cans, I have a Ruger Mark II Target with the bull barrel. Fun gun.

[David Terrenoire]

I once owned a plethora of handguns, but I'm now down to a Browning Buckmark .22 and my Government Issue .45. The 1911 is my favorite pistol, beautifully designed by the legendary John Browning. It's rugged, never had a single malfunction when shooting FMJ ball ammo, and it's the perfect point and shoot pistol.

If I were to buy another pistol I'd look hard at a Glock 40 cal. or the H&K .45. But I only hit the range two or three times a year so it's not really worth it. I do compete in a rather casual shoot with about 25 graduates of the military academies, making me the only enlisted man in the group.

Of the guns I used to own, my favorites were a CZ 9 mm, a Makarov 9, a Walther .32, and a S&W .357. I like wheel guns but don't own one right now.

For research I shot all sorts of automatic weapons at Quantico's range. Hoo-uh. My favorite was the H&K MP5. Sweet.

My Spec Ops nephew gave me an M1 last year, but I haven't shot it yet. Maybe this summer.

Stuff that makes me crazy? Cliches like the bad guy pulling the trigger on an empty gun so we hear the click click click. That's particularly irksome when it's a single-action pistol. Shooting a Mach 10 with one hand. Firing a handgun from the hip and hitting a bad guy 60 yards away. All that.

And as you might guess, the writers in my writing group refer to me as the gun guy.