Gun gaffes in novels?

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Bubba - Glock does make a version with a manual safety for sales to agencies that require an external safety. There is even a picture of one somewhere out on the net.

Given that the author was Dick Marcinko, I'd say this might have been one of those.
 
Alistair Maclean, in an older novel, "When Eight Bells Toll" begins with a riveting description of the Peacemaker Colt, all about how it will knock down a steer at 100 yds (right!) and tear a limb clear off a person if it hits him there (again, right!). Still, made for good drama, and an excellent beginning. Right up to the time he starts talking about the Peacemaker's "semi-automatic action."


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Gary L. Griffiths
Chief Instructor
Advanced Force Tactics, Inc.
 
How about Ian Fleming, of the James Bond series? In the first novel, "Dr. No," he described the impact of a 7.62 (.32acp) Walther PPK, as being likened to, " a brick through a plate glass window."
 
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I have to believe Dick missed this "oops" committed by the ghost writer. Any operator I have ever met would have said.. "this Glock had been modified to appease politicans and PC chiefs... it had a manual safety. I slipped the un-needed manual safety off. I prefer to use the trigger safety Glock designed AND to engaged the one between my ears..." :D :D :D

Bubba
 
What about writers that can't get the caliber right? I have read what I thought was a pretty good book and then all of a sudden the hero reaches for a 325 magnum,or a 47 magnum,or a .232.When I hit that point the whole book just turns me off and its hard to keep on reading. sj
 
Regarding Stephen King's abundant gun errors, I have a theory: King is doing it on purpose.

I came up with this idea years ago after I realized that _every_ Stephen King novel in which guns play any role at all contain at least one gun-related error or impossibility. (I must omit the Dark Tower books, however, as I found them unbearable and read only the first two. But I think I've read every other novel he's ever written.) I don't know what his intent would be, but King clearly enjoys playing games in his books and with his readers, so it struck me that the amazingly consistent series of gun mistakes might not be so accidental. I plan to ask him if I ever meet him.
 
In one of The Brotherhood of War series, WEB Griffin made mention of U.S. caliber 30 rifle cartridges loaded with 186 grain bullets.

Griffin was supposedly "a soldier" too.

[This message has been edited by alan (edited July 20, 2000).]
 
When ever I write trashy adventure novels I do the best I can to avoid weapons and technology errors, but you have to watch out for manuscript editors. They will often make changes for no good reason and screw up what you wrote. For example, I once had an editor who did not believe there was any such thing as a modern .50 caliber rifle and she changed .50 caliber Barret M82A1 to .30 caliber. Fortuneately I caught that one and got it chaned back to .50 caliber before publication or I would have earned a place of honor on the stupid authors list.
 
Are there not seven shot .357 revolvers built onto a .44 mag frame?

As for Stephen King ... in one of his most acclaimed books, The Stand, he has a soldier discharge an automatic rifle loaded with "gas tipped bullets" into someone. I am writing this from memory but who knows what King was writing from.
A King short tale pit a hitman against killer toy soldiers equipped with an arsenal. The assassin uses a .44 mag repeatedly against his tiny enemies inside an apartment with no loss of hearing and winds up taking a toy sized tactical nuke in the back from one well armed soldier.
Jeff
 
Leave WEB alone!!!! He's passed Clancy as my favorite. ;) I believe most of his errors are honest typos that make it past know-little editors. A 168gr .30 cal bullet is okay, isn't it? He sometimes described a .38 Special with 168 (instead of 158) grain bullets. He also has main characters start to misremember stuff, apparently. He had an armor officer leading a raid of M24 tanks that 5 years later are described as M46's. Never was sure about that....

Bye the by, WEB is a retired lifer. (E8, I think)
 
Alistair Maclean"s book "Partisan" has one character carrying "a semi-automatic machine pistol." In the next sentence, another character is said to have his machine pistol concealed in his pocket. Big pocket, what?
 
Well, Louis L'Amour was not without error, there are many of his stories that take place before self-contained metalic cartridges were invented and people were using them.

What gets me is the misplaced or added decimal point as in .12 gauge or .9m/m. How big was that shotgun shell and how small was the pistol cartridge?

Or the hero that conceals a pistol the size of a telephone book in an ankle holster. "No Junior, don't point at the poor man. His leg is really deformed but we must not make fun of him."

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Ne Conjuge Nobiscum
"If there be treachery, let there be jehad!"
 
Hey, I thought everyone here had a double barreled pump! Mines great, you can aim the barrels different directions at the same time, and shoot 12/20 gauge too! I'll tell you one thing though, the mags are hard to load. It's got that new S/W "nouse" technology thing going. And don't get me started about the scope........ Hey, anyone read any Dean Koontz? He seems to do a pretty good job with the toys he describes. E-mail me and let me know what the experts think!
 
The following is a letter to the editor of the Erie, PA morning paper. The paper is running a big week-long series on the life of Gov. Tom Ridge, who happens to be on Bush's short list for V.P. Ridge is an Erie native, and the Monday installment was about Ridge's Vietnam service.
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>To the Editor:

While reading the "Morning News" this past Monday July 17, two paragraphs in the article about Gov. Tom Ridge caught my attention. Both are on page 11A.

The first: "Tom Ridge dove for cover at the crack of gunfire. Adrenaline coursing through his veins, Ridge locked and loaded his M-16."

The second: "The Vietnamese officer was livid. He called Ridge and his men cowards. Then he reached for a holstered .45-caliber pistol strapped around his waist. Ridge threw a clip into his M-16."

Now, both these passages imply that Ridge, a Staff Sergeant, an NCO small-unit leader, is wandering around in a combat zone with an empty weapon.

I find it difficult to believe that Ridge, having recently completed boot camp and NCO school, and a Harvard graduate no less, could be that stupid. Rather, I would prefer to think that the writers contributing to this story have zero military experience, and simply have no clue regarding military matters or the proper handling of firearms. Which is it?

Oh, by the way, one loads an M-16 with a magazine, not a "clip".


Sincerely,

xxxxxxx x xxxx
xxx-xxxx[/quote]

I thought I had caught the reporters making up stuff to embellish the story, and wanted to tweak them a bit. (The Erie paper is very anti-gun) Anyway, one of the reporters called me and he said all of the stuff about "locking and loading", etc. came from Ridge during the interviews they had with him, and none of it was made-up. The writer said I raised some "interesting points", and that he was a hunter himself and was kinda curious too, but they had just reported what the governor had told them.

Sometimes the "truth" is stranger than badly written fiction, eh?
 
One of the MOST accurate, imo is/was Donald Hamilton in his old " Matt Helm " series. Absolute WORST was an author( whose name escapes me, fortunately ) who had one protagonist theatened by a female BG with a 2.7mmKolibri " a small, but nevertheless viable weapon". Later in the book, the hero ended up in orbit on the space shuttle, and the author got ALL the physics wrong!!!( barf )
crankshaft
paranoia can be a pretty good thing when they are actually out to get You!
 
Laurell Hamilton (Anita Blake series) consistenly has folks use Beretta 10mms.

However, it is in an alternate universe with monsters so they might well have that gun.

SM Stirling (who I like a lot) had character insert a 20 round mag into a Garand. I think he meant an M-14 from the context.

His books have interesting historical guns in a time travel context.

In one of his books, he is mildly antigun as the local guns are confiscated by the police due to incipient looneyism caused the island of Nantucket being beamed back to 1250 BC.

Lots of folks go nuts. However, it turns out to be a mistake as the stores guns are burned by another looney.

In a debate about the RKBA in the town meeting, the RKBA for personal weapons is argued and the RKBA zealot accepts a militia clause that requires all to have guns.

Later, the gun nuts supply the necessary info to build firearms for the Republic of Nantucket.

Good books.

I've talked to the author several times.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Bubba:
I have to believe Dick missed this "oops" committed by the ghost writer. Any operator I have ever met would have said.. "this Glock had been modified to appease politicans and PC chiefs... it had a manual safety. I slipped the un-needed manual safety off. I prefer to use the trigger safety Glock designed AND to engaged the one between my ears..." :D :D :D

Bubba[/quote]

Actually, the Demo Dickie we know and love would have said something along the lines of...

"this f______ piece of s___ Glock had been f______ modified to appease the c_________ politicans and can't____ PC chiefs... it had a f_____ manual safety! I drank several shots of tequilla to settle my anguished nerves, and chased 'em with a case of beer as I whupped butt with one arm tied behind my back on the other people in the room. I then cut my widdle pinkie as I slipped the un-needed manual safety off, but the burning pain and dripping gore just let me know I was alive, and I gloried in it. More tequilla. I prefer to use the trigger safety Glock designed AND to engage the one between my ears... Speaking of ears, several stacked blonds wandered in... Remember, tadpoles, if pressed, the manual safety does make a good bottle opener..."
 
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