What Is a "Stinger"?

J

JimboAA

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I was watching Training Day earlier, for the first time in years and in the scene where they off one of Denzel's informants they called his gun a "stinger." It was a handgun. What type is this? Is it just a general term for a smaller handgun, like a .22?

He also called their shotgun the "bitch." Never heard that before. Are shotguns sometimes called that?

Thanks
 
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"Stinger" has been applied as a trade- and model name, and an informal name for a bunch of different firearms, but the second one is just street slang dreamt up by a copy-writer. During World War Two, a Pacific field modification of the Browning 1919 machine gun into a LMG was sometimes called a "stinger", and an Australian company sold several of their rifles under the "Stinger" trade-name. This name has also been applied to several undercover/disguised "pen"-type pistols.
 
It's Sillywood, er Hollywood.
Means nothing except the writer thought it sounded cool.
They have no idea how silly they are.
 
JimboAA

...He also called their shotgun the "bitch." Never heard that before. Are shotguns sometimes called that?

Thanks
Last edited by JimboAA; Today at 09:47 AM
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Or worse if you've ever had a bad day at the Trap Range...;)

ETA: This thread is starting to resemble that one not too long ago concerning "Who Names Their Firearms" or something to that effect...?

-Happy New Year
 
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Stephen Hunter in 'The Day Before Midnight' had one of his characters refer to his Mossberg shotgun as 'Mister Twelve'.

'Bambi Blaster' has been applied to shotguns and rifles and back to Stephen Hunter his character Bob Lee Swagger refers to the M16 as a 'poodle shooter' but I have heard that phrase used by several authors and I think it's common usage.

And yeah, if you frequent target shooting events you can hear rifles, shotguns and handguns call a variety of names, most unrepeatable here.
 
What Is a "Stinger"?

On TV, that font of firearm wisdom, I've heard it referred to as an untraceable gun left at a scene by police to justify an officer involved shooting.
 
The "Stinger" (originally named the "Scorpion") that I know of was a pen type pistol firing the .22 Short cartridge. They were made by a company called the Rite-Rite Manufacturing Company in 1943-1944 for the OSS. There were a lot of problems, including ones that blew up. There were five versions. The number actually made seems elusive. More info can be found in Ralph Hagan's The Liberator Pistol; he includes Stinger information partly to clearly distinguish it from the principle subject of the book.

I suspect the story writer had heard the term and simply used it without any attempt at historical accuracy or reference to any actual gun.

The only term I have heard for an untraceable gun used to justify a police shooting is "throw-down" gun, a term descriptive of the way such guns are (allegedly) used.

Jim
 
According to IMFDB the gun you're probably talking about is an Intratec TEC-38 derringer. IMFDB isn't always the most accurate with small and obscure handguns, but judging by the screen capture I would say the likely got this one right.
 
Les Baer makes a CCO-sized 1911 model called the Stinger (4.25 inch barrel with Officer length grip frame). I'm almost positive this is NOT what the movie was referring to.

 
I was watching Training Day earlier, for the first time in years and in the scene where they off one of Denzel's informants they called his gun a "stinger." It was a handgun. What type is this? Is it just a general term for a smaller handgun, like a .22?
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No it's just a name that the guy in the movie used for his gun. The character called it a stinger but it isn't generally used by most shooters for a little gun. The general terms used are hide out gun, deep cover, back up, bug, etc. As others have said at one time or another a small gun may have been named a stinger. I've heard men call it the "little brother" etc.

He also called their shotgun the "bitch." Never heard that before. Are shotguns sometimes called that?
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No, again that's just a name the character in a movie called it. Like some folks have names for their cars or trucks. Nothing common.

Ask yourself...In what other of the hundreds of flicks and TV shows that you have watched have you heard people give their guns pet names? What were these names? "Stinger" and "Bitch" are not common. But pet names are not unusual.

tipoc
 
Remember these are the same script writers who have a character look at a "corpse" from 60 feet away and declare that he was done in with a 9mm. Most Hollywood people not only know nothing about guns but contribute heavily to organizations and candidates who support a total ban on individual gun ownership (with exemptions for movie and TV show makers, of course).

Jim
 
Now that all the old men have had their say... ;)

I have heard the term stinger used by the younger generation to identify what some old folks would call a "Saturday-night-special." It is a gun to be used once and discarded the way a bee loses it's stinger.

Calling a shotgun "the bitch" comes from the term for sitting in the middle seat in a car or truck "riding bitch." The patrol cruiser shotgun in some police cars is mounted between the officers seats therefore the shotgun is "riding bitch" and would make the shotgun "the bitch"


But there is no way that either of those terms are used in real life. It had to have been made up by a movie writer because they sounded cool.:rolleyes:
 
That's not a Stinger, this is a Stinger.

300px-FIM-92_Stinger_USMC.JPG
 
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