What kind of gun to use?

Another question I see pop up quite often on forums is “What kind of gun would my character use?” The answer to that depends on a lot of different factors. Here are some common ones.

I Miss Being Sixteen

I miss being sixteen. Not for the obvious reasons, but for a very specific feeling, I seem to have lost.

How I Write

One of the most common, if not THE most common question writers get asked is “Where do you get your ideas?”

I know this, not because anyone has ever asked me, but because I’ve listened to a lot of interviews where long running, successful writers say they hear that question time and time again.

In a flourish of pre-emptive optimism, here is my answer:

What I Write

I told a little about why I write, or why I think I do. This time I thought I’d talk a bit about what I write.

My focus is Mystery, but that’s a deceptive term. The driving force behind any story is the desire to see what happens next. That makes everything a mystery in some form. We can’t even say that a mystery involved finding out who committed a crime. The TV series Columbo opened most of the time by showing the killer doing it. The rest of the program was spent watching the detective try to figure what the audience already knew. Yet, these were still Mysteries.

Still other stories are most certainly Mysteries but they contain some other element that puts them in a different genre.

If Agatha Christie’s And then there were None, sometimes called Ten Little Indians, would have been set on a space station instead of an island, it would have been Science Fiction. If that same story used dwarves and elves and been set in a cave or dungeon, it would have been Fantasy. The dialog and room descriptions would have changed, but the key plot points could remain intact regardless of time or place.

Many of the classic Science Fiction stories of Phillip K Dick were essentially mysteries that used fantastic technology to set up the crime. While making them Science Fiction as far as the world is concerned, it did not make the any of the stories any less of a Mystery.

When I say I write Mysteries I mean I write detective fiction. It may be set in the current world, an alternate, fantasy world, or a world of spaceships and aliens. To me, they are all mysteries. With that in mind, here are the main “worlds” I plan to use as settings.

Accessories: Lasers, Supressors, and Scopes

...Oh my.  Sorry, had to do it.  OCD thing.

When most people think of gun accessories, three things come to mind.  Scopes, laser sights, and silencers.  The truth is that there are a lot of other things that fit this category, but it’s those three I want to look at in depth.

Sniper Rifles

Sniper Rifles

The first thing to know about sniper rifles is that they don’t do any more damage than any other rifle of the same caliber.  The US M24 sniper rifle fires the same 7.62 NATO round as the M-60 machinegun, and M-14 battle rifle.  Sort of.  There are small changes with the shape of the bullet, but there is no significant difference in the velocity or energy.

So, why are Sniper Rifles so special?

Shotguns

Shotguns

Shotguns have an aura about them that makes them unique among weapons.  Maybe it’s the size of the shell, or maybe it’s the amount of damage they seem to do, whatever it is, it’s very often over-rated.

Shotguns come in sizes that range from .410 bore to 10 gauge.

A 410 bore is actually a hole 0.41 inches in diameter, the same as a .41 magnum or 10mm pistol, and slightly smaller than a .44 magnum.  It’s the only size that doesn’t follow the standard convention explained below.