The Write Tuition

Writers and guns.

This is not a deeply technical work about guns. It isn’t for people who really understand guns, or have grown up with them as everyday farm/countryside tools rather than seeing them as ‘evil things that should be banned’.

I’ve aimed this at writers who have never or rarely handled guns, but who need to write about them with enough conviction to convince the average reader who probably only knows guns though film and other books..

There are only a few things writers truly need to know about guns, unless they are interested in the capabilities of a named weapon for a specific task within their story. By sticking to generic terms you can avoid being jumped on by the knowledgeable and pedantic who know more than you do.

Mind you, letters from such folks can be very informative and they may be quite willing to advise you on more specific issues if you ask. It’s always good manners to write back and thank them, unless they’ve just been downright offensive, in which case the best thing to do is ignore them.

This article gives you the basics. Some of it you may already know, but if guns are an entirely closed book to you this will get you started.

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Here are the three basic types.

Rifle

Handgun

Shotgun

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The first two would normally have a ‘rifled’ barrel, which means it has a series of spiralled grooves inside which cause the bullet to rotate around it’s axis in flight. This spin stabilisation makes the bullet inherently more accurate - especially over longer distances - than projectiles fired from a smooth bored gun.

As they normally fire a collection of balls (shot) shotguns have no need for rifling inside the barrel. In fact a rifled barrel would chew up some of the shot and make them wildly inaccurate. Shotguns rely on a controlled spread of shot (the circular ‘pattern’) which becomes wider the further away it gets from the barrel.

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1) Rifle. There are some single shot models but most have some sort of magazine which can hold several rounds, up to thirty in some cases.

Sporting rifles tend to have wooden ‘furniture’ consisting of the stock, (the bit you tuck against your shoulder), and the fore-end, (the bit you hold with your non-trigger hand). Military models are often stocked with some composite material and are occasionally all-metal. The all metal ones tend to have a folding stock as well, which can make the weapon temporarily shorter and therefore quicker handling in confined spaces, such as house to house searches/fighting.

Some target rifles have so many add-ons that they look positively futuristic.

Loading methods vary. Most single shots will be bolt action, or a variation on the theme. The bolt in this case is usually a lever which can be lifted and pulled back, removing the empty cartridge case. A new round is placed in the breech and the bolt is then moved forwards to line the bullet behind the barrel ready to shoot, and then locked to keep it in place.

Sometimes this bolt action is performed merely by pulling a knob back and forth along a groove.

Repeating weapons usually have the new rounds fed into place by some kind of spring inside the magazine or ‘clip’. A few have a rotary magazine, similar to a revolver and some have the rounds in a tube underneath the barrel.

Repeating weapons can still be bolt operated, and many a precision sniping weapon still is. Some rifles are lever action, in which the whole trigger guard assembly moves forwards through a short arc to work the ejection/reload cycle. The classic Western ‘Winchester Rifle’ is an example of this type, and similar methods are popular with many sporting rifles even today.

Military ‘assault rifles’ usually use part of the recoil forces and/or gas ‘blowback’ to work the ejection and reloading cycle. They are usually made to less precise tolerances than a sporting or sniping rifle. This allows them to continue functioning when muddy and dusty, where a more precision tool would jam.

Many assault rifles now have a selector lever with three positions. Single shot, burst, and full auto, indicating how many round will be fired if the trigger is held down. Single is economical of ammunition and lends itself to marksmanship. Burst is often set at three shots, and to some extent compensates for the reduced ’shock effect’ of modern smaller bullets. Full auto will let you empty the whole magazine if you keep the trigger down, effectively giving you the option of a light machine gun. But spraying bullets all over the place won’t necessarily improve your chances of a decisive hit.

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2) Handgun. This can be either a revolver or an automatic. (There are single shot handguns, just as there are a few very rare hybrid automatic revolvers. But if you need/want one of these exotics for a story then it’s reasonable to assume you are pretty well up on guns anyway, and that the use of a particular make/type is a relevant plotting twist.)

A handgun can, as the name suggests, be fired with one hand, but is best used with both for greater accuracy. As a well known American bumper sticker reads, “Gun Control means using both hands.”.

A revolver has a swing-out cylinder normally holding six rounds, or possibly a higher number in a smaller calibre. This is then swung back in and locked. In use pulling the trigger not only fires the round under the hammer but also ratchets the cylinder around so the next round in line with the barrel. Herein lies the one great strength of the revolver… If you have a duff round which fails to fire it will still be graunched on round and replaced by a - hopefully - good one.

Automatics have their rounds in a magazine. Usually located in the butt (grip), where you hold the thing, and usually filled by a clip which you push in and lock from the underside of the butt. It is usually possible to eject the clip when empty and quickly replace it with a fully loaded one.

A few years back most clips would have held no more than eight or nine rounds. But there are now ’staggered row’ clips holding twenty rounds, or more in the smaller calibres. There are also extended clips for some handguns which protrude below the butt and carry extra rounds. These probably offer no real advantage to any man skilled in a fast change, but may offer an illusion of more ‘instant firepower’. Once again, this could be a major part in a story with an amateur gunman feeling godlike because of his ‘extra’ firepower.

The internal mechanisms which eject and reload an automatic are varied, and not truly relevant if your villain just needs a ‘gun’. It is worth noting however that bad ammunition can cause not only a misfire but a stoppage with an automatic. Unblocking a stoppage can be quite a slow process in some cases. The military spend a lot of time teaching soldiers how to unblock a whole variety of ’stopped’ weapons.

Commercial ammunition, unless very old, is unlikely to be bad. Handloads - sometimes referred to as ‘Roll your own’ - can cause problems unless well made. But this is an area where you need specialist research, by which point you would be writing a story where the finer details are really important rather than background.

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3) Shotgun. Usually thought of as a sporting gun for shooting moving game, rabbits, hares, birds, etc. There are also police issue shotguns (Riot guns in American stories) and military shotguns. For ‘house clearance’ and close quarter jungle fighting a shotgun is arguably the most effective tool.

Either single or twin barrelled. Twin barrel can either be side by side(sbs) - the classic english sporting gun - or over and under (o/u) where one barrel is located on top of the other. The latter often look rather ‘chunky’ and can feel quite cumbersome compared to the slim lines of a classic sporting gun. Much of this is a matter of perception and personal preference.

Single barrelled shotguns can sometimes also have a magazine, holding various numbers of cartridges. There are legal limits. The other option is a tubular magazine which runs underneath the barrel, and these can hold as many as seven rounds. Some are automatic, in that once a round has been fired the empty case is ejected and a new one ‘chambered’ ready for use. Others are pump-action, which is the one often used in films, because pulling back the foregrip to ‘pump’ the action can look very dramatic. It also makes a business-like clonk which serves as a warning to anyone nearby.

Any of the above can be ’sawn off’ - illegally - and even have the stock cut down as well to make an oversized handgun. Obviously this will reduce the capacity of a tubular magazine, but not a box magazine which normally sits below the gun.

All sawn-offs will kick harder than a complete shotgun. The powder charge - being designed for a longer barrel - will not have burned completely when it leaves the barrel so you will get a big gout of flame and, depending on the choice of powder, a big or even huge cloud of smoke. Fire a couple of rounds from a shotgun in a pub and you’ll have trouble seeing across the room for several seconds. (In a story this could be important or at least relevant.)

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There are also various exotic things such as little two barrelled derringers, walking stick guns, pen guns (which look like a pen but fire a .22 short cartridge and can be nasty at close range, etc. There’s even shot pistols, designed that way instead of being a sawn down shotgun. But, as mentioned earlier, if you need something like that for a story you probably already know about it from elsewhere.

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No look at firearms would be complete without some attention to the accompanying sighting systems, without which accuracy would be a question of luck

Sighting systems: The details may vary, but there are three essential types.

1) Iron or ‘battle sights’, basically a post at the front and a notched blade nearer the rear of the rifle. The rear sight can be elevated for longer range shots and is usually laterally adjustable to allow for the effects of a crosswind. An experienced man may prefer to leave the sights on some ‘average setting’ and ‘aim off’ or ‘hold over/under’ to compensate for conditions. This approach can be stunningly effective if the man really knows his particular weapon.

2) Telescopic sights, as the name suggests, are a magnifying sight set along the top of the barrel. Sometimes a lengthy tube, sometimes a more complicated arrangement of lenses in a shorter tube. A good telesight, properly zeroed, will let the shooter hit more distant targets or hit nearer targets with greater precision, assuming the rifle is up to the job.

3) Light intensifying sights/thermal imaging sights. These are the expensive toys which turn night into day. Quite bulky, but the target will show up on a greenish background.

Light intensifiers just make full use of every scrap of available light they can find. Thermal Imagers work on body heat and will also pick out campfires, hot exhaust pipes, etc. In this respect the operator needs training so he can easily identify what is what.

Others: There are also laser range finding sights which send out a laser beam and calculate the exact distance to the target. Useful information to the skilled man, but wasted figures to the less skilled.

Plus ‘red dot’ sights: These come in two types with a largely similar effect.

1) Singlepoint type: The shooter looks into something like a telesight, but with both eyes open. One eye sees the target and the other sees the red dot within the sight. The brain merges the two images, creating the illusion of a red dot on the target. Quite ideal for snapshots rather than more leisurely shooting. A singlepoint on a good air-rifle is great for close range ratting in barns, or putting rabbits in the pot for dinner.

2) Red dot laser: These are the ones that Hollywood loves. The sight projects a red dot onto the target. In a hostage situation the psychological effect on the hostage taker of seeing a red dot probing the walls around him can be quite dramatic. Imagine if you were concealed quite safely behind a thick brick window pillar, but could see that red dot settled in the space where you know you will have to stand to shoot at the rescuers.. Could you stay calm?

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Well, that’s the basics. If you feel the need to mention a weapon by brand name rather than generic type it pays to do a little library or online research to avoid creating such glaring anomalies as a 36 shot revolver, or a single shot repeater.

The average reader won’t notice some things, but it always pays to keep any ‘checkable’ facts accurate.