Gun 'mistakes' in Books, TV, and Movies - feel free to post your own

[KLB]

In many movies, you have a scene where the good guy looks for the bad guy in some abandoned industrial facility. There'll be a protracted sequence where the good guy moves cautiously down corridors and peers around corners, gun always at the ready. Then, to heighten tension, the good guy will rack the slide. So during all the silliness before, he wasn't prepared to shoot?

[Pawpaw]

In "Back to Bataan", none other than John Wayne asked his fellow soldier for a CLIP for his Thompson smg.

In another Duke movie, I believe it was "Comancheros", set in 1840's, where everyone is using Colt 1873 pistols and Winchesters.

In "The Sons of Katie Elder", the Duke and his three brothers are under siege by the bad guys. The sheriff, who has been disarmed, is standing by a creek. One of the brothers throws him a pistol. The sheriff jumps up & out to catch it. In mid-flight, he is shot by one of the bad guys. Instead of continuing forward, the bullet knocks him backwards. He hits the ground right back where he jumped from, only now he's dead.

[goose]

In many movies, you have a scene where the good guy looks for the bad guy in some abandoned industrial facility. There'll be a protracted sequence where the good guy moves cautiously down corridors and peers around corners, gun always at the ready. Then, to heighten tension, the good guy will rack the slide. So during all the silliness before, he wasn't prepared to shoot?

This is one of my pet peeves. Similarly, the person pointing a gun at someone while the gun holder rattles off a monologue, and then when they get to the part where they threaten the other person they rack the slide to prove that they're serious (with a menacing stare). Same thing, during all the silly speech giving they weren't ready to shoot?

[HadEmAll]

Reading a highly touted fiction e-book recently, the first of a multiple volume series about people dealing with societal collapse here in the USA, the author had the shooter using a "police load" in his 9mm handgun, a FMJ bullet at 1625 fps. I forgave him that ignorance as the plot was pretty good so far.

I even forgave him having the hero reload his AR15 with "another box of pain pills". Just poetic license I thought, though I grimaced a bit reading it.

But when somebody hit an oxygen cylinder with a bullet, causing a "tremendous explosion" with no actual explosive gasses around, or flame sources, I'd had enough.

Too bad, my son and I were planning to read the series and compare thoughts on the survival and firearm aspects. I wasn't about to pay $10 for the 2nd book, when I have read $2.99 ebooks with similar plots where the author actually knew his stuff, or had actually done some research.

[jmorris]

I was at a Science Fiction con in Austin not to long ago and the guest of honor, Wesley Chu, headed up a panel called "Writing about what you don't know". He commented (paraphrased), you can write about anything without knowing a thing about it, except guns and ?. (Don't remember that last part.) His first book used "clips" and had several gun errors. Evidently it was pointed out to him frequently.

[Skiprr]

Many of Lee Child's early books (and some firearm errors continue to sneak in; for someone who writes action-centric books like the Jack Reacher series, you'd think 10 minutes of research/verification would be in order). One of his lines I remember: "I chose the Beretta 92 over the Glock 17 because it had 10% more fire power."

Another writer you'd think would do some firearm research is Robert Ludlum: "...snicked the safety off the Mauser semi-automatic revolver."

Joe Pike: "You don’t need to double-tap with the .45. One shot will knock a big man off his feet."

Stieg Larsson in The Girl Who Played with Fire refers to the murder weapon--and contends the same type of weapon killed former Swedish Prime Minister Olaf Palme--as a "Colt .45 Magnum."

The movie Die Hard 2: "That punk pulled a Glock 7 on me. You know what that is? It’s a porcelain gun made in Germany. It doesn’t show up on your airport metal detectors and probably costs more than what you make in a month."

I also see, with some frequency, fiction writers and "journalists" feel that any mention of a bullets diameter needs to be prefaced by a period...as in a ".9mm pistol" or a ".12 gauge shotgun." Little teeny tiny rounds.

Or the opposite. Tony Monchinski, in a pretty awful zombie book, Eden (that I stopped reading less than halfway through), the 40mm S&W pistol is used regularly to dispatch hordes of the undead. No, not a grenade launcher, a carry pistol. At over 1.5 inches in diameter, that's one potent pistol caliber.

Stephen King's been mentioned already, but hey. In The Dark Tower books, his gunfighter uses a Ruger .44 Automag. Hm. In The Drawing of the Three, one of Balazar's cronies opens up with his "wonderful Rambo machine"...an M-16 which King tells us is impossible to fire full auto: "After the first four or five [shots], two things happen to a man--even a powerful one... The muzzle begins to rise and the shooter himself begins to turn either right or left, depending on which unfortunate shoulder he has decided to bludgeon with the weapon's recoil. In short, only a moron or a movie star would attempt the use of such a gun." Same book: Roland breaks open the shotgun the officers were using and then works the pump action to eject the shells.

I watch the show, but The Walking Dead is usually good for a firearm faux pas or three. In the very first episode instruction is given to take the safety off a Glock. And the action performed? Pressing down on the slide release. Oh, and Daryl's crossbow (a terrible choice in the zombie apocalypse) has no sights. But he's all William Tell with it, regardless.

And the whole venerated TV series, The Rifleman, was set circa the late 1870s. Only problem is that Lucas McCaine carried a custom Winchester Model 1892.

[WTR]

And the whole venerated TV series, The Rifleman, was set circa the late 1870s. Only problem is that Lucas McCaine carried a custom Winchester Model 1892.

I also wonder why the rifle does not fire every time he twirls the rifle around to cock it. I thought it was designed to fire when the lever closed. I also like the .45-70 "ballast Steve Mc Queen wears in his gun belt.

[rentz]

I was watching an episode of Agent Carter some time ago and Carter had put a gun in the back of a bad guy who was in front of her. There was the sound effect of a revolver being thumb-cocked into single action, but the gun she was holding was a 1911 and the hammer was up, as if it was a double action pistol.

That's one of my biggest annoyances is when they do the cocking sound effect on something that isn't cocked . Usually it's a Glock

[Oldgringo]

Anybody see last year's Academy Award winning, "The Revenant"? They had repeater muskets and cap lock pistols. Beyond that, the movie smelled to the high heavens.

[jmorris]

And the whole venerated TV series, The Rifleman, was set circa the late 1870s. Only problem is that Lucas McCaine carried a custom Winchester Model 1892.

I also wonder why the rifle does not fire every time he twirls the rifle around to cock it. I thought it was designed to fire when the lever closed. I also like the .45-70 "ballast Steve Mc Queen wears in his gun belt.

This is supposed to be a true replica of the rifle. Look at the lever and a screw has been added to push the trigger when the lever closes. So yeah, I don't know how it could be loaded without firing it. Now on the cap gun one I had there was a piece you could flip up to fire or down out of the way.

[rotor]

If you want to read accurate read Stephen Hunter. Bob Swagger is amazing in Hunter's books.

If you want to see fantastic gun work see the movie John Wick. I have tried to analyze the scenes but they all look great and realistic. Keanu Reeves does such a good job with gun-fu.

[jb2012]

If you want to read accurate read Stephen Hunter. Bob Swagger is amazing in Hunter's books.

If you want to see fantastic gun work see the movie John Wick. I have tried to analyze the scenes but they all look great and realistic. Keanu Reeves does such a good job with gun-fu.

He can actually really sling some lead in real life, check out his 3 gun videos

[TxRVer]

Far from a mistake but I wanted to post one of my favorite scenes from Have Gun Will Travel.

[SewTexas]

the SyFy show from the producer The Asylum.....those guns can shoot thousand of rounds to kill the "monster of the week", well, until it's critical to the plot that they run out, that is

[joe817]

And the whole venerated TV series, The Rifleman, was set circa the late 1870s. Only problem is that Lucas McCaine carried a custom Winchester Model 1892. I also wonder why the rifle does not fire every time he twirls the rifle around to cock it. I thought it was designed to fire when the lever closed. I also like the .45-70 "ballast Steve Mc Queen wears in his gun belt.

I had a Winchester Mod. 1892 when I was a kid growing up in Clay County. The Rifleman was on tv at the time. I tried more than once, what Lucas did by twirling the rifle around the the lever. It took a while but I finally mastered it. And no, it didn't have the gigantic oval lever.. BUT, every time I tried to lever it, the cartridge FELL out of the gun when it was upside down. I'm sure the extractor was VERY used, as it was in original condition when I got it. But...it never failed to drop the live round that was to go next in the chamber. ALSO...the tv series on the air at the same time Batt Masterson, had an extended barrel he could 'screw onto' his pistol(sight & all) to extend the barrel length out to like 15" or 16". I always wantoed one of those's.

And WHAT was that caliber that Steve McQueen carried in his Mare's Leg, in Wanted, Dead or Alive? It was sure big! 30-30 maybe? If so, it certainly could not have held more than 4 or 5 rounds!