Tasha
eyed the placement of the target. It was further away than the
standard twenty-five yards, and the Sig Sauer nestled in her palm was
an unfamiliar weapon. But she didn’t have the luxury of taking
practice shots. With only two rounds loaded, each had to count.
From Wolves Knight, Book 2 of the Free Wolves series
My dearly beloved also grew up in a family of hunters and served in the military. He's owned a variety of guns in the many years we've been together. I've even shot them on a couple of occasions. That certainly doesn't make me an expert on the topic.
But a couple of my characters need to be experts. Their lives depend on it. So how do I write those scenes?
That's where research comes in. The internet is full of information, not all of it right. Thankfully, I've got access to experts who can verify the facts for me.
I've learned a few things along the way, starting with the basic stuff. Like a pistol and a revolver are two different things, and I'd better not get them mixed up. (But both are handguns.) When cops are on duty, their gun has a bullet in the chamber and the safety is off. (So they can respond quickly.) That the reason that James Bond switched from a Beretta to a Walther PPK was because the Beretta was underpowered and the external hammer could get caught on the holster.I had to figure out the difference between an AK-17 and an AR-15 for Wolves' Knight. (When I wrote the story, the AK-17 was still in development, so there's no way Tasha would be able to carry one.)
Then there's Harmony, my reluctant heroine in the Oak Grove Mysteries series. She bought Betsy, her Beretta, for personal defense. (She names everything!) She knows she's supposed to shoot at center mass (something I didn't know) but still insists on aiming for arms and legs.
Lori, in the next Free Wolves book, Wolves' Gambit, is teaching me a bunch of new things. I won't spoil the surprise now. In the meantime, let's find out what everyone else is researching.
December 18, 2017 – Research. Post an interesting fact or facts you’ve come across researching a book.
Rules:
1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants' blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person's blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.
Wordpress:
Custom Blog:
An InLinkz Link-up
get the InLinkz code
InLinkz | view linkup
not sure, but I think James Bond carried the 9mm version of the Walther PPK, not the 380 version as pictured....just a fyi.. lol..but I love the fact that you actually do research on weapons unlike a lot of authors. As a prior law enforcement officer, it drives me bananas when I read that an officer chambers a round when he wants to threaten an individual and charge his weapon. To a real officer that means he not only expels a possibly valuable round that was already in the chamber (IF he is carrying one in the chamber like most officers) and he is not intimidating enough with his/her presence and attitude. It is a waste of time and ammunition where the officer becomes vulnerable during the time he/she is using both hands to charge the already chambered weapon..... sorry.. went on a rant.. please forgive...all that being said, I appreciate an author that does research facts as you did. As a reader I thank you!
ReplyDeleteI can't verify exactly which model of PPK Bond carried, do I picked the first one I found. (In the movies, he used 4 different models.) it may have been the PPK 7.65 automatic because the ammo was available everywhere when Fleming was writing his books.
DeleteThat's interesting, the bit about cops carrying safety off. Since I haven't had any in my stories (except Joe, who is a small-town officer who hasn't really needed a gun before the apocalypse began), I never thought to research how cops carry. I have taken a couple of NRA safety courses, one for concealed carry and the instructor taught "chambered, cocked and locked (safety on)". You can't accidentally shoot yourself when you're pulling the gun out of the holster and if, say, a kid grabs your weapon when it's holstered, they won't be able to fire it. But, Shane is a mercenary, so I asked the only former security force officer I knew. He said "Chambered, cocked, locked. You lose about a half-second thumbing the safety, but it beats bleeding out when you shoot yourself in the thigh" Then I asked about a dozen soldiers (huge military town here) and got various answers. The older wiser ones were "chambered, cocked, locked." So it's interesting that cops think it's better to have their guns unlocked. I'm going to have to ask the retired State Trooper who sits behind me at church about his practices now, because I'm curious.
ReplyDeleteI got my info from several retired officers in a forum I follow. (and the comment from unknown confirms the info.)
Delete