Choosing a Handgun for Your Character

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 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

DISCLAIMER - This is a non-political site that is geared to help writers write it right. 
I am presenting information to help develop fictional characters and fictional scenes. In no way am I advocating any position or personal decision.

Decision One - Why is your heroine carrying a gun?

Target Shooting - chose a gun that
    is comfortable to shoot and the
    ammo is inexpensive.
    (.22 is cheapest)
Conceal Carry - strong enough
     bullet to do the job (higher
     caliber), light enough and small
     enough to conceal on the body.

Home Protection, Back Woods, Zombie Apocalypse - 
     for all 3, she might want a 
     higher caliber
     (bigger bullet - .357, .44) to
     protect against large animals
     such as bear or werewolf.

This is a picture from one of my target practices with a Springfield 9mm XD-S/20 feet/32 bullets.

DECISION TWO: There are two kinds of handguns - the revolver and the semi automatic

 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Revolver - 

The revolver gets its name from the barrel that must revolve forward to bring the next bullet into play.

The industry standard is a six-bullet cylinder.

If the villain is using a revolver then your heroine can count bullets and has a window of opportunity when he has to reload.

Now choose:
Single action - your character will have to cock the gun before she can pull the trigger. This slows down her firing ability.
Double Action - every time your character squeezes the trigger it will pull the hammer back and fire

PROS

* Extremely simple
* Point and shoot
* They fire every time - if they fail to fire in an emergency situation
   simply continue to pull the trigger and the cylinder will continue
   to rotate and prepare the next round
* Easier to clean and maintain than a semi-
* Can be left loaded without issue

CONS

* Smaller capacity than a semi
* No recoil spring to help you with recoil action - the shooter's hand
   takes the recoil. This HURTS so, in my opinion, not a great gun
   for target practice but okay for emergencies.

 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Semi-automatic - 

A semi-automatic fires the bullet in the chamber, extracts it, ejects it, and loads a new round

PROS 

* More control than a revolver
* More comfortable to shoot because of the recoil spring
* Higher capacity (holds more rounds)
* Quicker to reload

CONS

* Not as simple as a revolver: there are more parts such as the
   magazine release and the slide release.
* Not necessarily as reliable because they can jam occasionally. 
   The character would have to clear the jam before she could
   continue shooting.
* Must take apart to clean and maintain
* If you leave your gun loaded for a long time the magazine springs
   can become compressed so one should not leave it loaded (or just
   replace the magazines every once in a while). But this might 
   be a reason for a complication in your plot.

Semi- automatic video quick study (6:15)

DECISION THREE - What is the gun made from?

This mostly has to do with weight - how carry-able is it? How accurate is it? How much can your heroine handle?

Three Most Common Materials

Steel and Polymer (around 26  oz.)
Steel and Aluminum Framed (around 32 oz)
Full Steel ( around 40 oz.)

DECISION FOUR - Safety or no safety?

With a safety on, even if there is a bullet in the chamber, squeezing the trigger will not produce a shot. This might pose a problem for your character if her adrenaline is flowing, her brain isn't functioning, and she can't figure out why the bad guy is still attacking her.

Without a safety - her shot is quicker. However, accidents can happen. Would this advance your plot?

DECISION FIVE - Is this a good fit for your character?

* How big are her hands? (check grip size on gun)

* How strong is she? (check weight)

* Can she take the recoil? (a revolver might put her on her butt and
   that might be where you want her)

* What capacity (how many bullets does she need to do the job? 
   Or fail at the job?)

* Reloading (How fast? How many times? How successful?)

* What caliber of bullet does she use? Bullet tutorial

I would suggest that after doing some research and making some initial decisions, that you go by the gun store and hold the gun that you think your character would use. I have very small hands and some guns are just too large for me to grip properly. Glocks for example have HUGE grips and are not great for small hands reaching the trigger. Blog entry of me shooting a Glock at a F.A.T.S. demo CLICK HERE

I shoot a Springfield 9mm XD-S for comfort, and accuracy in range shooting and home protection. It fits my small hand, is a good weight and size, and I can use extended clips to increase my capacity. The trigger pull is about 6 lbs. which is easy enough for my strength level. 26 oz. Though pretty difficult for me to field strip (open it up to fix a problem). Small enough for concealed carry. 
Excellent overview of the XD (8:36)

While I write my blogs from the perspective of the heroine, my friend at Confidential Resource thinks you should note:

Hand size is not a gender issue. Handguns are all about the shooter's hand size. Hand strength is also an issue as most people don't work with their hands today. However, hand size is the most critical issue.

The reason it is so important is that the pistol barrel must align with the forearm to enable accurate controlled fire. To line-up with the forearm the tips of the second and third fingers must press on the side of the grip opposite the palm. Without this, you will not be able to acquire or maintain a proper firing grip. For people with small hands, this means a narrow front-strap that is well rounded--think 1911, P220, or perhaps the SR9 pistols. Of course, the reach to the trigger face is also an important consideration.

For concealed I like:
Sig Saur P238 Copperhead (video 1:38) It is easy to conceal (.380ACP caliber). It hurts to shoot. Watch your character's grip - the gun is so tiny she might get her hand over the barrel/slide.

I also like the Ruger LCP and the Kel-Tec P3AT Ruger and Kel-tec (video 8:38) The Ruger LCP is what Kelli carries Women Carrying Concealed blog entry

A COUPLE OF HOUSECLEANING ITEMS:

Did you know?

When you have a magazine in your semi it is not considered loaded. A loaded gun means that you have a round in the chamber. Careful when you're writing. If you write that the gun is loaded and then the character racks the slide, then you have made a mistake.

Should the gun be loaded? Talking to experts, the prevailing wisdom says:
Semi- 
   * If the semi has a safety, yes. 
   * If the semi has no external (thumb) safety then no (remember
      this just means not having a bullet in the chamber) 
Revolver - yes.
Conceal carry? yes.

Confidential Resource: Sources & Methods for the Investigator  (http://www.confidentialresource.com/ @locuscommunis on twitter) explains that:

Experienced shooters always refer to the 'condition' to describe the pistol's state or readiness to fire. A proficient gun handler will usually keep the pistol in Condition One or Four. Institutions that know their people are incompetent will often dictate Condition Three to avoid negligent discharges in administrative handling.

• Condition Four: Chamber empty, empty magazine, hammer down.

• Condition Three: Chamber empty, full magazine in place, hammer down (Israeli carry).

• Condition Two: A round chambered, full magazine in place, hammer down (extremely dangerous, especially with SA pistol).

• Condition One: With Single Action: a round chambered, full magazine in place, hammer cocked, safety on. With striker fired pistol: a round chambered, full magazine in place, striker at ready position. With Traditional Double Action (TDA), DAO, or LEM: a round chambered, full magazine in place, hammer at ready.

• Condition Zero: A round chambered, full magazine in place, hammer cocked, safety off.

Best video series I have ever seen on guns is:
MAGPUL DYNAMICS THE ART OF THE DYNAMIC HANDGUN YOUTUBE overview available on Amazon.

And before I leave today can I just add this one little bit of information...? A pet peeve is someone who writes a silent shot with a silencer. Shooting with a silencer removes the sound and light to a distance that makes it easier to shoot without flinch (my target paper is always so pretty when I shoot with a silencer) but it IS NOT SILENT! 

LINK Nottoway Shooting Sports

See how this article influenced my plot lines in my novella MINE and my novel CHAOS IS COME AGAIN.

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Thank you so much for stopping by. And thank you for your support. When you buy my books, you make it possible for me to continue to bring you helpful articles and keep ThrillWriting free and accessible to all.

Randy Shepherd, Sniper Information for Thriller Writers

Image via Wikipedia







Image via WikipediaIt was fun to meet Randy Shepherd. He wears a broad and ready smile. Friendly, enthusiastic and just plain nice. He wears muscles on top of muscles, stacked high. Tight hipped. Cowboy stance. The gait of a soldier. His eyes invite conversation. Teasing is met with a quick wit. Definitely a ladies’ man, with a long history of banter practice under his belt.

Randy has a pulse of 54. Do you know what other animal has a pulse of 54? An Ox. Latent strength. I thought that it would be a bear in hibernation, but their rate is about nine beats per minute. And even Randy would be dead at that rate. Reptiles in cold conditions can get their heart rates down to 54. But not your typical guy. Of course, Randy is not typical.

He is able to keep his heart rate low by running. A lot of running. Marathons-just-for-the-fun-of-it running. His low heart rate is one of the keys to his success. That and nerves of steel. Incredible patients. Eagle eyes. Oh, and a willingness to lie there as he’s covered in bugs and other creepy crawlies, hour after hour, heat, sweat, cold, rain, whatever. Randy is a sniper. The winner of national sniping awards and a Lt. with the Guilford County Sherriff’s Dept.

Randy likes math. He was giddy over the idea of a cosine. Cosine make me nauseated. Well, they did back in college. If Randy had been my teacher, I would have had a better handle on my stomach. When he describes the formula, it is very interesting - it's exciting to think of math formulas from Randy’s point of view. And applicable. Maybe not for me - I’m not sniper material. I’d fall asleep if I had to lie still for eight hours at a time. Rifle  or no rifle. Bad guy or no bad guy. Exciting math formula or no. I’d either be asleep or swatting at the bugs, and needing a potty. Let's just say my pulse is not reptilian.

So here’s a little bit about sniping.

First the T Box - a T box on a face include the eyes as the top of the capital T and the nose as the stem. If a bullet hits in this area, the control portion of the brain will stop instantly. There will be no convulsion. The person who was hit would be unable to pull a trigger on the way down. Nothing. Just splat. Gone.

Snipers are trained to hit a 1” box at 100 yards. - 1” a football field away. 1”!!!! I’m thrilled to hit the bulls-eye at 20’. This area is multiplied by distance. For example at 200 yards the box is 2” and at 300 yards its 3”. At 300 yards! At 1,000 yards, he hits a 10” square. I didn’t know there was enough loft in a bullet to make it fly 1,000 yards. There are 1,760 yards in a mile just to make the distance clear.

Randy has a logbook where he meticulously documents weather conditions such as temperature, humidity, and wind speed. He uses these as a reference when he is adjusting his sites. Did you know that a 20-degree difference in temperature could shift the rise or fall of the bullet by 1” so if Randy were shooting on a day when it’s 40 degrees and a day when it's 100 degrees, the difference in the bullets movement would be 3”. Very significant when you need to hit the 1” box on the T.

Adjustments are made by changing the clicks on their cross-hairs  Theses changes are made in increments of minutes. A circle is divided into degrees and the degrees are further divided into minutes.

They have a formulaic for someone who is walking or running or sitting still. Randy never mentioned one for someone doing the tango - but it was probably because no one brought it up. Surely, Randy has thought of every contingency.

As Randy shoots, he has to not only consider hitting the T, he also has to consider where that bullet is going as it exits. Randy wants to embed it in a wall - he doesn’t want it to keep flying. I certainly don’t want it to keep flying!

So where do those cosines come in?

In Randy’s little black book, where he keeps all of his important numbers, he knows the heights of average things. The height of a window, a door, a lamppost etc. at various distances. This helps him figure out how far he is away from his target. He also knows how high up he is given the floor he is standing on. Important.

If someone from the ground were to say to Randy on the 14^th floor, “Hey Randy, we have a laser on him and he’s 380 yards away.” Randy has to take into consideration that that measurement was taken from a 180-degree angle. Randy is shooting from 154’ above. This would make the distance considerably different. Randy does his math calculations (Randy does this - not me. I said it was interesting, not that I’d actually partake) and comes up with the correct distance. He sets the minutes on his reticle of his crosshairs and he’s ready should the shot become necessary.

When is a shot necessary?
When there is imminent danger.

Do the snipers use lasers on their guns?
No, it makes them lazy and it’s just one more thing to go wrong - mechanical failure issues. And we don’t need any issues when trying to get a bullet in that 1” box at 1,000 yards.

Is sniping a glamorous life?
Yes if your idea of fashion is a ghillie suit. This amorphous garment is made to disguise human form by making you one with nature. Basically, you look like a shrub.

The sniper practices being in place for 12 hours at a time. That’s where Randy’s sloth-like heartbeat comes in handy. The snipers are formed into two man teams called “sniper elements.” They try to have eight snipers in a situation. Imagine a building as a diamond. Two elements (4 people) sit together. One sniper element observes the right wall and the other sniper element observes the left wall. There are two other sniper elements doing the same thing only on the diagonally opposite side of the building. Watching walls three and four. So now, each wall of the building is being watched by a sniper element.

Let’s say Randy is on the element looking down the front of the building. He counts off the windows and doors and feeds this information to Command. The snipers try to find indications of what could be in each of the various rooms so if a ground team goes in, Command has an idea of where they are going. Person one on the element will look at their section with binoculars and report anything that they see, especially any movement to Command. They are trying to figure out where the bad guy is hanging out. Possibly barricading himself in.

While Randy’s partner is on binoculars, Randy is breathing steadily, heartbeat is low, eyes shut. He is in a state of suspended animation. On a cue, Randy will open his eye, train his rifle on any given window that is called by his partner, and shoot.

If after 12- 15 minutes nothing happens. They switch. Both snipers have their own guns. Though they train at regular intervals on each other’s guns - just in case one of them has mechanical issues.

They work on a SWAT team. Randy’s SWAT team is made up of two entry teams (16 men) and an 8-man striker team.

If you would like a link to more sniper math information try this:
http://www.sniperflashcards.com/windreading.php

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Thank you so much for stopping by. And thank you for your support. When you buy my books, you make it possible for me to continue to bring you helpful articles and keep ThrillWriting free and accessible to all.

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