What Handguns Do Your Characters Shoot?
- Nancy
- Aug 23, 2023
- 9 min read
My current novel-in-progress has characters with handguns, and I wanted the writing to be believable, so I visited a local gun shop to learn more. The guys who ran the place were happy to show me their guns and let me shoot a couple of them (the guns, that is, not the proprietors). Based on that trip, and plenty of internet research, I offer writers the following information about handguns, specifically:
Are there different kinds of handguns?
Who can shoot more bullets before their gun is empty? Which bullets are more likely to drop an assailant?
What handgun is used by a law officer? A citizen? A criminal?
What’s it like to shoot a gun?
Where can characters conceal their guns?
How do they react when the guns are shot?
What can go wrong?
All Handguns are Not Alike
The types of handguns are revolver, pistol, and derringer. Each type is available in many different models and sizes. Although the current trend is toward smaller and lighter guns, the shorter the barrel, the shorter the effective range of accuracy. Popular manufacturers are Smith & Wesson, Heritage, Glock, Ruger, North American Arms, Charter Arms, American Steel Stamp, Colt, Sig Sauer, and Kimberly.
A revolver has a revolving cylinder with holes for bullets. You snap the cylinder to the side and manually insert bullets. (Some guns are “top break” revolvers that bend in half to expose the cylinder holes.) When you snap the cylinder back into place, it cocks the hammer, and you’re ready to shoot. Pulling the trigger causes the hammer to hit the cartridge, setting off an explosion that propels the bullet out of the barrel. With a single-action revolver, you must manually cock the hammer to rotate the cylinder so another bullet can be fired. With a double-action revolver, the cylinder revolves after each shot, and the next bullet is ready to go.
To reload, you snap the cylinder to the side, and hold the gun up to dump out the empty casings. If they are nickel, they may slide right out. If they are brass, you may need to press the ejector rod to punch each one out of its hole. Then you insert more bullets. To save time, you can use a speed loader, which is small enough to carry in your pocket. If you didn’t shoot all the bullets, you can use a half-moon speed loader that holds only three cartridges.
Some revolvers look like the six-shooters you see in Westerns but modern technology provides more compact versions. A snubnose revolver is one with a with barrel length of 3” or less. The Ruger LCR is a popular double-action revolver with a barrel length of 1.87”. North American Arms makes an ultra compact single-action mini-revolver with a barrel that is just 1.1” long. Standard Manufacturing makes the Switch Gun Mini Revolver with a barrel that folds down next to the grip. Press a button and the barrel pops up, like the blade on a switchblade knife, and you can cock the hammer and start shooting.
The second type of handgun is a pistol, which is a semi-automatic handgun. A pistol uses a single chamber and barrel and also comes in single-action and double-action versions. The bullets are in a magazine that fits into the hollow grip (i.e., handle) of the gun. The top of the gun has a slide. To cock the pistol, pull the slide back and release it. That pops a cartridge into the chamber. (If you shove the magazine into the grip hard enough, it may load the chamber and cock the gun without the need to pull back the slide.) Now you can shoot bullets one at a time until the magazine is empty. You don’t have to pull back the slide again.
When you pull the trigger, the firing pin strikes the cartridge, igniting the powder and expelling the bullet. The slide moves back over the rear of the gun (and your hand) exposing the slide port so the extractor can eject the empty casing from the top of the gun. (The spent casings fly all over and can hit you in the face before they clatter to the ground.) The spring in the magazine pushes a cartridge up, and the slide moves forward again, pushing the cartridge into the chamber.
When the magazine is empty, press a release button on the grip to drop it into your hand, then insert a loaded magazine. To reload a magazine, push in one bullet at a time. It's tough to push in more than three bullets because the spring is so strong. Therefore, most people use a speed loader. You can carry extra magazines, but you can’t really reload a magazine during a shootout.
Pistols look sleeker than revolvers. The Glock 17, with a 4.5” barrel is a full-sized pistol, while the Glock 19 and the Sig Sauer P322, are popular compact models with 4” barrels. Subcompacts have barrel lengths less than 3.5”, such as the Glock G26 with a 3.43” barrel, and the S&W Shield Plus, with a barrel length of 3.1”.
The derringer has a hammer like a revolver but does not have a rotating cylinder. To load it, top-break the gun and insert cartridges directly into the barrel, similar to loading a shotgun. After shooting, you top-break the gun and (1) dump out the spent cartridges or (2) find a way to pry them out. A derringer may have one, two, or four barrels.
Derringers are similar in size to compact revolvers and subcompact pistols. Bond Arms is the largest manufacturer. Its Cowboy Defender has a 3” barrel. The Rawhide 22 LR has a 2.5” barrel, and the Stinger RS Stubby has a 2.2” barrel. The Z Slayer has a 3.5” barrel and comes in a cool Zombie green color with red paint patterned like blood splatter on the barrel.
Bullets
Caliber refers to the diameter of the gun barrel, either in inches or millimeters. The bullet is the metal part that hits your target, the casing holds the gunpowder, and the cartridge is the combined bullet and casing, including the primer that ignites the gunpowder. The calibers frequently used with handguns include:
.22 LR (long rifle), the most common caliber sold. It has the least recoil but will likely require several shots to kill your attacker.
.380 ACP (Automatic Colt Pistol). It has relatively low recoil and “good penetration,” but is not very powerful and best used at close range.
.38 Special and .357 Magnum. They are similar and have good stopping power, but the .357 Magnum is longer.
9 mm. This has low recoil, is used by many law enforcement agencies, and is the same size as a .380 or .38 Special, but it has more gunpowder and a heavier bullet, which gives it more power to stop an assailant.
.40 S&W. This has more power than the 9 mm.
.44 Special and .44 Magnum. These are considered bullets for “serious use”.
.45 ACP. This is a bigger bullet with a “renowned” stopping power.
Most single-action revolvers hold six 22 caliber bullets. Double-action revolvers hold anywhere from four to ten bullets and can be designed to shoot just about any caliber in the list above. The Taurus Judge model can even fire a .410 shotgun shell, which is birdshot.
Semi-automatic pistols can handle any ammunition in the list above. Magazine capacity generally ranges from 6 to 20 rounds, with 15 being typical. Extended magazines will hold more bullets but don’t fit all the way into the grip and will stick out of the bottom.
A derringer holds one, two, or four bullets, depending on the number of barrels. Bullet types include 22LR, 9 mm, .38 Special, 380 ACP, .410 bore shotgun shells, .45 LC, and 45-709 Government rifle cartridge.
Most bullets are either full metal jacket (FMJ) or hollow core. FMJ bullets are used primarily in shooting ranges. During a shootout, they can go through a person and hit an innocent bystander. Hollow core bullets spread out when they hit someone, causing greater injury, but they do not pass through a body to hit someone else.
Who Carries What?
The criminaljusticedegreehub.com website lists the most popular handguns used by law enforcement. The top three on the list are:
Glock 19, with 15 rounds of 9 mm bullets,
Glock 22; with 15 rounds of .40 caliber bullets, and
Smith & Wesson M&P 9, with 17 rounds of 9 mm bullets.
I asked an acquaintance, a retired police chief in New Jersey, what an undercover detective might use. His answer was a 9 mm, a .380, or even a snubnose .38 caliber.
Little information is available on handguns favored by ordinary citizens, but according to 19fortyfive.com, the best-selling gun of 2021 was the Glock 19, followed by the six-round, 9 mm Glock 43. The Sig Sauer P365 with ten 9 mm rounds came in third, and the Springfield Armory Hellcat subcompact with eleven 9 mm rounds was fourth.
The standard cliché for criminals is the Saturday Night Special, a cheap, small-caliber, compact handgun of low quality that can be easily concealed and thrown away after a crime. However, Wright[1], Ellifritz[2], and Kollmorgan[3] found that criminals and gang members now prefer larger, more powerful handguns. Ellifritz analyzed 67 handguns collected from criminals in a Midwest community and found that only 25% were below .35 caliber. The majority of the handguns (52) were semi-automatic pistols, and the top brands were Ruger, Smith & Wesson, Glock, and HiPoint. Of particular interest was that only 34% of the 85 handguns, rifles, and shotguns collected were fully loaded and operational. The others had the wrong ammunition, were broken, had no magazines, were unloaded, were not fully loaded, or malfunctioned after three shots or less.
How to Hold and Shoot a Gun?
Extend your arms, use both hands to grip the gun, aim, and slowly squeeze the trigger. It will recoil upwards, and then you can aim again. Steve at the gun shop suggested holding the gun with both hands at chest level so the bullet will hit your assailant in the chest. This sounds easy and you don’t have to spend time aiming. Hitting your target is harder than it looks on TV. At the shooting range, I missed a person-sized target just 15 feet away.
Where to Carry a Gun?
Why do characters on TV stuff a gun into their back waistband? I tried that with my Glock 19, and it fell through. You can carry a gun loose in a jacket pocket, pants pocket, or pocketbook, but surf the ‘net and you’ll find holsters for almost any body part:
Gun belts, a belt with a holster that keeps the gun above your waist.
A shoulder holster, designed to fit under a suit or jacket, can accommodate extra magazines.
A waistband holster fits into your waistband, preventing the gun from falling through.
A belly holster can accommodate two guns and extra magazines. Gun positions include small-of-the-back and kidney.
The thigh holster comes in a sexy black lace style.
Leggings and yoga pants come with pockets and belt loops to hold guns and gun belts.
The ankle holster is convenient if you are in a car or at a desk. Some have calf straps to prevent the gun from sliding down around your ankle.
Neck holster for hanging a gun around your neck.
The pocket holster, inside your pants or jacket pocket, may include a small ammo pouch.
The NAA Black Widow Bra holster is designed for a small gun and comes in twelve colors.
How Do You React to a Gunshot?
Gun shots are LOUD. I jumped a mile when a man in the adjacent booth fired his gun. Even with hearing protectors and foam plugs in your ears, the gunshots are very loud. On TV, gunshots are nowhere near as loud as in real life.
What Can Go Wrong?
Lots of things can go wrong. Some situations are described below.
A semi-automatic may have a bullet in the chamber, even after you remove the empty magazine, so it is still cocked and lethal.
With a semi-automatic, keep your hand below the slide or you’ll need stitches when it moves back to eject a casing.
Hangfire. All you hear is a click when you pull the trigger. There’s a delay in detonation that can last up to 60 seconds before the bullet suddenly fires.
Squib load. The bullet is stuck in the barrel because the cartridge didn’t have enough powder to propel it out. When this happens, you’ll hear a click or less of a bang. If you pull the trigger again, a second bullet could get jammed behind the first one, and it could explode, ruining the gun and injuring the shooter.
Stovepipe malfunction. The empty casing doesn’t eject and is sitting upright in the ejector port of the semi-automatic. This prevents the slide from loading another round into the chamber.
If you get bullets from a “reload” company that puts powder into spent casings, you could get a cartridge with too little gunpowder (squib load) or too much gunpowder. A bullet with too much gunpowder could explode, blow the barrel apart, and possibly injure the shooter.
Weak shooter. According to Steve Sieberts in the Gun Digest Shooter’s Guide to Competitive Pistol Shooting, “a weak grip, or a shooter not having firm resistance in the arms” can cause a failure to feed a bullet all the way into the chamber and/or a failure to eject the bullet casing.
Summary
In summary, do some research and give your characters a specific make and model of handgun. The websites listed below have helpful information, but they are not the only ones.
https://proarmory.com/blog/gun-stovepipe-malfunction
Comments