I'm obliged to Zendo Deb at the 357 Magnum blog for linking to a useful video about Hollywood's myths about guns. It's one of the most propagandized - and most misunderstood - subjects in the entertainment world, and any attempt to set the record straight is worthwhile, IMHO.
If you have friends who don't understand firearms, or are afraid of them, tell them to watch this video clip.
Let's get the truth about guns out there, so that we can debate with anti-gunners based on facts rather than fanciful fiction and emotion-driven excess.
Peter
I've been gone for three days and Virtualmirage will no longer open. Gone, just some problems to work out, he'll be back? And when did this happen? Thanks for any info.
ReplyDeleteAn argument I have with my husband
ReplyDeleteevery
damn
time
Hubby insists that the military has real silencers that work just like the ones in the movies. They're so top-secret that civilians don't know about them, but not so top secret that anyone who has been thru boot camp doesn't know about them.
Good video, only one minor quibble. There ARE subsonic rounds that do not make the 'crack' when fired.
ReplyDelete@glasslass: He's having site attack problems, obviously fairly sophisticated. He's beaten them before. I daresay he'll be back online shortly.
ReplyDeleteYears ago, I read an article about old west gunfights and injuries in American Heritage Magazine by (IIRC) a medical doctor and keen historian. The article energetically debunked the survivability of the "shot through the shoulder but he'll be fine in a week or so" trope -- among other popular western movie tropes. 19th century bullets from rifle or hand-gun - especially those cast-lead home-brewed ammunition -- were slow, soft and relatively massive, almost always deforming upon impact, and usually smashing any bone they came into contact with, along with carrying bits of clothing into the wound. Victims shot in such gunplay often were knocked backwards from the impact, whereas modern ammunition - harder and traveling much faster - tended to make a neater and smaller wound. So the convention of a victim thrown backwards may have some historical basis ... but not so much true nowadays.
ReplyDeleteAh-ha! Found the article I mentioned, above1
ReplyDelete(Gads - from 1971!)
https://www.americanheritage.com/it-dont-hurt-much-maam
Thanks so much for the info.
ReplyDeleteYeah, firearm sounds in general are rather neglected in movies. Never mind a suppressor and what you should hear when one is used - IRL, experienced soldiers have been able to tell quite a lot about what was being fired, just from the sound.
ReplyDeleteThe best of them can get quite surprising amounts of detail.
Dragon Lady: The military and many police agencies do have guns as silent as they show in the movies. It takes both rather excellent sound mitigation from the suppressor AND firing sub-sonic bullets.
ReplyDeleteI have stood next to a suppressed HK5 submachine gun firing sub-sonic bullets and, yep, you hear a 'pfttt' per round and you can hear the gun cycling and the casing hitting the ground.
And that means expensive suppressors and expensive ammo, for large caliber guns. Which means usually only the Feds can own them.
But... get yerself an old-fashioned bolt .22 that takes any .22 that will fit in it. And get yourself some .22 Caps or .22 BB (both round that are basically primer only or primer plus minimal powder) and those are damn near quiet even without a suppressor. .22 Short is what I used to remove an infestation of racoons that were trying to eat my house. And those were noisy right next to the gun but the wife couldn't really hear the location of me shooting.
.25 ACP is also relatively quiet, due to being subsonic, and is easily suppressed with minimal levels of equipment.
Aguila makes the.22 Colibri and a higher velocity.22 super Colibri, 20 grain conical lead projectile over a primer only, no gunpowder. Colibri is packaged in a yellow box and has a bird etched on the base of the cartridge, super Colibri is red box and has a star on the base. I've read about the lower power load possibly not having the energy to clear a longer rifled barrel, but it hasn't been my experience. Neither load will cycle a semiautomatic weapon, but have worked fine for me in a '38 Winchester bolt action rifle and a Colt New frontier buntline barreled revolver. They are both pretty quiet and don't sound anything like a supersonic bullet. And both are cheap. There's air rifles that will perform comparably, but the quality required is usually expensive and many are not any quieter than powderless ammo. I've no experience regarding effectiveness on small game.
Deleterick m