The Gun Thread

Personally, I love both semi-autos and revolvers.

@D Roy: Guns 101:

Submachinegun: Pistol caliber firearm (usually select fire and magazine fed) bigger than a handgun but smaller than a rifle. Common examples include the MP-5, MP-40, Thompson (the gun that made the Twenties roar!), PPSH-41, Uzi (Full size and Mini-Uzi only. Micro-Uzi is a machine pistol) and the FN P-90.

Handgun: Pistol caliber firearm less than 8 inches in barrel length. Usually semi-auto or other manual operation (single action, etc.). Can be fired (clumsily in heavier calibers) one handed.

Machine Pistol: Same as handgun only it has select-fire/full auto capabilities and is not as big as a submachinegun. Glock 18, Micro-Uzi and MP-7 are examples of this.

I guess Tom was right.

As to shotguns, funny story there; A friend was letting me shoot his Remington 870 which he had outfitted with a pistol grip. We were blasting soda cans with some birdshot he had. I went to take a leak, and when I got back he handed the piece to me and said it was fully loaded. The first two rounds went off okay, and the third damn near tore the thing out of my hands.

Turns out he'd snuck a 3" Magnum slug round in there. Scared holy hell out of me.

If I were to write some of the strange things that come under my eyes they would not be believed. ~Cora M. Strayer~

DS: heh, that's both kinda mean, and yet totally hilarious.

edited 17th Jan '12 6:14:16 PM by MarkVonLewis

@Mark: considering I've not done much with shotguns, I thought the thing had misfired.

If I were to write some of the strange things that come under my eyes they would not be believed. ~Cora M. Strayer~

^ A misfire would mean less recoil, not more. Or simply a click of the trigger and then nothing.

@Tom: sorry, wrong word. The dude did his own loading, I thought he'd fucked one up or something.

If I were to write some of the strange things that come under my eyes they would not be believed. ~Cora M. Strayer~

@Major - And this is why I love this site. -takes notes-

I'm a (socialist) professional writer serializing a WWII alternate history webnovel.

Was there any doubt?

hashtagsarestupid

@joey: no one's right all the time.

Anyhow, now that we can post in here again...Best home defense firearm (that you can legally own in the US)?

I'd say shotgun.

If I were to write some of the strange things that come under my eyes they would not be believed. ~Cora M. Strayer~

I'd presume the answer is "pistol," but I'm not sure on this one...

"Shit, our candidate is a psychopath. Better replace him with Newt Gingrich."

Shotgun. Less likely to blow clear through the wall and hit something important on the other side, less need to carefully aim, and perfectly serviceable at the range you're most likely to need — 6 to 15 feet.

...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.

^

It's a tie between a pistol and a shotgun. With a shotgun you have less penetration and an intimidating sound, with a pistol you don't flag corners with your barrel if you have to clear your house, which is a definite advantage.

Me and some buddies went shooting today up in the mountains outside Santa Barbara. Shot my 870, my XD 40, and then played with a friends guns, he brought his SKS, AK, and his new Mosin that he bought. I'll have to find a way to upload the video of me bayonet charging a target with his SKS on here, we'd ran out of ammo and he keeps the bayonet attached so I figured why not.

This was also my first time experimenting with Tannerite. It was really hit or miss for us, we had a few targets that had a bag of tannerite in them that didn't go off despite being hit, but then I went and detonated a salsa jar filled with the stuff with my .40, so no clue.

Also, a good target tip for people who go from really low elevations to really high elevations to shoot. My buddy buys the things of hair gel the 99 cent store sells that are vacuum sealed. Go a few thousand feet up and blow one apart with a rifle and they make a pretty decent sized explosion with a gel-like consistency.

Maddie's reasoning was the same as my own, though Barkey does make a good point about length. Close-quarters suck with a long-arm, and in a home invasion scenario that's what you're likely to have.

Anyhow, @Barkey: LOL, I will have to try that someday.

If I were to write some of the strange things that come under my eyes they would not be believed. ~Cora M. Strayer~

The mobility problem is why I said pistol over shotgun.

No worries about spinning to fast and hitting a wall (or getting the gun grabbed easily) by a hostile person with a pistol. Well, less worry...

"Shit, our candidate is a psychopath. Better replace him with Newt Gingrich."

But quite offset by the deterrent effect of racking a shell into the gun.

I should probably set up my home defense plan as racking a shell in the 870, then clearing the house with my XD. Best of both worlds.

Of course, at close quarters,a shotgun becomes a dandy skull-smasher. But that's probably beyond the ken of the average homeowner, especially after having been woken out of a sound sleep.

Still, I'd probably take the meat mangling (and close-range) awesomeness of a 12 gauge. That, and as others have said...the sound of a shell being pumped into the chamber does carry a certain authority.

If I were to write some of the strange things that come under my eyes they would not be believed. ~Cora M. Strayer~

While the pumping of a shotgun is more traditional and iconic, I personally find the charging of a semi-automatic pistol via pulling the top to me more effective and stylish as a tool of intimidation...

"Shit, our candidate is a psychopath. Better replace him with Newt Gingrich."

@Flyboy: that's not as loud as movies would have you believe. The sound of a pump shotgun is actually louder than foley editors generally make it, believe it or not.

If I were to write some of the strange things that come under my eyes they would not be believed. ~Cora M. Strayer~

It's not loud, no, but it sure looks cool.

Then again, the best weapon by far is the top-break revolver, for that kind of thing. Even if, insofar as I can remember, doing what would make it awesome would actually break the weapon, but w/e...

"Shit, our candidate is a psychopath. Better replace him with Newt Gingrich."

I spent most of the summer shooting with Air gunsx

and learned some things: 1. It's rather hard to adjust the sights on a rifle when it can't even hit the shed you hang your targets on. 2. Don't be topless when you fire a hundred rounds through a rifle, it leaves marks. 3. the pling sound when you hit the target is rather addictive.

In the quiet of the night, the Neocount of Merentha mused: How long does evolution take, among the damned?

I'd have to say shotgun or something intended for melee, simply because they can reduce the risk of collateral damage, and under a certain range, a knife is arguably more lethal than a gun. Also, I'm pretty sure that if someone can wrench your shotgun away from you, you're doing it wrong. Also, a pump action shotgun is probably going to be easier to find than a top-break revolver. (That is, unless you're in the year 2277, at which time, top-break .32 revolvers are remarkably common.)

Yep, BB guns. Unless they shoot plastic balls instead, then they're airsoft guns.

edited 17th Jan '12 10:34:12 PM by Balmung

They still make top-break revolvers.

They just don't use them for military applications, because the frame can't handle high-power ammo.

"Shit, our candidate is a psychopath. Better replace him with Newt Gingrich."

I know they do, it's just that I'm pretty sure that top-break revolvers aren't particularly popular anymore, given swing-out cylinder models.

Pfft. Popularity.

I'm the gun hipster, bitches.

"Shit, our candidate is a psychopath. Better replace him with Newt Gingrich."