I need to do a bit of research about guns for my latest draft of Shadow's Talent. Before I go searching through google and find half a million sites that won't answer my questions, has anyone else got any good online sources about handguns and rifles that would give me a good idea of what's what?
Specificially, I need to know about the range of various handguns and what the best quality gear out there is. I've got a bunch of characters trying to pull off a quiet murder, so silencers feature as well. I've seen those scenes in movies where guns make a flash in a completely dark room, and I need to know to what extent this actually happens in real life, and whether a hangun will still make that flash if fired with a silencer, or if there's any gear out there that would prevent this from happening.
Okay, so my story's set in the 2200's, but I want a bit of solid grounding in what's real now before I start futuring it all up. In my version of Earth, guns with bullets would still be the norm because of the limitations set by various organisations.
Anyone knowledgable on this, or researched it before?
Also, if you're a sci-fi nerd with a good source on futuristic (and impossible) weapons, drop me a line.
I find a lot of great detail on Wikipedia, actually. If you know what model of gun you're using, everything you really need to know is there.
A note about silencers: There's no such thing. Obviously, since your story is sci-fi, it's probably OK, but we only have suppressors now. They significantly reduce the volume of the bang, reduce muzzle flash, and muffle the sound in a way that makes it difficult to pinpoint where it's being fired from. But the gunshot is still pretty dang loud.
There also are flash suppressors that reduce muzzle flash without affecting the velocity of the round.
To your comment about it being 2200 with guns with bullets still being the norm, that's likely to be the case for a very long time. Before we develop effective laser weapons (that can be held in your hand), we're going to have rail guns. Even after that, projectile weapons are arguably more effective than laser weapons can ever be because projectiles exert force on impact.
For these reasons, when I write about guns in the future, I use rail-fired technology. I just think it's more feasible, and it's still a long ways off.
I haven't tried Wikipedia yet for the simple reason that I don't know which model to search for. I could try a few brand names I know like Glock and perhaps that would get me somewhere.
I like that you're thinking of railguns, because I sometimes do, although I've wondered how much sense they make outside of Quake Three Arena (it was my favourite weapon in that game). I'll take your word for it that we'll have them before lasers, and I get what you're saying about the impact of projectiles.
Glad to hear guns with bullets might still be the norm in the future, I used virtually nothing but ordinary guns for shoot outs in my Draft One, perhaps not from lack of imagination but from not knowing what I'd be stealing from other writers I read in terms of futuristic weapons. I've read a range of sci-fi authors who all have a different take on them, so it's hard to know what's standard concept that anyone could use and what would be a lift from someone's unique idea (if that makes sense.)
So start here.
Think of it this way: For as long as man has existed, we've really just found better ways to throw rocks at each other. That's probably not going to change.
The reason railguns will be the norm before lasers is because they're both limited by the same problem: energy. With the energy it takes to launch a projectile with rail technology right now, we're limited to mounted guns, and they're VERY expensive. The U.S. Navy is working on a rail gun project that is just straight up crazy pants. See here.
Working laser guns are going to have to harness and exert more energy than railguns, since they will be straight up heat-based weapons, so they will come later.
Suppressors vary from expensive to really expensive. And how much they suppress depends on a couple of things. If you are indoors with a high end suppressor, you won't hear a whole lot more than the action of the pistol. It's still a good clank as the slide slams back, but someone could easily sleep though it in the next room.
And a good suppressor can be shot in the dark with no flash, even on a bigger gun like a .45
As for quiet murders though, I like the hand to hand, up close and personal method.
You can use a potato as a suppressor. So maybe in the future they've genetically engineered special suppressor-potatoes.
I don't have a lot to add to this, except, look at the steps forward in weaponry tech over the past 200 years. If you see a ridiculously steep advancement curve, then it is safe to say that any weaponry 200 years from now will be obsenely different from current hardware. This is, of course, assuming that your sci-fi world hasn't had some sort of cataclymic event that has retarded advances in tech. because mankind was pushed to the brink or something.
Well, that that becomes the question. Everyone always dreams about the laser guns and the flying car, but they aren't really feasible due to the energy needed to make them effective.
Arguably, guns really haven't changed. The biggest technological advance has been rifling. Everything else is just cosmetic or convenience. We still use small gunpowder explosions to laungh lead projectiles. That really hasn't changed. Hollowpoints made it more effective, advance sighting systems made accuracy easier to obtain (theoretically, although trigger control is still the name of the game). On a large scale, rail guns are the future. On a small, widespread scale, we'll still be throwing lead downrange for a long, long time.
But yeah, even a suppressed gun is quite loud. Unless it has to be a gun, you might think of something else anyway. We are so desensitized to guns in entertainment that the murder will be more memorable if you use something else. I'm a fan of the Garrote. It is has a nice, timeless, horrifying quality.
As far as ranges, that is easy enough to find out. There are a lot of studies on round ballistics completed by the FBI. Overall, a round will lose energy over distance, but accuracy range has more to do with the limitations of the shooter and his ability to adjust.
The Ak-47 has been used since 1949. They'll probably still be used in 200 years. Some guns just last.
I need to do a bit of research about guns for my latest draft of Shadow's Talent. Before I go searching through google and find half a million sites that won't answer my questions, has anyone else got any good online sources about handguns and rifles that would give me a good idea of what's what?
Go shot a gun, if at all possible while staying legal. The smell, the feel, aiming, all of that is much easier to describe well/understand the research if you've done it.
Okay, so my story's set in the 2200's, but I want a bit of solid grounding in what's real now before I start futuring it all up. In my version of Earth, guns with bullets would still be the norm because of the limitations set by various organisations.
If you don't have to put in the why, leave out the why.
Anyone knowledgable on this, or researched it before?
If you are using powder based guns, research the way recoil works. Don't just have big guns = big recoil like a bad movie.
Some folks claim there are much better silencers out there, like the Econo Can, but I've not had a chance to use one so I can't say.
If your story is in the 2200s, you can get around the lack of a real-world silencer existing pretty easily.
Bullets are currently accelerated by an explosion of gun powder. That's half the explosion you hear. The SECOND half is the fact that the bullet is super-sonic, (faster than the speed of sound), and thus creates a small sonic boom.
So the first step is simple, use a sub-sonic round. The second doesn't require too much creativity- you need to accelerate a bullet with something else. How about magnets? Check out how this thing moves... http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-06/05/japan-maglev-train-test
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/japan-unveils-magnetic-hover-trains-article-1.1208087
Try this, I found it quite helpful: http://stresshooting.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=27&Itemid=85
