Henry Rifle Forums

I love to read, and have an eclectic taste in reading material. I read historical and military fiction, humor, mystery, horror, how to, whatever.
What gets me wound up are the easily avoided errors that well known writers make. Especially firearms related, and especially the same error over and over.

Let's take James Patterson for example. He has most of his law enforcement characters carrying Glocks. Novel after novel they are forever clicking off the safety, or putting their Glocks on safe. In others you'll have revolvers have the safety clicked on and off, or characters told it has a "full mag." another fav is officers racking the slide on their handgun to chamber a round prior to going into a dangerous situation. I don't know ANY department that has officers carry their duty weapon with the chamber empty.

I know Patterson has received letters regarding these goofs, they disrupt the flow of the page. (I wrote him via his publisher myself.) The errors continue thru all his series.

When I find writers who invest the efforts to get the facts right... I stick with them. Some write what they know, and pay consultants who are experts in what they don't, to proofread for factual or procedural mistakes. If Patterson himself came to me and asked me to provide this service since I wrote and pointed out a few errors. I would thank him, but decline. I would point him to my LE Rabbi, who has a depth of firearms knowledge that is impressive. He is also a retired Patrol Sergeant, with nearly thirty years behind the badge. That way, the man would get a twofer... Guns and police procedure.

With you all the way on this one. When I read a ridiculous error on a gun fact in a novel (and I've seen some whoppers), it destroys the credibility for me to the point I usually don't continue.

Don't know if this would interest you, but my favorite author of all time is an Englishman named "Patrick O'Brien". He spent his early years in the British Admiralty researching the Napoleonic wars. His novels feature a British sea captain and his best friend as they fight through the war in different commands. The prose and detail is so great that his writings are considered Literature. I have read all of his works and even the half one he was completing when he died.

If you saw the movie "Master and Commander the Far Side of the World" starring Russel Crowe, that was a compilation of two of his novels.

https://www.patrickobrian.com

Master and Commander is one of Miss Ts favorite movies. I love the actor who plays the doc... He has had some great parts... Awesome in A Knight's Tale.

J.C. Pollack is another who usually gets the gun stuff right. His wife shot pistol matches with us for several years. She was quite good.
Always amazed me that some authors would research how the interior of San Quentin looked in the 1950s, or the Policy and Procedures for a certain Mental Hospital, but can't be bothered to get basic gun related facts straight.

I continue to make the carnal error, and I can't stop.........

You know the one, c**p instead of m*g. You see, I can't even say it

But I blame the old '60s TV shows, like 'Combat'. Wasn't somebody always yelling something about a "clip". I guess I had the misfortune to grow up watching shows with M-1s

Alright everybody count your clips......

Henry88 wrote:I continue to make the carnal error, and I can't stop.........

You know the one, c**p instead of m*g. You see, I can't even say it

But I blame the old '60s TV shows, like 'Combat'. Wasn't somebody always yelling something about a "clip". I guess I had the misfortune to grow up watching shows with M-1s

Alright everybody count your clips......

Henry always liked that show, and Rat Patrol.

RP

.
Combat, Rat Patrol, 12 O'clock High, Hogans Heros....

Vaquero wrote:

Henry88 wrote:I continue to make the carnal error, and I can't stop.........

You know the one, c**p instead of m*g. You see, I can't even say it

But I blame the old '60s TV shows, like 'Combat'. Wasn't somebody always yelling something about a "clip". I guess I had the misfortune to grow up watching shows with M-1s

Alright everybody count your clips......

Henry always liked that show, and Rat Patrol.

RP

Don't remember the 12 O'clock High.
yep HH was another good one.

RP

Vaquero wrote:Don't remember the 12 O'clock High.
yep HH was another good one.

RP

I remember 12 o'clock High....then again, I also remember when network TV channels would sign off at 12:00 o'clock.

The M1 Garand actually did use clips, if that's the gun you are talking about. The clip on the Garand fed the internal fixed, non-removeable magazine on the Garand, so, yeah, it would have been correct to count your "clips" if you were using a Garand, because you did carry extra ammo in those clips, which were ejected from the magazine after the last shot. The term clip stuck, though, when folks switched over to detachable magazines (magazines have springs, clips don't). They just kept using the term clip. Nowadays, though, thanks to the internet, calling a magazine a clip will bring will get you a warning from the proper term police.

I remember those days also, and only having a handful of channels.
Turning the antenna, a little more, no, no back up a bit.
And dad had a remote control too, Hey get up and change that channel boy.

RP

I remember those days also, and only having a handful of channels.
Turning the antenna, a little more, no, no back up a bit.
And dad had a remote control too, Hey get up and change that channel boy.

RP

North Country Gal wrote:The M1 Garand actually did use clips, if that's the gun you are talking about. The clip on the Garand fed the internal fixed, non-removeable magazine on the Garand, so, yeah, it would have been correct to count your "clips" if you were using a Garand, because you did carry extra ammo in those clips, which were ejected from the magazine after the last shot. The term clip stuck, though, when folks switched over to detachable magazines (magazines have springs, clips don't). They just kept using the term clip. Nowadays, though, thanks to the internet, calling a magazine a clip will bring will get you a warning from the proper term police.

The media still seem to have no clue.

And I doubt they ever will.

Sorry I was counting my clips...

Some military ammo came in thin metal stripper clips in 1,000 round cases. There was a couple small Y shaped devices that slipped onto the top of the mag. Insert the stripper clip, a sharp downward push, and the ten rounds "stripped" from the little clip into your mag in a second. Repeat the process as needed to fill twenty or thirty round mags. Several of the adapters came in each case of ammo. After a week or so on the range, everyone had one. I used to have a couple around. Once stripped, the clips used to get tossed, these days they are probably recycled.
https://www.bing.com/images/search?view ... ajaxhist=0
Stripper clips and adapters ^^^^^^^^^

http://www.maglula.com/wp-content/uploa ... per1-s.jpg
Positioned for use, just push.

I remember all of those. As a military brat, they all had an appeal to me. Still do. I am affected deeply by stories of heroism and sacrifice.

And, back to the topic, accuracy in the technology of warfare. I too am a stickler for getting the terminology and facts correct. I still read up on current military hardware.

I am the same with westerns; they gotta get it right. I can suspend reality for a while with Gene Autry but I don't want to see Wyatt Earp wearing a buscadero type holster.

As a former LE firearms instructor, Glock instructor, and Glock armorer, the Glock inaccuracies are just really annoying, but all the firearms stuff burns my butt.