Malcolm and guns

[panyasan]

I am preparing a chapter from Malcolm's POV. In this chapter a hobby of Malcolm is revealed: collecting antique guns.
Now in the story he really wants to have a very specail antique gun.
Having no knowlegde of guns at all, what kind of gun would that be?

[WarpGirl]

Well that depends on the story, why he wants said gun, and other factors. Now I know ABSOLUTELY nothing about guns except from what my cousin and Crime dramas tell me. If I were you I'd talk to Elessar about it. He knows A LOT!

[JadziaKathryn]

Well, this may be completely useless for what you have in mind, but sometimes what makes an antique really special is the story behind it. So an ordinary gun with a great story could work. Suppose he's got a gun taken off Khan when he was captured at the end of the Eugenics War? Just a thought.

[CX]

This is my weapon, this is my gun, this one's for killin', this one's for fun. Ok, he probably wouldn't ever say that, but it's still funny to imagine it.

[WarpGirl]

That is such a guy thing to say.

[CX]

Kind of a military thing, too. Thankfully I never had to march around groping myself while I sang it the way they did in Full Metal Jacket. I'd suggest that movie to everyone, but it's both cool and frakked up at the same time. Part of the cool factor is derived from R. Lee Emory being in it though.

[WarpGirl]

I'm sorry if I sounded mean I just got back from teasing my brother in front of his future wife. I'm still wound up. But then again one of Mal's most famous lines is "You build things I blow things up" so I can see it. He is after all a guy.

[Kotik]

panyasan.

You might want to look around video.google.com or veoh.com for an episode of the british series "Inventions that changed the world". It is a one hour piece, presented by Jeremy Clarckson, on the history of the gun, starting with early flintlock designs and ending with futuristic weapons. It has a emphasis on early british designs as well, so that could relate well to Malcolm, who always struck me as a very taditional brit (except maybe for his womanizer ambitions that are hinted in 'Shuttlepod One' ).

I would bet he'd go for one of the early flintlock models, but maybe it's best you decide yourself, which matches your idea of Malcolm best.

[WarpGirl]

British guys can be players too. Just for a bit of irony since Malcolm is always snarking Trip about his "American" habits what about a six shooter? Just as a gag.

[Aquarius]

I am preparing a chapter from Malcolm's POV. In this chapter a hobby of Malcolm is revealed: collecting antique guns.
Now in the story he really wants to have a very specail antique gun.
Having no knowlegde of guns at all, what kind of gun would that be?

You could actually pick an ordinary gun from our here-and-now, because even that would be an "antique" by Malcolm's time.

I suggest asking Elessar about the gun specifics, but the suggestion of attaching a "really great story" is a good one, especially if it's one that wouldn't be easily proven. Keep in mind, the larger-than-life the story, and the more larger-than-life the gun's former owner, then the more prohibitively expensive it would be for the average person to procure if the story was known to be factual.

Something that's been handed down in the family might be a good way to go.

[Distracted]

Maybe the gun belonged to this guy?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Livingstone

I would think he'd have something hefty enough to put down a lion, like a double rifle:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_rifle

The Brits make some fine ones. Here's one:

http://www.gunsinternational.com/W-W-Gr ... BF85A07B6D

What do you think, Elessar?

[Elessar]

Ah! so someone FINALLY PM's me to bring me into this discussion!

THANK YOU D!

I like D's ideas... and I have a few suggestions. You have a choice between a unique firearm someone important owned (Jesse James' .44 WCF revolver) or a particularly rare firearm that nobody in particular owned. Decide first on what you think Malcolm wold find most interesting... a weapon that has value because of who owned it and what it did, or a weapon that has value because of what it represents... in which case its practical value isn't of much significance. In other words, would he want a flawless perfect never fired example of a certain type of firearm technology? Like a rare matchlock... or would he want the beat up Remington 700-to-M24 conversion that the great Carlos Hathcock (legendary Marine Corps vietnam era sniper) used, racking up 2100, 2400 yard kills in Vietnam? In actuality you'd substitute a British equivalent. That wouldn't be hard. Just let me know and I'l find a famous british sniper and you could use his Lee-Enfield No.4 Mk.1 bolt action rifle.

It also depends on how far back you want to go. I just so happen to currently be reading, "Sniper: History of the U.S. Marksman", so I'm a little more brushed up on my early firearms history than usual. You could have him own an authentic mint condition 1565 German snaphaunce... that's a kind of early matchlock "longarm" (before the term rifle or handgun came around)... predates flintlocks by quite a bit...

I'll have tons more ideas but I'm at work and I gotta go home! Be back online in a few.

[Elessar]

In trying to think of a firearm that is iconically British, I just can't think of anything other than a Lee-Enfield. That's a sort of general category of a long line of british bolt action rifles ranging in era from the 1870's to the 1940's in Britain, 50's and 60's in the British colonies like Pakistan and India. I have two indian friends, whose fathers used Lee Enfields in the Indian Army. One was old enough to have had one in .303 British, one was a few years later when they updated to 7.62x51 NATO.

Anyway, it is said that the weapon that WON the great war was the SMLE, which was technically a certain variant of the Lee-Enfield. SMLE stands for Short Magazine Lee-Enfield rifle. I have one, by the way

The SMLE was ranked by the Military Channel as either 3rd or 4th greatest infantry combat rifle of all time. Ahead of it were only the M16 and the AK47, and that's really saying something. It was one of the greatest infantry combat rifles of all time because it was durable, reliable, and moderately accurate. When I say moderately accurate, I mean that they were selected by the military and required to be able to shoot at a record of 2.67 minutes of arc, which comes out to being able to hit a 16" diameter target at 600 yards. The British wanted a soldier to at least be mechanically able to hit a man's body at 600 yards. I've only shot it at 100y, but mine will actually shoot about 1.5 MOA, which means about 1.5 inches at 100y. Hypothetically, since MOA (minute of arc) is an angular measurement independent of distance, it should be able to hit a 9 inch target at 600 yards. They were one of the few rifles being used by major WW2 powers that were magazine-fed, and their 10 round capacity and cock-on-lock springloaded bolt made reloading EXTREMELY fast. It is said to have been the fastest bolt action rifle ever produced by a military, which is important in a combat environment where machine guns are ruling the dirt.

I have one called a Number 4 Mk.1 (There are diff numbers and mark models of each one). I'm familiar with a Number 1, Number 2, and Number 5, and each one has a few models. The No 4. Mk.1 (T) was a sniper model. Looks like this:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... anders.jpg

They're so resilient that even today, they are used in remote parts of the world by guerrilla fighters:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:014_PLA_Fighters.JPG

I'm not suer when that picture was taken but I think you can tell from the quality that it was pretty recently, and that rifle is probably a 1940's model.

[panyasan]

WOW! Thank you. You have given me lot of ideas for Malcolm's gun collection.
Now the gun that plays a vital role in my story, is a gun the size of a small package. When you open the gun, you will see the cyclinder where the bullets are stored. One of these bullets has the shape of a bullet, but is from a different material. You can open this bullet by whirling the top and it's used as storageplace for a small item.
I think lot's of gun will fit that bill, wouldn't they?

[Distracted]

Sounds like you're talking about a handgun, a revolver like a 45 or something. I guess a smaller gun would be more practical to have on a starship, what with weight and space restrictions. Do the British even make revolvers, Elessar? Or maybe Jesse James' gun is the best idea.