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Skiprr wrote:If I had the time necessary (because there seem to be bizarre gun errors every few minutes, it would take a while) and could stomach watching it again, I'd DVR the pilot episode of the new TV series Shooter, based on the movie of the same name. Which in turn was based on a Stephen Hunter novel...and Hunter is either fuming mad, or shrugging in resignation as he takes his check to the bank. Hunter has admitted he's less a handgun guy, but the knowledge and research shown in his books about rifles is solid.

Not so with this TV series (produced, BTW, by Mark Wahlberg). Now, I can forego some gaffs sometime if it doesn't glaringly break the fictive suspension of disbelief, but if it's a show or movie or book where firearms are so prominent as to be almost a principle character? Mistakes there and the writer, producer, and director should be, well...avoided.

This one starts with Bob Lee Swagger out in the woods with a tranquilizer gun rather than his rifle--a sure sign from the get-go that this was going to PC retelling of the book, if it paralleled the book at all--when he comes across two "hunters" that Bloomberg would consider prototypical: chugging beer, ready to shoot at anything, and completely ignorant about their firearms.

But then, this version of Bob Lee Swagger ain't much more informed than the hunters. He says, "What you got there?" then grabs what looks to be a scoped Remington 700 with cammo furniture away from hunter #1. He asks the guy, "Are you a dentist?" "Orthodontist," he responds. How, or especially why, Swagger seems to be psychic is left unanswered.

Swagger opens the bolt, ejects the round, and catches it in the air. "Two-two-three Remington," he says, holding the round in front of the hunters' noses, a round that dose not look like a .223, either that or the actor is only about 5'3". "55 grain," he says (again, some at-a-glance psychic capability is at least inferred because he doesn't even look at the bullet). "You guys have no idea what I'm talking about, do you? The kid at Wal-Mart who sold you this should have told you. This bullet isn't powerful enough to take anything bigger than a squirrel."

Ignoring that bullets have no power factor at all, just weight, mass, composition, and shape, it will come as a distinct surprise to millions of military veterans and civilian shooters alike that a .223 is useful only against game or threats weighing less than 1.5 pounds. That was my first audible groan when I watched this show. There were many, many others.

Oh, and hunter #2, again with Bloomberg stereotypicality, responds to Swagger's misinformed ballistics lesson by holding up a chrome Beretta 92FS and waggles the 9mm pistol at him. "How about this one? Think it has enough stopping power for ya?" Swagger removes the bolt from the Remington 700 before handing it back to hunter #1. The next, of course, comes the obligatory how-bad-am-I hand-to-hand where Swagger disarms the hunters...then pops them both with a round from the tranq gun and walks away, leaving them sedated and alone in a forest populated with wolves.

After leaving the orthodontist and his buddy for wolf chow, Swagger returns to a loving family scene with his wife and daughter at what has to be a pricey piece of property on a hill next to Puget Sound. He goes to a standalone structure below the main house, his work- and reloading-room and gun "safe." Plain wooden door with a deadbolt, windows overlooking at least two sides--including by the door--with no curtains or blinds. High-end rifles are openly on display, just hanging on the walls. He does have lockers for some weapons, including multiple handguns; these lockers are open-grate-front, cabinet affairs.

Rule #1: The best way to secure your dozens of firearms and accessories is to place them where they are easily visible through a window and secured by nothing that one smack of a framing hammer can't get through.

Rule #2: If you live right by an open body of salt water, never ever try to keep your guns in any kind of sealed container. Constant high humidity and salt air are the best friends your firearms can have. Keep them exposed to those conditions and they'll last you several lifetimes.

Then the setup recruitment briefing by the fed. A tablet PC goes onto the reloading bench and photos are displayed. "Shot by a sniper. We found the hide. Fourteen-hundred yards away."

Swagger's eyebrows rise. "Dang; 1,400 yards." He scrolls through photos to a close-up. "That doesn't look like a 50-cal."

"Three thirty-eight based on the slug." [Note to self: evidently a tiny shotgun slug, smaller than a .410, can serve as a sniper round from long distances. Who knew?"]

Swagger thinks out loud. "Okay. So, 3/4 mile shot through the woods... Boy's a shooter. Only a handful of shooters in the world can take a headshot from 3/4 of a mile away."

In a flashback to Afghanistan, we see Chechen sniper Salatov kill Swagger's spotter with a round through the chest. "He was dead before he fell," says Swagger. Which, of course, contradicts the show's little opening scene which talks about three ways to die from a gunshot, that a headshot is the only "killshot." But never mind. By now we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that Swagger has no clue about his supposed area of expertise.

The sniper, Slatov, uses a .338 Lapua Magnum. The feds provide Swagger with what they believe is an exact duplicate of Salatov's "highly customized SABER-FORSST." Swagger is visibly impressed by such a top-end, exotic firearm.

The problem? The SABER-FORSST is a modular stock; it isn't a firearm at all.

Swagger receives the rifle completely assembled and scope mounted (suitable background music ensues). The first thing he does after pulling it from the case is shoulder it with his finger on the trigger.

The second thing he does is put it a mount/vise and take a Tru-Value crescent wrench to the bolts anchoring the rings to the Picatinny rail. It's obvious he is fine-tuning this precision optic because he looks through the scope multiple times, inserts a laser boresighter, and goes back to cranking on the Picatinny attachment bolts with his crescent wrench, supposedly getting the scope honed in before the first live fire.

Now I know what I've been doing wrong. Thanks to this font of knowledge, I'm giving away my scope-ring lapping rods and precision torque wrenches and Wheeler leveling set. I'm buying a cheap crescent wrench and randomly and alternately tightening and loosening the Picatinny rail attachment bolts--undoubtedly scratching the receiver, barrel, and body of the scope along the way--until I get a precise, super-sniper zero.

Best-of-the-best sniper Bob Lee Swagger then goes into his local gun store. "I'm trying out a new rifle, Henry. You got any three thirty-eight Lapua Magnum?"

"Sure we do."

"I need some powder and some three thirty-eight bullets, too."

So take whatever commercial rounds your local gun store has in stock. It matters not what they are. And here's the big lesson to all you reloaders. You have been completely wrong, this whole time, to worry about bullet weight and composition and shape. Just buy the right caliber bullet. And it doesn't make any difference what kind of powder you use, either: gunpowder is gunpowder. Silly people.

Last tidbit, then I can't take it any more. And, no: I never watched another episode of Shooter.

Bob Lee takes his new, highly modified SABER-FORSST complete with screwed-up Picatinny mounts and crescent wrench scratches all over it to a river to sight it in live-fire.

I now really, really want a .338 Lapua Magnum. I've always known they had impressive ballistics. But, wow; add to that they have absolutely zero recoil? I mean, not on a sled or in a vise, just on a rest, and you can balance a shot-glass full of water on the barrel and never spill a drop. Less recoil than a rubber-band gun. Just, wow! (And we're barely halfway through the first episode at this point.)

Oh, and if you want to take one-mile shots, all you need is what seems to be a very basic Bushnell reticle in mils. You don't need no fancy reticles with superfine holdover markings. And you guys thought you had to spend more than $250 on a scope. Pshaw. After all, if it isn't necessary, why would you want a $3,000 scope if, to get it truly right, you were going to scratch it up with your $3 crescent wrench, anyway?

WTR wrote:I'm not very concerned about mistakes made by fiction writers or Hollywood screen writers. However, I happen to come across the 90s program LAPD Life on the Beat. This program apparently shadowed LA Officers on patrol. In the one episode I watched I was alarmed at the number of Officers who placed their finger inside the trigger guard when training their weapon( in all instances). (Not a majority of Officers, but too many to say the least). Also a Patrolman, a Sgt. and a Lt. all referred to 7.62x39 casings as AK 47 casings ( an AK 47 is the only weapon that shoots that apparently), and .40 cal casings as 40mm casings. I would have expected better from professionals.

goose wrote:From an advertisement I saw for the movie 'Deadpool.' Apparently already cooking off rounds because this MP5 pistol is able to fire while the shooter's finger isn't on the trigger. A new feature.

Noggin wrote:OK I have a few old ones to add here:

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly - the final shoot out scene the camera cuts between their faces, their guns and their hands. Here we see they are all armed with Cap and ball revolvers, OK those would be approximately historically correct. Now for the "buts" They have belt loops for metal brass cartridges, to be fair rim-fire cartridges though not common did exist back then but would be no use with their wheel guns. However I don't think rimless centre=fire brass like 9mm shown on the belt was too common back in the 1860s IF that were not bad enough none of the nipples on the cylinders of the revolvers had any caps fitted, which would have made for a very quiet gun fight. To further compound the error the "Ugly" asks Eastwood when he unloaded his gun after several attempts to shoot and hearing it go click. You think he might have noticed the lack of caps on the nipples before the showdown. If on the other hand, Eastwood had simply taken the trouble to dig all the balls out of the chambers and pour out the powder to render the gun harmless, he would have needed to leave caps on the nipples so that it still looked ready for use. In which case there would have been a bit more than a click when it was fired.

Live and Let Die - I am working from memory so some details are not totally clear Bond is about to board a boat when girl in a bikini grabs a revolver (not sure about the make and model might have been .41 S&W with 4" tube) and threatens Bond with it. He then proceeds to snatch it out of her hands telling her that she forgot to release the safety catch, while I may not be sure of the make or model one thing I am certain of is that it was not a Webley-Fosbery, which is the only revolver I know of with thumb safety.

There was a Japanese movie back in the 80s I can't remember the title when a group of soldiers referred to a .50 cal as 50mm machine gun, to be fair that could have just been lost in translation.

I think I may wander a bit off topic at the moment to try and explain some cultural references. I was very conscious that people of my parents and grand parents generation would frequently refer to a semi auto as a revolver, furthermore they would generally only use the term pistol to refer to a single shot muzzle loaded handgun. This habit was also common in British books, movies, early TV shows and radio etc. I think these errors are to some extent mirror firearms evolution and gun control in the UK. In age of single shot or double barrelled pistols there was no gun control in the UK, there was little need such things were expensive toys and most common criminals could achieve their ends just as well with blades or clubs which did not need reloading. OK there were a few exceptions like “Dick Turpin” but his type were rare. With the advent of revolvers gun control remained a non-issue in the UK until just before the end of the 19th Century. By this time for most people the default handgun was a revolver and thus the term was used for any one handed gun. At this time semi autos were both rare and invariably of foreign manufacture. Then politicians started to get the jitters about anarchists and revolutions. It was from that time onwards that a steady increase in restrictions and licensing began to develop. As a result there was no real increase in gun ownership if anything there was a steady decline. Therefore the semi auto never became as well established in the culture and most people continued with the late 19th Century habit of calling any multi shot handgun a “revolver”

Strangely enough in the British military the situation is almost reversed – the term “pistol” is used generically to refer to any sort of handgun be it revolver or semi auto, the latter two terms being used a sub-categories of pistol.

loscar141 wrote:I watched The Bodyguard, with Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston, and in one scene they are in a room talking when they hear something in another part of the house. Keven pulls out his gun, racks the slide on his 1911 and points it right in her face and tells her "don't move". I had to rewind it, and see it again. I could not believe it. at least he had his finger off the tigger sorry

dlh wrote:My favorite is the gun blooper in the movie Anaconda. One of the stars fires multiple rounds at the snake using a bolt action rifle---problem is---they never operate the bolt---hehe. Did they turn a bolt-action rifle into a semi-automatic? Despite that, if you are a Jon Voight fan then that movie is a must see!