Fic rec and a gun writing resource
First of all, I have to spread a bit of love for this fic. Mercenary Medicine, by 
therizinosaur. Set in TF: Prime way before the show starts, it's basically a backstory for Knock Out and Breakdown, also featuring Blackout. It draws a bit from G1 and a bit from Bayverse and fleshes in the rest. Thus far it's not shippy, just a great gen read.
Also found a cool post on LJ on firearms knowledge for writing. It was written for the Inception fandom, but contain useful information for any fandom that has humans toting guns around. It goes into the basics of gun safety, what the different parts of a gun are called, the proper way to handle them, some common misconceptions, etc. Very useful.
I want to touch on a few things she didn't go into, because I can. :P Please keep in mind, though, that I just go to the range occasionally because I think it's fun; I am nowhere even close to being an expert. Got that? I am not an expert. Don't take any of this as gospel, and if you ever want to put this into actual practice, get a range instructor or someone who otherwise knows what they're doing to teach you.
Also! Different branches of the military will teach this stuff in slightly different ways. I was taught to shoot at targets, on a range and in otherwise abandoned grass fields, by someone who mostly does the same. William Lennox teaching Sam how to save his own hide is going to have a different set of rules and priorities than someone taking their kid out to hunt deer.
Calibers
The article's author talks briefly about gun calibers, but doesn't really go into how they feel to shoot. Possibly because that's very subjective, depends a lot on the strength and experience of the shooter, and can even vary from gun to gun. I'm just going to talk real briefly about the handgun calibers I'm personally familiar with.
A .22 can be a good starter caliber, especially for a young person or someone who is nervous about guns, because there is no noticeable kick. A .22 does not hurt to fire. It's a good way for an inexperienced shooter to learn the mechanics of firing a gun. You can find .22 rounds for both pistols and rifles. (My rifle is a .22) This round isn't even mentioned in the Inception post because it's not really one you'd want to use on anything but targets or very small game, as it doesn't have much by way of stopping power or range. The lack of kick can also get boring for a more experienced shooter. Lennox might start a young Annabelle on one of these, but he'd probably jump straight to something bigger and more practical with Sam.
I learned to fire a handgun on a 9mm. It has a kick, but not so much as to put someone like me (fairly small, not overly strong, and only kind of experienced) on her butt. When a person is learning to fire a gun that has kick, there tends to be something you could think of as beginners luck. (There's an actual term for it, but I'm not recalling it at the moment.) The first few times they fire it, they tend to be excellent shots. Aiming a gun is not actually that hard; they're designed to be pretty instinctive. After that, though, they start anticipating the kick, which leads to flinching, which throws off the shot. From there on out, a good chunk of learning to shoot is simply relearning to fire the gun without that anticipatory flinching.
.38. I have never fired one of these rounds, but Dad has pointed me towards guns of this caliber as a potential concealed carry gun. It has less kick than a 9mm but more stopping power than a .22. As I'm a fairly small person, I would also need a fairly small gun if I'm going to carry it without it being obvious. However, the kick on a physically smaller gun will tend to be worse, as there's less weight to help tone down the recoil. One of the reasons concealed carry guns are usually not fun to fire.
I work with an ex-military guy who says his favorite handgun caliber is the .45. High caliber, enough kick that I'd probably whack myself on the forehead if I fired one, but packs quite a punch in terms of stopping power.
Firing
Actually firing a gun should be a slow squeeze on the trigger, not a pull or a yank. (In situations where you have the time, anyway. But even when you need to get a shot off fast, the motion should still be a squeeze.) Yanking tweaks the way you're holding your gun, which throws off your shot. Triggers have longer and shorter draws from gun to gun, like the variances in the clutch on manual transmission cars. There's a trick to the timing; get on target, finger on trigger, hold your breath, squeeze. Don't take too long squeezing or the fact that you're holding your breath starts to make your vision blur, and meanwhile your arms are getting tired.
Remember in Disney's Pocahontas when John Smith tells the kid to keep both eyes open when he shoots? That only applies to certain types of sights. Keep both eyes open when using notch sights on a handgun. When using a scope, you close one eye.
Also, can I state just how loud a gun is when you're right next to it? When I'm at the range, I wear earplugs and earmuffs and the guns are still quite audible.
A note on concealed carry. In my state, concealed carry requires a permit, which requires attending a class. I don't know if they tell you this in all classes, but I have had someone who has taken these classes (again, in my state; this may be different elsewhere) tell me how the instructors tell you to handle a situation in which you may have to fire your gun. (Also note that this was a class intended for civilians, not military or police.) First, if the situation permits, attempt to get your assailant to back off by telling them you have a gun. Put your hand on it and get ready to draw to let them know you're serious, but you don't want to have to fire it if you don't need to. If you do have to fire it, once you draw your gun you immediately empty your magazine at the person. This may sound brutal, but legally speaking it helps to prove that you felt threatened enough to actually have to fire. Also, as the linked post tells you, it is entirely possible for someone who has taken a fatal shot to keep coming; adrenaline can keep you going even if you've taken a shot to the chest. The point of firing a gun at someone is to stop them.
Rifles
Lastly, the writer of that article goes into stances for firing handguns but not the most common positions for firing rifles. There are three that I know of: lying on your belly, sitting, or standing.
When shooting a rifle, one hand wraps around the stock near the trigger guard or hangs on to the grip, depending on how the rifle is designed, pulling the butt of the stock tight into the shoulder. Technically I think that area is always called the grip, no matter what the design, but it's held slightly differently. For the one you hold it like a pistol, with the thumb wrapped around the back of the grip. For the other, your hand wraps around the front of the grip, with your thumb held against the stock, pointing towards the barrel. The other wraps around the bottom of the stock near the barrel to support the gun. Some rifles have a forward grip instead. Also, if you're using a gun stand, that forward hand can come back behind the trigger hand to help hold the stock in tight to your shoulder.
Lying down, or firing prone. This position makes you harder to see and is the most stable position to fire from. How you support the gun depends on the design of of the stock. You can plant the elbow of your supporting hand into the ground, put your hand on the ground and rest the stock on top, or use a gun stand, rolled up blanket, whatever's handy. Using a stand takes longer to set up but gives you added stability for situations where precision counts. The elbow of your trigger hand is also resting on the ground. Hips are either flat to the ground, legs straight and feet spread a bit for stability, or with one knee bent and lifting that side of the torso slightly.
Sitting. In the field, you are probably sitting on the ground without a stand. You sit with your legs apart and knees up, and brace both elbows on your knees. Again, trigger hand holds the gun into your shoulder, supporting hand holds up the front of the stock. If you're at a range, there are probably tables. You straddle a bench, elbows resting on the table. You can hold the gun just like you do when on your belly, with elbows planted on the table, or use a gun stand.
Standing. This gives you the least amount of stability for a long range shot, but is obviously necessary in certain situations. Holding the gun up in a ready position for prolonged periods is tiring; rifles get heavy fast. All of your support and stability when standing comes from pressing the butt of the stock against your shoulder. You can shoot a rifle when crouched upright as well, such as when the police shoot over the door of their cruiser.
This entry was originally posted at http://sister-dear.dreamwidth.org/138371.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
therizinosaur. Set in TF: Prime way before the show starts, it's basically a backstory for Knock Out and Breakdown, also featuring Blackout. It draws a bit from G1 and a bit from Bayverse and fleshes in the rest. Thus far it's not shippy, just a great gen read.
Also found a cool post on LJ on firearms knowledge for writing. It was written for the Inception fandom, but contain useful information for any fandom that has humans toting guns around. It goes into the basics of gun safety, what the different parts of a gun are called, the proper way to handle them, some common misconceptions, etc. Very useful.
I want to touch on a few things she didn't go into, because I can. :P Please keep in mind, though, that I just go to the range occasionally because I think it's fun; I am nowhere even close to being an expert. Got that? I am not an expert. Don't take any of this as gospel, and if you ever want to put this into actual practice, get a range instructor or someone who otherwise knows what they're doing to teach you.
Also! Different branches of the military will teach this stuff in slightly different ways. I was taught to shoot at targets, on a range and in otherwise abandoned grass fields, by someone who mostly does the same. William Lennox teaching Sam how to save his own hide is going to have a different set of rules and priorities than someone taking their kid out to hunt deer.
Calibers
The article's author talks briefly about gun calibers, but doesn't really go into how they feel to shoot. Possibly because that's very subjective, depends a lot on the strength and experience of the shooter, and can even vary from gun to gun. I'm just going to talk real briefly about the handgun calibers I'm personally familiar with.
A .22 can be a good starter caliber, especially for a young person or someone who is nervous about guns, because there is no noticeable kick. A .22 does not hurt to fire. It's a good way for an inexperienced shooter to learn the mechanics of firing a gun. You can find .22 rounds for both pistols and rifles. (My rifle is a .22) This round isn't even mentioned in the Inception post because it's not really one you'd want to use on anything but targets or very small game, as it doesn't have much by way of stopping power or range. The lack of kick can also get boring for a more experienced shooter. Lennox might start a young Annabelle on one of these, but he'd probably jump straight to something bigger and more practical with Sam.
I learned to fire a handgun on a 9mm. It has a kick, but not so much as to put someone like me (fairly small, not overly strong, and only kind of experienced) on her butt. When a person is learning to fire a gun that has kick, there tends to be something you could think of as beginners luck. (There's an actual term for it, but I'm not recalling it at the moment.) The first few times they fire it, they tend to be excellent shots. Aiming a gun is not actually that hard; they're designed to be pretty instinctive. After that, though, they start anticipating the kick, which leads to flinching, which throws off the shot. From there on out, a good chunk of learning to shoot is simply relearning to fire the gun without that anticipatory flinching.
.38. I have never fired one of these rounds, but Dad has pointed me towards guns of this caliber as a potential concealed carry gun. It has less kick than a 9mm but more stopping power than a .22. As I'm a fairly small person, I would also need a fairly small gun if I'm going to carry it without it being obvious. However, the kick on a physically smaller gun will tend to be worse, as there's less weight to help tone down the recoil. One of the reasons concealed carry guns are usually not fun to fire.
I work with an ex-military guy who says his favorite handgun caliber is the .45. High caliber, enough kick that I'd probably whack myself on the forehead if I fired one, but packs quite a punch in terms of stopping power.
Firing
Actually firing a gun should be a slow squeeze on the trigger, not a pull or a yank. (In situations where you have the time, anyway. But even when you need to get a shot off fast, the motion should still be a squeeze.) Yanking tweaks the way you're holding your gun, which throws off your shot. Triggers have longer and shorter draws from gun to gun, like the variances in the clutch on manual transmission cars. There's a trick to the timing; get on target, finger on trigger, hold your breath, squeeze. Don't take too long squeezing or the fact that you're holding your breath starts to make your vision blur, and meanwhile your arms are getting tired.
Remember in Disney's Pocahontas when John Smith tells the kid to keep both eyes open when he shoots? That only applies to certain types of sights. Keep both eyes open when using notch sights on a handgun. When using a scope, you close one eye.
Also, can I state just how loud a gun is when you're right next to it? When I'm at the range, I wear earplugs and earmuffs and the guns are still quite audible.
A note on concealed carry. In my state, concealed carry requires a permit, which requires attending a class. I don't know if they tell you this in all classes, but I have had someone who has taken these classes (again, in my state; this may be different elsewhere) tell me how the instructors tell you to handle a situation in which you may have to fire your gun. (Also note that this was a class intended for civilians, not military or police.) First, if the situation permits, attempt to get your assailant to back off by telling them you have a gun. Put your hand on it and get ready to draw to let them know you're serious, but you don't want to have to fire it if you don't need to. If you do have to fire it, once you draw your gun you immediately empty your magazine at the person. This may sound brutal, but legally speaking it helps to prove that you felt threatened enough to actually have to fire. Also, as the linked post tells you, it is entirely possible for someone who has taken a fatal shot to keep coming; adrenaline can keep you going even if you've taken a shot to the chest. The point of firing a gun at someone is to stop them.
Rifles
Lastly, the writer of that article goes into stances for firing handguns but not the most common positions for firing rifles. There are three that I know of: lying on your belly, sitting, or standing.
When shooting a rifle, one hand wraps around the stock near the trigger guard or hangs on to the grip, depending on how the rifle is designed, pulling the butt of the stock tight into the shoulder. Technically I think that area is always called the grip, no matter what the design, but it's held slightly differently. For the one you hold it like a pistol, with the thumb wrapped around the back of the grip. For the other, your hand wraps around the front of the grip, with your thumb held against the stock, pointing towards the barrel. The other wraps around the bottom of the stock near the barrel to support the gun. Some rifles have a forward grip instead. Also, if you're using a gun stand, that forward hand can come back behind the trigger hand to help hold the stock in tight to your shoulder.
Lying down, or firing prone. This position makes you harder to see and is the most stable position to fire from. How you support the gun depends on the design of of the stock. You can plant the elbow of your supporting hand into the ground, put your hand on the ground and rest the stock on top, or use a gun stand, rolled up blanket, whatever's handy. Using a stand takes longer to set up but gives you added stability for situations where precision counts. The elbow of your trigger hand is also resting on the ground. Hips are either flat to the ground, legs straight and feet spread a bit for stability, or with one knee bent and lifting that side of the torso slightly.
Sitting. In the field, you are probably sitting on the ground without a stand. You sit with your legs apart and knees up, and brace both elbows on your knees. Again, trigger hand holds the gun into your shoulder, supporting hand holds up the front of the stock. If you're at a range, there are probably tables. You straddle a bench, elbows resting on the table. You can hold the gun just like you do when on your belly, with elbows planted on the table, or use a gun stand.
Standing. This gives you the least amount of stability for a long range shot, but is obviously necessary in certain situations. Holding the gun up in a ready position for prolonged periods is tiring; rifles get heavy fast. All of your support and stability when standing comes from pressing the butt of the stock against your shoulder. You can shoot a rifle when crouched upright as well, such as when the police shoot over the door of their cruiser.
This entry was originally posted at http://sister-dear.dreamwidth.org/138371.html. Please comment there using OpenID.