Writing Research, or An Expensive Lesson

[chris_gerrib]

The Night Watch, sequel to Pirates of Mars, is done. So, I've been thinking about my next project, working title "The Gunmaker." As one could guess, the plot is driven by somebody who has a burning desire to make a gun from scratch, in this case because they are stuck on a settlement in space that has successfully banned guns.

So I've been thinking about making improvised guns. Now, if you Google that phrase, you'll quickly hit the web page of the late Philip A. Luty, a British resident who built and released detailed designs for a submachine gun one could make with a file, sheet metal and a portable drill. Although fascinating, my character needs something smaller and more concealable. The character will also have access to a metal lathe and a drill press.

During my research, I became aware of the American gunsmith Bill Ruger. He rather famously made a couple of copies of the Japanese Model 14 Nambu pistol in his garage. The knowledge gained from that went into designing the pistol that became the Ruger Mark II, a simple and reliable .22 pistol. The Mark II appears fairly easy to make, and should scale up to at least the 8 MM round used by the Nambu.

I also happen to own a Mark II, which I realized 1) I'd never field-stripped it and 2) the process of field-stripping would probably inform my writing. So, yesterday I pulled out the manual and gave it a go. Alas, I couldn't get it back together, at least not in a functional manner. I ended up taking it to a gunsmith, who, for $50, cleaned and re-assembled it for me. I also did some Googling, and discovered that many users have problems field-stripping the gun, enough so that Ruger's YouTube channel has a video on how to do it. (The trick is to dry-fire the gun with an empty clip to get the hammer in the right position.)

At any rate, I learned a couple of things. First, don't field-strip your Mark IIs. Second, part of what makes making a gun hard is designing for field-stripping. Third, one could make a gun in one's garage.

Comments

[baron-waste.livejournal.com]

Yah, I read Improvised Weapons of the American Underground, which gave plans for making your own M3 'greasegun.' Which makes sense, as that really was a butt-simple weapon, the American Kalashnikov in its way. (It also spoke of nailing a tin can parallel-centered onto a section of broomstick handle to turn a shotgun into a rifle-grenade launcher. I want SERIOUS safety goggles before I'd fire such a thing…)

There were also - I do apologize, but I no longer remember the details - pistols meant to be airdropped into Occupied Europe, literally flung out all over the place; their purpose was to “be used once, to obtain a better weapon” from the Kraut you'd shot. It's interesting to speculate why that was never done…


Your phrase, “settlement in space,” is what grabbed my attention. I'm sure you've heard that as gun propellants contain their own oxydizer, an assault rifle using graphite lubricants would work on the Moon - though not well, as overheating would be a chronic problem, leading to cookoffs and whatnot.

But a black-powder weapon, be it Dan'l Boone's Hawken flintlock or a cap-and-ball Civil War pistol, would work just fine. Producing an additional problem, that I think either Ben Bova or Algis Budrys used in a story: After the war, living on the Moon continued to be hazardous because a good many of the shots fired went into low orbit, whizzing around and around the airless Moon for months and months until your helmet gets in the way…

[chris-gerrib.livejournal.com]

The pistol was called the FP-45 Liberator (http://www.justguns.com/handguns/fp-45-liberator.html).

I was thinking of the shooting being confined to the interior space of the settlement, and at close quarters, so concealment of the weapon will be important.

Although in theory a bullet could go into low Lunar orbit, I would think that there are enough mountains in the way that, unless you were on top of one, the bullet would hit something.

[baron-waste.livejournal.com]

Re: Mountains of the Moon

One of the last genuinely clever ideas John Varley had was “Destination Valley,” a section of the Moon that was rebuilt to look as the Moon was supposed to be, as we saw it in all the old Chesley Bonestell paintings and similar illustrations, with the splinter-sharp crags of towering mountains sparkling with pristine volcanic emerald and perfect plaster-cast-rigid impact craters simply strewn with fist-sized shock diamonds…

Then we got there and found out what forced perspective means, as all the crags and craters flattened out to rolling hills and dusty depressions. But here, everything was as it should be. Bring your pitons (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piton)!

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

Congrats on finishing ;o)