For Too Dimensional, from 9 February.
Is it a revolver, or is it a gun that takes a magazine? I’d always pictured it as a more modern magazine pistol, but Nikki says she’s pictured it, through all the rounds of editing, as a revolver. It doesn’t make much of a difference until Jonah goes to shoot it.
Which means this needs to be specified when the gun is introduced, so the reader isn’t thrown out of the story when they find out it’s not how they’d imagined it.
Older revolvers do not have hammer blocks, let alone manual safeties, as I understand it. (Gun experts, please pardon my quick Googling. Your knowledge and opinions are more than welcome in the comments!) So, depending on the gun style, I will need to rewrite several bits, or not.
I have consistently referred to the gun as a pistol throughout, I think. Yup, either “gun” or “pistol” or “handgun.” I like the idea of the gun being as old as Adam. Revolvers, while certainly still being made and improved upon in the modern day, strike me as an anachronism. So, if I’m going to stick with a pistol that takes a magazine, I’m going to need to be more specific about it as soon as the gun is introduced.
Revolvers normally with 6 bullet capacity in several bullet calibres from .22 to modern .50 hand-cannons. Older revolvers from 1920’s to 1950’s were mostly .22, .32 (police dept favourite) or .38. Eastwood’s Dirty Harry character fired a .44 automag and the Israeli military favoured the .44 Desert Eagle – long shell .44 bullet that could blow out a car engine and/or break the shooter’s wrist. :-D Speed loaders are avail or you can have your character reload chambers by hand 1 bullet at a time. If you want magazine-fed pistol – would be semi-automatic class in 9mm (Cdn and European common) or .45 (US military std). Magazines (aka clips) average 13 bullets with a ejector slide that locks open to rear when magazine is empty. Hope this helps. Tim