We've all seen the endless parade of film gun goofs. In a similar vein, if one reads enough fictional works, well gun goofs will be encountered. I've seen them in both mainstream, successful authors and more obscure writers.
For example, I recently read the first of the Dirty Harry novels (not novelizations, different stories) and started a second before wandering back to the nonfiction stack. (Oh, they are utter pulp trash, but that is one of the appeals.) What was odd for a quintessentially "gun guy" film and book series, there was a lot of goofs. And I don't mean just the wacky ones like a gigantic .44 Magnum revolver with an equally huge silencer hanging off it. Naturally, there are others, often in the horror genre, that I read from time to time.
But I've meandered enough. Do the goofs ruin the book for you? Or, nah, no biggie? What were some authors and genres you found surprising to find such therein?

Drives me nuts! Let us not forget the always popular ".... smell of cordite hanging in the air". Another peeve is illustrators of paperbacks who depict weapons without having read the book.

Pay no attention to the goofs. Not worth stressing about. I merely laugh and continue with the story or article. MTG

I don’t read that 4th grade level bulls hit! At present I’m reading The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich! Try it…..you might learn something!

Color me impressed!

Interesting question, I've been interested in guns for 56 years. When I read or hear something I know is incorrect or untrue I immediately doubt the credibility of the speaker or writer. Way it is , Hollywood is total bullshi t and some authors are too. What they don't know helps you understand their lack of expertise and their credibility. Dirty Harry is Hollywood but a 6.5" M29 is what it is, hard to not like the actual m29 even if if you got choke down the bile someone is saying about it.

Don't tolerate them in books whose focus is firearms. A book specifically about Glocks mentioning something that doesn't exist on a Glock - garbage.

If the book is simply a story - western, fiction etc - IDGAF about it. I'm there for the story and rarely does the gun matter.

Gun goofs are no different from history goofs, car goofs, aircraft goofs or any other printed goof. Sometimes the writer simply didn't know any better, sometimes he simply repeated something "everybody knows" and sometimes it is done for simple effect because he thinks the reader doesn't know any better.

Reading is for suckers

If it ain't on TV, I ain't interested

Any guns in that story?



Bruce

The cover of the paperback "Enemies at the Gate" showed a left handed Mosin Nagant. Bothered me a bit that there was such a major goof.

I'm told that there are Luggers and Mousers in it, Bruce.

Not so much that I'd quit reading a good book because of it. But it is irritating, mostly because the author doesn't have to be a gun person to get it right. A few minutes research on the internet is all that's required. So what actually irritates me is that the writer is lazy.

Not really, Shaun. A non-gunner might believe it is absolutely true that all gunpowder is called cordite, or that silencers work on revolvers, because "everybody knows that." Why bother researching if airport grounds are all tarmac? Everybody knows that. Why check to see if cowboys only loaded five rounds in a six-shooter?

That doesn’t bother me as much as TV and movies portraying about what’s like to serve in the US uniform in a combat environment.

I cannot and will not watch modern military movies anymore. The amount of BS in these movies is so thick, it’s really unbelievable even though the stupidity is expected. Most people under 30 think the Call of Duty is pretty accurate assessment of combat.

What a friggin joke.

.31 squirrel rifle shooting 1 inch at400 yards with iron sights. Lots of minor time frame or mechanism errors.

Paperbacks by CJ Box are full of gun goofs. Guns are very prominent in his stuff too.

No "gun goofs" in Louis L'Amour's books.

I am bugged when an author mentions a shooter using a " .9 mm" handgun. I usually put a stroke through the offending error and write in the correct description.

Jim

Complains about gun goofs and then goes on to use the term “silencer”🙄🙄🙄🙄

I started a thread in the movie and book review section once..

The Chinese remake of BLOOD SIMPLE is called TALE OF TWO GUNS, referring to a gun goof.

I have put more than one novel aside for not knowing their material

Probably more than it should! I love the Joe Pickett series by CJ Box, but some of the firearm related stuff is almost unbearable! The bad thing is he gives credit to some law enforcement/game & fish personal for their contributions pertaining to firearm data. Continues to give me great faith in our law enforcement personnel! ☹️ memtb

Enemies at the Gate was riddled with goofs. Every caliber designation was preceded by a period. I especially enjoyeded the ".205mm" artillery. It must have been very useful for bombarding bacteria.

No. It’s entertainment. Just like when Keanu Reeves or Jason Stantham Kill twenty men with their bare hands. Or Jason Borne does incredible stunts. It’s the script. Marshal Dillon killed thousands of bad guys and had more fatal wounds than any human could survive. Gun barrel to the back of the head that only causes momentary unconsciousness.

A lot. It's not that hard to get it right. Indicates laziness on the part of the writer.

Actually Hiram Maxim called his invention a silencer. Google "Maxim Silencer ad" to see many advertisements for his silencers.

Many gun writers write to hear themselves talk, John B. is one of the few exceptions.

If you want to learn, You Tube has some excellent teachers.

Cordite is surprisingly persistent. I recently read a novel where it was hanging in the air after a battle set in the 26th century.

Cordite? Can you still get it? I assume it would havethe same odor as smokeless. Must be a pain to load
Then there is the antiigun journalist complaining about sulfurous odors fromAR's. Must be cowboy 5.56

John D. McDonald was one of the most groan worthy. He had his protagonist and a companion standing on the edge of a canyon in AZ. The companion was shot from the opposite side of the canyon, a distance of several hundred yards. Our hero naturally concluded that the shot could only have been fired from a .44 Magnum. Since the .44 Magnum was so rare he proceeded to comb the state for recent sales as a way to find the perpetrator.

Books are for cripples

Now movie goofs….

But what about news goofs…I’m all over that. Newshawks never sleep

I can't remember any of them specifically, but the sheer volume of firearm ignorance in the Lee Child books about Jack Reacher was always enough to throw me out of the stories.

If I remember right, there were multiple passages about flipping off the safeties on Glocks. There was also the time that Reacher was shot point blank in the chest with a 38 Special, but the round was so wimpy it failed to penetrate and seriously injure him. Come on.

I just watched an episode of Gunsmoke in which a guy shoots Matt Dillon in the small of the back with a .45 Colt - and the bullet just lodges against his spine. He must wear some pretty tough shirts, huh?

Kinda waiting on our own Johnny Burns to come out with one.
" Business Ethics in the Firearms Industry"

👍👍👍🤣🤣🤣

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Cordite smell in the air. I believe you'll find that in " Lone Survivor" Marcus Luttrell 's SEAL book too..
.mb

It was only a flesh wound.

Rocky, you didn't happen to notice the writer who wrote that, did you? I knew a number of the writers. A few knew something about firearms in the old West, but most did not.

Here is a notice from John Mantley, Executive Producer of Gunsmoke for years. It was the first page in every Gunsmoke script while he was Exec. Producer. Some actors and directors paid some attention to it but others could not have cared less.



As an aside, you, as a former pilot flying in very dangerous skies, might find interesting. John Mantley was born in Canada. When Great Britain entered the war against Germany in 1939, John joined the Canadian Royal Air Force where he trained to fly fighters. He was later sent to England where he flew Spitfires against the Germans. So you and Mantley have something in common.

FWIW.

L.W.

Doesn't bother me much. I read the book for entertainment, not research .

Used to. Only two writers have responded to my corrections, Lee Child, author of the Reacher series, and Brad Thor. Thor immediately got some learning and rarely makes a mistake or an exaggeration. Child blamed his on the editor.
Still hate “cordite”, “blew him right out of his shoes”, “retracted the slider, and Higgins insisting on arming his IRA thugs with .25 Colts. Maybe he uses Brandon as a ballistics expert. A 9 is bigger than a 22 so a 25 would be bigger yet?

I'm on another blog site where one of the regulars loves to post pictures of catalog covers then show how smart he is by ripping their inconsistencies!
Who gives a rip? It's a damned catalog. They're trying to sell you crap, not display perfect depictions of camp life in Colorado! LOL!
Same dude claims the produce manager in a local grocery store told him if he found rotten produce, place it on the floor. They would find it easier there!

I remember an ad in an outdoors magazine for a bug suit that featured it being worn by a rugged outdoorsman who was holding a baitcasting rod with a spinning reel mounted on it and held with the reel on top.

It don't bother me a whole lot. I just know that Hollyweird is dumb. And accept it.