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firefly124There must be a book somewhere for writers who need to know this stuff. I've seen them for criminal investigation procedures and medical jargon. Stands to reason there ought to be something similar for guns, if I can just find it. Surely this won't be the only time it'd be useful.
But meanwhile, oh wise and wonderful flist, is anyone up for helping me work out whether this is a reasonable plot device? Pretty please with cinnamon sugar on top?
This is going to sound incredibly stupid, but in my research on what gunpowder's made of, I ran into enough "used to be" and "before the advent of modern" this or that in terms of the basic components that now I'm wondering if bullets are even made the way I've always thought, and Wikipedia is only getting me so far. So my question is, if for some reason you needed some sort of incendiary substance and you had a modern gun, could you pull out a bullet, get it open somehow without detonating it, and pour out gunpowder? Or cordite, I guess? I'm guessing they don't exactly have screw-off tops, but you wouldn't want to be using something metal to pry it open, I imagine, for fear of creating a spark. Possibly less of an issue with lead, but it looks like copper's more likely, yes?
Sadly, just shooting something isn't an option. The problem is aliens who eat just about anything incendiary and the need to use something of the such as bait. In the middle of nowhere whilst cut off from the SUV, so only using what's immediately on hand.
Given that this is Torchwood, I suppose I could get hand-wavy about the possibility they're using alien tech of some kind, but their guns for the most part just look like guns. I think Ianto's, which would be the relevant one in this case, is a 9mm semi-automatic. IIRC, he's the only one on the team other than Jack whose primary weapon is not automatic. (This is based on the vague recollection of an interview with GDL saying something about how his gun was the only one besides Jack's Webbley that didn't have the cool thing on top that makes it automatic.) For whatever good that info is.
Crap, I need to check Journey's End again, because what Ianto carries may well change after End of Days, and that's the only visual ep that falls between EoD and CoE. Which is the time period I'm in. I think there was just the rifle, but I don't remember. Damn Netflix for not having DWS4 up for instant viewing yet.
*crossing fingers that this is at least remotely coherent* It's amazing how much you discover you don't know some days! LOL
And yes, I realize the icon is from a different fandom. Still fits. *g*
Off to lecture soon. Topics of the day are STD's, violence, and death. So that'll be an upper of a day.
But meanwhile, oh wise and wonderful flist, is anyone up for helping me work out whether this is a reasonable plot device? Pretty please with cinnamon sugar on top?
This is going to sound incredibly stupid, but in my research on what gunpowder's made of, I ran into enough "used to be" and "before the advent of modern" this or that in terms of the basic components that now I'm wondering if bullets are even made the way I've always thought, and Wikipedia is only getting me so far. So my question is, if for some reason you needed some sort of incendiary substance and you had a modern gun, could you pull out a bullet, get it open somehow without detonating it, and pour out gunpowder? Or cordite, I guess? I'm guessing they don't exactly have screw-off tops, but you wouldn't want to be using something metal to pry it open, I imagine, for fear of creating a spark. Possibly less of an issue with lead, but it looks like copper's more likely, yes?
Sadly, just shooting something isn't an option. The problem is aliens who eat just about anything incendiary and the need to use something of the such as bait. In the middle of nowhere whilst cut off from the SUV, so only using what's immediately on hand.
Given that this is Torchwood, I suppose I could get hand-wavy about the possibility they're using alien tech of some kind, but their guns for the most part just look like guns. I think Ianto's, which would be the relevant one in this case, is a 9mm semi-automatic. IIRC, he's the only one on the team other than Jack whose primary weapon is not automatic. (This is based on the vague recollection of an interview with GDL saying something about how his gun was the only one besides Jack's Webbley that didn't have the cool thing on top that makes it automatic.) For whatever good that info is.
Crap, I need to check Journey's End again, because what Ianto carries may well change after End of Days, and that's the only visual ep that falls between EoD and CoE. Which is the time period I'm in. I think there was just the rifle, but I don't remember. Damn Netflix for not having DWS4 up for instant viewing yet.
*crossing fingers that this is at least remotely coherent* It's amazing how much you discover you don't know some days! LOL
And yes, I realize the icon is from a different fandom. Still fits. *g*
Off to lecture soon. Topics of the day are STD's, violence, and death. So that'll be an upper of a day.
