Jack Reacher novels

Okay, i checked out the jack reacher novels and while there was gunplay, boy was there stinky gun info.

First off, not gun related. A MP gets more hand to hand etc combat training than special forces, rangers, force recon, delta force, etc etc? Because maybe you have to arrest those guys? yea, I don't buy that. Going so over the top with bragging about your credentials just makes a book seem less realistic to me. He would have been fine saying that as an MP, often having to subdue people, they had the opportunity to go to a lot of same training classes as elite group X.

for starters, wth? a desert eagle? turns out the gun was just cover for something else the deceased former detective left behind, but still, to me the DE is not a 'professionals' weapon. For a handgun it is too big for a handgun's only purpose, to be kept close at and handy. If you are going to keep a Deagle in your car, just in case, might as well toss a rifle in there. And no, I don't think jack reacher could consistantly stick one in his waistband and just walk around. Desert eagle = okay for movies because it is very visual. Desert eagle = okay for fun shooting at the range. I don't even think much of the Deagle for hunting or hunter backup. I think a standard 44 mag revolver is easier to shoot well thanks to the wonderful single action mode, is less clunky, and you can get one with a shorter barrel for backup, or a longer barrel for hunting...and not supercrazylong like some of the deagle add on barrels. Seems to me a truely professional shooter would choose a handgun in 45 acp, 10mm, 45 super and either go with a relatively standard sized handgun, be that a glock 20 (15 shots of 10mm!) a doublestack 1911 in 45 super, hell, a good old GI standard 1911 would be great too. You want something 'unusual' so it stands out because that is important for the story line? Mateba revolver in 44. Hell, a dan wesson with a bunch of barrels would stand out too.

Second, this town was apparently filled with magic shotguns err deathwands. People were on a hill, with some innocents in the middle, Reacher feared taht if the bad guy shot at him with the shotgun, the spread would kill all the innocent people in the middle. A ton of other supershotgun spread taking out roomfulls of people and knocking over schoolbusses and turning kids into communists.

Now, the whole plot was terribly full of wholes, because this supposed great method only before done on small scall so no one suspects it, has been done on all scales, and acedemics expert on it wouldn't 'forget' about it because of scale, and the easiest security feature to detect, which has been around for quite some time, is deigned SPECIFICALLY to defeat this technique.

For a few more details that would be spoilers, highlight below to read.
Okay the thing is a counterfitting ring. Rather than counterfit bills out of country and ship them in, they are gathering $1.00 to wash and reprint as $100s. Been done a thousand times. There is a metal strip in a bill with the denomination printed on it, and has been for a long time end.

Finally, I read the 'add' for the next book in the series. Apparently Jack Reacher is the one who decided that the USA military should go with beretta 92 as the standard sidearm over glock, even as a wet behind the ears newbie with zero knowledge of logistics, no medical knowledge in would pattern, not a gunsmith nor a ballistics expert, etc etc. Plus his reasoning makes no sense. Supposedly the beretta is more powerful, and to him that is important. WHAT?!?!? If power is important, then he should argue 'stick with the 45!' Further, how often to MPs shoot people? And if there is giong to be trouble, whip out that M-16 or shotgun, this is military police after all, both sides are going to have better than average skill and tools available. i sure as hell wouldn't want to carry just a handgun.

Further, he misses the oppurtunity to actually argue from the MP perspective that the beretta is better. The MP is about controlling our own troops, not killing the enemy. Hence they are going to have a greater need than any other troop type to hold a gun on someone and desire to NOT fire it, or to stop firing before a person is dead. Here's where a safty and a decocker can come in handy. Further, in the struggle for a gun, a safty being on is just one more step the opponent must overcome before he shoots you with your own gun, and an MP is much more likely to be in such a situation than a standard infantryman, tank commander, sniper, or whoever.

This guy seems like he knows just enough about guns, or takes the time to dig up just enough info about guns, to impress himself and his editor/publisher, but not actually accomplish a darned thing.

I can forgive watson and holms 'pocketing' their guns. My understanding is that the pants of the day had very long pockets, and inside the suit type jacket were very long "chequebooke" pockets that would hold a gun just fine, not that different from the slim-jim holsters cowboys wore....and wasn't the old colt patterson famous for being able to fit nice inside basically the same suit-jacket pocket, and part of the reason it has that funky trigger, for a no snag pull from your coat?

Akodo & Geronimo--Watson's revolver was his "service revolver." That would make it one of those big awkward-looking Webleys, would it not? Or did British Army surgeons in the 1880's carry something else?

Doyle never identifies Holmes' revolver (except that it uses Boxer cartridges) nor those of the official detectives, Gregson, Lestrade, and Jones. So those firearms could be a smaller, slimmer item.

But in what sort of pocket could you handily carry Watson's big Webley??

I happen to have a sister who minored in costume design for theater, so I have seen a LOT of period costumes with careful attention to detail, etc etc.

I tell you LONG DEEP POCKETS. Part of this was to slow down pick pockets. A suit-type jacket pocket on the inside may well be 12-18 inches deep. As coinage was still a major currency...paper too, but lots and lots of coinange, pockets were made pretty rugged.

Incidentally, Watson never practices with his carry gun, although Holmes does, with his, in their sitting room (much to Mrs. Hudson's distress, I imagine!)

Pocket clutter: Granted no cel 'phone, but a Victorian professional man would carry a wallet or billfold, visiting/business cards, coins (probably in a coin purse,) keys to his house, pocket watch, at the very least. Probably a penknife and a handkerchief as well. Doyle has Holmes carrying a notebook and pencil, a large magnifying glass, and a tape measure as tools of his trade. I believe Watson also carries a notebook. Holmes and Watson also sometimes carry a map, and train or performance tickets. So their pockets weren't exactly empty.

again, period outfits. you have 2 pockets on your trousers...not any back pockets, as wallet/billfolds were quite a bit larger, think regular sheet of typing paper folded in half, which would have your business cards and stuff. Your vest has a watch pocket on it your jacket has 2 large pockets on the inside or 1 large plus 2 smaller on the other side, plus two large external pockets on the lower jacket, plus one more for a hankerchief on the breast.

And that is every day where inside. Add to that an overcoat and you add probably 4 more if not 6 pockets to the equation.

Doctors where one of the few professions that didn't have enough pockets to carry all their stuff in, hence the medical bag.

We don't stuff those same pockets with stuff in our 'going to church suits' but there was a reason those pockets were around, and that is for piling stuff into, be it tape measures and notebooks or whatever