Weapons Locker – Modern firearms – Chapter #1 – Handguns, part 1

Context

This article covers some basics about modern handguns – stuff available from the XX^th Century onward, give or take.

There are more elements of context about realism, stats, etc. on our ever-so-handy guide to Weapons Locker articles. The main bit being that all our Weapons Locker article are about modelling stories, rather than real-world ordnance.

Realism and side arms

In a real-world battle, sidearms have a limited value. They lack accuracy, power, and range.

This isn’t the case in stories. Presumably due to the number of action protagonists who are cowboys, detectives, secret agents, mobsters, special agents and other lightly-armed types.

The fictional approach is, of course, the one reflected in the stats. For instance, common pistols have an EV and Range of 04. This is plenty to deal with generic unarmoured opponents at common engagement ranges.

If you want to push the slider toward a bit more realism, two tools are :

Table of content

 

Basic concealed handguns

Basic medium-sized handguns

Basic large handguns

Basic machine pistols

Special application handguns

These are in the second half of this document, mate.

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Concealed handguns – the basics

Derringer

These are tiny pistols that can fit in the palm of the hand, and in most pockets. The archetypal one has two barrels, one on top of each other, each holding one bullet.

These weapons fire weak ammunition that is only useful at very close ranges – say, .41 rimfire or .22 long rifle. The stats below assume a calibre that isn’t actively terrible. In contrast, a derringer used by a mook could easily have one less AP/Rank of EV/Damage.

In fiction these weapons tend to be associated with Old West gamblers, women (as a garter gun or purse gun) and people carrying backup weapons for their backup weapons.

It’s not uncommon to carry two derringers given their small size and limited capabilities. Some people take that to extremes.

DCH Derringer [BODY 02, Projectile weapons (Diminishing): 03, Ammo: 02, Miniaturisation: 02, R#03, Drawback: Long Reload].

M&M Derringer [Ranged Ballistic Damage 2, Diminished Range 3, Limited 1 (Two shots), Feature 1 (Tiny size)].

A 1866 Remington derringer. Designs have not changed much since that classic. And they’re usually too tiny to be identified anyway.

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Holdout Pistol

A small, flat pistol in a compact calibre, that can be easily concealed within clothing.

These weapons are intended as backup weapons if the handgun of the user jams, runs dry, etc.. Police officers in countries with violent crime issues often carry those.

They are sometimes known as “ankle guns”, since it’s not uncommon to have them holstered there. The user drops to a crouch, lifts their trousers’ leg and draws.

Drawing your holdout pistol rather than reloading your main handgun is sometimes called the “New York reload”.

Holdout weapons can also be the main weapon for a person who needs to look unarmed. Say, a spy or a bodyguard.

Previous generations of holdout pistols — during the early XX^th century — were chambered for anaemic rounds such as .25 ACP or .22 Short. This lowered the APs (DCH) or Rank (DCA) by one. Rounds such as .32 ACP are the lower bound for the stats given below.

DCH Holdout pistol [BODY 02, Projectile weapons: 03, Ammo: 06, Miniaturisation: 01, R#04].

M&M Holdout pistol [Ranged Ballistic Damage 2, Diminished Range 1].

Examples

The snubnosed Colt Cobra is a typical subcompact .38 revolver. It featured in many stories for decades. Frex, your average hard-boiled undercover 1950s-to-1970s New York City detective will likely pack one. This specific model is the Agent variant of the Cobra.

The Star Firestar M43 subcompact was once marketed as the smallest 9mm in the world. With its Colt M1911-like appearance, it is a good stand-in for a generic holdout semi-automatic of the mid-to-late XX^th century.

The Pistolet Makarova (usually called “Makarov”) was a common Soviet compact handgun of the Cold War era.

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Browning 1900

John Browning was one of the most influential firearms designers, from the late 1800s and early 1900s. Many key designs are his work. For a time he worked for Fabrique Nationale in Belgium, and thus helped build what would become FN Herstal.

FN built his groundbreaking 1897 semi-auto pistol design as the FN Browning M1900. This thing was the tits – reliable, slim and compact, accurate, well-designed, easy to draw thanks to its rounded edges.

It soon was the all the rage across Europe and beyond. Refinements (Model 1903, Model 1910…) followed, as did numerous copies in Russia (the Tokarev) and China.

By modern standards its round, the distinctive 7.65mm Browning (called .32 ACP in the US) lacks power. But by contemporary standards it was pretty good. Especially for a pistol one could easily carry concealed under ordinary clothing.

Usage

It was used by all sorts of police forces, detectives, terrorists, gangsters, soldiers, etc. of the 1900s, 1910s and beyond. In Francophone countries, people simply called this kind of pistol “a browning”.

The most famous fictional character using “a browning” was Tintin. But any story set in the early XX^th Century and taking place in Europe, Russian or in or around China and that has handguns will likely feature the M1900 or its descendants.

It also was an oddly common firearm among early XX^th Century European militaries, particularly the French. Which is in a way fitting, as Gavrilo Princip shot Archduke Ferdinand using a FN Model 1910, which was the spark for World War One.

Stats and pictures

DCH Browning [BODY 03, Projectile weapons: 03, Ammo: 07, Miniaturisation: 01, R#03]. The Miniaturisation AP is debatable, but it certainly applies compared to other pistols of its era.

M&M Browning [Ranged ballistic Damage 2, Diminished Range 1].

A M1900 -later variants looked increasingly modern.

To close the holdout pistols section, Ms. Jolie is operating a .380 ACP Sig P230. It’s a typical 1980s concealed handgun, whose appearance evokes the classic Walter PPK.

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Medium-sized handguns – the basics

Peashooter

Peashooters are compact or medium-sized handguns used by folks who aren’t much of a threat in combat.

Whether a pistol is a peashooter is entirely determined by *who* uses it.

The exact same .38 Special revolver would be a peashooter if used by a 1970s NYPD beat cop shooting fruitlessly at Spider-Man as he swings away on a web line. But it would become a .38 Special as per the stats below if used by a manly private detective played by John Wayne.

In decades past, “Saturday Night Special” short-barrelled revolvers fell in this category. More recently it has been cheap .380 semi-automatics of dismal quality.

It can be safely assumed that these weapons are not well-maintained. A professional cannot by definition carry a peashooter, and the quality is so poor that maintaining those is difficult in any case.

These weaker stats help maintain the distinction between mooks and actual gunmen. They are less likely to hit (they jam easily in DCH, they are less accurate in DCA) and if a mook gets a lucky dice roll, the low damage means that the consequences are not likely to be deadly. It’ll be a grazing hit.

DCH Peashooter [BODY 01, Projectile weapons: 03, Ammo: 06, R#05].

M&M Peashooter [Ranged Ballistic Damage 2, Inaccurate].

A .380 Lorcin, which was ubiquitous in the USA during the early 1990s. There were hundreds of thousands of these things nationwide, and they were terrible.

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.38 Special Revolver

For most of the XX^th century, the .38 Special Revolver was the standard law enforcement sidearm.

It was wielded by beat cops, police detectives, private dicks, etc. It’s the defining weapon of the hardboiled detective, carried in a well-worn leather shoulder holster over a tired white shirt.

The .38 Special calibre was indeed special. It was considerably more powerful than its predecessor the .38 Long Colt, and as such carried a mystique until the 1980s.

Being a revolver, it also benefited from the image of reliability that wheelguns have in fiction. In real life, it has been decades since revolvers were more reliable than semi-autos.

Even in fiction, though, these weapons started being phased out by the mid-1980s. From then on, a .38 was likely to be considered a peashooter rather than the powerful and reliable combat-grade piece of the disillusioned NYPD detective interrogating punk informants in the neon squalor of 1970s Times Square.

Stats and examples

DCH .38 Special Revolver [BODY 03, Projectile weapon: 04, Ammo: 06, R#02, Drawback: Long Reload].

M&M .38 Special Revolver [Ranged Ballistic Damage 3].

The good old Smith & Wesson Model 10 Military And Police, or the Colt Police Positive, are the two main exemplars of this category. The one below is the S&W, but these two revolvers look almost the same. They both debuted during the turn of the century.

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Classic Medium Calibre Semi-Automatic Pistol

These are semi-automatic pistols that generally appeared during the early XX^th century.

This “generation” of handguns dominated the entire century, with the two landmark calibres being .45 ACP and 9x19mm Parabellum. They were originally associated with military sidearms, but slowly became the standard in law enforcement as well.

Thus, soldiers from the 1910s to the 1980s will likely have a weapon in this category, as will most adventurers, police, etc. who eschew revolvers.

DCH Medium Calibre Semi-Auto [BODY 03, Projectile weapon: 04, Ammo: 08, R#03].

M&M Medium Calibre Semi-Auto [Ranged Ballistic Damage 3].

These stats assume that the characters is using one of the time-tested handguns in this category.

Historically, there were of course a lot of crappy and under-powered semi-auto pistols during the XX^th century. But with time they have been forgotten, and people only remember the good ones. Such as :

Examples

The Colt M1911 is the iconic American semi-auto handgun of the XX^th century, and many people still swear by this design. It has its own mythology, so an exaggerated version of this pistol will be presented in the next part of this article.

The Luger P08 was another landmark pistol, and a key step in having the 9mm Parabellum round becoming the standard. Since it was a standard sidearm in the German military, it is often remembered as “the Nazi pistol”. Thus it features in many WWII movies, and in the hands of Nazi villains. But its distinctive silhouette meant that it was everywhere in comic books and movies during the XX^th century. Sarge Steel had a modified one.

The Mauser C96 was one of the most prestigious handguns in the world during the first half of the XX^th century. Its distinctive and elegant look meant that it was spotted in the pages of comic books even after that (for instance, Manhunter) or in Frank Miller art on Daredevil. Han Solo’s heavy blaster pistol in Star Wars used a C96 as the base for the prop. It has its own mythology, so an exaggerated version of this pistol will be presented in the next part of this article. The Mauser 96 also appears in our Guns of the Old West article.

The Walther P38 (and its predecessors and successors). It was the archetypal European pistol from the beginning of World War Two until the end of the Cold War, especially in fiction. You see a *lot* of P38s in Cold War espionage stories. Velvet Templeton often uses one, as do Christine St. Clair (in Manhunter) or B.J. Blazkowicz (in Wolfenstein).

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Hi-Cap Medium Calibre Semi-Automatic Pistol

High-capacity handguns came later during the XX^th century. Of course nowadays they’re no longer “high capacity” – they’re the standard.

The classic models relied on the 9mm Parabellum round’s size to make double-stack magazines that could still fit into a pistol’s grip. This essentially doubled the ammunition capacity.

Action heroes usually rake the slide of their pistol before a firefight erupts, to signify resolve and create tension. In practice, modern safeties are good enough that having an extra bullet in the chamber is okay, and raking the slide would just serve to eject a perfectly good round.

In European stories, hi-cap pistols appear as early as the 1930s, with the Browning Hi-Power. In US fiction, their footprint can reasonably be traced to 1987’s Lethal Weapon movie.

DCH Hi-Cap Medium Calibre Semi-Auto [BODY 03, Projectile weapon: 04, Ammo: 15, R#03].

M&M Hi-Cap Medium Calibre Semi-Auto [Ranged Ballistic Damage 3].

Examples

The Beretta 92 (adopted by the US Army as the M9) is iconic in this category. Innumerable movie and gaming handgunners have used the “big black gun”, including Mel Gibson as Martin Riggs in Lethal Weapon and many of Chow Yun Fat’s characters.

High-capacity Glock handguns have become a standard in US security and law enforcement applications. Their fictional footprint started in earnest in the 1990s, and from the 2000s on generic pistols will often be drawn in comics with the distinctive Glock lines. Here is a fairly modern one, the .40 Glock 22. It is the FBI’s standard sidearm.

The H&K Universal Service Pistol is a good example of a modern, well-regarded pistol that appears in innumerable movies and video games. Jack Bauer often has one, and so do Lara Croft or Gordon Freeman (in HL2).

And finally, here’s an early example – the Browning Grande Puissance (“High Power”) from… 1935, after a 1926 design. It is still produced, though of course it has evolved. Another archetypal European gun, it often appeared in stories in the hands of elite Cold War gunfighters. Elite British commandos such as the SAS or SBS often used it.

To close the medium pistols section, Ms. Jolie is operating a Glock 17 – which became a standard law enforcement handgun during the 1990s. She’s not using a particular technique to dual-wield it with her flashlight — a Harries grip would provide her with more stability — presumably because the movie (The Bone Collector, 1997) hinged on her character being a rookie.

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Large handguns – the basics

Magnum Revolver

These are large, heavy revolvers. They fire rounds with an extra-powerful load of gunpowder – “magnum” (“powerful”) rounds. The bullet will thus go faster and hit harder, but the weapon that fires it needs to withstand the extra pressure.

The technology is from the 1930s, but these guns mostly start appearing in stories by the 1950s.

Revolvers that can fire magnum rounds can have any barrel length. In stories — especially video games — they will usually have a large, heavy barrel to express the weapon’s superior ballistics.

Shorter magnum revolvers will likely have the stats for a .38 special above. Witchblade (Sara Pezzini) used a snubnosed .357 magnum as a cop.

In stories and games, magnum revolvers are often markedly more powerful, longer-ranged and slower than other handguns.

During the 1950s and 1960s they were lauded for being able to defeat the armour vest that existed back then, penetrate common cover such as car bodies, and being able to cripple engine blocks. And of course, if any handgun sends targets flying, it’ll be a magnum !

Confusingly enough, TV series hero Magnum, P.I. actually uses a .45 M1911A1 as described above.

Stats and examples

DCH Magnum revolver [BODY 03, Projectile weapons: 05, Ammo: 06, R#02, Rec. STR 02, Drawback: Long Reload].

M&M Magnum revolver [Ranged Ballistic Damage 4].

One important design was the .357 magnum Colt Python (1955). It was popular among police, and reputed for its high quality, power and accuracy. Discerning shooters such as Marvel’s Misty Knight, David Soul’s Hutch in Starsky and Hutch, or Iron Man’s bodyguard Bethany Cabe often use one. Danny Glover as Roger Murtaugh in Lethal Weapon has a similar revolver.

The other landmark magnum revolver in fiction is the Smith & Wesson M29, in .44 magnum. Dirty Harry proclaimed it “the most powerful handgun in the world” in the eponymous 1971 movie, and that stuck like white on rice. It features in numerous video games, and parody detective Sledge Hammer had a similar revolver.

A much rarer model is the Mateba Unica. This weapon presents several singular innovations, such as semi-automatic action and a barrel aligned with the *lower* chamber, to better control the recoil. This makes it an ideal prop for stories that need “a revolver, but futuristic” such as Joss Whedon’s Serenity or Vash the Stampede’s gun in Trigun.
Mateba-inspired designs also feature in some cyberpunk stories. Frex Section 9 agents in Ghost in the Shell have used some, and Lo Wang in the 2013 rebooted Shadow Warrior might count.

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High-Power Semi-Auto

A semi-auto that shoots magnum ammunition, or something close to it.

This entire category was defined, and remains almost synonymous with, the Desert Eagle handgun. This huge pistol comes in a variety of calibres, including .357 magnum and .44 magnum.

The Desert Eagle being so large, heavy and threatening, it is ideal for cinematography. It starts appearing a lot during the late 1980s.

Emblematic “Deagle” users include the T800 Terminator, Bullet Tooth Tony in Snatch, the Agents in Matrix, the original Nikita, Det. Mike Harrigan in Predator II, etc..

On the other hand, a mook with a Desert Eagle would use medium semi-automatic stats.

DCH High-Power Semi-Auto [BODY 03, Projectile weapons: 05, Ammo: 09, Rec. STR 02, R#03].

M&M High-Power Semi-Auto [Ranged Ballistic Damage 4].

Examples

Desert Eagle in .357 magnum, with 6″ barrel.

A much rarer example in this category is a 1970s handgun that also garnered a mystique. It was the Automag, which some thought was the future of handguns. The name straightforwardly describes what it does.

One fictional example was in 1988 Schwarzenegger action movie Red Heat. The movie itself is presumably forgotten (it was a B-lister) unless you’re a Generation X genre movie fan. But the armourer’s work to make this prop gun was intriguing. The fictional “Podbyrin 9.2mm pistol” is a modified .357 magnum Desert Eagle made to resemble a 1930s Walther pistol. Especially as filtered through Russian aesthetics, in the same way that the Pistolét Makárova was derived from the Walther PP.

To close the holdout pistols section, Ms. Jolie is operating a .44 magnum Taurus Raging Bull. It is a huge, shiny revolver and therefore photogenic.

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Machine pistols – the basics

Machine Pistol

A firearm slightly larger than a big pistol, built from the ground up for automatic fire.

It can efficiently be fired one-handed – at least in fiction and video games. On the other hand machine pistols often have a very high rate of fire. Going long on the trigger means running dry in seconds.

Such weapons do not quite fit a military or law-enforcement need, except for tank crews and the like. But they look cool and impressive.

Starting in the 1980s, machine pistols featured prominently in action movies. They are often mook weapons, since they allow for missing the protagonists in a much more spectacular way.

One of the earliest examples of machine pistols were the weapons used by Doc Savage’s crew (but not Doc himself). These “super-machine pistols” or “superfirers” were extra-large pistols with a drum magazine.

DCH Machine Pistol [BODY 03, Projectile weapons: 05, Ammo: 06, R#03, Advantage : Autofire].

M&M Machine Pistol [Ranged Multiattack Ballistic Damage 3].

Examples

The category-defining weapon is “the Ingram”. These corresponds to two firearms developed by Mr. Ingram, the MAC-10 and the MAC-11.

It was often joked that most such weapons were sold to Hollywwod armourers. But apparently there weren’t enough, since licensed versions such as the Cobray M11 were later used in movies.

Emblematic Ingram users include Kurt Russell’s Snake Plissken in Escape from New York, the mariachi, and Blade.

A more modern but quite similar design would be the Micro-Uzi, or Uzi pistol. It normally comes with a folding wire stock to control the weapon, but nobody needs that in fiction.

Famous users include C.J. Johnson in Grand Theft Auto San Andreas, Marvel’s Night Thrasher, Bennett in the movie Commando and Ashe of Cinder & Ashe.

This one’s a replica – note the “6mm BB” on the side.

And lastly we’ll have the Skorpion model 61, a Cold War-era Warsaw Pact machine pistol for tankers. Though chambered in a weak calibre, it was routinely presented as the dream weapon for terrorists, insurgents and other Communists. Think of it as a pocket AK in this respect.

This one too is a replica. The wire stock is folded forward, thus coming to rest around the barrel in a distinctive pattern.

To close the machine pistols section, Ms. Jolie is operating a Steyr Tactical Machine Pistol. It is a robust 9mm piece with an integral vertical foregrip.

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