“May I suggest that Mr. Bond be armed with a revolver?” (1956)
lettersofnote.com
lettersofnote.com
I did a quick search, and the first result was very interesting!
https://www.guns.com/news/2019/08/08/gun-question-can-you-pu...
Edit: more interesting pictures https://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2016/06/15/why-cant-revo...
It's more about protecting your own hearing.
Ian McCollum (Forgotten Weapons) has an excellent video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d12AjvEsaHg
"When it's properly set up, this is as close as you get to an actual `silent gun`. You can, by all accounts, be within about 15 feet of this thing and not recognize that a firearm has discharged."
I think the proper way to read the quote is that you'll definitely hear the sound, but it won't necessarily be obvious that it has come from a firearm.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welrod https://www.chem.purdue.edu/chemsafety/Training/PPETrain/dbl...
The linked Forgotten Weapons goes in to detail about the rubber seals, which the projectile pierces through when the weapon is fired.
The rubber partially reseals, but after a dozen shots or so the weapon degrades to the performance of a normal silenced pistol.
This probably explains the discrepancy. It is indeed very quiet, and my interpretation of the quote is wrong.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aljJ2jPTa1c&feature=youtu.be...
It is Hollywood quiet.
It's not. It's a manually operated pistol.
I also remember that game and the "pen click" description and I thought when he fired it the .22 would just click like that!
It pushes the cylinder forward against the barrel and the casing is longer than the bullet, entering the barrel to form a seal.
MR73 Sniper Revolver in .357 Magnum
Forgotten Weapons is great YT channel...
So far as suppressing a revolver, the cylinder gap lets gases escape so it's not as quiet as it could be. An exception is the Nagant M1895 which another poster mentioned. It's ammunition will seal the gap to prevent the escape of gases. However it's truly horrendous trigger pull (12 lbs/5.5 kg for single action, 20 lbs/9.1 kg for double action) means that even James Bond would have difficulty in using it.
To give you an idea of how bad that is, find a 12 lb object in your house, suspend it from a string, then attempt to lift it by just curling your index finger.
Was curious so gave this a try with 20 lb, and it was tough, but not egregiously so.
Of course, I'm a climber during normal times, and my current routine has devolved to just hangboard training and gymnastic ring work.
And for reference, a 24-pack of 355 ml beer cans is 20 lb, if you're looking for appropriate household objects.
There is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OTs-38_Stechkin_silent_revolve...
Details matter in fiction. It's a delicate balance to weave it in without obsessing over it to the detriment of other elements, but you need that texture to anchor the consumer's perspective in a place that seems real.
Lots of modern media fail miserably at this, e.g. many of the recent films by J.J. Abrams. I guess it's harder when the product is designed by a committee of people who don't really care in the same kind of way that Mr. Fleming clearly did.
And while I personally enjoy the novels, I will say that some of them have not stood up to the test of time as well as others, and now read as very dated. Not discouraging you from reading them, just be forewarned!
The way to look at them is they are glimpses into Bond's past. A few of them are several stories, in fact.
That being said, the first published is also Bond's first mission so no harm in starting with Casino Royale either way.
The Walther PP series was a good future focused “fashionista” choice for Bond in film.
But I do think for the Bond character from the book, as well as the reality of the 50’s-60’s period, a small revolver would haves suited for both close range discrete carry self-defence, as well as offensive assassination.
From a more gritty/realistic viewpoint, targeted killings in a number of places around the world in the period often relied on revolvers due to their simplicity and reliability.
Ammunition failure was more common then, revolvers allowed the user the ability to sequence thru a stoppage/misfire.
Close combat stoppage drills then for semi-automatic pistols were not nearly as refined as today.
Interesting opinion given that the PP dates from 1929! And of course the simplified PPK was a favourite of the Gestapo.
It was also one of the first double-action semi-automatic pistol, making it popular with police forces the world over in the years after WWII, including (at least according to one source) the CIA
MAJ BOOTHROYD Walther PPK. 7.65mm with a delivery like a brick through a plate-glass window. Takes a Brausch silencer, with little reduction in muzzle velocity. The American CIA swear by them.
“There’s only one gun for that, sir,’ said Major Boothroyd stolidly. ‘Smith & Wesson Centennial Airweight. Revolver. .38 calibre. Hammerless, so it won’t catch in clothing. Overall length of six and a half inches and it only weighs thirteen ounces. To keep down the weight, the cylinder holds only five cartridges. But by the time they’re gone,’ Major Boothroyd allowed himself a wintry smile, ‘somebody’s been killed. Fires the .38 S & W Special. Very accurate cartridge indeed. With standard loading it has a muzzle velocity of eight hundred and sixty feet per second and muzzle energy of two hundred and sixty foot-pounds. There are various barrel lengths, three and a half inch, five inch…”
Excerpt From: Fleming, Ian. “Doctor No.” Penguin Books Ltd (UK), 2009-07-19T11:22:25.
And they are not reliable in practice. Especially considering that most semi-auto malfunctions can be cleared in a second with tap-rack, but revolver malfunction tend to lock it up for good.
I'm curious what you mean by this. I agree that when a revolver experiences a mechanical malfunction it's usually serious and the gun is probably done until a gunsmith takes it apart. But that type of malfunction is extremely rare.
Most are catastrophic, meaning that competitors cannot fix them on the clock, and if they don't have a spare gun they cannot finish the match either.
I don’t dispute what you’ve seen but I don’t think it’s representative of what would be used for self defense or combat.
The video above can't be played in my country (BBC restrictions), I found a copy of it on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJuEs3aMvOk
Also, in the same book, it is revealed that Bond keeps a Smith & Wesson Model 29 .44 Magnum revolver(!) in the glove box of his modified Saab 900(!!)
https://images.svd.se/v2/images/272d7d06-9b1e-4825-a13e-1f26...
Pretty much as far from "kill your darlings" as one can get, tbh.
Forking your own thinking process to have a secondary personality execute in parallel sounds as close to "killing your darlings" as possible, given that personality would presumably have their own favorite expressions and tropes.
However pretending to be personally acquainted with the character is a step higher, I feel. How common is that?
FWIW, I don't think PPKs have ever been chambered for .38ACP; most PPKs these days are chambered in .380 Auto, though there are older variants chambered for .32ACP, a modern variant chambered for .22LR, and a few other oddball variants that use other cartridges.
After that it was withdrawn from service, in the bond novels that followed they pulled it an replaced it with something else (FN1903 iirc).
What's not to love?
The primary job of a spy is to gather classified information, ideally without anyone noticing. Dead bodies tend to be noticed.
He's not a spy, he's a thug, and the movies aren't really confused about that.
The contemporary CIA has its own drone assassination program in-house. They’re not all flown by the Air Force.
I think it’s fair to call a member of an intelligence agency’s foreign service a “spy” even if their job is more covert action than intelligence gathering.