TLDR: Two metal balls + wire + shotgun x crazy = bolo ammunition
If you’re looking to change things up a bit with your character’s shotgun setup, you might try assigning him/her bolo ammunition. It’s buckshot’s rough and tumble cousin who’s on parole but can’t say no to a bar fight.
Where should these go when a character isn’t using them? (Photo by Krzysztof Szkurlatowski via sxc.hu)
Apparently, there’s some confusion out there about characters storing ammunition when they’re not using their firearms. Over at my guest post at Jane Friedman’s place, Writing About Guns: 10 Errors to Avoid in Your Novel, user marcydyer670919403 (whew) commented on an instance “when a character sticks the bullets in her pocket instead of loading the gun because it might shoot her” in something she read.
Hrmmm, I say. Hrmmm.
TLDR: Think of self-guided bullets like smart paper airplanes, not a heat-seeking missile. (Maddy Shernock image via sxc.hu)
DV Berkom is a thriller writer who wrote to me recently with a question about using self-guided bullets in her WIP. Berkom’s question brought up a key concept about self-guided bullets that I think pop culture gets wrong. Here’s an example of what I’m talking about:
Harold Courtright picked up a copy of The Writer’s Guide to Weapons and recently wrote to me about the Smith & Wesson Model 52 he selected for a character. This semi-automatic pistol sports a couple features that make it stand out from run-of-the-mill choices that typically pop up in fiction. I figured I’d highlight them here.
Moon clips hold ammunition in place for insertion into revolver chambers. (Wikimedia image)
TLDR: Yes, revolvers use clips, but write them specifically as “moon clips.”
As covered previously, 99 percent of the time the right term for “detachable thing that holds ammunition” is “magazine,” not “clip.” That’s despite “clip” being used instead of “magazine” in about 99 percent of instances in fiction. It’s an easy fix – just write “mag” or “magazine” whenever you get the itch to use “clip” – but there are a few exceptions. One of those is with revolvers.
The Writer's Guide to Weapons 