Cool Guns/Rifles: Difference between revisions

* [[The Big Guy|Lord]] [[Badass Longcoat|Bowler]] in ''[[The Adventures of Brisco County Jr]]'' uses a sawn-off version, identical to the one used by Steve McQueen in ''Wanted: Dead or Alive''.

** Zoe in ''[[Firefly]]'' uses one (the same prop gun as in "Brisco") - [[Recycled in Space|IN SPACE!]].

 

'''M1 Garand'''<br />Any [[World War II]] movie featuring Americans will feature this rifle. One of the first semi-automatic weapons fielded by a major army, it fired 8 rounds of .30-06 from its internal clip-fed magazine<ref>The original design had a 10-round clip, weighed a pound less, and fired a 7mm cartridge called .276 Pedersen. But Douglas [[Mac Arthur]], at the time the Army Chief of Staff, decided that replacing the literally ''billions'' of .30-06 rounds already in the inventory would be too expensive (given that it was the middle of [[The Great Depression]], he had a point) and ordered that the Garand be redesigned to fire the existing ammo.</ref>, and continues to be a sticking point among people trying to explain the difference between a clip and a magazine, as one of the few examples of a clip being physically inserted into a weapon. Legendary durability was a plus, too, though the gun had a nasty snap to it's action that lead to a common complaint known as "rifleman's thumb" or more simply "M1 thumb." Commonly said to have the "disadvantage" that the ejecting en-bloc clip made a distinctive ping when it hit the ground; in practice this was not nearly as large a problem as is often believed, since the ping was usually drowned out by gunfire, only occurred on hard surfaces, and the rifleman with a Garand reloaded more quickly and fired faster than any opponent with a Mauser-derivative could hope to. Not to mention the fact that war is not fought as a one-on-one duel, and it's generally unlikely for the entire squad to run out of ammo at the same time. In fact, some riflemen took advantage of this quirk, whereby they would intentionally make the pinging noise to tempt enemies out of cover. Some Italian versions (the Beretta [[BM 59]]) with detachable box magazines were produced after World War II, and for a time were the standard rifle of the Italian Army. With the advent of automatic rifles, the American military tried to convert the M1 into into the M14 battle rifle. Even by changing the ammo from .30-06 to .308 Winchester / 7.62x51 NATO, it turned out to be too much dakka. This was noted, sadly, after it was instituted as a standard rifle round. Italy had the same problem with their full-auto [[BM 59]] models, meaning that in practice only semi-auto was actually used. The M1 itself stayed in service through Korea and was still in limited use in Vietnam, especially the M1D sniper variant with a fitted scope. Garands served with other military elements well into the 70s, and are still used by military drill teams even today.

* Videogames often reproduce the peculiar "ping" noise when it runs out, but almost always make the mistake of attributing it to the weapon's mechanism, so the gun pings when it fires the last bullet rather than when the empty clip hits the ground... and as such it happens even when the player is standing on soft terrain.

* Every World War II-based ''[[Call of Duty]]'' game features this extensively. ''World at War'' includes the sniper-scope attachment in multiplayer. It also faithfully reproduces the complex reload-from-partially-empty-clip nature of the weapon (the other games don't let you manually reload it at all), making it take longer to reload from that state than to just fire off the last 2 or so rounds and then insert a fresh clip.

* Available in the 1.13 mod for ''[[Jagged Alliance]] 2''. The in-game gun website even [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshades]] the ridiculousness.

{{quote| If you have an M1 Garand for some reason, here's some ammo for it.}}

'''M1 Carbine'''<br />The assault rifle before assault rifles were cool.<ref>Not a true assault rifle, except in its M2 and M3 variants, since the basic model has no full-auto capability.</ref> The M1 Carbine fires a bullet [[Sarcasm Mode|with the inventively named caliber]] of .30 Carbine, which was designed to cover the gap in effective range between .45 ACP SMGs and the .30-06 M1 Garand. Utilizing a short-stroke gas system devised by a no-shit convict, 15, and later (post-war) 30 round detachable box magazines (when the British Lee-Enfield had only 10, and the iconic Garand had a mere 8) and its own proprietary .30 caliber round, the weapon was a favorite of paratroopers, officers, and vehicle crews. The [[Nazi Germany|Nazis]] also loved captured M1 Carbines. A variant with a pistol grip and a folding stock (the [[M 1 A 1]]) was actually developed for paratroopers so that they could have a longarm from the moment they hit the ground instead of having to assemble their weapons while people were trying to kill them. It saw extensive use in Korea (where it obtained a significant [[Hatedom]] due to its perceived lack of stopping power, mostly caused by people firing the M2 variant in full auto from outside its effective range, causing most bullets to sail far over the enemy; at close range, the .30 Carbine from the M1 has significantly more power than the .357 Magnum out of a standard revolver, which nobody has ever accused of being deficient in stopping power), and even through to the end of Vietnam, as well as use by nearly every western European military (the [[Legion of Lost Souls|French Foreign Legion]] particularly adored it) and the nascent State of Israel (where it remains beloved by police units to this day). The M2 variant was full-auto, and the one issued in Korea, and the M3 version saw one of the world's first night sights (which was ''incredibly'' bulky).

* Almost every WWII movie, ''ever''. Usually seen anachronistically with post-war bayonet lug and upgraded sights, as M1 Carbines that escaped the upgrades are comparatively rare.

* Charlton Heston in ''[[Planet of the Apes]]''.

* Almost everyone in ''[[The Green Berets]]''.

* Infamously, was the weapon wielded by Patty Hearst, when she was [[Your Mileage May Vary|brainwashed]] into aiding the Symbionese Liberation Army. Also, ''Ebony'' magazine once published a famous photo of Malcolm X covering a window with one, when his split with the Nation of Islam turned nasty.

 

'''Simonov SKS Carbine'''<br />The SKS was designed and fielded in the last days of [[World War 2]]. Firing the intermediate 7.62x39mm round (which is known for being the same caliber used by the AK-47), it was soon replaced by AK pattern weapons and ultimately forgotten in the Soviet Union. It went on to have quite a long career in the People's Republic of China, the Democratic Peoples' Republic of North Korea, the Democratic (later Socialist) Republic of Vietnam and numerous other former Soviet client states, and it is still quite a popular gun around the world today. Visually, it is very similar to the SVT-40, although not quite as pretty, a good bit lighter, and 8 inches shorter. The SKS features a fixed magazine with a capacity of 10 rounds which can be filled either by clips, or one at a time. The SKS is slightly more powerful and accurate than the AK because it features a longer barrel and better sights. Most have bayonets that fold underneath the barrel, or at least originally did; some (especially from China) had the bayonet removed prior to import. [[The Great Politics Mess-Up|When the Communist Bloc fell]], all of a sudden, it was suddenly available for very cheap with crates of Soviet and Chinese ammunition (Soviet variants qualified for "Curio and Relic" status, as do Yugoslavian ones (most of which have an attachment for firing rifle grenades via blank ammo, which is mostly useless since grenades are illegal but which has spawned a popular golf ball launcher attachment), along with the ultra-rare East German<ref>Most of which are reputed to currently be in a warehouse in Croatia, of all places.</ref>, North Korean and Vietnamese versions, which bypassed some restrictions, and the fixed magazine meant that they were not at all affected under the [[American Gun Politics|Clinton Assault Weapons Ban of 1994),]] and a large number of people found that the ballistics matched up nicely with those of the .30-30 Winchester 1894 (the "poor man's deer rifle" of the previous century). Frequently susceptible to being "bubba'd" with optical sights (The rifles are accurate out to 400M, although putting scopes on them is rather pointless), "tactical" accessories (or "tacticool", as some disparagingly call them; these include jam-happy aftermarket detachable magazines) and camo paint. Now it's a favorite of both hunters, as well as mall ninjas on too low a budget for an AR-15. It is also a moderately popular choice of Home Defense weapon, being easy to use, easy to bring to bear, and firing a relatively more powerful round than handguns, shotgun pellets, and the AR-15.

* Afghan villagers in ''[[Rambo III]]''.

* A very good long-range rifle in ''7.62 High Calibre'', including permanently attached bayonet.

 

'''Short, Magazine, Lee-Enfield (SMLE)'''<br />Widely regarded as one of the best bolt-action rifles ever made, though this was not always the case. At the time of its introduction, it was considered to be far too inaccurate as well as unreliable for combat; there was also resistance to the idea of a magazine rifle from top brass, with fears of wasted ammo and the detachable magazine<ref>Detachable only for cleaning; the rifle was not designed to be loaded by swapped magazines</ref> being lost. Early rifles often had the magazine chained to the rifle's body and were fitted with a "magazine cutoff," a panel that closed over the magazine and turned the rifle into a single-shot breech-loader; soldiers were ordered to use the magazine only in emergencies, an order which was so universally ignored that the cutoff ended up being deleted altogether as a cost-saving measure.<ref>Magazine cutoffs were a fad in turn-of-the-century rifle design. Experience in actual warfare proved the idea to be pointless at best, but it took a while for the generals to realize it.</ref> It turned out however, that the SMLE was not as bad as was thought. In fact, it was just about one of the best rifles ever made; the problem in the Boer Wars was the ''ammunition'', not the rifle. It was accurate, reliable, and most notably, ''fast'': every British soldier was expected to be able to do the "Mad Minute," firing not less than fifteen ''aimed'' shots in sixty seconds; most were drilled until they could manage thirty (and thus also reload three times during that time)<ref>Unlike most other bolt-action rifles of that period, the SMLE cocks the striker on the closing motion as opposed to the opening motion, which uses the stronger muscles of the hand and arm</ref>. This had quite an effect on the enemy; at Mons during World War 1, German soldiers reported with horror to their superiors that [[Oh Crap|every British soldier was armed with a machine gun.]] This was helped by the fact that the rifle could carry ten rounds of ammunition at at time, double that of the rival German Mauser. Lest the Enfield be thought of as a superweapon, the design was mechanically much less sound than the Mauser or Mosin-Nagant designs; repeated firing of .303 British caused the receiver to stretch out over time, necessitating longer and longer bolt heads to be installed over the life of the weapon; good thing they designed the bolt head to be detachable. This is why, while the Mauser 98 action is used for all sorts of super-magnum big-game hunting rifles, the Enfield action was rarely used for sporting rifles. The British Army as well as the associated Commonwealth states, would continue to make use of this rifle all throughout [[World War I]] and [[World War II]], with Lee-Enfield sniper rifles lasting all the way into the 1990s. And in India, they're still in use as police weapons to this day. A little-known fact is that despite being the quintessential British rifle, the design of its basic action, James Paris Lee, was American. After decades of minimal interest in his designs from the US Navy and [[What an Idiot!|none at all from the Army]], he sold his latest rifle, the Lee-Metford, to the British military. An improved barrel resulted in the Lee-Enfield long rifle, followed by a succession of improvements leading to the SMLE in 1904, less than two months before his death. Another odd side note in Lee-Enfield history was Turkey's use of the rifle. A fair number of them were captured from British, Australian and New Zealand troops during [[World War I]] at [[Useful Notes/Turks With Troops|Gallipoli]], both of the "Long Lee" and SMLE varieties. Turkey had far more Mausers than Enfields, so at first the Enfields were just stored as emergency reserve weapons. But in the 1930s, Turkey decided to rebuilt their existing rifles<ref>A variety of Mauser types, Gewehr 1888 Commission Rifles and Enfields</ref> to match their new Model 1938 Mauser in configuration, and that's when things started to get strange. The modifications for all their other rifles were fairly straightforward, but the Enfield is quite different from any Mauser, and the conversion resulted in something [[Understatement|unique]]. The Turks called the resulting hybrid<ref>Mauser-style internal magazine and barrel, but Enfield buttstock and modified Enfield bolt; basically a Mauser in the front and an Enfield in the back</ref> the "English rifle", but today's collectors know it as the [http://www.turkmauser.com/Enfield/ Enfauser]. There are estimated to be [[Rare Guns|less than 30 of them in the United States]], with an uncertain number still in Turkey.<ref>Adding to the mystery is that nobody really knows how many Enfields were captured in the first place. But they're not as expensive as you might expect given the rarity, ''if'' you can find one. The reason being that the Enfauser is also an ''obscure'' weapon.</ref>

* Most movies and videogames that feature the Soviet Union during World War 2 will feature the Mosin-Nagant. Often also a first choice weapon for [[Cold Sniper]] characters, sometimes to emphasize their [[Good Old Ways|distrust of modern technology]].

* Famously unbalanced as a sniper weapon in the original ''[[Call of Duty]]'' due to being the only scoped rifle to reload with a stripper clip (in real life the scope placement prevented this). Even the basic rifle had the best iron sight in the game.

 

'''Mauser Bolt-Action Rifle Series'''<br />A series of bolt action military rifles (the two most triumphant examples being the Gewehr 98 and the Karabiner 98k, the infantry weapons of Germany during the World Wars) beginning issue in 1871 and still in limited use today<ref>The early black powder Gewehr 71 and 71/84 rifles fired the 11x60mm Mauser round. Once smokeless powder came onto the scene, Mauser military rifles were primarily made in 7.92x57mm (aka 8mm Mauser), 7x57mm (aka 7mm Mauser) and 7.65x53mm (aka 7.65mm Mauser or 7.65mm Argentine). 8mm Mauser was used by Germany and most other European and Asian users of Mauser rifles. 7mm Mauser was used by Spain, Yugoslavia, Mexico and most South and Central American nations, and was also (and remains to this day) highly popular for use in hunting rifles, especially in Europe. 7.65mm Argentine was used by Belgium, Argentina and Turkey, along with more limited use by several other South American countries. Sweden went their own way, and used the 6.5x55mm (aka 6.5mm Swedish Mauser) round, which no other nation's Mausers were chambered in (but Norway's Krags were). Spain, Yugoslavia and Turkey all switched to 8mm Mauser, with the latter two converting their 7mm and 7.65mm rifles to fire that round. After [[World War II]], many non-Communist nations converted their Mausers to .30-06 or later 7.62 NATO in order to take advantage of the large amounts of American ammunition being provided as military aid.</ref>, the Mauser rifles have at one time or another been the standard infantry weapons of Germany, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Chile, Peru, Brazil, Argentina, Iran, Israel and many more. Mauser copies were also the standard infantry weapon of Nationalist China and even the United States (as the M1903 Springfield; the US actually paid royalties to Mauser until the Treaty of Versailles) and Britain (their brief flirtation with replacing the Lee-Enfield came in the form of the Mauser-derived Pattern 14 during [[World War I]]; the US also used this rifle, adapted to .30-06 as the M1917, alongside the M1903 during [[WW 1]]<ref>The M1917 was actually the most common US rifle in [[World War I]], as the government arsenals weren't producing enough M1903s, but after the war the M1917 was relegated to a reserve weapon.</ref>), and the Japanese Arisaka also drew heavily from the Mauser (though the bolt was internally rather different, the magazine and stripper clip system were a direct copy). Czechoslovakia and Belgium also made numerous Mauser 98 clones for export between the World Wars, when Germany was prohibited from making military weapons, and to a limited extent resumed this practice after World War II. The Mauser design, although not as fast to operate as the Lee Enfield due to its cock-on-opening action, featured a third locking lug and was one of the strongest bolt-action designs of the time, and counts almost every current-production bolt-action rifle as a descendant. Very common on the military surplus market, and sporterized versions are a common European hunting weapon. And not uncommon as an American hunting weapon as well. The Mauser action is also commonly used in factory-built civilian hunting rifles.

* The [[World War II]] iterations of the [[Medal of Honor]] and [[Call of Duty]] video game series feature the 98k quite heavily.

* In [[Public Enemies]], Christian Bale carries a Model 98 Sporter.

 

'''Mannlicher-Schönauer Full Stock Carbine'''<br />Although based on a military rifle designed for export and adopted by the Greek Army by 1906 (why the [[Perpetual Poverty|chronically underfunded]] Greek Army adopted a rifle that every other army regarded as too expensive is unclear), this superb hunting bolt-action rifle-carbine had been built directly for the civilian market beginning in 1903. It had a complex action with rotary magazine and split receiver and fired proprietary Mannlicher ammo, either 6.5x54mm (M1903), 8x56mm (M1908), 9x56mm (M1905) or 9x57mm (M1910), though non-proprietary chamberings like 7x57mm Mauser and .30-06 were eventually offered. It acquired a brilliant reputation as a hunting rifle either in the Alps, British Isles or Africa, fired by such figures as [[Ernest Hemingway]] and [[Great White Hunter|WDM "Karamojo" Bell]] and proving it could take even the largest African Elephant with a well-placed shot. The action was the smoothest bolt-action in recorded history and the features that made the gun instantly recognizable also betrayed it as an "aristocratic" weapon: short length, full stock, very straight bolt operation, flat bolt handle and precise triggers told the gun has been aimed to be carried in a saddle sheath and used in hunting on horseback, like upper class hunters did. It stood in production until 1972.