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A variety of ammunition for semi-automatic handguns
that's exactly the same as the standard type of
cartridge,
except the case is painted safety orange. The idea
would
be to load a single one of these rounds into your
magazine such that it's the penultimate round fired.
When you see the
flash of orange as the case ejects,
you
know that you're down to your last round, which is in
the
chamber. At that point, you can eject the magazine,
load a fresh one, and continue firing without having
to
release the slide.
Maybe this will help...
Mesquite_20Gunpowder
[normzone, May 28 2012]
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Not paint. Paint would get scraped off in the
magazine and feed, or melted in the
chamber, particularly if the round was
chambered - as it of course must be- just after
firing a full clip; when the breech is at its
hottest. |
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An anodised aluminium case could be
intensely coloured and there are colouring
processed for steel; classic gun "blueing" is a
good example. |
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Brass would be more tricky. |
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For shotgun rounds with plastic cases, it
would be easy- they could even be made
phosphorescent. |
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Bun withheld pending a clearer description
of the method, paint being ruled out. |
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Those who spend a lot of time using weapons
on a regular basis learn to count, and
generally have a pretty good idea of how
much ammo they have remaining. When
your life depends on it, you don't lose track. |
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//When your life depends on it, you don't lose track.// It is easy to count rounds at the shooting range, in a gunfight people often don't remember how many rounds they fired. Or they remember firing 5, and they actually fired 14. |
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A colouring agent could be added to the powder charge, giving a puff of orange or red smoke. But of course that would give away to your opponent that you've only got one round left. |
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Better might be something that jabs you in the hand, firmly but not painfully, when the mag follower reaches the top of its travel but just before it activates the slide holdback as the last round ejects. |
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//Paint would get scraped off in the magazine and
feed, or melted in the chamber// |
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Hmm... what about powder coating? It's resistant to
chipping/flaking and high temperatures. You'd need
to use a pretty thin layer though, or maybe make the
case slightly smaller to accomodate the added width
of the powder coat. |
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What would be really cool now that I think about it is
some sort of coating that emits light when heated.
That way it would work in the dark as well. I'm not
sure if such a thing exists, though. |
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//Better might be something that jabs you in the
hand, firmly but not painfully, when the mag
follower reaches the top of its travel but just before
it activates the slide holdback as the last round
ejects.// |
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But this would require modification to the gun. |
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Powder coating would be pulverized by the expansion of
the case, leaving the chamber--and, as the case is
extracted, the action--filled with uniformly sized abrasive
particles. |
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In Vietnam, some guys would load a couple of tracers near
the bottom of their magazines, like 4 or 5 from the
bottom, taking their cue from WWII fighter pilots who
often requested a string of five or ten tracers in a row near
the end of a belt. |
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Another idea occurs to me, one which wouldn't let the bad
guys who can't count know you're almost out: change the
composition of the propellant charge. If I loaded ten
cartridges into the magazine of an AR-15 rifle, five store-
bought rounds and five of my custom two-stage hot loads,
then handed it to somebody who has never fired an AR-15
before, they would immediately be able to feel the
difference by the qualities of the recoil, but only someone
who was listening for it could tell from the sound (and
that's a 'maybe'). For
somebody like me, who has fired literally hundreds of
thousands of rounds from AR-15s in practice and
competition, it is sometimes even possible to discern
between different store-bought brands of ammo by feel. |
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Wouldn't changing loads partway through a magazine affect
your accuracy? Instead of trying to use sight, sound or feel
to inform you that you're down to your last rounds, why not
employ the olfactory senses? Use the same amount of
gunpowder but dope it with a bit of ammonia? If acrid
smells aren't your thing, there is a potpourri of more
pleasant scents
available. |
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You could even have distinctive customized blends so you
don't confuse your penultimate rounds' smells with those from
your fellow soldiers. I can easily visualize a grizzled
infantryman saying "I love the smell of
vanilla/lavender breeze in the morning." |
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// Wouldn't changing loads ... affect your accuracy? // |
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At a shooting range with a competition-grade custom
handgun, yes. With a semi-auto tactical handgun in the
middle of a firefight, not a bit. At effective combat range
(i.e. 15-40 feet), the ballistic profile of a hotloaded 9mm
or .45 round is virtually identical to that of a decent
name-brand round. Put that hotload third from the bottom
of the magazine, and you have a shot that counts plus a
distinctive snappy recoil telling you that you've only got
two left. |
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I've never been in a firefight personally, but considering
that handgun combat takes place at such short range, I
would postulate that most of the burnt propellant one
might smell would actually be ejecta from the weapon of
one's opponent. When the fumes from multiple weapons,
flying dust, hot metal, blood, etc. are all mixed together, I
don't think sniffing around for a hint of lavender would be
a very accurate or wise method of accounting for expended
rounds. Frankly, given a forced choice between a telltale
tracer or a potpourri round, I'd opt for the tracer and give
my position away. |
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Ha! I like getting a straight response to a tongue-in-cheek anno. Next you'll be telling me you don't want a few throw cushions around the trenches or pine-scented trees hung up inside Abrams tanks. |
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I'm just trying to brighten up an otherwise dreary battlefield. Just because its a war it doesn't mean all of us have to stop caring about smelling nice. <stomps off in a huff> |
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*Gasp* where is that rank smell coming from? |
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The officers' latrine. They sit in there, talking shit all
day. |
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No, I think a few throw cushions scattered around the
battlefield would be lovely, especially for us patient
hunter types. I once sat wedged between a crumbling
garden wall and a burned-out Vauxhall for three and a half
days, waiting to take a shot at [8th of 7]. A pillow would
have been quite appreciated. |
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// taking their cue from WWII fighter pilots who often requested a string of five or ten tracers in a row near the end of a belt.//
I like where this is going - the Spitfire had eight .303 machine guns. You could spell out words with carefully loaded belts - a whole new form of skywriting!
"Take that, you dirty Hun!" |
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<1970's "Commando" Comic>"Gott in Himmel!"</1970's "Commando" Comic> |
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// Clearly you failed to eliminate the target. // |
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Sadly, yes. The lucky bugger tripped over a loose paving
stone just as I fired, and the 6.8mm nickel-jacket
frangible Nosler-tip decapitated a nearby garden gnome. |
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720 yards on a rainy day with a 12mph facing crosswind,
and the prawn & parsnip jacket potato with extra cheese
that I'd eaten the night before was disagreeing with me. I'd
like to see you do better. |
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Interesting.... what kind of cheese? |
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It's the parsnips that are the real problem
here. |
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// and he'd have got the jump on YOU // |
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We'd have gotten away with it too, if it
weren't for you pesky kids. .. |
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Oh. What variety of potato? |
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//decapited a nearby garden gnome// |
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I assume you meant *decapitated* but I'll accept any
successful method of destruction of a garden gnome
as a valid kill. |
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If he shot "at" the gnome, then decapited works. If he shot "it" then decapated is the word to use. |
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Provided it destroys the gnome, it's all good. |
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Yes, the transformation from Gnome to Gnomore is complete. |
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Or, depending upon the angle of the break, gnome to
gnomon. |
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Or as Roberto Durán said: "Gno Más" |
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Without a shadow of doubt … |
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All this discussion is very interesting, but it was in fact a
typo, which has now been corrected. |
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Though he was not the primary target, the gnome counted
as a valid kill as a target of opportunity. His death was
recorded in my journal and initialed by my spotter. |
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The potato was an Idaho White, although I believe it was
grown in Yorkshire. |
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The worst part of the entire mission was the exfiltration,
which included an 1800-yard belly crawl through Lower
Camden on a Friday night. |
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Yes, that was a clever move … you merged in
beautifully with all the other drunks making
their way along the pavement from pub to
off-licence to take-away. |
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At least the thick coating of vomit on the
ground helps to lubricate your progress. |
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Next time, choose Maris Piper. |
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// //decapited a nearby garden gnome// // |
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// I assume you meant *decapitated* // |
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Decapiting is when you knock his smurf hat off, right? "Azrael, decapit Pappa at once!" |
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I hope it's something like that, and not like the
Decameron. |
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The hotel, or the literary compilation? With good cause, I'll
take a shot at either one. |
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