In anticipation of eventually getting my hands on my library’s copy of “Q” Is For Quarry, I’ve been re-reading my entire collection of Kinsey Millhone stories.
In two of them - “F” and “N”, a bullet is packed with rock salt, resulting either in death or injury to the shooter, although it seems from the context that the bullet is actually fired (perhaps not accurately?). It doesn’t seem to make a difference what type of gun is used…in “F”, it was a shotgun, and in “N” is was a Smith & Wesson pistol.
What exactly is the effect of rock salt in a bullet? What are the physics behind that?
In times past, folks would remove the lead pellets from a shotshell and replace them with rock salt. This was supposed to make a non-lethal load that would break the skin and create a “rub salt in the wound” effect.
This was to be used to chase of vandals and folks stealing watermelons and such from the farm.
I’d imagine you could do the same with a handgun round. There are shotshells marketed for many common handgun cartridges.
I can’t imagine how this could cause injury to the shooter. As long as the weight of the salt is less than that of the lead shot it replaced the chamber pressure would be within limits.
I’d chalk it up to an author that doesn’t know anything about gun. Fiction writers are notorious for this kind of stuff and the ones with a little technical knowledge that can also write a decent book seem to be the exception. I’ve read a few howlers by Stephen King such as hold up man who filed down the firing pin on a revolver and Ian Fleming was renowned for not knowing his ass from a hole in the ground concerning firearms.
Is there something wrong with filing the fireing pin on a revolver? I’d asume that he didn’t want it to work afterwards.
Anyway, your certainly correct about the lack of knowledge. As an example, I hate to read about releasing the safety catch on revolvers. And charactors who fire and then mention the smell of cordite!
The passage made it seem it was done to get a hair trigger. That makes no sense in itself but I’m sure it’s a wide misconception that a light trigger would somehow be desirable for a criminal.
I’m not an expert on guns but it seems to me that filing down the firing pin would result in the weapon not firing. What I think they file down is, “TheThingieThatIDon’tKnow - TheNameOfThatConnectsTheTrigger - ToTheHootchie - ThatActuallyDrives - TheFiringPinIntoTheCartridge.”
The reason is that this reduces the amount of pressure needed on the trigger. The less pressure on the trigger, the less likely you are to pull the barrel of the weapon down and to the right (if your’re right handed) when you fire.
How this would aid a criminal, who’s generally working from just about point blank range, is anyone’s guess.
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Padeye–are you talking about the acecdote in Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption? Because in that case, the revolver with the filed down firing pin was something that Tommy Williams’s friend had as a novelty. Tommy brought it up to illustrate how tightly wound Elwood Blatch (not his friend) was.
There was an episode of The Rifleman (I think, or maybe it was Gunsmoke) where one of the characters emptied shot from shotgun shells and replaced it with rock salt. He then fired at the bad guys and they were disabled (not killed) from the stinging wounds.
Thanks for providing the cite eeasy e. That was my all time favorite story of King’s and I should have remembered it.
My opinion still stands is that the passage is written that way because the author doesn’t know squat about guns. Either way you interpret the passage it makes little sense. A gun that is rendered unfirable is of no use to anyone and a tightly wound holdup man isn’t likely to work on lightening the trigger pull. That’s something a meticulous target shooter may do. In any event doing a trigger job is a bit more involved than filing down a single part but with a typiucal S&W revolver the double action trigger pull can be lightened just by adjusting a screw in the butt. FWIW the only thing I filed when I did the trigger on my S&W Highway Patrolman model was to slightly thin the leaf mainspring by grinding away just enough of the surfce to remove toolmarks.
Depending on the design of the arm, the trigger itself can move at such an angle as to release the hammer to strike the firing pin. Triggers aren’t just the little hook you pull on, but generally have a larger internal part which holds the hammer until it’s pulled to reach a certain angle.
On some, the disconnector (also called, I believe, a sear or semiautomatic sear) holds the hammer back until release. On select fire arms, there are two different sears for semi and fully automatic modes.
I’m not a gunsmith or anything, but I think I have my terminology right. I have limited experience with revolvers though.
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I first heard of the practice in the dumbest (“official”) James Bond flick of all: A View to a Kill (1985).
Bond (Roger Moore) is blasting away at the bad guys with a shotgun owned by Stacy Sutton (Tanya Roberts) and eventually realizes the effect is painful but not lethal. She tells him the gun is loaded with rock salt.
Rock salt is not very dense so it doesn’t store up must kinetic energy as it gets pushed down the barrel. Its also not very strong so the shock of the explosion probably converts most of it into dust that just makes a cloud in front of the gun. The paper or plastic wadding in the shotgun shell probably travels farther than most of the salt.
If you want a better weapon you should stick with a steel rimmed bowler hat that you throw like a frisbee. Those things can knock the heads off of statues and stuff.
As in the case of far too many writers and editors, especially those who live in places where legal guns are uncommon (umm…like, New York?), there are many myths and misconceptions about firearms. You’d think people would lose their jobs and livlihood for not checking facts sometimes, as overwhelming as some of the errors are.
I knew a person shot with a shotgun loaded with rock salt. He was trespassing on a neighbor’s property (he told the police and the court that he was just “walking home from school”, but in reality he was looking to steal a moped, he admitted outside of court). He was shot once in the back from a shotgun of unknown size, and the effect was that about 2-3 dozen large crystals of rock salt shredded through his shirt and stuck into the skin of his back. I do not think any of them fully entered his body except for a few small slivers, but it made his back a bloody, extremely salty, and excrutiatingly painful mess. According to his brother, his Dad sat on him to hold him down (he was thrashing from the pain) while his Mom picked the pieces out with tweezers.
Amazingly, his back healed completely in two weeks or so, and he had no scarring. The landowner, a woman of about 70+ years, was charged with several crimes, but ended up winning her case due to the fact that this kid was clearly seen trying to break into several outbuildings and tried the locks on the house doors. The parents didn’t sue because they found out why he was really there, and told him it was his own damn fault, and he should feel lucky he’s still alive.
Another thing about rock salt - if the salt is pure enough, and it does enter your body, the salt will eventually dissolve away.
My uncle claims to have used a shotgun loaded with rock salt to guard a farm in Florida during WWII. He said you had to carefully choose your distance for it to be done right - too close, you would injure the person badly, too far away nothing at all would happen. He was told specifically to keep his distance, and not to fire if he was too close. My uncle couldn’t define the distance other than “from where they tractor motor was” to the coop, and never any closer.
If it was painful/dangerous or not would depend on how much charge was used in the shells. I am told by police-friends that the commercial beanbag shotgun rounds they can use (in addition to being loaded with a beanbag) are charged very lightly–that is, not nearly as powerful as a regular 12-gauge load would be. If it was charged as much as usual, it would cause serious injury.
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