So you know that there's shooting and guns in my thrillers?
Well, sometimes an author needs to go get some practical experience!
Last weekend, I went to Budapest (with my very happy husband) for a shooting experience at Celeritas gun club. Check out the video below for the highlights.(Please note, this was all done with the highest safety standards.)
We also visited some of the places important to the violent century that Hungary has experienced – the synagogue and mass Jewish graves, the shoes left by the side of the Danube from those massacred, the offices of the secret police. It is a pretty harrowing place, as well as a majestic city with stunning architecture.
I will be writing an ARKANE novella entirely set there in the next 6 months, so you can expect more of Budapest then.
I hope you enjoy the video, and I'll be announcing the launch of Exodus soon (and there are free review copies on offer for subscribers of the newsletter.)
I’m not a big fan of guns in the home or for hunting, but they’re so much fun to shoot at paper targets! I had a chance to try a Sig Sauer P-229 and a shotgun as part of my local citizens police academy (a 10-week class where residents learn all about their police department). The shotgun had quite a kick, but I’m glad I gave it a try. Most of my manuscripts have a military or law enforcement characters, so it helps to get some first-hand experience with the feel and sound of shooting.
Your day of shooting looked great. I’d love to try all of those different weapons. I’m sure it’ll add realism to your writing too. Thanks for sharing!
I’m with you Gwen – there’s a lot of difference between shooting on a range to any kind of real life situation, but in the UK, we only have certain police officers who can carry guns, so it’s not as widespread as the US. I loved the Sig Sauer as well – it fitted in my hand and I did pretty well with the target too. Definitely my favorite and I may well be swapping Morgan’s gun so she shoots a Sig now 🙂
Great video! I grew up around a fair selection of handguns and rifles. Not the full autos though. Those are fun to shoot, but darn expensive when you realize how fast you are plowing through ammo.
I think more writers for both books and TV need to shoot first hand. People tend to have very unrealistic ideas about how long it takes for the magazine of a fully automatic rifle to run dry. And how long it takes to swap out a fresh clip. It drives me crazy every time I see it on TV. But somehow that seems to be the norm for TV and movies. Reading about it just seems unforgivable.
You’re right Steve, and that video clip shows the amount of time I had to shoot the automatics, less than 1 second I think, although it felt longer. It’s definitely more technical than the movies. Plus, I had a go with a Dragunov sniper rifle and I didn’t even hit the target at all. It was ridiculously hard so I won’t be writing any sniper scenes 🙂
Hahahaha. This is hilarious. Nice shooting.
Fun video! You sounded like you were having a grand ol’ time.
And I sincerely hope the 4 Rules of Firearm Safety were followed each time.