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Ha! I expect Wolfe may have done that solely for your benefit, George:-)

Just kidding, of course, but I am sorry for his passing and always enjoyed his total tongue in cheek irreverence for society's many facets w/fictional characters fair easy to relate to and in the case of his writing, I do believe that some of the technical flubs are intentional. Dunno that for sure; he was quite the NYC dandy.. w/southern origins & a wit I enjoyed as much as reading H.L. Mencken's assorted essay's and observations. Its good to take time out to laugh. I mostly do it when looking in the mirror at that feller who don't always agree w/me, but reading some works can cause me to do that also.

Sadly, there will be no further books of his forthcoming.

FWIW, found a big time gun flub in one of Cormac McCarthy's later works. It was in the opening portions of the one w/the guy that used a pneumatic livestock killer & it was in ref to a Mauser type rifle. His works, to that point, had been well proofed where arms are concerned. I consider that one a total failure of the technical proof reading prior to publication and the author drawing from an imprecise knowledge of the subject.

Unless it's a John Milius movie (Red Dawn, the Wind and the Lion, etc). Milius is a gun nut and is very good when it comes to historically accurate firearms. Although I have had to point out to Marines on frequent occasion that while President Theodore Roosevelt did send the White Fleet in response to the kidnapping of American citizen Pedicaris, the Marines did NOT storm the palace in Tangier. And Pedicaris was a 60-something dual citizenship Greek-American who'd bought his way out of the draft during the Civil war . . . and didn't look a thing like Candice Bergen.

Recently we watched a TV series called Godless. It went on for quite a few episodes as a Western taking place in the 1880s. The opening of the program showed a nice over under breech loader with ejectors, which probably could not have come from at least 30-40 years later. They also hunted ringneck pheasants, which as I recall were not in the U.S. at that time.

Recently we watched a TV series called Godless. It went on for quite a few episodes as a Western taking place in the 1880s. The opening of the program showed a nice over under breech loader with ejectors, which probably could not have come from until at least 30-40 years later. They also hunted ringneck pheasants, which as I recall were not in the U.S. at that time.

I'd like to recommend an author named Paulette Jiles, yes, a woman and two of her books, The Color of Lightening and News of the World, both set in 1870's Texas. They're remarkable books aside from the gun topic which isn't front stage but still integral to the stories. Lots of gory frontier action and historically impeccable.

This is a scene from the "Shooting Party" overall they did get the guns right. The requirement for James Masons character was the type of quality gun that would be used by an elderly and wealthy large land owning gentleman. The gun he is holding but never shot in the film is an early Purdey Bar in Wood thumb leaver opener. It was decided that even with assurance from the Birmingham Proof House that the one hundred plus year old gun was quit safe for use. The gun in question was borrowed from me via a friend who was in the gun trade and furnished other guns to the films Armorer.

Ian Fleming was certainly no gun expert. Many here are probably aware that Geoffrey Boothroyd wrote Fleming a letter correcting some of his errors. In return, Fleming--who had a wicked sense of humor--bestowed upon Boothroyd the title of "official armourer to 007". And "Major Boothroyd" appeared in print, when M took away Bond's .25 Beretta . . . although some would quarrel with its replacement, a .32 Walther.

I had the opportunity to see another example of Fleming's sense of humor concerning his fictional secret agent. Fleming knew former CIA director Allen Dulles from WWII days. He always sent Dulles an inscribed copy of the latest Bond book. They're part of the CIA's Historical Intelligence Collection. The book that came out shortly after JFK fired Dulles--I believe it was either "The Spy Who Loved Me" or "On Her Majesty's Secret Service"--had a particularly interesting inscription: "To my old friend Allen Dulles, who no longer has access to this information."

Daryl,
I called BS on that also to the obvious annoyance of my wife.
"Do you have to point out every error you see involving firearms"

My wife said, " oh, you are so smart. "

Brag, brag, brag and you either have a remarkable wife or you're pulling our leg...Geo