The November Man

[Dallasbeek]

I don't know whether to put this in movies or 2nd Amendment category.  It's a pretty good action/spy/shoot-em-kill-em flick, but the star-executive producer Pierce Brosnin makes one outrageous statement that shocked me out of my semi-sleep state.  Attempting to reassure a woman that if the bad guys (either Russian or CIA, take your pick) kill her, "you'll never feel a thing.  A bullet traveling 4,000 feet per second" will hit you and you won't feel it.

This guy's supposed to be a retired CIA assassin (do they really have them?) who kills about 30 Russian and CIA troops in this movie alone.   FOUR THOUSAND FEET PER SECOND?  What kind of ammo is that, now?  Okay, there have been some bullets that have been more than 4,000 fps, but these are not rounds that an assassin would use.  A .220 Swift with a 48 grain bullet isn't a serious man-stopper.  And the .223 isn't a good sniper rifle.

Despite that and the fact that it blames the second Russia war in Checnya on a rogue CIA bigwig, not a terrible movie.

[Michael Bush]

>What kind of ammo is that, now?

Yes, you nailed it.  A .220 swift  and very few others (6mm Rem, .17 Rem Fireball, .243 Rem, .243 WSM, .22-250, .223 WSSM, and a lot of wildcats.  Like Ackley's wildcat Eargesplitten Loudenboomer... 4600 fps...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.22_Eargesplitten_Loudenboomer

Most of those factory rounds are not common because people get tired of shooting out a barrel in 2000 rounds... That is about all of them...  Not a .223... at least not unless  handload it with a 36 gr bullet a powder slow enough that you have to put it in with a drop tube...

My rule of thumb is that everything about guns in movies is either wrong, impossible or ridiculously dangerous.

[Dallasbeek]

I've always had a fantasy of necking down a .50 bmg cartridge to about .22 caliber as a novelty -- no powder inside and a disarmed primer.  Just the ultimate wildcat.  "The barrel goes with it."

[Maggiesdad]

You could call it the .22 Super Bee! 

[Michael Bush]

>I've always had a fantasy of necking down a .50 bmg cartridge to about .22 caliber as a novelty -- no powder inside and a disarmed primer.  Just the ultimate wildcat.  "The barrel goes with it."

Here is the .17-50 BMG Eargeshsplitten Loudenboomer
http://www.everydaynodaysoff.com/2011/01/13/17-50-bmg-collectors-cartridge/

[Dallasbeek]

Well, now that's just a little too much!  LOL

I have to admire somebody who goes to that much trouble for a joke.  But it's a good comment on some extreme wildcat loads people come up with.  As Jeff Cooper always said, there are a lot of perfectly good cartidges already, some of which are now over 100 years old.  He'd usually say that just before talking about some great new cartridge like the .376 Steyr (which actually used a .375 bullet) came up with for the Steyr Scout (Dragoon) that was very close to the .375 Holland and Holland in performance. 

[Michael Bush]

It's just like beekeeping.  Someone has to invent a new hive or a new size every few years when there are plenty to choose from already.  :)