“Spy thriller writer Tom Clancy, whose best-selling books became blockbuster films, has died, his publisher said Wednesday. He was 66.” CNN and the other news orgs are highlighting Clancy’s relatively firearm-free thriller The Hunt for Red October [excluding the shoot-out in the missile silo]. Most of his 28 novels were far more gun-intensive—to say the least. [Click here for imfdb.org’s database of films and video games based on Clancy’s books.] The deeply conservative author’s work was a trifle turgid; his style certainly didn’t improve with age. But Clancy was meticulous about accurately portraying his characters’ firearms. When the author starting making the big bucks, he spent countless hours firing exotic weaponry in his private, underground gun range. Yup, full-auto (Clancy’s go-to home defense weapon was an HK machine gun). Clancy was one of us.
Ruger and Les Baer, for different reasons.
Wow, what a shame. He was younger than I imagined. He always has been and remains one of my favorite authors. Red Storm Rising is still one of the best things I’ve ever read.
I really loved his early and mid-career hard-core novels. Too bad he kind of went off the rails with his franchised and ghost-written novels in his later career. Even the stuff he did with Steve Perry (who, on his own, is one of my favorite authors) didn’t quite measure up to his heavy-duty novels.
It seemed to me that the end of the Cold War and the subsequent muddled, confusing geopolitics of the 2000’s kind of took the wind out of his sails. Much easier to write good mil/tech thrillers when you have well defined nation-state opponents. Good luck making a clear-cut case for all-out war with China, when they make half of our consumer goods.
“But may God and Curtis LeMay’s ghost have mercy on your soul if you deploy without completing your Sexual Assault Deployment Briefing.”
Hahaha, this is the truth! Active AF here as well. Went to Afghanistan late last year, got home this year. I support aircraft. My unit got no pistol training unless you were of at least an E-6. E-5’s and under, “Sorry, schlep this 20″ M-16 with you everywhere you go.”
People hate on the rifles too. On numerous occasions I heard people refer to their M-16 as “a piece of shit.” The reality is it’s endured the same treatment you described for the M-9’s.
Favorite Tom Clancy movie/game/book. GO!!
Movie: Red October
Game: Rainbow Six Vegas
Book: Rainbow Six (note: VERY long)
Grew up reading and playing Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon. No bueno, I wonder if they will license his name out like crazy now?
The good die young. The bad write control laws.
One of my favorite authors. BTW, Red October wasn’t exactly firearm-free, you forgot the shootout among the missile silos in the Red October.
“Careful, Ryan. Shum thingsh in here don’t react too well to bulletsh.”
Of his work, Without Remorse is my favorite. There’s nothing like a righteous revenge story.
Yeah, everybody loves origin stories, and combine that with righteous revenge, you’ve got an unbeatable combination.
An easy one to answer: An AMT BackUp .40 cal. There was so much wrong with it, it became entertaining in its own right.
A trigger pull in excess of twelve pounds… probably an inconsistent fifteen.
Even so, it was a light-striker. Some days, only about 50% ignition.
Couldn’t even feed ball, but Gold Dots were hopeless. Maybe two or three normal feeds per magazine.
But then, the coup de grace: the chamber separated. Across the middle.
Apparently they glued together the front of the chamber/barrel and the rear of the chamber/cams.
No, I didn’t believe that either, but I own a gun that appears to have been made that way, as there is a circumferential gap right in the middle of the chamber. Fired cases have a circular bulge to match, and they’re damned hard to extract, even if the extractor worked right. Which it doesn’t.
I don’t have the heart to give it away, except perhaps to a buyback someday.
Second worst, a Springfield Armory 1911 Trophy. Broke just about everything until it snapped its barrel link in two, between the holes!
Supposedly it was a “custom shop” gun, too. It went back to Geneseo twice before I moved it on the Internet to a gung-ho Springer fan.
And, I still have trouble calling Springfield Armory guns by that hallowed name. They don’t have a thing to do with the real Springfield Armory.
Honorable mention: Taurus PT145. Broke its frame twice and then I just kept shooting it, broke and all. Now it runs fine, even with hollowpoints. I ignore the crack and use it as a kind of a “trunk” gun.
Masterful writing by ST! … (Who is ST by the way – I thought Dan Zimmerman wrote it).
TO: Robert Farago
RE: Turgid?
Hardly ‘turgid’ if you had a mind to learn how things work.
For instance, how to go about ‘craft work’ being a ‘spy’, or rather, as John Clark/Kelly put it in Executive Orders a ‘field officer’. Then there’s learning about how to make ebola into a REAL Weapon of Mass Destruction (WMD).
All the other novels in the Jack Ryan series tell/teach you other important aspects of ‘Life’ in the world of shadows.
I’m gonna miss him.
Regards,
Chuck(le)
[Education: Replacing an empty mind with an open one.]
RIP Mr Claancy your novel’s will be missed. You died way to young.
lool i need 1
TO: All
RE: Other Works of Note
My favorite, outside of the Jack Ryan series, is Red Storm Rising.
Truly excellent in consideration of a war in Europe with the Soviets.
Regards,
Chuck(le)
[Science fiction writers foresee the inevitable, and although problems and catastrophes may be inevitable, solutions are not. — Isaac Asimov]
Coincidentally, the worst gun I’ve ever fired also was the only gun I’ve ever owned (except for my BB gun that I got as a teen, with paper route money; not the greatest BB gun in the world, but it was MINE!) It was a Lorcin .25 auto. It took me a couple of mag loads before I figured out just the right exact delicate touch to getting the rounds into the mag in such a way that it didn’t jam practically every shot. And the gun was too small for my hand. After a day of shooting, I had a nice lesion/abrasion/small laceration right on the web between my thumb and forefinger where the slide caught skin every shot. But I had bought it for $50 bucks in the early 1990’s, and gladly dumped it on some sucker for $75 a couple of years later. That was in Taxifornia, before gun control had set in – The only paperwork I had to do was a bill of sale.
I’ve also shot a 9mm Beretta and a .38 “police special,” (I don’t remember which brand) which belonged to some other guy. I really really liked the Beretta; I found the revolver somewhat klunky, but neither of them ever injured me. 😉
Taurus PT845, accurate and felt great in the hand but after 4 trips back for failure to feed I gave up and sold it back to the store I bought it from
7 The Hard Way!
I agree, Red Storm Rising is probably my overall favorite book. I have read it about 10 times in the span of 5 or 6 years.
The Jack Ryan series of novels have their ups and downs too; but I loved the book Without Remorse.
Great post! Thanks.
A badly worn unmarked in any way nickel plated badly flaked .22 rim fire double action late 19th century revolver. The breach face of the cylinder was so badly hammered by someone in its past having dry fired it thousands of times (perhaps it had at some point given to a kid as a toy) that only one chamber of the 9 would go bang once in a while 7 inch barrel so not a pocket pistol type. It was given to me by a widow who did not want her late husband’s nasty things in her house.
The other guns she gave me at the time (50 years ago) were nice enough lower cost fire arms from the first half of the 20th century the sort you would buy from Sears Roebuck or a local hardware store I use one of them a hammer non self cocking 12 ga double from Connecticut vally arms in cowboy action shooting and while heavy it is robust and has never failed to go bang In thousands of rounds
Probably a Charles Daly 20ga. Puml Liked to double feed the rounds if they were Remington sluggers, had a bend in the barrel around 24″, cut it down to 20 to fix and a few bucks to a smith fixed the double feed. Mostly a neglect issue than factory though
I own a wide selection of handguns, the Beretta 92FS is my wife’s hands-down choice over Glock, HK and several SIG options. Big handgun for the round helps control the recoil, the SA trigger pull is as nice as it can be and there are a whole lot of rounds in the magazine. It’s very accurate in her hands, and as a lefty she doesn’t feel as disadvantaged as she would with the non-ambi controls you get on a SIG.
I like mine just fine and don’t feel inadequately armed with one. If my wife wants an Italian safety blanket, I’m fine with that.
What is it with women and the M-9?
I hate the M9, but I shoot awesome with it. Thing pretty much points itself without even needing the sights, and I can pop the safety off on the draw without thinking about it like a 1911. That flip up thing on draw thing is just drilled in my head and it still messes with me. When qualifying on the range I had a magazine stick. Would not drop, just completely jammed up. Armed drilled Sergeants yelling at you to drop your mag does not make a good time. I haven’t trusted the M9 ever since, totally soured on them. Unreasonable maybe, but its how I feel.
The last M9 I used was for qual lasy FY. I knew I was in trouble when upon receiving the pistol I noted rust(!!@!) along the entire top of the barrel (this M9 was provided by our MI Company…. the one group that I, as a Signal guy, feel comfortable making fun of). Then the thing proceeded to put the bullets where ever it felt like, not where I was pointing (I was getting so angry I was about ready to throw the damn pistol at the target). Sad thing is that my buddy and I (fellow CPT, who also carries and shoots on a regular basis) beat the MAJ and CPT we had a gentlemen’s bet with. Thats what happens when shooters compete against non-shooters.
BTW, don’t forget that pretty much every magazine is beat to h… When the standard table for qual involves a magazine swap you don’t think these people are actually catching the magazines as they drop. But it is a fun table to shoot and I will volunteer every time. And I love my my 92FS.
RIP. Avid gun owner and shooter died “after a brief illness at the Johns Hopkins Hospital.”. At Johns Hopkins Hospital, you, know the Bloomberg pwned one. On the day Maryland’s new gun laws took effect.
An ironic twist worthy of one of his novels.
Bersa/Firestorm .22… inexpensive and felt great in the hand, got it with the intention of also getting the .380 and using the .22 as a cheap, fun trainer. Then I took it to the range a few times.
At best, with the more expensive CCI Stingers, it will fire 2-3 times in a row before some type of failure or jam. It won’t cycle any other ammunition at all. I patiently went through about 300 rounds and numerous cleanings, but no improvement. It was damn accurate, but totally unreliable. I keep meaning to send it off for warranty, but after the .22 market ran up, it’s just been sitting in the back of the locker getting ignored.
First Prize: Savage Model 64F .22 – my very first rifle. Didn’t matter what quality ammo I used – good or bad – it was a Jam-O-Matic, despite being well maintained. It surprises me how many people swear by the quality of this rifle. Maybe I was (un)lucky with mine.
Runner up: Hi-Point C9. Shot fine, relatively speaking, with minimal FTE’s, just not an ergonomically friendly handgun and not very accurate.
After 15+ years as a gunowner, I’ve become a Ruger fanboy.
Charter Arms .22 9 shot revolver based on the .38 undercover. I don’t know it’s model number now, but it was always a click click boom gun until it became a click click jam gun. It spend more time with a curious (free) gunsmith than it did with me. I eventually let the smith keep it to see if he could ever make the worthless thing shoot. It would come back shooting for a while but something broke, got out of time, failed every few hundred rounds. To this day I will not own anything made by Charter.
I am a fairly new gun enthusiast, and my knowledge of ammunition is elementary at best. I picked up a box of these because I thought they were cool looking self defense rounds. Would these not be ideal SD rounds? .45 ACP should I not carry them as self defense rounds? I bought them because I knew hornady was a descent manufacturer.
But what is the rate? You have to ‘control for population growth’ 😉
Worst handgun? A tossup between a Jennings .22 and an FIE .38 derringer.
NAA Ranger…
…which was their attempt to make a top-break mini revolver. Beautiful piece of art. Problem was , when they machined a relief under the barrel to clearance the cylinder extension, by which the cylinder was retained, they forgot to leave enough metal under the forcing cone to support it. After the first or second shot I felt the cylinder getting tough to turn and the cylinder didn’t want to come off for cleaning. Upon closer inspection I found that the forcing cone had split and started pushing down on the cylinder extension. I shot it twice more and felt sparks shooting down onto my knuckles. I sent it back for a full refund since every othe Ranger I looked at had but a paper thin sliver of metal forming the six O’clock portion of the forcing cone.
Other guys I knew purchased them but opted not to take a refund and let NAA “repair” the problem. When I looked at several other “repaired” Rangers, I found out that the fix was that they just cut completely cut away a portion of the bottom of the forcing cone where they had cracked. So these guys were still getting hot gas to their knuckles, and I am sure there was some velocity lost, but the things were still technically functional.
I’m glad I got my refund.
We have goofy FOIDs, but we have no AWB, or anything too retarded.
We can now have SBRs with a C&R licence
We just can’t have suppressors.
I’d rather live here than Cali, that’s for sure.
I enjoyed Cardinal in the Kremlin the most, probably because I read it in my Russian flat, just two blocks from the local KGB headquarters locals referred to as The Tower of Death.
Send his butt back to the UK and let him tell the “truth” to the Queen’s Loyal Subject.
Bad enough the ignorant liberals and Democrates fall for his nonsense.
Once out of office Bloomberg will have a MAIG TV show, Piers will be the host
He’d probably fit right in over at Al Gore’s former Current TV, now Al-Jazeera TV.
This is probably the most disappointing post I’ve read thus far from TTAG. But hey I guess we all gotta pay the ObamaCare bill somehow right?
First Rosie O’Donnell and now Piers. Might as well sell the TV… and buy more guns!
I was going to write a very similar article. They stole my thunder! The only caveat: I would have stopped in the first place and never collided with the other motorcycle rider in front of me. Use a high visual horizon, always be aware of your surroundings, and don’t deliberately place yourself near a motorcycle gang. Although the motorcycle riders had no legal purpose to stop traffic, I would have stopped anyway. It’s better to avoid the confrontation in the first place. The only gunfight that you are guaranteed to win is the one that you never have.
Be a good witness. As a witness, you have committed no crime and no one can accuse you of committing a crime. (More or less.)If you are trapped and need to fight you can always do that as a last resort. The incident is much cleaner if you never hit the motorcycle in the first place. I think we can all agree that it’s best to stop for a few minutes in order to avoid the confrontation. During that time, you could still call 911 and report the suspicious activity around you. Make sure you write down the license plate numbers, and anything else that’s relevant. A passenger or a driver could also videotape the incident for later police prosecution.
Obviously what I would have wrote would have focused on situational awareness and avoidance instead of vehicle armor. Regardless, once the other driver exited the freeway he was in big trouble. Stay moving and fight like hell if you have to.
Who are you to tell me how many carbs my intake manifold needs? How dare you try to tell me how many wheels need power from the engine to make my vehicle go down the road and who gives you the right to tell me how many horsepower i need to drive from point A to point B!?!?!?!?!
I hope Piers Morgan gets a new gig on MSNBC. Maybe a co-host with Chris Matthews…then they would both be confined to a Show no one watches.
Those all black cars are the scariest and need to be permanently parked.
Here are some more video if you guys haven’t seen them yet.
http://oppositelock.jalopnik.com/the-footage-that-the-nyc-bikers-didnt-want-you-to-see-1435594427/1436603736/@orlove
He is a criminologist/expert? I am honestly confused/surprised.
Saint Mary’s College Advanced Women studies curriculum. Initially Susan thought sight alined center mass was a reference for communion, the class took a turn when the instructor conducted a thought experiment and asked…would the world be different if Jesus had one of these?