Originally Posted by
Roeyourboat
Thanks for the heads up. I've only written in a Roe so far, though wanted to explore more animals. It's tricky since the whole story takes place at an undetermined time far in the future, therefore I imagined that migrating patterns will have changed along with climate and many other things.
Unlikely.
Originally Posted by
Roeyourboat
Thanks, Jack! This is precisely what I’m after. So, other than shooting a reload, are there any circumstances which may trigger a misfire by a competent shooter? Perhaps something which couldn’t be helped or overlooked in the moment? I have it in mind that the rifle is well kept, though quite old. Is it possible that one of the rifles component parts can significantly wear down over time which could lead to a misfire? Thanks again.
Not likely.
Some people will remove a firing pin for safety reasons making the weapon useless for anything but a club until it is "repaired" but then it will NOT dent the primer.
It is NOT completely unheard of to get a dud in modern factory loaded ammunition but that is about one in a thousand or more with reputable manufacture and fresh ammunition, meaning not 80 year old Greek surplus ammunition from the old WWII lend lease program. You could do a little research on that and work it in, making the scenario plausible. Especially even further in to the future.
Surplus ammunition is going to all be full metal copper jacket and some of those will be armor piercing and marked to identify as such.
Normal civilian hunting ammunition is all soft tip, hollow point, or some type of plastic ballistic tip. It is required by current hunting regulations in every state as far as I know.
Could even guarantee yourself probably 10,000 copies sold by working it around an M1 Garand instead of the Remington 700. Collectors and fans are nutz over their Garands and will buy about anything concerning them just so they can yap to each other about it.
If you are a "technical" writer in the vein of Tom Clancy it is a gold mine of jargon and nostalgia but you better get it right or they will roast you over the coals in effigy if they can't track you down for the real thing.
https://thecmp.org/cmp_sales/
I own two of those.