Friday Factoid is a weekly blog feature where I’ll be sharing a little bit of background behind something from one of my books: ideas, characters, environments, pieces of research, you name it, it’s all fair game for the Friday Factoids! If you have a specific question, feel free to ask away in the comments! What will be featured this week? Read on to find out…
About the true weight of real, Old West style gun belts!
Yeah, for real. So if you didn’t know already, for the past few months I’ve also been working on a western-themed book. Originally, I had planned for this book to be a short story. I had also planned for it to be a historical western.
*insert sound of highly amused laughter here*
Right. So. I have an affliction we semi-lovingly call “Story Expansion Virus”. And it seems this sickness has hit me yet again. The short story is now a novella. The novella may yet become a novel. I’ve stopped trying to anticipate where it will end, really. I’m just going along for the ride at this point!
Also, the historical western has become a weird western.
But why a weird western?
Well, because I heard from a few different historical western authors once I started writing this thing that in general, the standard historical western reader does not particularly like swear words in their fiction. And they are also not super keen on sexy times in their fiction.
Therefore, so as to not offend any sensitivities, and also so as not to restrict myself in the writing of this project (because who knows when I might want swear words or sexy times!), I switched the genre to weird western.
Which works out better for everyone involved, really. My established reader audience will be much more receptive to a weird western, anyway. So it’s all good! Plus, that means I get to have GADGETS! And who doesn’t want GADGETS!?!?!
That’s what I thought.
You said something about gun belts…
Oh right! So, this novella is now a weird western, but that doesn’t mean I’m throwing out the historical part of it, no siree!!! In fact, I’m heavily basing most of the world building on the actual historical Wild West. I like to think of it as Alternate History, actually, more than science fiction.
Which means LOTS of research. Ugh.
But it’s actually been some of the most fascinating research I’ve ever done, to be honest. Now, the gun belt thing, though, has nothing to do with said research. That happened by accident!
You see, the whole reason I started this western-themed short story novella in the first place was because I’ve been playing the amazing video-game Red Dead Redemption 2 for the last four months. And the inspiration it filled me with was just too unbearable. I had to write something with that gritty western feel.
So I did!
But seriously how does any of this relate to–
Just bear with me! I’m almost there!
So at about the same time, the local comic con was going on. And whaddaya know, the voice and performance actors for the two main characters from the game were going to be there! So I decided to go ahead and build a cosplay of the main character, Arthur Morgan.
And that’s where the gun belt comes into play! (Told ya we’d get there!)
Because I had one made for me custom. I wanted it to hang crooked like all the cool gunslingers did, you know? Like Arthur Morgan had his gun belt in the game.
The belt came in, and it fit great. Hooray! Then I decided I wanted to take some cool pictures in the cosplay at my mom’s house because she’s got some great wooden fence. She also happens to own some real guns, some real bullets, and a pair of matching replica 1800 Colt cimmarons (for Cowboy Mounted Shooting… look it up).
The (unloaded) Colts would be perfect for the photo shoot, I thought. So I loaded up the belt with bullets and holstered those empty Colts… and the belt slid right off. -_-
Those damn guns are HEAVY!!!
I had NO idea how much weight all those bullets and two guns would add to the belt. I hadn’t even thought to research that little detail.
After all, I’ve been to a shooting range (once) and shot some modern pistols, and they weren’t heavy at all. And after watching all those western movies… no one acts like the old style guns are any heavier than the modern ones.
But they are. By a LOT.
And unless guns are really your thing, you probably wouldn’t even think about something like that. But doing some actual research after the fact shows that 1800-model Colts could range in weight from 2 to 4.5 pounds each, depending on style and year. Wow.
So that’s a possibility of up to nearly ten pounds in guns alone. Then add on the weight of all those bullets, and sheesh… I couldn’t walk five steps without the damn belt sliding off!
Luckily, I happened to stumble upon that realization by accident. Because now a lot of stuff makes a lot more sense. And I can be sure to add in a few extra details to the story I wouldn’t have known about before.
Win-win!
But a word to the wise… if you’re going to order yourself an Old West gunbelt, and you plan to be carting around some actual guns, get your belt smaller than you think it should be, because you won’t need extra length to make it hang crooked… it’ll do that all on its own from the weight of all that iron you’re packin’! 😉
In the meantime, though, I’m gonna stick to my 3D printed, plastic replica pistols… so as to keep my belt right where it belongs– on my freakin’ body!
Want to know more about the weird western short story novella novel?
Click the cover below to download a free preview of the book and sign up to be alerted when it goes live on Amazon! It’s currently slotted for a summer 2019 release… so not too much longer! And in the meantime, stay tuned in this space for more of the crazy things I’ve learned while writing this particular book… !
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