The Republic of Heaven

Lee scoresby carries a S&W .44 magnum all the time. Why didn't he give the rifle to John Parry and use the Mag on the Muscovites, who later killed him? (A .44 Mag is a VERY POWERFUL GUN. 1 bullet can go through 4-6 people)

where does it say he had a magnum?

You know Pullman constantly says he carries a "6-shooter". When Lyra saw it, it had a "Long barrel" (The charicteristic of Magnum revolvers).

The smallest magnum (.357) will still go through 1-3 people. Besides, they are highly accurate and can compete with shorter ranged rifles.

the enemy's weren't exactly lineing up. THe rifle could move from man to man and hit each one quicker because of better aim and more bullets. And he killed all the guys without using his magnum so he couldn't use it also. Rifle seems bettter for his position I think.

i never remeber referance toa 6 shooter

At any rate, I agree a rifle would be better in that circumstance. It is much more acurate at long range and carries reasonable power and a good rate of fire, despite being a manual weapon. He probably also had more ammo for the rifle. Magnums (sidearms in general) are better used in close to medium range skirmishes.

Mmm, but a Magnum could have probably take out the Zeppelin while all the soldiers were still on board!

a zepplin with a magnum o.0.
it'd just show them where they were anyways, no element of suprise

That would be a damn crazy shot. It's a hollywood myth that things automatically explode if you shoot them with a handgun (think of the lethal weapon movies ).

Oh come on, if a Magnum bullet can punch through five guys (remember all the bones and stuff) it can certainly go through some fabric.

This was easily the best scene in the book, but thinking about it maybe he he didn't have much ammo for the six-shooter, and he knew he would be facing a large number so he went with the rifle.

Remember, the ballons were filled with hydrogen. Hydrogen is EXTREMELY UNSTABLE. A shot to the gas bag would certainly blow up the zeppelin. Why didnt Scoresby do that?

Blighty wrote:Oh come on, if a Magnum bullet can punch through five guys (remember all the bones and stuff) it can certainly go through some fabric.

But would it make a bit enough hole for them to notice? There would be a lot of hydrogen inside, and unless it escaped fast enough they'd just be able to land somewhere later and patch the hole.

AmOEbA wrote: Remember, the ballons were filled with hydrogen. Hydrogen is EXTREMELY UNSTABLE. A shot to the gas bag would certainly blow up the zeppelin. Why didnt Scoresby do that?

Hydrogen is extremely flammable. Shooting things doesn't usually make them catch on fire.

AmOEbA wrote:Remember, the ballons were filled with hydrogen. Hydrogen is EXTREMELY UNSTABLE. A shot to the gas bag would certainly blow up the zeppelin. Why didnt Scoresby do that?

That isn't true at all. Hydrogen is by no means a noble gas, but it is relitively stable. Otherwise it would have been completely inpractical to use in any sort of vehicle. The only chemical I can think of that would explode from being shot with a sidearm is nitro-glyscerine, because it is extremely sensitive to friction. Hydrogen is explosive, but needs to be ignited (with oxygen present) in order to explode. Some kind of balistic weapon, like a pulse rifle or a rocket launcher (or even a flaming arrow) would blow up a zeppelin, but a bullet is only a lump of metal traveling very fast, and is certainly not on fire.

Edit= You beat me to it Daniel

eloquent wrote:

AmOEbA wrote:Remember, the ballons were filled with hydrogen. Hydrogen is EXTREMELY UNSTABLE. A shot to the gas bag would certainly blow up the zeppelin. Why didnt Scoresby do that?

That isn't true at all. Hydrogen is by no means a noble gas, but it is relitively stable. Otherwise it would have been completely inpractical to use in any sort of vehicle. The only chemical I can think of that would explode from being shot with a sidearm is nitro-glyscerine, because it is extremely sensitive to friction. Hydrogen is explosive, but needs to be ignited (with oxygen present) in order to explode. Some kind of balistic weapon, like a pulse rifle or a rocket launcher (or even a flaming arrow) would blow up a zeppelin, but a bullet is only a lump of metal traveling very fast, and is certainly not on fire.

Edit= You beat me to it Daniel

Consider friction from contact with the air with the bullet.
Well, the shape of the bullet would reduce that, so forget it.

Still, Hydrogen is unstable. Remember the Hindenberg? It was filled with Hydrogen, and it blew up one time. Thats why they use Helium nowadays.

WAIT!!!! Remember the Imperial guards set light to that forest? We must consider that as a factor in the case of the "Red hot bullet".

Anyways, Scoresby should have deflated the zeppelins earlier.

The notorious Hindenberg disaster... Well like I said hydrogen will burn with an ignition, and in this case the ignition was a lightning strike, or more accurately the spark generated when electrostatic energy that had collected on the wet outer pannels of the hull from an electrical storm jumped the gap between two of the pannels.

Although this shows that it is a bad idea to fly a zeppelin through a thunderstorm, any other stable but flamable liquid or gas would still have reacted in a similar way when presented with a direct ignition (the spark).

Are we agreed that if you light a match in a room full of hydrogen it will explode? With Lee's bullet 'carrying' that spark along with it, it would have the exact same effect on the zeppelin's gaseous inside.

The hindenburg really blew up because of the different compounds used in the fabric covering the body of the hindenburg not because it was filled with hydrogen.

so you can't really say shooting a magnum at a zepplin will cause it explode.