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Frank’s probably wondering what’s crazier. The fact poor Eustace has a wife and sons willing to shoot at him? Or that he’s saying it’s happened before? Either way, the McCarty patriarch has made for a pretty poor (if so far cooperative) hostage.
Zombie Ranch
An online webcomic about a group of cowboys/cowgirls and their Zombie herd.
Funny, I never noticed that rifle was a bolt action.
It’s always supposed to have been a bolt action, although Dawn will be first to admit guns can be a weak point for her, especially if she doesn’t find a good reference. So early on Frank’s rifle wasn’t as defined as it is now that we’ve gotten ourselves a “model” to work from.
I could’ve sworn Frank was sporting a lever-action Winchester (.30-30, of course). Oh, never mind; he’s still using iron sights, not a scope. *sigh*
During initial brainstorming many years ago, I made the call that the 30-30, while iconic, was a little *too* old fashioned. It was wildly popular in its time, but you don’t see people still using them to hunt with (or in the case of the US Marines, to snipe with).
And Frank actually does have a scope for it, as we’ve seen back in Episode 2 (though again there was some artistic license with the scope look back then)… he just doesn’t have it mounted for the moment.
Tallahassee would disagree
They still make 30-30′s for a reason. While many are .22 LR, the 30-30 lever action is no more old fashion than a bolt action or pump action in many regards. The only lever action I would avoid from my reading on the IMFD website is the shot gun sense the placement of the ejection port gave the gun a bad habit of sending a empty shell flying right into your face, ouch!
And while I personally find Tallahassee quite the cool cat, Frank would probably consider him a grade-A nutcase.
The biggest reason the Winchesters fell out of style is that the 30-30 has a tubular magazine instead of a box magazine, so if it’s going to shoot any “pointy” rounds they have to be rimfire like the .22 LR (otherwise there was risk of the bullet behind setting off the cartridge in front). If you look at pictures of the old Winchester rounds you’ll see how blunt they are compared to more modern centerfire rifle rounds. Then on top of that the bolt-actions were cheaper to manufacture and more accurate at long range due to higher, more stabilized bullet velocities.
Winchester itself soon bowed to the Mauser and started making bolt-action rifles around 1900, culminating in the model 54 in 1925. They do still make 30-30s, just like Colt (and all the knockoffs) still makes Peacemakers, but I’d argue most of the sales of either these days are for nostalgia, not for practical use. The Z Ranch crew tend to be practical folks.
And if I’m boring anyone silly with pedantic gun talk, well, uh… ya read the comments, ya take yer chances…
Wow. Eustace, prime example of why men need domestic violence shelters too. How on earth did Zeke manage to leave at all? Or was the poor kid sending all his wages back home according to instructions?
… did they eat the dog after?
We leave the details to your fertile imaginations.
Eustace is turning in to one of my favorite foils.
Oh, that poor dog!
Actually, there’s .30-30 ammo made today with the modern “spitzer” bullet shape, but with foam (or soft plastic) tips. This means rounds laid end-to-end won’t ignite each other, and are more aerodynamic (and accurate) than those used in the Old West.
Plus, you can make hollow-points filled with *bigger* foam tips so they won’t clog up with dirt and fabric! =D
Hmm, now I want to come up with some supernatural creature that has a weakness to foam…
Also it sounds like in this case, foam does not equal “safe for LARP”