writers of avengers fic consistently misunderstand this phrase, and honestly i don’t blame them, it’s pretty confusing in context. bucky barnes is a sniper. snipers use rifles. fury was shot outta nowhere, by a sniper, presumably with a rifle. and if you’re not a humongous gun nut, you probably don’t automatically think slug == shotgun, not rifle. nor will you know that ‘rifling’ can mean two different things.
lucky for you, i am a humongous gun nut, so i’m here to sort that out for you!
okay, for starters, shotgun barrels are, in fact, rifled. and we all know you trace a bullet by the marks the barrel’s rifling leaves on it. so how could the winter soldier’s leavings make the ballistics techs at SHIELD shrug helplessly? well, because it wasn’t a bullet, it was a slug. a shotgun slug. and in shotgun slugs, ‘rifling’ doesn’t mean the grooves in the barrel, it means the fin-like protrusions on the slug itself, like so:
that’s an american-made big game slug, and it’s got those fins to keep it twisting despite the drag of the cork back end, which acts to stabilize it with air resistance. short range, but plenty effective if you’re hunting moose.
but the winter soldier was hunting bigger game: nick fury. through a brick wall. which is why he used something more like this:
stainless steel saboted slugs. as you can see, they have no rifling – that is, no twisty fins. they rely on their forward-weighted mass for their accuracy, which is tolerably good up to about 100 meters.
there are a number of russian makers of these, going back to soviet days, but you can also easily machine your own. these don’t deform on impact, meaning they wouldn’t have great stopping power against, say, a charging polar bear – but also meaning they keep their trajectory when going through obstructions like the wall of steve’s apartment. and that plastic sabot, or boot, which makes it fit tight and grip in the barrel, flies off when fired, taking with it any identifying marks from the barrel rifling.
i don’t think we ever got to see what bucky fired these from, but it would probably have been something like this:
a russian vepr 12 shotgun, which looks a whole lot more like a rifle than a shotgun at first glance. tactical shotguns like these are popular with law enforcement for the same reason bucky used one to shoot fury – urban combat. right through the dang wall.
so there you have it. ‘russian slug, no rifling’ means bucky came loaded for bear.
like please can we just talk about how sharon’s sidearm of choice is an FNP-45 Tactical
this is a huge fucking gun, okay, it’s built for serious use and re-use and is designed for high-volume usage, it’s not only exceptionally accurate it’s also BUILT FOR USE AS A HOME PROTECTIVE WEAPON, it’s got several features that allow for quick release of the safety (aka “cocked-and-locked” aka she can lock it down WITH A ROUND CHAMBERED for safety AND incredibly quick response times)
it’s not a “lady gun” it’s not a small-caliber weapon that’s easy to conceal it’s A SPORT WEAPON WITH A PINDOT SIGHT it’s meant for people who take pride in being a good shot and intend to defend themselves at all times. it’s HEAVY and HUGE and favored by people with who have substantial history and experience with firearms.
literally by her choice of sidearm (because there’s no way a gun like that is SHIELD-issue), Sharon presents herself as a pro-active person, front-facing and aggressive, willing and able to defend herself, educated and CAPABLE AND KNOWLEDGABLE.
give me all of the boss agent Sharon you have thanks
get a load of this non-standard sidearm configuration – two small-capacity derringer pistols, both strapped at the winter soldier’s (most likely) dominant side:
top is a COP .357 Derringer pistol, chambered for four .357 Magnum cartridges – it’s a heavy, huge size for a Derringer, but it’s a solid choice for a defensive weapon, often chosen as a back-up piece for law enforcement because of its powerful cartridge
bottom looks to be an Intratec TEC-38 two-shot polymer-framed pistol, housing .38 Special cartridges – guns this size, this small of a capacity, don’t serve much purpose in distance or combat. they’re meant for close-range (contact-range/point-blank) defensive use, or as a last resort.
given this set-up, these two weapons are the winter soldier’s penultimate and final outs. the COP .357 can get off four shots, enough to take out four attackers if he’s not already disabled or trapped, but he doesn’t appear to be packing anything to reload and both these weapons are a different caliber than his other sidearms.
that 2-shot pistol, that’s the Winter Soldier’s cyanide capsule. that’s his way out – one .38 to the hollow of his jaw is his nuclear option, the one that he probably doesn’t even know is there, the one that’s simmering just below the surface of the mission that’s forced into his mind.
the winter soldier doesn’t lose; but if he did, if he could, if he was –
knitting in the dark 