New pistols vs. old pistols: a writer's problem

Can you write a novel where a major scene involves something you know nothing about?

I've been contemplating a plot for a third novel. (First two as yet unpublished) and part of the plot involves handguns. This is not about good guns or bad guns, good guys or bad guys. It's about two guys who bond over target shooting -- still an innocent sport.

The problem I'm encountering is the timeline. As a kid I was into guns, for target shooting and curiosity and for all the gun allure kids love.

So the story at one point involves target shooting with what might be called "the guns of my youth": the .22, the 9 millimeter, the .45 auto. A cheap revolver, a couple of German Lugers, and a couple of 1911 Army .45s. Fine.

But, as the story progresses, guns make their appearance a second time. But time has passed. The guns of my youth are now obsolete. Time had marched on and I haven't owned a gun for close to sixty years. (Gave them all away when I went on active duty. I figured if the Army wanted me to have a gun, they'd give me one. (They did.)

So here's the problem. I want to write an incident involving guns but it's not at the beginning of the story and the guns of this period are no longer the guns of my youth.

How should I handle this?

How would you handle it?

I'm not going out and acquire a new gun collection. I can read gun magazine but this isn't going to make it very real. Can I just skip the DETAILS on the modern guns? Can I just say, "he had a gun"? I have a story I want to tell but I'm fussed if I'm personally going to get back into guns.

I was talking to a friend recently who was going big game hunting with a British .303, a gun from my youth. Maybe I can just recall enough of the smells and the spirit of shooting -- target shooting -- to wing it.

What do you think?

-- Philip Goutell

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