In the past, I've read many stories with great openings. But the best opening I've come across recently was from the winner of the 2014 Bare Fiction Prize (Short Story). Here it is:
The mid-morning sun glinted off the barrel of Christopher's Colt as he inserted his magazine for the third time.
I honestly don't know, but if you type 'Colt pistols' into google images, you get lots of images of pistols with magazines.
Colt is a brand. There's also a distinction to be made between a revolver and a pistol. What you have above are pistols with cartridges. Colt also makes revolvers via @Daemon Wolf 's post.
'The mid-morning sun glinted off the barrel of Christopher's Colt as he inserted his magazine for the third time.'
One last pig left to be slaughtered She thought as she stood in front of the man she intended to hurt.
For a moment the world was spinning and green, and while <character> tumbled, s/he couldn't tell the turf below from the sky above. I haven't actually started drafting, but imagine it'll be something like this. Although that'll be chapter 1 and I'm considering a prologue, so maybe it doesn't count. (My $0.02, just in case @Masked Mole wants feedback: I'm aware that Colt is a brand, but understand that Samuel Colt invented the revolver, so there's a strong association there. I'd assume "a Colt" was a revolver unless specified otherwise, so the magazine reference jarred a bit for the gun's first mention. I'm a complete layperson, not a gun aficionado... but what will your target audience comprise?)
"Colt 45" brings to mind a pistol, so for me the transition from "Colt" (shortened Colt 45) to "pistol" was immediate. The context / date of the novel would provide more cues which we obviously don't get here.
Knowing the full name of the actual person who invented the revolver lifts you way above "complete layperson" in my book!
Aw shucks I think I picked it up from a pub trivia night or something? I did simplify my experience a bit - I've had limited professional ed on longarms, but I know nothing special about handguns. Agree with you about context, but for a first line there's not yet much of that, which is why it bothered me a little. It's only a very minor quibble; I just thought it the kind of alternative-perspective feedback I'd have appreciated for my own writing. Apologies for any trampled toes.
The world I knew was destroyed five years ago, my entire being crushed, pummelled into the ground and left to rot in the open air.
