Back to the main page

Mailing List Logs for ShadowRN

Message no. 1
From: "J.W.Thomas" <cm5323@***.AC.UK>
Subject: Guns-explained
Date: Tue, 24 May 1994 10:03:41 +0100
OK ratty,heres your answers

the Gun is a light pistol firing explosive rounds...the rest is
just image.
Glock 27=maker and model number..easy
10mm plastiqueÊlidre and propellant type..plastique rounds use
a slow burning plastic explosive detonated electrically.
(This does exist,but isn't in common use)
All ceramic frame=all internal workings are ceramic so it wount
foul as easily
polypyrole / c15 impact exploding rockshot...conductive plastic
slug with electrically detonated explosive granules in it. it
detonates when the peizoelectric tip hits something HARD.

was that so hard?

Electrothermal propellant is the new technology that the U. S.
army is trying for its next generation tankguns...IT WORKS.

Compressed air guns? you've never heard of the west german
polices gas guns? they fire heavy grain projectile at just below
the speed of sound...silent,flashless& deadly (SR = 6M )

BIZZYBAKSUN

The CHOPPER
Message no. 2
From: "S.K. Khoo" <S.K.Khoo@*********.AC.UK>
Subject: Re: Guns-explained
Date: Tue, 24 May 1994 15:01:40 +0100
Er, just one problem with your 10mm plastique Glock, Chopper - not
all the internals can be made of ceramic. Glock tried that as did Steyr with
its AUG rifles and the best that they could come up with was 80% thereabouts
plastic and even that was not put into effect because it would have been
impractical. As it is, the Steyr AUG's outter shell melts at a 100 degrees
Celcius - cute, huh ? :)

Everything else sounds plausible: plastique rounds and the lot,
although I've not heard of anything like that. As for electro-thermal
propellants, the US armed forces were looking into it in conjunction with
NASA with regards to its Strategic Defence Initiative project and you're
right - it does work ... but mostly in theory. The power requirements were
too high and it was abandoned as being too costly; I believe they only tested
the prototype gun ( it was supposed to shoot high orbital ICBMs down )
something like half a dozen times.

Heard about the West Germans and their *gas*-compressed guns -
haven't heard about an air version; anyway, short range work only and not
entirely accurate at all. It was, afterall, initially designed to fire riot
control gel slugs; still used for building assaults, though. :)
Message no. 3
From: Stainless Steel Rat <ratinox@***.NEU.EDU>
Subject: Re: Guns-explained
Date: Tue, 24 May 1994 13:22:35 -0400
>>>>> "J" == J W Thomas <cm5323@***.AC.UK> writes:

J> Electrothermal propellant is the new technology that the U. S.
J> army is trying for its next generation tankguns...IT WORKS.

It works under test conditions; this doesn't mean that it will be effective
in the field. The same can be said for HVKKWs and several other ideas being
tested.

Yes, there may be advances. Many things are being tested today. That
doesn't mean that there /will/ be advances.

Firearms in Shadowrun aren't much better than what's being fielded today,
and there are a lot of reasons for that, some intentional and some not. If
you assume a steady rate of advance from today, by 2050 a soldier will be
carrying self-guided weapons with a 99% guaranteed kill against whatever
target he selects. In a game in which combat plays a large role that
wouldn't be much fun, now would it.

\||| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |||/
== Rat <ratinox@***.neu.edu> WWW Page: http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/ratinox ==
== Guns cause crime and cars cause vehicular homicide. ==
/||| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |||\
Message no. 4
From: Chris Yang <cyang@*****.UBC.CA>
Subject: Re: Guns-explained
Date: Wed, 25 May 1994 10:28:02 -0700
On Tue, 24 May 1994, Stainless Steel Rat wrote:

> Firearms in Shadowrun aren't much better than what's being fielded today,
> and there are a lot of reasons for that, some intentional and some not. If
> you assume a steady rate of advance from today, by 2050 a soldier will be
> carrying self-guided weapons with a 99% guaranteed kill against whatever
> target he selects. In a game in which combat plays a large role that
> wouldn't be much fun, now would it.
That's not necessarily true; the Colt 1911 is still fairly state of the
art (or at least competitive) as is the Browning, both of which are over
50 years old. Eek, the 1911 is close to pushing 90 and it is STILL in
use by the marines (although I might be wrong here, I heard rumor that
some marines went back to the old .45 from the Berettas).
There really hasn't been a huge advance in technology, except for maybe
composite materials/polymer frames and more ergonomic weapons. I read
an article which stated that all of the hi-tech stuff in modern weapons
(ie Glock, Sig, Steyr, etc) were all things which were developed a LONG
time ago.
Reliable caseless ammunition and smartlinking are quantum leaps over
todays stuff. I equate a smartlink with a "laser guided tracking system"
to increase likelihood of hitting.
Hmmm, an interesting idea for armour would be something which confuses
the signature a smartlink receives, although without knowing how a smartlink
would really work, I guess we are getting on the same sort of scale as
the distortion field used by the Predator... =)

Anyway, just some random mutterings...

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Chris Yang cyang@*****.ubc.ca
University of British Columbia cyang@******.ubc.ca
Dept of Botany

Further Reading

If you enjoyed reading about Guns-explained, you may also be interested in:

Disclaimer

These messages were posted a long time ago on a mailing list far, far away. The copyright to their contents probably lies with the original authors of the individual messages, but since they were published in an electronic forum that anyone could subscribe to, and the logs were available to subscribers and most likely non-subscribers as well, it's felt that re-publishing them here is a kind of public service.

Thwap!