From:	Stainless Steel Rat ratinox@******.gweep.net
Subject:	Viper Errata
Date:	08 Mar 1999 21:43:25 -0500

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* "Robert Watkins" <robert.watkins@******.com> Mon, 08 Mar 1999
| "The Viper is a light pistol that uses heavy pistol ranges". Why does it
| use heavy pistol ranges? Because it uses heavy pistol ammo, heavy pistol
| damage codes, etc. The only thing 'light about' it is the weight and the
| concealability. Oh, and curiously enough, in the tables it's grouped with
| the heavy pistols!

I don't buy it. I once fired a Walther PPK chambered for .380 -- normally
it fires the much smaller .32ACP. Never again. The .380 was seriously
painful to fire. If someone were to chamber the PPK for .45 ACP or 9mm --
heavy handgun ammo -- it would sprain the shooter's wrist at the least.
Light handguns cannot controllably fire the large caliber rounds, and even
large frame machine pistols are almost useless without burst limiters.

The tables should group it with machine pistols. It does not. The data
was copied verbatim from SR2, and the machine pistol category added in SR3.

| Anyone else have a suggestion as to why the Viper can use heavy pistol
| ranges if it's firing the same ammo as a light pistol loaded with flechette?

Because flechettes, being more aerodynamic than solid slugs, can travel
further than solid slugs given equivalent energy.

| And I repeat: in SR1, it may have been an errata. If the same 'mistake'
| finds its way into two subsequent versions, there exists the slight
| possibility that it's meant to be that way.

And there exists greater possibility that it is a cut and paste error when
the original author of SR1 and SR2 says that the book is wrong.
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