Re: Gun/Military Thread

[Harmony Ltd.]

The only problem with laser weapons is the energy storage.

They say that any mean able to store enough energy to shoot a laser would make a good explosive on its own.

I just want to point out that when you're shooting a normal gun you're already handling literal explosives.

The only challenge with laser weapons is how to channel the energy in case of accidental release to avoid the shooter getting its arm blasted off. Armoring the bat-pack, putting pressure valves and having a gas channel outputting the released gases from the shooty end of the gun seems like the obvious solution...

[Harmony Ltd.]

Hmmm... cartridges of hydrogen gas under high pressure... with a little fuel cell into the gun...

You'd need supercapacitors in the gun to store the energy for the shots... but they lose charge rapidly. So if you release the safety and "load" a shot, whether you shot it or not the energy is lost... Hmmm... not exactly a design flaw but that would require additional training...

That would also put a hard limit on the rate-of-fire... Hmm... Unless... unless you over-dimensioned the fuel-cell.

Man this is is starting to be an heavy gun... Unless... Yeah, you don't need to have it made of heavy metals, there's no risk of it blowing under the pressure of expanding gases like a normal gun- well, apart from the cartridge of hydrogen. You could use plastic and carbon fiber...

It's still going to be big and short-ranged, though... We can only hope it has enough punch to put any target in a state of shock. Well, at least it should blind them. If they aren't wearing the mandatory eye-protection glasses at least...

That could be a problem, though, the Geneva convention specifically forbid blinding weapons... No, weapons designed solely to blind - their primary use here would be to incapacitate or kill.

[Frost]

It's still not quite worth it compared to a normal gun for now

[Harmony Ltd.]

No, that's true. That's why I was more thinking of a less-lethal weapon to incapacitate targets rather than a full blown weapon system designed to effectively kill people.

I could see it as a tool for law enforcement. Then these shades would serve a real purpose.


Now, in twenty years, with the kind of progress we're making in the domain of energy storage... that'd be another story entirely.

[Frost]

In the meantime, though....we have tasers

[Harmony Ltd.]

Yeah. Only problem is they are single shot, and it takes time to reload if you missed.


I have heard stories of people developing a gun that use lasers to ionize the air to serve as "cables" for a taser-like mechanism. Though I don't know how effective it is : the taser has the advantage of planting its electrodes into the epidermis of the target to ensure good electrical contact.

With that kind of laser-ionized-air mechanism, if you wear clothes and unless the electrical discharge is really powerful you could relatively easily protect yourself from the effects. And if the electrical discharge is powerful enough to harm someone with clothes on, then it's probably enough to do more than just "incapacitate" them.

And shooting lasers at people's faces doesn't strike me as the best idea...

[Harmony Ltd.]

Now, the advantage of those shooty laser thingies, is that they act as some kind of flashbang device : when the impulse ray vaporize parts of their clothes and / or flesh in a bright flash of light, smoke and sound, this could confuse targets enough to give you an opening.

[Guest]

Anyone ever shoot a 10mm pistol? I'm
looking into getting one since it's the .357 Magnum for semi-autos
(though I have heard it has more energy at 50 yards than the magnum). My
next step would be to get a 10mm carbine.

If you're looking for 10mm pistol, the best you could do is something that fires .40S&W since it's easier to find those rounds and it's variant of the 10mm

Does there exist submachineguns chambered in 10mm auto ?

Yes, the MP5 has a variant that fires 10mm rounds.

[Frost]

Yeah. Only problem is they are single shot, and it takes time to reload if you missed.


I have heard stories of people developing a gun that use lasers to ionize the air to serve as "cables" for a taser-like mechanism. Though I don't know how effective it is : the taser has the advantage of planting its electrodes into the epidermis of the target to ensure good electrical contact.

With that kind of laser-ionized-air mechanism, if you wear clothes and unless the electrical discharge is really powerful you could relatively easily protect yourself from the effects. And if the electrical discharge is powerful enough to harm someone with clothes on, then it's probably enough to do more than just "incapacitate" them.

And shooting lasers at people's faces doesn't strike me as the best idea...

Thing is, the taser is proven and used in the field to take down the targe the vast majority of the time. This new pulse laser gun is really not much more than an expensive, high-tech pellet-gun/flashlight

[Harmony Ltd.]

Oh, I agree with you that that laser taser would be most inneficient.

At this point, laser weapons would only be novelty toys for people with more money than sense.

It's a good thing no major manufacturer build them yet or this could cause lasting damage to the technology's reputation.


Now, on the other hand, if you can build a laser that can deliver on target the same energy of a 44. magnum (in the frm of heat rather than kinetic impact, though), with the rate of fire of a 9mm semi-auto, no recoil and enough battery for fifty shots... I think you could start to convince a number of people of the advantages of the laser guns.


The only annoying thing would be having to wear protective glasses to avoid getting accidentally blinded by reflections of your own laser on some surfaces.

[Frost]

Plus, due to the general lack of moving parts and increasingly cheap, modular and durable components, laser guns would eventually be cheaper, longer-lastig and easier to maintain than guns. A civilian market would allow users to buy their own frames, lens arrays, ect ect ect.

Plus, a laser weapon would lend itself to addition of accessories even easier than conventional firearms

[Ironmonger]

@Guard

I'm considering the .40 S&W, but I'm on the fence about it. The 10mm would be good for both home and predator defense, and handgun hunting if I ever get into that.

[Harmony Ltd.]

Hunting ? What are you going to hunt in Cincinnati ? Bad mannered people ?

[Guest]

The .40 would be easier to find ammo for and works very well for home protection and predators, well some anyways. If you are handgun hunting I'd recommend a .44 magnum it'll keep you safe from pretty much anything. Except a grizzly, but if you meet one of those I hope you brought lube since you're probably gonna end up with your gun up your ass.

[Ironmonger]

@Harmony

...Perhaps. Seriously, though, I actually live in a town close to the countryside, but it's still considered the Cincinnati area.

@Guard

I'll do some research on it. The .40 is just one of those things I feel odd about.

[Frost]

Hunting ? What are you going to hunt in Cincinnati ? Bad mannered people ?

I get the feeling my response to this might make Robo and Camo mad

[Harmony Ltd.]

Ammo hard to find ?

Can't you just buy it in bulk through the internet and get it shipped by the USPS / UPS / FedEx ?

It seems price-per-unit would be a better question to ask oneself. At least from the point of view of someone who never shot a real gun.

[Ironmonger]

The ammo shouldn't be too much of an expense since I wouldn't be shooting it all the time like I would a .22 or 9mm. The 10mm would be a good multiple-role pistol with advantages over a revolver, and the gun would likely be cheaper.

Edit: yeah ammo can be shipped.

[Frost]

Ammo hard to find ?

Can't you just buy it in bulk through the internet and get it shipped by the USPS / UPS / FedEx ?

It seems price-per-unit would be a better question to ask oneself. At least from the point of view of someone who never shot a real gun.

A process that will compound the already-expensive price of the ammo, and give you long waiting times, and you're kind of in a shithole if your normal supplier's out of stock. As opposed to the more common calibers, where you can just run to Walmart and buy them

[Harmony Ltd.]

Of course.

But then you could just go to several shops & stock a few thousand cartridges in your safe. That would solve the problem.

[Guest]

Not only what Frost said, but with recently laws that have been passed it's hard to even get common calibers at Wal-mart and some places online are completely out of stock.

[Aonee]

Mmmm, a few thousand? That's actually pretty easy to go through. When my family and I go to the range, we can go through 2-300 bullets of .22LR., and that's only about an hour of shooting, with other calipers being shot as well.

[Harmony Ltd.]

Well, I figure that getting more ammos would require you to have a far bigger safe than what people normally have.

And I suppose also that ordering too much ammos in bulk might have the unintended effect of attracting the attention of the authorities.


On the other hand, I don't think you're supposed to go through large-caliber handgun rounds like you do with .22 LR.

[Ironmonger]

Here's something fun.

That design might show up in a certain story, as well as in an RPG.

[Harmony Ltd.]

What exactly am I looking at ? A re-design of the 1911 to make it high-capacity ? And apart from that ?

[Ironmonger]

Those pistols are supposed to be very high quality as well, but yes, it's a redesigned 1911. A respectable upgrade that's fuck-off expensive.

[Harmony Ltd.]

It'd be funny to see how a gun designed from the ground up to use space-age materials (titanium, carbon, lightweight plastic, etc...) would look.

With caseless handgun cartridges

[Frost]

It'd be funny to see how a gun designed from the ground up to use space-age materials (titanium, carbon, lightweight plastic, etc...) would look.

With caseless handgun cartridges

So... Glocks? FNP's? XDM's?

[Harmony Ltd.]

Titanium or GTFO

(jk)


The important clause was caseless. Apparently caseless was the big "sci-fi" thing in the 80's and 90's.

[Frost]

They've tried it in IRL a great deal. Still nowhere near as practical as conventional rounds

[Sponsored content]