Originally posted by Stilletto_Rebel:
If you are looking for shipboard weapons, you can't go wrong with pump-action shotguns with sawn-off barrels (known as 'deck-sweepers'). The best ammunition to use with these would be some sort of flechette round, or a smaller gauge shot, so as not to penetrate the hull of the vessel. The American Army developed some interesting combat shotguns in the 80's under the CAWS programme.
There are no Traveller smallarms that are likely to penetrate a ships hull. Bear in mind that it takes a 1000 point to make a meter sized home in a bulkhead, and the hull is going to be at leat that strong. It going to take something like 100 point just to make a small hole. Even a FGMP-15 can only manage 96 point max damage, and so is unlikely to hull a ship without repeat shots to the same point.
Further, the effectiveness of shotguns is generally exaggerated. At 20 feet (the typical sized room) a pattern of shot is only a few inches wide. Even cutting the barrel down doesn't increase the group size by much. I own a (registered) 10.5" Benelli 12 gauge shotgun and at 20 feet all the pellets fall into a B-21 man silhouette.
One the oither hand, the destructiveness of a 12ga. blast delivered at shoprt range is not to be underestimated. Arm and leg hits can become amputations, while shots to the head or chests are generally fatal in short order. few (equivalent tech) weapons can match the short range killing power of the shotgun.
If you are looking for a fully automatic pistol, try googling with the word 'Skorpion'. This is a fully auto snub-SMG, which is the size of a pistol. (Developed by the Russians in the 60's/70's for tank crews). Accuracy goes out of the window due to a crazy muzzle-climb and the spent cases shoot directly up into your face, which can be a little disconcerting at first! Can't remember the calibre, but it was small. A cool weapon to let rip in a closed environment. (I'm speaking from personal experience with this weapon too).
The Vz 61 Skorpion is a Czech weapon, a purely commercial venture, designed by Miroslav Ribarzh and chambered in the relatively anemic .32 ACP (known is Europe as the 7.65mm). You may be confusing it with the 9x18mm Stechkin (APS) machine pistol which was issued to Soviet tankers.
The Skorpion is an interesting weapon as it is something between a machine pistol and a submachinegun. There are a large variety of machine pistols, ranging from the Mauser C-96 derived Schnellfeuer to mdern select fire version of the Beretta 92 (93R
http://www.geocities.com/Yosemite/6144/93r.htm) and Glock-17 (Glock-18
http://remtek.com/arms/glock/model/9/18/).
In general use, machine pistols haven't proved to be too effective as they are generally too had to control for anything more than the first one or two rounds. Still, they are interesting weapons and there are a huge number of them, from tiny .22 caliber Trejos to larger weapons lke the Stechkin.
