The gauss survival weapon.

[Trent]

Hey, here's a little idea that just literally popped into my head a second ago while I was replying to another thread. Let's see what people think of it...

It would be the 20mm gauss survival weapon and it would be meant to be a surivialist type weapon that didn't need ammo. The barrel would be internally sealed and contain a "bucket" that would be used to hold improvised projectiles, either one large one or a lot of little ones. You could use rocks, broken glass, etc.

The weapons stock would have a hollow space the size of the bucket to determine of a projectile would fit. The bucket would need a flap of some type to hold "ammo" in it until it was fired.

The gun comes with a solar panel for recharging.

To use, you just hold down a load button to open the bucket, the drop in your ammo, maybe shaking it to make sure it settles in the bucket. You then fire it like a gauss shotgun or rifle, with the bucker accelerating down the barrel for like 3/4 it's total length then rapidly decelerating the last 1/4. Anything in the bucket would be flung outward at ballistic velocity.

Perfect? Of course not. Irregular projectiles would make accuracy a joke but then again a fairly round, smooth stone ought to be at least slightly accurate. Just ask the most famous Phillistine in history about that...

When you've got a 2 ton cave bear charging you, you don't need a lot of accuracy to hit it at 3 meters anyway.

There might be a guide for selecting suitable projectiles. The gun could work in the wilderness for years with proper care and treatment.

Rules would have to perhaps base accuracy and damage on the users skill at selecting useful projectiles and such, along with the malfunction chance.

One big round might drive off a large predator attacking you, a collection of smaller rounds might bring down a small game animal.

Any feedback on this idea?

 

[sabredog]

Hey, here's a little idea that just literally popped into my head a second ago while I was replying to another thread. Let's see what people think of it...

It would be the 20mm gauss survival weapon and it would be meant to be a surivialist type weapon that didn't need ammo. The barrel would be internally sealed and contain a "bucket" that would be used to hold improvised projectiles, either one large one or a lot of little ones. You could use rocks, broken glass, etc.

The weapons stock would have a hollow space the size of the bucket to determine of a projectile would fit. The bucket would need a flap of some type to hold "ammo" in it until it was fired.

The gun comes with a solar panel for recharging.

To use, you just hold down a load button to open the bucket, the drop in your ammo, maybe shaking it to make sure it settles in the bucket. You then fire it like a gauss shotgun or rifle, with the bucker accelerating down the barrel for like 3/4 it's total length then rapidly decelerating the last 1/4. Anything in the bucket would be flung outward at ballistic velocity.

Perfect? Of course not. Irregular projectiles would make accuracy a joke but then again a fairly round, smooth stone ought to be at least slightly accurate. Just ask the most famous Phillistine in history about that...

When you've got a 2 ton cave bear charging you, you don't need a lot of accuracy to hit it at 3 meters anyway.

There might be a guide for selecting suitable projectiles. The gun could work in the wilderness for years with proper care and treatment.

Rules would have to perhaps base accuracy and damage on the users skill at selecting useful projectiles and such, along with the malfunction chance.

One big round might drive off a large predator attacking you, a collection of smaller rounds might bring down a small game animal.

Any feedback on this idea?

After you shred that 2-ton bear charging you with your empty beer bottle don't you think it might squish you when it's momentum dumps it on you from 3 meters? :devil:

 

[Trent]

After you shred that 2-ton bear charging you with your empty beer bottle don't you think it might squish you when it's momentum dumps it on you from 3 meters? :devil:

Well, if you're too xxxxing dumb to sidestep instantly after firing you deserve it.

 

[sabredog]

My cat-like reflexes would have been impaired by the beer I had to drink so I could load the gun.

 

[Andrew Boulton]

I'm sure this idea came up a while ago.

 

[sam]

http://www.travellerrpg.com/CotI/Discuss/showthread.php?t=5424&highlight=tucker

This was one I started with a way old username that I was too lazy to get a new password for. It bears an eerie similarity.

 

[Gadrin]

My cat-like reflexes would have been impaired by the beer I had to drink so I could load the gun.

You're not thinking.

That's why he's attacking you in the first place, the beer.

Always bring 2 beers, then you avoid the problem.

>

 

[Trent]

http://www.travellerrpg.com/CotI/Discuss/showthread.php?t=5424&highlight=tucker

This was one I started with a way old username that I was too lazy to get a new password for. It bears an eerie similarity.

I wasn't ripping you off, I came up with it on my own.

I kinda liked the idea, and added that the GSW would have a pair of rapid release iris valves at the base of the barell and the end, one to hold ammo in the bucket and the other to seal the barell against dirt.

Someone who I respect said the idea wasn't really worth it, BTW, too inefficient and likely not as effective as some other weapons that could be built at the same tech level.

 

[sabredog]

You know, in Fallout 3 they have a widget called the Rock-it-launcher that just Macguyvers a leafblower and vacuum cleaner to make gun that shoots anything you throw in it's hopper. Teddy bears, rocks, darts, cans......

Its fun until a bear eats you because you can't drink a bottle of beer fast enough to use it as a projectile.

 

[sam]

I wasn't ripping you off, I came up with it on my own.

I kinda liked the idea, and added that the GSW would have a pair of rapid release iris valves at the base of the barell and the end, one to hold ammo in the bucket and the other to seal the barell against dirt.

Someone who I respect said the idea wasn't really worth it, BTW, too inefficient and likely not as effective as some other weapons that could be built at the same tech level.

This is not in doubt, I was more responding to Andrew in that he said it had come up in past. In any case great minds and all that...

 

[abomination]

I like it, but won't solar cells take an age to recharge it?

 

[Liam R]

I like it, but won't solar cells take an age to recharge it?

Don't miss...

 

[veltyen]

I like it, but won't solar cells take an age to recharge it?

Yes, on the other hand you could have a battery that could charge a lot (say 20) of shots ready to go.

Leave it out in the sun for a week, and then get ready to go. Only when you use it would you need to charge it up again.

Might want to have a multiple use aspect. Torch? Firelighter? Signalling flare?

As a counter arguement, maybe just a good old speargun with hightech semi-indestructible spears would be a more useful item?

 

[epicenter00]

Interesting, I guess there really are no original thoughts under the sun.

I had an idea like this some decades back for another sci-fi system. I referred to it as a "garbage rifle" (since you could shoot whatever would fit into the barrel out of it). However, after a point, I realized that the EM railgun effect might not work so well with stuff that wasn't very magnetic so I switched the concept of the rifle to a "gravitic" accelerator, perhaps in Traveller terms, like a TL14 or TL15 device.

The "weapon" wouldn't really be able to shoot anything at a high enough velocity to penetrate body armor, the range and accuracy would be poor, and so on. I remember writing a blurb that thought the weapon was meant as "survival" weapon, it was also very popular amongst troops who used it as an improvised method to throw standard hand grenades further. (Of course, it also had my "stuck in the modern day" thinking, assuming that people would still be using hand grenades at TL14. My troops would no doubt still be riding gravitic-powered horses because of my lack of imagination too, I guess.)

My idea for the weapon was that it was meant as a survival weapon, so the solar panels would be underneath a clear shock-resistant casing of the weapon, so you could just leave it out in the sun to recharge it. It would also have a tiny "dynamo" in it (these days, I'd call it an inertial recharger) that allow the weapon to recharge simply by being shaken - ie; it'd recharge through the process of being carried around or jostled about, in addition for a provision for thermal-differential recharging - just being held close to a body in a cooler surrounding.

Mind you, such a "survival" device would cost so much it'd be some ridiculous Pork Barrel project for the military and probably would never work right and by the time you could get all the technologies to mesh, the technology would probably exist to allow human beings to run at like 100kph and punch through walls without help from outside devices or something).

 

[far-trader]

You kids and your fancy survival Ipod gun gadgets :nonono:

And what do you do when it's cloudy? Go for a jog in the rain and mud to charge up? At least epicenter has added some extra methods or charging it up Though on the down-side they add complications, expense, and weight.

Seriously though, while not a great concept (unworkable but those are just engineering problems, expensive but that's just a marketing problem) it fails in one major way for me. It's Flash. High Tech for the sake of High Tech. If what you are looking for is a survival rifle. Something to kill small game to eat (presuming the world has edible wildlife that won't kill you instead) you want to keep it simple.

It's hard to beat a basic slug thrower. A carbine, or pistol with stock attachment. Cheap, light, proven, everyone knows how it works.

Or even a compressed air rifle and pellets. Want to shoot something? Just pump up the cylinder and you're good to go. You can even recover your pellets and reuse them, unlike the basic slug thrower and it's chemically propelled rounds.

Survival is not going to be about killing a charging bear. It's going to be about avoiding the bear in the first place. Or waiting until it's eaten it's full of what it's killed and when it leaves you get in for the leftovers using your survival rifle if other scavengers object.

 

[Zutroi]

SNIP
It's hard to beat a basic slug thrower. A carbine, or pistol with stock attachment. Cheap, light, proven, everyone knows how it works.

Or even a compressed air rifle and pellets. Want to shoot something? Just pump up the cylinder and you're good to go. You can even recover your pellets and reuse them, unlike the basic slug thrower and it's chemically propelled rounds.

SNIP

A bolt would be easier to locate and reuse than a pellet... maybe a cross between a crossbow and a spear gun?

 

[veltyen]

A bolt would be easier to locate and reuse than a pellet... maybe a cross between a crossbow and a spear gun?

Spear gun has the advantage of linearity.

If you want retreivable (and for small game hunting) a fishing bow attachment to a spear gun would be a winner.

 

[far-trader]

Fair points for a spear/dart/bolt I'll grant. But they require more mass, meaning less range and/or penetration (damage) generally.

The fishing bow idea is neat. Maybe as an accessory for the survival rifle. Though bow fishing is tricky (angle of incidence reflection - iirc the terminology - on the water surface throwing off aim unless compensated for - not a natural thing) and of course requires water to hunt in. Probably better off with a simple fishing line kit or net. Lighter, simpler, vastly more reusable, generally.

 

[veltyen]

Fair points for a spear/dart/bolt I'll grant. But they require more mass, meaning less range and/or penetration (damage) generally.

The fishing bow idea is neat. Maybe as an accessory for the survival rifle. Though bow fishing is tricky (angle of incidence reflection - iirc the terminology - on the water surface throwing off aim unless compensated for - not a natural thing) and of course requires water to hunt in. Probably better off with a simple fishing line kit or net. Lighter, simpler, vastly more reusable, generally.

I was actually thinking of the line more for fishing your limited supply of spears out of trees, out of rivers, up cliffs and so on.

The other advantage of using a larger projectile is that you can go for sharp rather then fast, and reusable rather then expendable. Taking us full circle back to a weapon that can fire anything.

 

[Brian Smaller]

I thought a gaus weapon used magnetic coils to accelerate the round. Last time I looked glass and most rocks were not magnetic. Am I missing something.