CT Only: Traveller Tech Levels

[atpollard]

Without hitting the googles I'm pretty sure a rifle is something with a rifled barrel. So, it's a shotgun with a rifled slug, but that doesn't make it a rifle.

A .22 caliber shooting a shot shell is still a rifle even though it doesn't affect the shot payload. A rifle with a shot shell.

And I don't even want to dip toes into the "Well Mr. Smartypants, what's about a pistol? They have rifled barrels, are they rifles too?"

I thought he was suggesting rifling the barrel to improve the accuracy of the "12 gauge slug" (which it would). Rifled slugs in a smoothbore barrel are legit. Technically, micro-groves in a barrel may be "Legal" under US BATF rules (depending on the winds of interpretation) ... but that seems cheating to me and spin generally NERFS shot patterns with small pellets from what I read.

 

[Condottiere]

I was thinking about rifling the barrel, for the slug.

Shell could be sabotted, though that would require likely an additional secondary charge to get the dart to an appropriate velocity.

Though if it's guided, plus high explosive, speed won't be that much of an issue.

 

[Grav_Moped]

I can see use for "m-drive" based recoil compensation, because in canon (no pun intended) m-drives do not involve reaction mass*, and thus do not pose a hazard to the weapon operator or personnel to their rear. This is quite different from how recoilless rifles and rocket-based projectiles work.

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*Heplar and LBB2'77 and LBB5'79 excluded. Also, depending on the edition, grav drives don't generate much thrust; instead, they provide for levitation and only token lateral thrust -- hence specifying the mechanism of m-drives.

 

[mike wightman]

If m-drive technology can be reduced in size sufficiently to be used as recoil compensation then I can think of a lot more uses for those micro m-drives.

 

[mike wightman]

I was thinking about rifling the barrel, for the slug.

Then it is a rifle not a shotgun.

Shell could be sabotted, though that would require likely an additional secondary charge to get the dart to an appropriate velocity.

This has a lot more potential if you want to maintain the shotgun as a smooth bore.

Though if it's guided, plus high explosive, speed won't be that much of an issue.

Depends how fast you can get the projectile moving, the biggest issue is it dumping its energy into the target rather than just passing through...

 

[Grav_Moped]

If m-drive technology can be reduced in size sufficiently to be used as recoil compensation then I can think of a lot more uses for those micro m-drives.

Depends on the specific technobabble implemenation, but yes.

 

[PapaGolfWhiskey]

Not following the game origins in GB part.

The game originated in the US Midwest and always had law levels.

Huh. Maybe I misinterpreted it's popularity and publishing history as origin. Apologies, I stand corrected.

I still wonder if when determining law level they were using England as an example because it DOES seem like shotguns will be the last firearm to be banned there.

 

[Condottiere]

That's likely a pragmatic approach to allowing guns for farmers and shooting enthusiasts.

I think the rules were tightened after their last mass shooting.

 

[mike wightman]

Why would you shoot enthusiasts?

The last mass shooting that wasn't terrorism related involved a shotgun.

There have been a lot more killed with knives than mass shootings.

 

[Black Vulmea]

How about experimental air/rafts at TL7?

I believe that's being worked on . . .

 

[Condottiere]

Health and safety violations, I'd say.

 

[casquilho]

Health and safety violations, I'd say.

What do you mean? He has a helmet on.

 

[bookwyrm]

I believe that's being worked on . . .

View attachment 5727

I really want to see that fly! Even if it's only a few inches off of the ground for a few seconds.

Wouldn't want to see it get broken. In the movie was good enough!

 

[Enoki]

Recoil is recoil. KE is KE.

TL3 = Blunderbuss
TL4 = Double Barrel Coach Gun
TL5 = Pump Action Trench Gun
TODAY = Semi-Auto Shougun / Full-Auto Shotgun

Ammo has made some improvements and Actions (loading) has made significant improvement, but MARINES have employed roughly the same Ammo at roughly the same KE for hundreds of years because it does the job well.

Ammunition is where almost all of the significant changes have happened with smoothbores.

Going from loose powder, wad, and ball to self-contained cartridges
Different loads giving better lethality--from slugs to variable ball size and number
Specialized ammunition types like:
Case--originally cut shells, but now a sort of shrapnel round that goes out as a slug and then breaks open scattering shot at the target end.
Flammable--like "Dragon's Breath" using flammable metals ignited on firing
HE--in various forms turning the shotgun / smoothbore into a grenade launcher or small anti-armor weapon.

I could see guided and other 'intelligent' rounds being developed in the future for use with these weapons. By something like TL10 to 11 I'd say they could be launchers for tiny, guided missiles. I could envision something like that for even a bow or crossbow.

It wouldn't be the weapon that would be controlled by law so much as the ammunition. So, you could have the shotgun, but you couldn't possess things like high explosive guided rounds for it, or ones where the shot was some sort of quick acting poison or whatever. That stuff could easily be illegal on a world where shotguns are otherwise allowed.