Scan Issues

Yesterday, The Beast decided that the left front speed sensor was absent and turned on the ABS and Stabilitrak lights.

The $410 Topdon Artidiag Pro scanner we got just for such occasions did not tell me this.  It told me the engine and transmission modules reported no codes. 

The old BlueDriver bluetooth code reader told me it was the LF speed sensor, but wouldn't clear the code.

The old Innova scanner cleared the code.

Tonight I decided to see WHY the Topdon wouldn't read the car.

Ran the updates, tried to scan, no joy except for the engine and transmission.

It turns out that I need to tell the scanner to scan for Holden (Australia), 2012, VE/WM Series and it can suddenly see the other modules!

Good to know.

It's possible that this is my fault by enabling BCM features not normally on a US spec car with OBDSynch, so now the BCM thinks it's from the land of Oz. 

Waiting For It To Take Effect

Watch this video:

This is excellent news.

It also eliminates the last vestige of utility for Florida's conceal carry permit.

You won't need it to carry in state and there won't be a waiting period for it to bypass.

You might still need it for travel to other states, but as more and more of them become constitutional carry, you won't need any permit to travel to any of them.

And the places that aren't constitutional carry are the most likely places to have zero reciprocity; so the permit doesn't help anyway. 

It's What Happens

Most rational people aren't racist.

They really believe that you shouldn't punish groups for the crimes of individuals.

But when the police refuse to punish an individual because they are a member of a group, rational people start to become mistrustful of that group.

This is not because the group, as a whole, is bad; it's because they know that a small number of the members of that group will realize they can commit, virtually, any crime with impunity.

So they become rationally racist.  The rational part is what distinguishes them from bigots.  Bigotry is irrational racism.  It's both simple and difficult to tell the two apart.

A corollary to the cops not enforcing the law, when the members of a protected group commit the crimes, is the rise of vigilantism.

Measures to put distance on the protected group become notable. 

The law needs to be colorblind, and what matters is the crime not the demographics of the perpetrator.

Otherwise the people will reclaim the power they delegated to the police and decline to recognize the legislation promulgated in their name by politicians they'd previously delegated to represent them. 

Then it won't be a republic any more. 

Impulse Buy

Harvey has complained about her grip strength since she went bionic.

Because she's hit the wall in improving her shooting, we decided to rent a gun designed for people with bad grip strength.

The S&W Equalizer!

It's like a Shield Plus and an M&P EZ had a baby.  Even uses the Shield Plus magazines that I already have stacked deep for my pocket gun.

She liked it well enough that she decided we could pay interest on the credit card for it.

In GURPS terms it's identical to the M&P 2.0 9mm Compact it replaces, except for being 1.8 lb. loaded instead of 2 lb.  Same 15 round capacity.

Another plus is it fits slightly better in her purse's gun compartment.

It came with a 10-rounder, 13-rounder and 15-rounder and an UpLula.  You need that UpLula to get all 15 rounds into the big mag.

Thanks to the Shield Plus, we have a lot of the 13 rounders around already, gonna have to get some more of the 15 shot mags.

She didn't shoot the rental any worse than the M&P 2.0 9mm Compact she's been carrying; but she was much better with manipulating the slide.  She gushed about that.

One oddity was the slide lock is insanely hard to push down to let it slide home.

I'd have never noticed because I slingshot the slide, but she's been using it to release the slide on all of her pistols since she started learning to shoot.

Should be easy for her to adapt.

D+ 29,950

82 years ago, the landings for D-Day, Operation Neptune, began.

On a single day, more than four thousand Allied troops killed and more than 10,000 wounded.

Bang-bang Bang

Took the .38 Super Gov't Model out today.

Such a honey!

Of course, that means Mozambique drills!

The nine shot magazine capacity is a natural for these drills too!

I do not regret getting this pistol in the slightest.

Even if the hammer bites me.

New Book New Stats

Now that I have Gun Stats instead of what Douglas Cole developed for damage and I kludged for range...

More information about the rounds themselves has come to light as well. 

Oh, and if you have $2500 laying around you can just BUY XM1168 ammo from SIG in 920 round crates.  Use the M250 damage and range stats for firing from your MCX Spear. 

Gun Stats doesn't offer the +P Extra Powerful modification to the rounds because you enter the performance directly, but I kept the 1.5 cost modifier from High Tech.

Commercial 135gr loads from a 16" barrel: 

.277 Fury 6d+2 pi, 1,190/5,000.  G$1, 0.043 lb. per round.

.277 Fury Match 6d+2 pi, 1,190/5,000, +1 to Acc.  G$1.25 per round.

.277 Fury Match HP 6d+2(0.5) pi+, 1,190/5,000, +1 to Acc.  G$1.25 round.

.277 Fury Hybrid Match +P 7d+1 pi, 1,300/5,500, +1 to Acc.  G$1.88 per round.

.277 Fury Hybrid Match HP +P 7d+1(0.5) pi+, 1,300/5,500, +1 to Acc.  G$1.88 round.

In the M7 rifle you get: 

6.8x51mm XM1168 AP 4d+2(2) pi-, 970/4,100.  G$2.25 per round.

6.8x51mm XM1184 APHC Match 6d+2(2) pi-, 970/4,100, +1 to Acc.  G$3.75 per round.

6.8x51mm XM1186 AP Match 4d+2(2) pi-, 970/4,100.  +1 to Acc.  G$2.81 per round.

6.8x51mm XM1188 Reduced Range AP 4d+1(2) pi-, 880/3,700.  G$1.5 per round.

In the M250 LMG you get: 

6.8x51mm XM1168 AP 5d(2) pi-, 1,040/4,400.  G$2.25 per round.

6.8x51mm XM1184 APHC Match 7d(2) pi-, 1,040/4,400.  +1 to Acc.  G$3.75 per round.

6.8x51mm XM1186 AP Match 5d(2) pi-, 1,040/4,400.  +1 to Acc  G$2.81 per round.

6.8x51mm XM1188 Reduced Range AP 4d+1(2) pi-, 930/3,900.  G$1.5 per round.

These rounds appear to have been abandoned, but I've included updated stats for the M7 anyways. 

6.8x51mm XM1169 AP Match 4d+2(2) pi-, 970/4,100.  +1 to Acc.  G$2.81 per round.

6.8x51mm XM1170 APHC 6d+2(2) pi-, 970/4,100.  G$3 per round.

6.8x51mm XM1184A1 APDU 8d(2) pi- inc, 970/4,100.  G$3.83 per round.

6.8x51mm Aeroshell SLAP APDS 10d(2) pi-, 1,460/6,150.  G$4.50 per round.

6.8x51mm HAPI API AP Incendiary 4d+2(2) pi- inc, 970/4,100.  G$2.50 per round.

6.8x51mm NM142 HEIAP:  APHEX Incendiary 4d+2(2) pi- inc follow-up 1d-3 cr ex, 970/4,100.  G$5.25 per round.

6d+2 pi will do an average of 23 points of damage.  This will almost penetrate NIJ III armor.

4d+2(2) pi- will do an average of 16 points of damage.  This will almost penetrate NIJ IV armor.

5d(2) pi- will do an average of 17.5 points of damage.  This is the damage that NIJ IV is designed to stop and it stops it exactly!

6d+2(2) pi- will do an average of 23 points of damage and handily penetrates NIJ IV armor with 6 penetrating for 3 points of damage to the target. 

7d(2) pi- will do an average of 24.5 points of damage and handily penetrates NIJ IV armor with 7.5 penetrating for 3 points of damage to the target.  Rounding sucks!

Cross Purpose Compromise

The answer is always, "More Dakka."

But how much?

Infantry rifle selection is a compromise.

On one hand you want the round it fires to go out as far as possible and hit hard when it gets there.

On the other, you want to carry a lot of rounds.

On the gripping hand, almost every round you fire isn't hitting the enemy.

You can see these three hands going on with the M7 selection and the decision to use an electronic wonder optic:  "What if almost every round DID hit?  Then the reduction in rounds carried doesn't matter so much!"

The digital optic is supposed to make every round be the round with someone's name on it. 

Except, suppressive fire is sending rounds downrange with all the rounds labeled, "to whom it may concern."

If you can get the enemy to keep their head down while you're carefully aiming, it's a lot easier to carefully aim.

None of that is new.

But if you're going to take away 1/3 of the ammo, you have to teach the troops different suppression schedules.  They're not gonna learn that without doing some shooting in training...

Which brings us to something that a lot of shooters already know viscerally.

That bigger round is more expensive.

So getting training where rounds are expended will be more expensive.

Units in the Reagan Largesse were deferring live fire for budgetary reasons when 7.62 was a dime a shot, not a buck.  6.8x51mm is a LOT more than a dollar a round for the, lower powered, training ammo; and budgets are tighter.

So we've adopted a more expensive, and heavier, "rifle"; that uses very expensive, and heavier, ammunition; that's dependent on a very expensive, and cantankerous, optic; and all that requires more live fire training to learn how to use it because it's so very different from the weapon it replaces.

Americans, traditionally, are good at learning WARRE on the fly.

Yaay? 

By the way, there's nothing about that whiz-bang computerized optic that couldn't be applied to 5.56.

The entire justification for the 6.8x51mm round is to be able to punch our own body armor and we appear to be the only nation issuing such armor at scale.  What makes the 6.8x51mm round so damned expensive is using a 13" barrel because we're insisting on every infantryman carrying a suppressed rifle and trying to keep the overall length manageable.

It's 3" longer than the M4, and 3" shorter than the M16A2.  Winning?

I can't help but think that if we're going to insist on .270 Winchester performance, it'd have been simpler to just skip the suppressor and hang a 20" barrel out front and have $1.28 a round ammo instead of $2.60 a shot; because that bullet can be loaded into a conventional brass case at normal chamber pressures too.

That $2.60 a shot is 3,200 fps from a 16" barrel, not sure if that's the same cartridge that does 3,000 fps from a 13" barrel. 

I Think Most Of My Traffic Is Fake

Here's a screenshot of the search words that lead to the blog:

Yes, a person typed in those search terms... 

Furry Alarm Clock

Construction across the street began at 0700.

I could sleep through it if, someone, had not decided that she needed to meow in my ear right after the construction noise began.

Shadow, in case you did not know, does not have a snooze button. 

I Think I Found The Exemplar

Plugging the, surprisingly hard to find, dimensions for Cartridge, .30 calibre, ball, M1906 and Cartridge, .30 caliber, ball, M1 into the Gun Stats formula gets different results.

I stopped rounding the length to diameter ratio... 

M1906 gets 7d pi, 890/3,700
M1 gets 7d+1 pi, 1,190/5,000
M2 gets 7d+1 pi,  920/3,900

M1 is a lot closer to the original published stats of 7d+1 pi, 1,100/4,500.

UPDATE 

Remington Core-Lokt comes to 7d+1(0.5) pi+, 1,050/4,400.  If this is typical of sporting rounds, the FMJ version is the exemplar round. 

Being able to find a real round that mimics the published stats means that I will be able to allow stats generated with this book to be used in my game while still using the published numbers...  With a lot of exceptions because I think that Pulp and Adventure Guns supplements are suspect.  Those are fairly obscure, so I don't think they'll come up much.

I also think that giving round nose, heavy, bullets 80% the range and taking away the +1 to Acc from the Da for longer rounds. 

I'll Get Right On That

I made the mistake of noticing that M1903 ball outranges M2 ball using GURPS: Gun Stats on the SJ Forum.

I have been taken to task for not citing my sources and allegedly using the bullet manufacturer's stats for ammunition.

Bitch, please.

The bullet makers don't publish the length of their projectiles anywhere I've found.

Gun geeks do.

But I have books with Army test data listed.  Books that I didn't bother getting out again because I don't really feel like I need to defend my doctoral thesis on a game forum when I don't even get a degree from it.

Besides, do I really need to cite specific tests when, no shit, the entire world abandoned round nose bullets for spitzer rounds in a very short time frame?

The US, after spending all that time stealing adapting the Mauser design to our way of doing things and chambering it for what amounted to a +P version of the M1892 ball, abandoned the M1903 ball round and rechambered EVERYTHING in M1906 ball.

The .30-03 and .30-06 are not interchangeable rounds either.

This was on top of having just reworked all the rifles in inventory to accept a real bayonet just the year before.

The ever frugal US Army wouldn't have proceeded on a change of cartridge and rechambering their rifles if the performance improvement wasn't blatantly obvious.

As I said, when the French secret was out, nobody said, "we'll just stick with the proven, heavier, round-nose bullets."

That's a big enough indicator that we don't need to dig up obscure Army test data and cite the exact weather conditions of the tests.

Another clue is nobody makes round-nose rounds for cartridges that don't use a tube magazine outside a few historical freaks doing recreations of period pieces. 

PS: GURPS has official stats for the Balle M, D and N with various time period versions of the Lebel!

Balle M (1886) is from Adventure Guns with 6d+2 pi, 800/3,300.
Balle D (1898) is from Pulp Guns with 6d+2 pi, 1,000/4,200.
Balle N (1932) is from High Tech with 6d pi, 900/3,900.

Balle M is a flat-nosed round, Balle D is the spitzer.  Balle N serves as an example of what happens when you make the bullet heavier, but can't increase the chamber pressure so you lose velocity because you also lost case capacity with that longer bullet intruding into the case further; but notice it still outperforms Balle M on range!

It's from wikipedia, but it's a handy comparison:

Gun Stats doesn't account for the difference in ballistic coefficient between round nose and spitzer, and boat-tails. 

Like They Was Human Or Somethin'

The history of pre-Columbian America is the history of war.

Pre-history of war?

History because we have the oral accounts of many of the tribes/nations of the American Indian.  Oral history that turned out to be more accurate than US accounts in several case, not least of which was The Battle of the Greasy Grass, where the oral traditions were vindicated when an actual forensic analysis of the battlefield was done.

But the history of the North American Indian is one of conflict, conquest and war.

Brace yourself.

The history of the European White Man is one of conflict, conquest and war.

Speak the wrong language?

Worship the wrong God?

Worship the right God the wrong way?

Live next to a valuable resource?

Look sideways at the wrong person?

WAR!

The only difference between the conquest of the west by the USA and the wars between the Indians was the US was far better equipped and organized.  Also, the US wasn't using a hunter-gatherer model for logistics.

The pros entered the chat in the economic depression following the Civil War and the amateurs used their superior tactics and knowledge of the terrain to lose against overwhelming numbers and Victorian era logistics.

There's account after account of the tribes trying to come to grips with what was happening and coming after them.

The white man was countless to them.  A clear, decisive victory over a white settlement didn't lead to a year's respite, it led to reprisals withing a week.

Western Civ does war as if it has never done anything else, you piss it off at your peril.

What happened is not evil, it's just what happens when two incompatible civilizations rub against each other.

Yes I said, civilizations.

The Indians were very civilized by their own rules and moral after their own way.

That doesn't matter.

Rephrasing The Problem Sometimes Helps

Wind and solar are what you put up with for energy production when you don't have gas, oil and nuclear power.

It's not an alternative until it's a replacement, and it will never be able to replace them. 

But Wait! There's More!

Remember when I said the window on the PMAG25 SR/LR W was useless because it wasn't numbered?

In the process of taking pictures to see what showed in the window every five rounds, I noticed:

They're very faint.

For the record:

0-rounds:

5-rounds:

10-rounds:

15-rounds:  No number for the orange coil to point at, but the bottom round lines up with a dot in the window.

20-rounds:

25-rounds:  Again no number for the coil to point at, because the coils are below the window, but the bottom round is lined up with a dot in the window.

Bigger In Every Way

 

I was surprised to find that the new 25-rounder was longer than a 30-rounder.

The PMAG25 SR/LR gets you 25 shots for 1.8 lb.

The PMAG30 AR gets you 30 shots for 1.1 lb.

7d, assuming they all hit, for 25 rounds is 612.5 points on average.

5d, same assumption, for 30 rounds is 525 points on average.

1.17x the damage for 1.64x the weight.

That's just the ammo!

The rifle is 50% heavier too!

Of course, the deer (and the floppie) can tell the difference.

FIRE!

Today the burn ban in our area has been lifted as we FINALLY got enough rain to make a dent in the drought!

Happy dance.

The Power Of Immigrant Labor

Yesterday I got to hear what construction workers say in Spanish while they turn pallets of cinder blocks into the walls of a house.

Sunday there were pallets of cinder blocks.

By 4pm Monday, there was all four walls with openings for windows and doors.  Harvey reports they had not yet shown up at 6:30am when she walked up to her parents to start her day.

I am impressed with the speed and lack of noise.

I am excited that my hood is about to gentrify!

Property Taxes

Harvey found an article saying that Governor DeSantis' proposed change to the homestead tax exemption from $50k to $250k, with a slow increase to $500k amounts to a sop to the "ultra-wealthy," whom would be the only beneficiaries.

I am shocked to find I am part of the ultra-wealthy, because I will most certainly benefit from this increase in the exemption.

Facebook is full of Democrat politicians and spokespeople decrying the tax breaks, warning that this will lead to numerous programs being defunded.

Interestingly they don't name which programs, they just imply that it's something that I care about.

I don't think they are correct about that when the governor has repeatedly stated that he wants to make sure that core duties are funded, like roads and infrastructure.

I care about those.

I think that the scare tactic doesn't name the programs threatened by a reduction in funds because they know that many, perhaps most, people will say something like, "we were paying for that with our taxes?  No, I think we can do without it."

And, as always, if there's a program you feel that people cannot do without, there's nothing from stopping you from forming a non-profit to provide that program and collecting funding from donations from like-minded individuals.

Rather than taking the money from them under false pretenses under the threat of property confiscation. 

Finally!

Sarco has been out of stock of their repop trench knife scabbards for... as long as I've known about them.

Aesop is the one who gets credit for finding that Sarco had them.

The other day I was searching for something else and got reminded they existed, so I checked the web page.  They were in stock and I ordered one!

With laser engraved markings, it's not going to be confused for the real thing.

Seeing how it's made and how it attached to a web belt, I can see why so few of them survived.

M7-B Bayonet

With the adoption of the M9, development of the M7 did not stop.

Ontario knife company reworked the handle and gave us the M7-B.  I don't believe my example is an OKC made knife, though.  Hecho en China.

The bayonet weighs 10.7 oz. and the scabbard 3.3 oz. (with shoelace). 

There are no markings on the cross guard, unlike other M7's. 

 But you do get 'UAE' and the United Arab Emirates seal on the grip.  An OKC made M7-B will have "US ARMY" and the Army seal in these locations.  I have what is known as a "representative sample."

 Along with the radical change in grip shape and materials, you also get a new way of attaching the grip to the hilt.  It's the same method as the M9.  The parts don't swap, though.

 My example came with a VERY cheap version of the M10 scabbard.  The cage code (9A148) claims it's made by Norcatec LLC.

 Compare the webbing and snaps to this General Cutlery M10 scabbard.

It fits just fine.  A perfectly cromulent bayonet for an AR/M16.

PMAG-25 LR/SR W (Black)

 For gaming purposes, I obtained a Magpul MAG292-BLK PMAG-25 LR/SR W.

That's a 25 round magazine for your "AR-10" with the SR-25 or DPMS magazine well.  The standard magwell now that the AWB is dead.

It sticks out a bit more than the 20 rounder.

The extra five rounds comes with a weight penalty; 1 lb. 12 oz. loaded compared to 1 lb. 6.8 oz. of the PMAG-20 LR/SR.  1.8 lb. vs 1.4 lb. in GURPS terms.  That changes the weight of the M1956A2, pictured above, from 11.7 lb. to 12.1 lb. as shown.  That also changes a load of 6 spare magazines from 8.4 lb. to 10.8 lb.  The more traditional 4 spares for a battle rifle goes from 5.6 to 7.2 lb.  You do go from 120 spare rounds to 150 (or 80 to 100 with the traditional loadout).

The cute little window is rendered a little useless by not including any numbers, but you can still check to see if there's any ammo in there with it. <-- This turned out to be incorrect, there are numbers, see this post correcting it.

Magpul no longer includes a dust cover.  C'est la guerre.

I Just Noticed

Speaking of things that resemble each other...

The Magpul TMAG has a striking resemblance to the discontinued EMAG.

Excepting for the translucency of the materials, of course.  And the obvious changes from M2 to M3.

The PMAG M3 allowed for fit in STANAG mag wells that the M2 didn't, thus a separate magazine was unnecessary.

But there are hard core fans of the EMAG paying extra money for them, the last one appears to have been made in 2013.  I wonder if they noticed the TMAG is very similar.

THAT'S What It Reminds Me Of

Something about how Dottie looked was reminding me of another gun.

At first I thought that it was an AR-18, but it hit me today:

Dottie most resembles a Taiwanese T65 rifle.

 

It's similar, not exact, but...

I can relax now.

Back In Stock In All Three Colors!

If you're following along on the Dissipator Dottie adventures and want to participate, PSA has the uppers (sans bolt-carrier-group and charging handle) for $219.99 in Black, OD and FDE.

I've been very pleased with mine so far.

 

Proing

Got the Wilson Combat Accu-Tac flash-hider installed.

I like the retro-modern look of the AccuTac, and I've used them before.

Olive still sports one, albeit in 5/8-24 instead of 1/2-28 on account of being 6.8x43mm.

Because that upper used to be Dottie's, it seemed appropriate that Dottie return to wearing this model of 3-prong.

FuzzyGeff, has one on his Olga.

Will it make Dottie more accurate?  Probably not.  Does it do a better job of hiding the flash?  Very marginally vs the A2 birdcage I took off.  Does it look cooler?  Subjectively, yes it does! (YMMV)

Dottie, strangely considering I have a purple AR, has become the gun of whimsy.  Hardly a thing about her current build is to make her more functional.  But I'm ending up with a carbine that points well, shoots well and is very comfortable.

Accidental functionality in the pursuit of fun?  I will take it! 

Buffering

Something I like about my M16 clones, in addition to the fixed stock, is the buffer just works.

The rifle buffer is 5.2 oz.

The OG carbine buffer is 3 oz. and, over the years, they keep making it heavier to compensate for the extra bolt speed from the gas-port being so much closer to the chamber.

The H3 carbine buffer is, in fact, heavier than the rifle buffer at 5.4 oz.

An old timey solution was to use a 5.5 oz. buffer from a 9mm CAR-15.

One of the reasons I like the mid-length gas system is it works well with both the standard and slightly heavier H buffer (3.8 oz.); but Dottie has shown that the rifle stock and buffer work fine with this gas system too.

I think it's because the rifle buffer and spring are longer.

Semi-auto guns are a lot less sensitive to the buffer weight than full-auto.  While you're resetting the trigger, there's plenty of time for the gun to catch up.

What buffer weight should you run?

Check your ejection pattern.

Adjust accordingly!

Be Veeewy Veeewy Quiet

Today is the opening day of hurricane season.

Make sure your tags are in order. 

The Curriculum Was Thorough

I am going to make a character who's a graduate of a fencing academy.

He knows how to wield a sword, wall in a backyard and sell stolen goods.

Just For The Record

If you're converting a different Fantasy game to GURPS, you will need Dungeon Fantasy 1: Adventurers and Dungeon Fantasy 7: Clerics to retain the Magic User/Cleric/Druid distinctions and flavor.

You need not convert all the powers or spells from the old game because you're playing GURPS now; so play GURPS!

Play it in the other setting, but play GURPS.

Unwilling Suspension Of Disbelief

Because I'm a gamer and because I have Amazon Prime, I get the animated productions from Critical Role.

The most recent outing, "The Mighty Nein," has messed with my suspension of disbelief with a musical number.

In a burlesque style strip club they played a speakeasy jazz number.

Nothing about the way it's been presented lead me to expect music or technology past the 13th century.

I sometimes wonder if most fantasy worlds can best be explained by the Aladdin theory that it's set after an apocalypse that dimly remembers the world before, but not very accurately.

Missing Wonder Nines

The OG Wonder Nines™, in roughly chronological order, are the H&K VP70, S&W 59, CZ CZ75, Star M28, H&K P7M13 and Beretta 92.

This is if you accept:

"Wondernine: A term coined by gunwriter Robert T. Shimek to denote the modern breed of 9mm Parabellum auto pistols of recent design, usually featuring high magazine capacity and a double-action trigger mechanism or other modern ignition system (e.g., the squeeze-cocker of the Heckler & Kock P7 series or the Safe Action of the Glock)." 

J. Libourel

I've argued that the hoary old Browning Grand Puissance should be included despite the lack of a double action.

I further define the OG's as pre-Glock, so vaguely 1980 for the cutoff.  Yes, I know the Glock P.80 didn't enter service until 1982, but that 80 stands for 1980! 

I don't really think of the H&K P7M13 when I think of wonder nine, but Shimek included it.

I'm missing examples of the VP70, CZ 75, P7M13 and Star M28.

I don't have the first three because they're expensive as fuck compared to other guns.  The Star is a bit obscure but I've seen one for sale on Gunbroker every time I've looked.

CZ thinks they are H&K with regards to pricing; though prices appear to have come down a lot lately.

The VP70 and P7M13 are actual H&Ks in addition to being collectibles.

I've fired them all though.

I like the CZ quite a bit, but I appear to be immune to the Kool-Aid.  My ham-fists aren't precise enough to grab the narrow slide sometimes and the disassembly is archaic.

The VP70 is just plain unpleasant to shoot because of that trigger.  I remember seeing a lot of them in Polizei holsters in and around Stuttgart.

The P7M13 is goofy.  I found it tiring because I over-gripped the stapler-gun safety.  I wasn't given enough rounds to get the front blazing hot.

The Star I got to shoot had a bad extractor and didn't run well, but it was comfortable and the bullets went where they were told.  It's got the same narrow slide problem I have with the CZ.

Broken Fixed Broken (Updated)

Even though I'm not an accredited expert in the eyes of Steve Jackson Games, I was once dismissed as a hobbyist, I do know a thing or two about guns.

What exactly is a hobbyist?

They're the experts in a topic who don't make a career out of it and educate themselves on their own dimes.

I've been calculating various rounds with GURPS: Gun Stats and this book has been found wanting.

Sad trombone.

The first, gigantic, problem is that .30 Caliber M1903 ball out performs .30 Caliber M2 ball.  It's like it was stupid for everyone to change over to spitzer rounds.

But spitzer rounds carry more energy farther than round-nose bullets.  The 1/2D numbers generated are backwards of reality.

This fails the reality check. 

Then I calculated a few pistol rounds.

9mm came out almost the same as published materials.  .40 S&W was a bit worse than published and a bit better than my house rule...  But .45 ACP was as good as the legends!

Way more range and +2 to the damage.

The old numbers were 2d+2 pi for 9mm and 2d pi+ for .45 ACP.  This gives them almost identical damage to tissue (avg. 9 points vs 10) and reflects that 9mm is slightly better at punching things like car doors.

New numbers has .45 at 2d+2 pi+, so it will now punch car doors the same and do more damage in tissue (avg. 9 points vs 13).

This fails the reality check.

I missed something.

First, I had the wrong bullet diameter, copy paste error.

The ranges are calculated differently if the muzzle velocity is under 1,000 feet per second.

Now the damage is 2d+1 pi+ and that changes the average damages to 9 for 9mm and 11 for .45.  .45 is slightly worse at car doors again!

While it seems to do fine with pistols, this book does NOT GURPS! 

Poof It Was Gone

 

I was out at the rumored $2,600 price point.

I don't think it's really an unreasonable price for a gun with so many unique and bespoke parts.

$3,300 is more than I want to spend on one.

BUT!

The entire production run sold out in less than an hour.

That speaks to an unsatisfied demand.

All of those expensive, bespoke parts get cheaper if you make a lot more of them and get the price down.

I am not sure what the number of people who want such a rifle are, but I was tempted at $2,600 and out at $3,300.  It'd have been a done deal at $2,200!

I am, also, not sure of what kind of margins are built into the production of this rifle.

Economies of scale can make a lower margin pay more than a higher margin in increased sales. 

It's A System

I got GURPS: Gun Stats in January, I didn't do much with it except notice that the formulas don't recreate the, already, published stats for the M1 Garand.

An M1, in GURPS: High Tech, does 7d+1 pi out to 1,100/4,500, as does the Winchester Model 70.

So, armed with real world numbers for Cartridge, .30 caliber, M2 Ball, I dutifully plugged information into the formula and got:

7d+1 pi (so far so good) out to 890/3,700 (whups).

So I did .270 Winchester, which, according to Pulp Guns Vol. 2 stats for the Winchester Model 54, should do 7d pi out to 900/3,600.

The formula says: 7d+1 pi to 1,150/4,800.

Then I remembered that M2 ball's pressure curve is atypical of .30-06 and plugged in the numbers for Remington 150gr Core-Lokt.

7d+1 pi out to 1,020/4,300.  That's a lot closer to the published stats than what using the M2 ball figures gets you.

So I moved on to the AR.

An M16A1 (High Tech) firing M193 ball gets 5d pi; 500/3,200.  Gun Stats calculates it as 5d pi; 440/3,100.  Close.

An XM177E2 (SEALs in Vietnam) firing M193 gets 4d+1 pi; 420/2,700.  Gun Stats calculates it as 4d+1 pi; 370/2,600.  Also close.

An M16A2 (High Tech) firing M855 ball gets 5d; 800/3,500.  Gun Stats gives 5d pi; 460/3,200.

An M4 (High Tech) firing M855 ball gets 4d+2 pi; 750/2,900.  Gun Stats gives 4d+2 pi; 430/3,000.

So far the damages have been about right, but ranges differ greatly from published weapons.

But what really clonked me was calculating .30-40 Krag.

Adventure guns says the M1892 rifle does 6d+1 pi; 1,000/3,900.  Gun Stats says 6d pi; 1,030/4,300.  A round nose 220gr bullet at 2,000 fps outdistances a 152gr spitzer at 2,800 fps.  Also notice, except for the damage, that it calculates nearly the same ranges as a modern .30-06 load!

Spain's 173gr 7x57mm loading comes to 6d+1 pi to 1,190/5,000 so the Spanish Hornet still outranges the boys on Kettle Hill.

.30 Carbine takes a big hit, going from 4d+1 pi; 330/2,100 to 4d pi-; 290/3,200.

Which brings us to the Big Huge Question™:  With the disparity between published and calculated stats: do you use the calculated stats for unpublished weapons alongside the published weapons, or do you recalculate ALL the published ones?

Especially considering that the Douglas Cole calculations and Vehicles for 3rd Edition come much closer to the published stats. 

Cheap

The video in the previous post alludes to something about weapon quality.

It's even mentioned in the Basic Set on p. 274 under Melee Weapon Quality.

"The mass-produced swords issued to ordinary soldiers are often of cheap quality."

This is going to be most of the swords we encounter made in a certain range of dates. 

I Still Haven't Come Up With A Solution (Updated)

Back when I was talking about "tailor's swords" I was referencing this video:

Lots of swords are less than ideal for fighting, and many serve social functions or as badges of rank.

The thing about several examples in this video is they are not poorly made with regards to strength or durability.  They are poorly made in that they are difficult to put to work.

They should get a skill penalty.

There's no methodology for that in the rules as written. 

Update: 

Daosus in the comments reminded me of the Poorly Balanced option on page 59 of Low Tech in the Weapons of Quality box.

But it's just a -1 to skill for a 60% price cut...  Actually a -0.6 cost factor, which is it's own little trial of remembering simple math.  You multiply the base cost of the weapon by 1+(add up all the cost factors) as explained on page 14 of Low Tech.

So a poorly balanced and elaborately decorated rapier with an open basket hilt...

$500 for the base rapier.
CF -0.6 for poorly balanced.
CF +4 for "presentation quality" decoration.
CF +0.25 for the basket hilt.

$500 x 1+(-0.6+4+0.25)
$500 x 1+(3.65)
$500 x 4.65
$2,325

This is surely a weapon that you wear to impress people and not one you use to impress an opponent in a fight.

The tailor's sword, I think, can be made with going poorly balanced (-0.6), cheap (-0.6), open frame basket hilt (0.25).  It's basically a short sword ($400) to start with...

Since the modifiers drop the price below 20% of the original price, it's 20%, or $80 for our tailor's sword.  If the tailor is being honest, and I get the impression that they weren't.  The tailor probably would have sold it for the full $500 that an open frame, good quality, short sword should cost.  Caveat Emptor, Bitches!

Teardrop

Lavender Linda and Dottie have exchanged forward assists.

Three-prong is in her future!

It makes me giggle that I'm combining modern and retro on Dottie like I am.

A flat-top, middy-gas, R605 with a forward assist.

It Must Be Seasonal

Sarah Hoyt is talking about libertarianism too.

Drinkin' Horn

A few years ago, Mr Fleetwood bought me a drinking horn.

It's cool as fuck, but unhandy.

That's because you can't set your drink down.

He apologized for the place he got them from for being out of stock on the stands.

I finally remembered to get a stand!

Awesome!

Kinda reminds me of Gerb...