Pocket Carry And GURPS

I'm going to limit this to guns I own, have owned or might own...

A .25 ACP such as a Colt Vest Pocket does a whopping 1d pi-.  That translates to 1-3 points of damage on the torso, with an average of 1.  They're light and handy, most give six or seven shots with a Rcl 2 for under a pound.  Range is an anemic 90/950; Acc 1.

A .380 ACP SIG-Sauer P238 gives 2d-1 pi, 1-11 points of damage with an average of 6.  6+1 shots with a Rcl of 2 to a range of 110/1,200; Acc 1.  Loaded the gun weighs 0.94 lb. and a spare mag is 0.2 lb.

A SIG-Sauer P232, also .380 gives the same damage but gets an extra shot.  It weighs 1.2 lb. loaded and a reload runs 0.2 lb.  The P232 is pushing the limits of pocket carry in terms of size.  120/1,300; Acc 1 is the range.

The ancient Colt Pocket Hammerless, again in .380 ACP, is 1.7 lb. loaded with spares coming in at 0.2 lb.  Damage is 2d pi (2-12 points average 7) and range and number of shots is the same as the P232.  As the name implies, it's dimensioned well for the pocket, it's just kinda heavy.

A Smith and Wesson 640-3 loaded with .357 Magnum tips the scales at 1.6 lb.  A speed loader is a mere 0.2 lb. but it only gets five shots with a severe Rcl 5.  Range is decent with 180/2,000; Acc 2.  The size and shape fits the pocket well and the 2d+2 pi damage lands 4-14 points of damage with an average of 9.  It takes a -1 to skill for being double action only in addition to the recoil.

The new Remington R51 will do 2d+1 pi damage (8 average, 3-13 spread) with 7+1 shots and Rcl 2.  It's very similar in size to the Pocket Hammerless and weighs in at 1.4 lb loaded; spares are 0.4 lb though!  Range is 160/1,800: Acc 1.

Let's say we have a skill of 12 in Guns/TL8 (Pistol).

At social ranges, say 7 yards; the range penalty is -3.  Since not much aiming (in GURPS terms) happens that gives us a 9 or less chance to land a round on the target with any gun listed, except the DAO revolver which has an 8.

On average 3d will give us a 10, so on average, we miss.  All these guns have a RoF of 3.  The semi-autos need a 9 to hit with one round, 7 to hit with two and a 5 to hit with all three.  The revolver needs an 8 to land a single and a 3 for a double tap; forget hitting with the third.

Taking a second to aim ups the 640 to a 10 for the first shot, 5 for the second.

And this is just to hit the torso!  Vitals is an additional -3!

What's your skill level in real life?  Well GURPS is scaled so that the stress of combat is built into the chance to hit.  At your typical indoor pistol range, the targets don't shoot back, +1; you know how far it is to the target +4; and the lighting is ideal +3.  A fist size group is hitting a -5 target.  If you're taking your time, you're getting the Acc bonus for the gun; and most people are shooting at RoF 1 or less.

So, with our .357 snubby...  We've got a Skill+5 to land that fist size group.  If you have a Skill of 12, that's a 17 to hit!  Basically you can do that all day.  Hell, you have better than a 50-50 of getting a second hit in the same turn at the range.  It'd be 17-12-7 for three shots to hit inside that fist sized circle and 18-13-8 still scores inside an 18" circle.

Even if you use the full RoF and hit the silhouette target with every shot from your 640 every time, your skill might only be XX.  You start at Skill+10 to aim at a torso sized target; so to land all three shots you only need to get under your raw skill number with your roll.  A skill of 12 is a 74% chance of hitting all three rounds at 7 yards at the range.  A 13 is 83%.

The point is to not get cocky.  That 13 requires a 0.5% chance of 3 to land all three rounds when there's a fight on!  Heck, there's just barely more than a 1 in 4 chance to land two.