Posts
L. Spraugue de Camp (1956)
Amended with Gun Stats... .600 does 9d+2 pi++ now.
.375 H&H does 8d+1 pi.
Popping the Rex in the vitals with the average damage roll of 33.5 points gets 31.5 to penetrate for 94.5 damage. A single consciousness roll from a HT 15 critter means you're going to have to keep shooting.
You need to do 106 to get a death roll out of one.
A second hit to the vitals gets you there.
The .375 rolls an average of 29 points, 27 penetrate for 81 points of damage.
Two, well placed, rounds of .375 H&H has enough medicine to take down the tyrant lizard.
SPOILER ALERT
I suspect the late Mr Holtzinger didn't hit the vitals even once. A hit to the body would only do 27 points of damage and three such shots are the same as a single vitals hit. A fourth would get to death rolls, but that HT 15 looms large if you're going for this big game at close range.
In his book The Day of the Dinosaur, (nonfiction; a bit dated but still good) de Camp went into a lot more detail about shooting dinosaurs. Basically, for a big one like a T-Rex, you want a group of hunters, all armed with the heaviest elephant guns available.
ReplyDeleteIf the innards are arranged like its closest living relative, gallus gallus domesticus, and the hide is similar to an elephant, that .375 H&H Mr Holtzinger used should suffice if you hit it in the right spot.
DeleteCoolness under fire matters.
De Camp wrote other stories in that continuity. They're collected in the anthology Rivers of Time.
ReplyDeleteOrdered!
Delete