RJM Corbet
Deus Pascus Corvus
Oh, sorry. Well it will all become clear as the story progresses anyway. No need reply.Nope. I meant the Celtic trait of burning and then returning to white
Something new, second try
- Thread starter Jo Zebedee
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Nope. I meant the Celtic trait of burning and then returning to white
Wow, now my legs begin to make sense. I wonder if the DNA testing kits can reveal which portions of me come from which places? I've always known I was mostly Celtic in origin, but I didn't realize it was actually sectioned off in me.
Joshua Jones
When all is said and done, all's quiet and boring.
Yeah, that is a fun trait, isn't it? My father is full ethnically Irish, so my brother picked up that trait, but I somehow picked up the tiny bit of Native American from my mother's side which makes it hard for me to burn, and it all becomes tan unless it peals. Oh, and when I tan, it lasts for 6 months or so...Nope. I meant the Celtic trait of burning and then returning to white
Funny how different skin complexions work!
Joshua Jones
When all is said and done, all's quiet and boring.
Truth be told, I would gladly trade my skin for a decent pair of eyes. I have 20/400 vision (which is thankfully correctable), 2 of 3 forms of colorblindness, a partial stigmatism, pressure issues... enough optic nerve deadness my new eyedoctor panicked and thought I had gloucoma... among others...Swine. That is all
Hi just had a read and a quick skim through the crits. I thought it well written and easy to read. I would read on.
Not much time just now so may add a little more later.
A couple of practical queries:
It's a hot sunny day yet the wood is wet?
Technology appears not to have advanced from today (I'm not sure what the tech position is but that's fine) but I've never heard of a rifle with more than one barrel. Rifles are better at range, not good close up unless short barrelled. Do you want a shotgun? How far between guard towers? That might help determine the weapon.
How this helps.
Straggled - not for me.
Not much time just now so may add a little more later.
A couple of practical queries:
It's a hot sunny day yet the wood is wet?
Technology appears not to have advanced from today (I'm not sure what the tech position is but that's fine) but I've never heard of a rifle with more than one barrel. Rifles are better at range, not good close up unless short barrelled. Do you want a shotgun? How far between guard towers? That might help determine the weapon.
How this helps.
Straggled - not for me.
Thank you - at the moment I have a rifle and a shot gun. My weaponry knowledge is poor so I’ll have to rely on beta readers to correct me - thank you for this! Xx
scarpelius
Well-Known Member
scarpelius
Well-Known Member
Also, in close combat a riffle is a terrific weapon. Depending on the situation you can smack the head of an adversary with the stock, you can shoot at close range, block melee attacks with the whole body of the gun and if you attach it a bayonet you can gut anything in front of you (remember WW1?).
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Joshua Jones
When all is said and done, all's quiet and boring.
I'll jump in as the token American here who grew up with firearms and whose elder brother served for 10 years in the infantry...
You are both partially correct. Double barrel rifles do exist, and are used for big game hunting, but they lack long range accuracy, are a huge caliber, and are not designed for any sort of military application. IF one is going to use a double barrel rifle for a military application, one should use an over/under (where the barrels are stacked upon one another), rather than a side by side, because the degredation of accuracy there is will be vertical rather than horizontal, and people are longer vertically. And, yes, these sort of rifles are better at close to mid range.
Here in the States, though, shotguns loaded with shot (a bunch of pellets, what one typically thinks of for a shotgun) are standard for hunting small game (birds, rabbits, etc.), and loaded with slugs (basically a big bullet) are standard for larger game (bear). Mid sized game is typically hunted with a .22 caliber rifle, which has a significant gain in range and accuracy over shotguns or double barreled rifles, and also almost no recoil. These are typically either bolt action (you have to pull a lever back and then push it forward again to load another bullet) or semi-automatic (the recoil loads another bullet, so it will fire more or less as quickly as you can pull the trigger, but it will jam if you pull it too fast). Bullets of this sort have a hard time penetrating bone, especially at range, so to use them in a military application would require shooting for soft tissue. But, being many of these have 10 round magazines, they would be preferable over either shotguns or double barreled rifles, which can fire once or twice before reloading. Unless, of course, you are talking a pump action shotgun, which often hold 8 shells...
Now, all this information assumes that your protagonist's society looted an American sporting goods store. If they looted a European one, their available armaments may be more reduced or greater, depending on where you are and how shady the sporting goods store is. I am assuming lesser in Ireland, unless they happened to have a stockpile of illegal firearms. Now, if they loot a police armory... whole different ballgame. Being we are talking about Ireland, I suspect they would have access to 5.56×45 NATO rounds with M-16/AR-15 variants (30 round magazine, semi-automatic and 3 round burst fire modes, effective to around 800m in skilled hands) and precision rifles (bolt action or semi-automatic, usually 10 round, effective to around 1km in skilled hands with a scope). If it were a military armory, the sky is the limit... automatic shotguns with drum magazines (excess of 50 shells), machine guns (fires for as long as you hold the trigger), sniper rifles effective up to 3km that can cut through light armor...
All this to say, the sort of firearm your protagonist uses will depend greatly on the backstory, especially where the faction gets its weapons.
Now, on the tactical side of things, a rifle can be effective in close quarters, but it really depends on the setting. If you are in open field, sure, it isn't much different from any other full sized gun. But, inside a building and in urban combat, the length of the rifle becomes a big disadvantage, because you cannot turn as easily in tight spaces. For these settings, a carbine, bullpup rifle, or sub-machine gun are vastly preferable, because they are a good bit shorter than a full rifle. Pistols are also pretty useful in this context, because they are very small and their main drawback (poor ranged accuracy) is negated with the close combat. I'll also say that if you are using a bayonet or the stock of a rifle against an enemy, something has gone really bad, really quickly. The USMC almost never uses bayonets at this point, preferring knife fighting and an evil cross of Ju-jitsu and Krav Maga. Given my preference, I would take a saber over most any other weapon at that range, and things like that should be accessible to your protagonist...
Anyway, I hope all that is helpful. This was intended as a broad overview, so feel free to ask if you have any other questions specific to a situation.
You are both partially correct. Double barrel rifles do exist, and are used for big game hunting, but they lack long range accuracy, are a huge caliber, and are not designed for any sort of military application. IF one is going to use a double barrel rifle for a military application, one should use an over/under (where the barrels are stacked upon one another), rather than a side by side, because the degredation of accuracy there is will be vertical rather than horizontal, and people are longer vertically. And, yes, these sort of rifles are better at close to mid range.
Here in the States, though, shotguns loaded with shot (a bunch of pellets, what one typically thinks of for a shotgun) are standard for hunting small game (birds, rabbits, etc.), and loaded with slugs (basically a big bullet) are standard for larger game (bear). Mid sized game is typically hunted with a .22 caliber rifle, which has a significant gain in range and accuracy over shotguns or double barreled rifles, and also almost no recoil. These are typically either bolt action (you have to pull a lever back and then push it forward again to load another bullet) or semi-automatic (the recoil loads another bullet, so it will fire more or less as quickly as you can pull the trigger, but it will jam if you pull it too fast). Bullets of this sort have a hard time penetrating bone, especially at range, so to use them in a military application would require shooting for soft tissue. But, being many of these have 10 round magazines, they would be preferable over either shotguns or double barreled rifles, which can fire once or twice before reloading. Unless, of course, you are talking a pump action shotgun, which often hold 8 shells...
Now, all this information assumes that your protagonist's society looted an American sporting goods store. If they looted a European one, their available armaments may be more reduced or greater, depending on where you are and how shady the sporting goods store is. I am assuming lesser in Ireland, unless they happened to have a stockpile of illegal firearms. Now, if they loot a police armory... whole different ballgame. Being we are talking about Ireland, I suspect they would have access to 5.56×45 NATO rounds with M-16/AR-15 variants (30 round magazine, semi-automatic and 3 round burst fire modes, effective to around 800m in skilled hands) and precision rifles (bolt action or semi-automatic, usually 10 round, effective to around 1km in skilled hands with a scope). If it were a military armory, the sky is the limit... automatic shotguns with drum magazines (excess of 50 shells), machine guns (fires for as long as you hold the trigger), sniper rifles effective up to 3km that can cut through light armor...
All this to say, the sort of firearm your protagonist uses will depend greatly on the backstory, especially where the faction gets its weapons.
Now, on the tactical side of things, a rifle can be effective in close quarters, but it really depends on the setting. If you are in open field, sure, it isn't much different from any other full sized gun. But, inside a building and in urban combat, the length of the rifle becomes a big disadvantage, because you cannot turn as easily in tight spaces. For these settings, a carbine, bullpup rifle, or sub-machine gun are vastly preferable, because they are a good bit shorter than a full rifle. Pistols are also pretty useful in this context, because they are very small and their main drawback (poor ranged accuracy) is negated with the close combat. I'll also say that if you are using a bayonet or the stock of a rifle against an enemy, something has gone really bad, really quickly. The USMC almost never uses bayonets at this point, preferring knife fighting and an evil cross of Ju-jitsu and Krav Maga. Given my preference, I would take a saber over most any other weapon at that range, and things like that should be accessible to your protagonist...
Anyway, I hope all that is helpful. This was intended as a broad overview, so feel free to ask if you have any other questions specific to a situation.
Very helpful, thank you.
Arms are not widespread in N Ireland unless one has connections with the paramilitaries. I have not built such a connection into this scenario, not do I intend to, but the homestead was a farm and farmers would keep rifles and shotguns in locked cabinets - hence the choice of a rifle, which are, in my understanding, the more commonly kept. For close work there are also pistols which are more of a stretch but police here are all armed with glocks and there would have been a police link to the homestead.
Arms are not widespread in N Ireland unless one has connections with the paramilitaries. I have not built such a connection into this scenario, not do I intend to, but the homestead was a farm and farmers would keep rifles and shotguns in locked cabinets - hence the choice of a rifle, which are, in my understanding, the more commonly kept. For close work there are also pistols which are more of a stretch but police here are all armed with glocks and there would have been a police link to the homestead.
I am pleased to have been educated. An NI homestead would have a rifle for shooting pests/vermin (foxes) i would imagine. Probably a .22 with a long barrel, no magazine (gun laws) so single bullet loading into the breach.
I've shot those, hard to hit anything from standing as they're heavy so slow to aim as well. You'd probably struggle to hit someone close up dodging around but climbing a fence you could.
Larger calibres will have the same issues but heavier.
Hope that's useful.
I've shot those, hard to hit anything from standing as they're heavy so slow to aim as well. You'd probably struggle to hit someone close up dodging around but climbing a fence you could.
Larger calibres will have the same issues but heavier.
Hope that's useful.
Thanks, @Plucky Novice - I might emphasise the pistol more then
Really? Sure, shotguns are often double-barrelled but they destroy though broad blasts. Thought most other rifles are single barrelled - the idea being a focus on accuracy over long range, due to the longer bullet stabilising rifling effect within the longer barrell. Hence snipers (the ultimate hunters) use rifles not pistols.
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