Weapon repair & Gauss recoil

In TML Subject 1761, Bertil Jonell ([email removed]> writes:

> > From: Adrian Hurt [email removed]
> > Subject: (1752) Weapon repairs
> >
> > "Mark F. Cook" [email removed] writes:
> > >        I'd say that a specific weapons skill includes being able to
> > > fieldstrip and clean your weapon, AND THAT'S ALL.  If a component is
> > > broken, you take the weapon to a 'gunsmith' or, if you're in the service,
> > > you have the company quartermaster replace it.
> >
> > Making new parts from a piece of metal comes under Mechanical skill.
> > Again, the difficulty level depends on the component, but will probably
> > be quite high - we're talking about precision machinery here.
>
>   But remember that even if a weapons is damage so that it won't work, that
> dosen't nessesarily mean that any part is broken.
>   Example: The magasine of an automatic weapon don't need to be bent much
> before this starts to interfer with the feed. If the top part of a magasine
> is damaged in a certain way, the weapon with refuse to fire at all. Similarly,
> springs might bent out of shape, cartridges might get stuck and so on.
>   These isn't 'Superficial' errors, because each one will make the weapon
> unusable, and 'superficial' damage won't interfear with the operation of
> something. Yet none of them require any new parts to fix, just some tools
> and a little time.

All very true.  But the last sentence really should end with "...just some
tools, a little time, and the NECCESSARY SKILLS."  In this I think the point
that Adrian makes is correct: without Mechanical-1 or better, you probably
shouldn't be allowed to do it unpenalized.  Trying to bent a caved-in clip
or a bent leaf-spring back into shape (the CORRECT shape) is a difficult
task, as anyone who has tried can tell you.  On the other hand, clearing
a jammed cartridge does not typically constitute "repairing damage" in the
MT sense, since it takes no special talent other than the ability to operate
the weapon.  you might want to treat a cartridge jam as "superficial damage",
a bent clip as "minor damage", a broken trigger or firing-pin as "major
damage", and a bent barrel/crushed receiver as "destroyed".

>   Lastly I'm going to challenge one of basic pre-conceptions of Traveller and
> MegaTraveller: The recoilless gauss-rifle.
>   The gaussrifle fires a small 4mm calibre bullet. This bullet travels at
> 1000m/s which is about as fast as an normal 5.56 NATO round. And yet, the
> gaussrifle inflict 4D with a penetration of 7, while a 5.56 NATO in Traveller
> would inflict 3D at around 3 or 4 in penetration.
>   This would indicate that the bullet from a gaussrifle travels much faster
> than a normal rifle bullet, maybe somewhere in the range of 1500 to 2000 m/s.

In fact, the Imperial Encyclopedia does list the velocity as 1500 m/s.

>   How this weapon can be thought as being particularly recoilless is beyond
> me:)

MT does NOT list gauss weapons as being "recoilless".  They list them as
being "low recoil", which is appropriate.  If you consider both F=ma and
Newton's 3rd Law ("Equal and opposite reaction") then the amount of enery
delivered to each gauss needle (and thus acceleration, since the needle's
mass is constant) is equal to the amount of recoil energy delivered to
the gauss weapon firing the needle.  Since the weapon outweighs the needle
by several orders of magnitude (4 gm. vs. 3.5 Kg., in the case of a gauss
rifle), the recoil of the weapon is going to be virtually zip.

End of story.

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        Mark F. Cook

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