KimmieElise
Mongoose
So far, I wonder if the thinking on snub pistols is kinda off here. I totally haven't read all 61 pages of comments on this thread, but the fact the snub is a suitable zero-G weapon means it has to have virtually no recoil. The thing is, even a small amount of recoil will move a significant mass, though slowly. The trick is to be able to stay where you are when firing, rather than be hurled like end over end from a shot which comes from a gun aligned off center mass of the person firing, or simply being propelled straight back when aligned with center mass. The only way I can think to prevent this with a conventional firearm is to vent gases out the back in proportion to the energy being put into the projectile. This would be like how a recoilless rifle works on a much smaller scale. A rocket powered round could be created to be launched with a tiny vented charge which would allow it to just clear the barrel and then the projectile would fire its rocket and proceed to target. So venting of gases back toward the firer would effectively offset Newton's Third Law of Motion.
In a revolver recoil mitigation in this way would be kinda complicated to do, but an detachable magazine semi-auto or auto weapon would be much more complicated. There are now other forces to consider. Like the momentum of the slide or bolt coming back to eject the shell would cause the weapon to at lease climb uncontrollably or cause the user to start to tumble or both. You would almost have to have a counter weight mechanism in the gun which was thrust in the opposite direction of the bolt or slide at the same time to offset the momentum of ejecting a spent cartridge. Caseless rounds would solve a part of the problem, but not all of it. You still have to feed a new round into the chamber and you still have to re-cock the firing mechanism. Super lightweight materials would solve a part of the problem or possibly super heavy materials which would absorb some of the energy of the round being fired. Electronic firing rather than percussion firing would help. There are still issues to be resolved. Making a working semi-auto pistol which is suitable for Zero-G would be quite an engineering achievement, a submachinegun with a Zero-G trait would be totally amazing. I can think of a few ways it could be done, but they would be expensive relative to a conventional firearm.
If you don't want to retain the zero-G trait, then why stick with the 10mm low velocity? Even now world governments are testing out more powerful Submachinegun rounds, such as .300 Blackout which was originally developed for a SOCOM replacement for the MP5 and 5.45 X 39mm used in the AKS weapons? Yes, a revolver would use pistol ammo, as would an auto pistol, although the Desert Eagle has proved we might be able to use an intermediate round between pistol ammo and rifle ammo, like a trimmed down .300 Blackout. The Desert Eagle achieves ejection of magnum rounds by using the same ejection mechanism as the M4 rifle. For that matter, why not stick with gauss?
In a revolver recoil mitigation in this way would be kinda complicated to do, but an detachable magazine semi-auto or auto weapon would be much more complicated. There are now other forces to consider. Like the momentum of the slide or bolt coming back to eject the shell would cause the weapon to at lease climb uncontrollably or cause the user to start to tumble or both. You would almost have to have a counter weight mechanism in the gun which was thrust in the opposite direction of the bolt or slide at the same time to offset the momentum of ejecting a spent cartridge. Caseless rounds would solve a part of the problem, but not all of it. You still have to feed a new round into the chamber and you still have to re-cock the firing mechanism. Super lightweight materials would solve a part of the problem or possibly super heavy materials which would absorb some of the energy of the round being fired. Electronic firing rather than percussion firing would help. There are still issues to be resolved. Making a working semi-auto pistol which is suitable for Zero-G would be quite an engineering achievement, a submachinegun with a Zero-G trait would be totally amazing. I can think of a few ways it could be done, but they would be expensive relative to a conventional firearm.
If you don't want to retain the zero-G trait, then why stick with the 10mm low velocity? Even now world governments are testing out more powerful Submachinegun rounds, such as .300 Blackout which was originally developed for a SOCOM replacement for the MP5 and 5.45 X 39mm used in the AKS weapons? Yes, a revolver would use pistol ammo, as would an auto pistol, although the Desert Eagle has proved we might be able to use an intermediate round between pistol ammo and rifle ammo, like a trimmed down .300 Blackout. The Desert Eagle achieves ejection of magnum rounds by using the same ejection mechanism as the M4 rifle. For that matter, why not stick with gauss?
