So are we 'officially' at TL 8.25 or what?

[MasterGwydion]

An argument could be made that it goes as far back as the BAR or even earlier. SMGs date to roughly the same time period.

TL5
TL5+ (experimenting with TL6)
TL5++ (experimenting with TL7)

The problem is the "pure" TLs can not exist, since at the earlier TL you were experimenting 2TLs above you by the time you acive the breakthrought you are still studying 1 TL above with new insight into 2 TLs above.

It is a system I dislike.

I dislike all of the building above your TL nonsense. The TL system in Traveller is not granular enough to do it with prototypes, so best to just leave it at "only can build up to your TL"

None of this prototype crap. It doesn't make sense as written. Otherwise, you'd have experimental airplanes and internal combustion engines at TL-2. (Powered airplanes, not gliders.)

 

[Condottiere]

I tend to look at the Sturmgewehr Forty Four as a prototype.

Though, cheaper.

 

[Terry Mixon]

I dislike all of the building above your TL nonsense. The TL system in Traveller is not granular enough to do it with prototypes, so best to just leave it at "only can build up to your TL"

None of this prototype crap. It doesn't make sense as written. Otherwise, you'd have experimental airplanes and internal combustion engines at TL-2. (Powered airplanes, not gliders.)

*pulls his prototypes a little farther away from @MasterGwydion*

 

[Sigtrygg]

The BAR and the M14 are not so different. and the first smgs were carbine sized... but since the BAR and M14 are battle rifles rather than assault rifles...

then there is the M2 carbine...

and the Russians had an assault rifle in 1915.

 

[MasterGwydion]

*pulls his prototypes a little farther away from @MasterGwydion*

I use them, but I'd prefer they not exist. lol

 

[Condottiere]

The Girardoni (or Girandoni) air rifle, one of the first repeating rifles, was designed by Ladin artisan watchmaker and gunsmith Bartolomeo Girardoni in Austria circa 1779. Girandoni made both customary flintlocks and the innovative air guns, called Windbüchse ("wind rifle" in German). One of the air rifle's more famous associations is its use on the Lewis and Clark Expedition to explore and map the Louisiana Purchase of 1803.

...

The Girardoni air rifle was four feet (1.2 m) long and weighed ten pounds (4.5 kg), about the same size and weight as infantry muskets of the time. It fired a .46 or .51 caliber ball and had a tubular, gravity or spring-fed magazine with a capacity of 20-22 balls.[9][10][11] Unlike its contemporary, muzzle-loading muskets, which required the rifleman to stand up to reload with powder and ball, the Girardoni air rifle permitted the shooter to load a ball by pushing the transverse spring loaded chamber bar out of the breech which allowed a ball to be supplied to it from the magazine and which then rebounded back to its firing position, all while lying down.[9]

The detachable air reservoir was in the club-shaped stock. With a full air reservoir, the Girardoni air rifle had the capacity to shoot 30 shots at useful pressure. These balls were effective to approximately 125 yd (114 m) on a full air reservoir. The power declined as the air reservoir was emptied.[12] To recharge the air reservoir, it was attached to the top of the accessory pump, the base of which was placed on the ground and secured with the feet, which then required some 1500 strokes to bring it up to its working pressure of approximately 800 psi (55 bar).[5]

Contemporary regulations of 1788 required that each rifleman be equipped with the rifle, three compressed air reservoirs (two spare and one attached to the rifle), cleaning stick, hand pump, lead ladle and 100 lead balls, 1 in the chamber, 19 in the magazine built into the rifle and the remaining 80 in four tin tubes, (or speed loaders in the modern vernacular). Equipment not carried attached to the rifle was held in a special leather knapsack. It was also necessary to keep the leather gaskets of the reservoir moist to maintain a good seal and prevent leakage.[13]

 

[MasterGwydion]

The Girardoni (or Girandoni) air rifle, one of the first repeating rifles, was designed by Ladin artisan watchmaker and gunsmith Bartolomeo Girardoni in Austria circa 1779. Girandoni made both customary flintlocks and the innovative air guns, called Windbüchse ("wind rifle" in German). One of the air rifle's more famous associations is its use on the Lewis and Clark Expedition to explore and map the Louisiana Purchase of 1803.

...

The Girardoni air rifle was four feet (1.2 m) long and weighed ten pounds (4.5 kg), about the same size and weight as infantry muskets of the time. It fired a .46 or .51 caliber ball and had a tubular, gravity or spring-fed magazine with a capacity of 20-22 balls.[9][10][11] Unlike its contemporary, muzzle-loading muskets, which required the rifleman to stand up to reload with powder and ball, the Girardoni air rifle permitted the shooter to load a ball by pushing the transverse spring loaded chamber bar out of the breech which allowed a ball to be supplied to it from the magazine and which then rebounded back to its firing position, all while lying down.[9]

The detachable air reservoir was in the club-shaped stock. With a full air reservoir, the Girardoni air rifle had the capacity to shoot 30 shots at useful pressure. These balls were effective to approximately 125 yd (114 m) on a full air reservoir. The power declined as the air reservoir was emptied.[12] To recharge the air reservoir, it was attached to the top of the accessory pump, the base of which was placed on the ground and secured with the feet, which then required some 1500 strokes to bring it up to its working pressure of approximately 800 psi (55 bar).[5]

Contemporary regulations of 1788 required that each rifleman be equipped with the rifle, three compressed air reservoirs (two spare and one attached to the rifle), cleaning stick, hand pump, lead ladle and 100 lead balls, 1 in the chamber, 19 in the magazine built into the rifle and the remaining 80 in four tin tubes, (or speed loaders in the modern vernacular). Equipment not carried attached to the rifle was held in a special leather knapsack. It was also necessary to keep the leather gaskets of the reservoir moist to maintain a good seal and prevent leakage.[13]

Technically a blowgun is an airgun and it has been around for thousands of years. A mechanical blowgun took a bit longer. lol