Re: SG - New Israeli's _ Eureka Miniatures

On Mon, 1 Sep 1997, Sprayform wrote:

> At 11:36 01/09/97 +0000,Steve P. wrote:
> >Amongst the list of new goodies from Eureka was:
> >
> >>Sniper (Gauss Rifle with Silencer?) 
> >
> >Um, I don't think you could silence a gauss rifle if you tried.
> >The firing mechanism is already silent by the fact that it's 
> >electromagnetic not chemical, so you probably won't have any exhaust 
> >gases to worry about. But the whole point of a gauss rifle is to 
> >throw a very small penetrator at very high speeds. I don't think 
> >you'll be able to do much about the sonic boom.
> >I'm could be wrong, been a while since I read about this sort of 
> >thing.
> >
Actually, you should be able to suppress the sound.  Just as the crack
of
a regular rifle is due to the bullet breaking the sound barrier, so
would
a slug from a gauss rifle.  You may not be able to completely silence it
but oyu would be able to muffle the sound to levels that wouldn't be
audible further than a hundred feet.  I believe that these operate by
using a series of movable disks or baffles that breakdown and disperse
the
shockwave in a contained environment so that the resultant sound is not
a
sharp crack but a more muffled thud.  Actually gauss guns should be more
easily silenced since the firing chamber and barrel could be totally
contained as opposed to something like a revolver which can't be
effectively silenced because of the openness of the design.

--Binhan