Re: SG - New Israeli's _ Eureka Miniatures

Steve Pugh wrote:
> 
> 
> 
> > There are three things making noise in a modern rifle:
> >
> > 1) The action. Usually insignificant, but must be considered if you
> > want to be really quiet.
> > 2) Supersonic bullet passing through air.
> > 3) Supersonic powder gasses.
> >
> > You can do something about 1 & 3, but the only thing you can really
> > do about 2 is to slow the bullet to subsonic speeds -- killing most
> > of its energy.
> 
> This is right back to my original point. 1 and 3 are silent anyway
> in a gauss rifle (or nearly so). On the other hand I had always
> imagined gauss rifles as firing small, dense penetrators at very
> high speeds, so 2 is going to remain. Conventional silencers work
> best when used with sub-sonic ammunition.
> 
> Still a sonic boom is not the easiest way to pin point a firing
> location. Would there be any flash from a gauss rifle? Of course,
> they would have an EM signature that may be detectable, but if you're
> up against that sort of sensor the sniper's body heat is as much of a
> problem.
> 
>	  Steve
> 
> --
> "Grab reality by the balls and squeeze." - Tempus Thales
> 
> Stephen Richard Pugh	   http://ds.dial.pipex.com/town/estate/ax16

When I was living in Austin I had a friend who was at the Univ. of Texas
there. He worked in the same building as the scientists and engineers
who were working on "coil-gun" EM guns, and he said that they were
enormously LOUD!! Now the caliburs that they were working with were
larger than man-carry, but even scaled down the noise level would be
higher than modern weapons. At this point I don't see where the noise
reduction is going to come from.