[SG] Civillian Firearms of Traveler:2300

Don's making noises about trying to get a campaign of
this going, so he loaned me the book.  Looking at the
weapons, he made the comment that some of the guns are
practically straight from Stargrunt.  I have to
agree--is St. Jon^3 a closet 2300 fan??

Anyway, one thing it does adress is the issue of
firearms for the civillian colonist.  It's
self-evident that frontiersmen need to go about armed
(whether it's necessary after the area has been
properly civilized is a long and off-topic debate). 
But what shall we arm them with?  Some members of the
colony will be part of the militia, which may be
equipped with obsolete or surplus military weaponry
provided by the colonial power.  But those may also be
kept secured in an armory under government control. 
But those weapons are not always ideal for the
colonist.  They are frequently relatively heavy and
bulky, and fire expensive ammunition (which may be
controlled by the government which the colonist may or
may not be on best of terms with).  They are often
difficult to maintain.	Modern 22nd military weapons
use binary propellants, ETC rounds, or caseless
ammunition.  Gauss weapons use simple ammunition and
rechargable power cells, but their magnetic coils burn
out and must be replaced, and this is not a simple
item to manufacture.

Item:  The Giscard FC-68 was designed by the French
with the frontier colonist in mind.  It has a bullpup
configuration which makes it look military, reassuring
colonists.  It's a 5mmx15mm caseless round--small
enough to be cheap and imported in plentiful numbers. 
It's not big enough to pose a major threat to armored
troops, but the weapon's full auto capabilities allow
it to be used in self-defense against animals larger
than the varmits[1] usually hunted with a small round
like this.  FP 2, Imp d6

Giscard FC-70: 7.5mm autoloading hunting rifle, with 5
round box magazine.  Uses a popular but older military
cartridge which is extremely plentiful on the open
market.  Pretty much a traditional hunting rifle like
has been around for half a century even today.	FP 1
Imp d10.

Rockwell 12x81 magnum.	14kg rifle fired from a rest
with integral bipod extended.  Civillian equivelant to
the military anti-material rifle.  FP d10 Imp d12
Why?  Giant lizards of Wolf-424B-1.  On some planets
firepower of this nature is going to be necessary. 
These planets are going to have to be colonized with
highly reliable populations and treated extremely
well.  Because holding down populations equipped with
these monsters will be extremely expensive.  On the
plus side, recruiting these people into your military
is going to give you tough fighters with good
fieldcraft and marksmanship.  

Now, these three canonical T:2300 examples are all
using caseless ammunition.  I find this unlikely on
more remote planets.  Why?  Conventional ammunition
can be reloaded easily.  Gunpowder requires only a
simple chemical industry, and primers are slightly
more complex, but not excessively so.  To represent
these sort of home-grown weapons/ammo, shift the
impact down one level.

The extreme in self-sufficient weaponry is the
Stracher SS-7.	Hunting Air Rifle.  Shoots a 4mm
flechette at 480 mps.  Compressed air is easy (it can
be hand-pumped, but then operates at a reduced power),
and the flechette can be turned out by any reasonably
competent machinist with simple equipment.  FP 1, Imp
d6 (d4 if hand-pumped).

John

[1]US term for anything coyote-sized or smaller

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