Re: [HoE] More SA XM-60 questions, and a few answers... [PEG]

[DarrinBrig@aol.com]

In a message dated 12/11/98 11:15:01 PM Eastern Standard Time,
OUR0B0ROS@aol.com writes:

>  Also, in real life, a railgun does not provide any kick, because
>  electromagnets accelerate the bullet forward, launching it out of the
barrel.
>  There are no moving parts, only electric impulses.
>    So the gun should not use the recoil penalty rules from the basic book,
>  right?

Not exactly true.  There will be recoil.  Heck, even lasers have recoil
(admittedly miniscule, but they do).  Pushing a slug down a barrel with
magnets is going to exert just as much force on the magnets as on the slug.

>    Alex Yang also wrote...
>    << what game effect should result from firing 4mm lead bullets (sans
>  propellant)? 
>  Lead is cheap, and you can crank out a ton of 4mm rounds... >>
>  
>    Lead is not a magnetic metal.  It could not be fired with a gauss (aka
>  railgun) weapon.  The bullets would have to be steel or at least steel-
>  jacketed.

Actually, a similar argument came up on the rec.games.mecha newsgroup years
ago, and according to some engineering students, you can shoot aluminum cans
(non-ferrous and not generally magnetic) down a railgun without any problem.
Sure, lead isn't magnetic (though the jacket might be ferrous), but it's got
electrons in it. If the magnetic field is big enough, Gauss's law will cause
electrons to accumulate on the outside of the slug and it will move in a
magnetic field.
   
>   << Also, the Police Pistol and SMG fires 10mm rounds. If you knock out a
>  black
>   hat (killing him would make him go boom), can you take his 10mm caseless
>   ammo for use in your own weapons? >>

You could recycle the slugs, but the propellant the case is made out of would
be useless in a gun not designed for it.  I'm pretty sure caseless ammo
requires a chemical or electrical ignition system rather than a kinetic one.