Quote:
Originally Posted by clu2415
Semiauto rifles are very uncommon in calibers beefier than .308. 300 Winchester magnum is the most common "next step up" from .308. The M110 SASS (.308) has an effective range of 875 yards; the M2010 is bolt action and rated effective to 1300 yards. High Tech lists the FN BAR Magnum in 300 WM with recoil 4. That's a detachable magazine semiauto, but I doubt you'll be doing much rapid fire with that recoil.
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I was considering either a rifle chambered in .300 Win Mag or an AR-10 type rifle chambered for a popular short-action long-range round, something like .260 Remington, 6.5×47 Lapua, 6mm Creedmoor, 6.5 Creedmoor or 6×47 Lapua.
The .300 Win Mag clearly has the ballistic performance, but are there semi-automatic rifles with a high magazine capacity for it?
I hear there were major problems with the .300 RSAUM in an AR-10 rifle, but ultimately, something in the same performance envelope is what they'd have been looking for.
From what our characters can tell, the military ordnance that remains on Jewell Island is already a lot more than they need for any kind of base security requirement in the real world. They've got real heavy weapons in the towers, an M2HB machine gun and an Mk 19 grenade launcher, and seem to have some platoon-level machine guns as well; an unknown number of M240B GPMGs, with a mininum of two of them, for covering the other side of the towers.
When you add that the M2HB and the Mk 19 are equipped with AN/PAS-13 thermal weapon sights, there's already more than enough firepower in the towers to ensure that nothing is likely to survive in the open on Jewell Island unless the guards allow it to. If they really felt they needed more capability, adding night vision of some sort to the M240B machine guns, maybe a decent optics to a few of their M16A2 and a tactical .308 rifle or two for the best shots would surely be more practical purchases than several $10,000 rifles.
Unless the GM decides otherwise, I'll assume that the obvious improvements to the equipment they already had was taken care of before purchasing expensive new rifles. I'm also assuming that underlying the massive purchases of survivalist gear and weapons specifically designed to defend against law enforcement personnel were some kind of paranoid delusions of behalf of Warden Tyrrell and one or more of his loyalists.
In other words, while almost no one in the real world is very concerned with eking out maximum combat performance in GURPS terms from their equipment, it is actually possible that a group of delusional security guards on an island with a bunch of criminally insane people might have made opted for considerably more awesome firepower than really was called for.
Not to mention that their strategic plan seems to be... absent. No group of 20-40 people can fight the US government and a plan to defend their Jewell Island from all comers is inherently a losing plan, because the US will just keep upping their response and they have no way to prevent that.
Yet, for all their delusions, most of them have points in several skills like Armoury, Boating, Guns, Hiking, Knot-Tying, Mechanic, Navigation, Seamanship, Soldier, Survival and Tactics. And at least the quartermaster-type has Merchant 12+. So they'll be get good value for money, even if the stuff they are buying will ultimately prove futile against the overwhelming force of the US federal government.
Until then, of course, it may prove entirely too effective against our characters. As things stand now, Chase Taylor (my PC) is unarmed, with his hands on his head, facing three guards with M16A2 rifles and two orderlies with M9 pistols. Danny O'Toole (PC2) is pinned down* in an empty office is an abandoned cellar level, with an M9 pistol, facing anywhere from four to eight guards, apparently armed with full SRT gear, assault rifles, grenades, riot gear, etc. The rest of the PCs and their NPC allies are unarmed, in hiding, and one NPC has already taken a bullet and is being 'helped' with default First Aid.
And we haven't even been outside yet. Where the really scary guns are.
*If it weren't for the PK Shield Danny hurriedly raised with his telekinetic power when he was fired upon, he'd probably be bleeding out by now. He'd have taken three 5.56x45mm rounds, one to each thigh and one to the neck.