Shipping in a Traveller Universe

[swordtart]

Originally Posted by SteveS

Clamp a laser pointer on a locally built bolt-action rifle and you have a much more accurate weapon. Clamp it on a flintlock rifle and you can shoot the hat off an enemy officer from ridiculous range.

There are inherent accuracy limitations to less advanced weapons even if the sighting mechanism were drastically improved (but see below). Hand loaded weapons are subject to variations in the quantity of powder, the quality of the powder, humidity etc. When the priming catches your view of the target is wholly obscured and if you flinch a small dot isn't going to get you back on target. If muzzle loading then forcing the projectile down the barrel can distort it such that it doesn't follow a predictable trajectory (and thus your training for drop and wind-age becomes worthless).

There is also the small issue that you have to be able to see the dot to be able to use it to aim and the distance you can see a laser point with the naked eye in daylight conditions (or the thick smoke from flintlocks) won't be that far what you could use basic iron sights for anyway.

We have to be careful when considering upgrades to low tech weapons as often they have been made to be as accurate as practical and adding on a single upgrade may may little practical difference, you usually need several upgrades to different elements of the gun to make a difference.

Consider that we had telescopes long before we had firearms, but the telescopic sight wasn't really practical until we had breech loading rifles. There was no point putting a telescopic sight onto a muzzle loader as you would be able to see better than you could shoot.