12-12-2014, 11:22 AM | #31 | |||
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Iceland*
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Re: Black Powder Express Rifle stats
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I know that black powder long-range rifles, ever since the 1850s, would use bullets with an aspect ratio of 2.5 to 1. That is achieved with a 530 grain bullet in a .45 diameter. Which is a nice benchmark and suggests that most of the bullets which achieve good long range performance will have an aspect ratio above 2:1. I still don't have the intuitive grasp of math to quickly figure out whether the aspect ratio of a 500 grain .50 caliber bullet will be greater or lesser than that of a 330 .45 caliber bullet, assuming the same lead construction. Or in general, how the various 300-600 grain .50 bullets stack up against various 300-530 grain .45 caliber bullets when it comes to aspect ratio and thus Range statistics. Quote:
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Edit: I've found that the .450 Martini-Henry has an aspect ratio of approximately 2.8 to 1 and the expertimental (and ultimately not adopted, because smokeless powder arrived) .402 Enfield had an aspect ratio of 3.18 to 1. That's a 1:12 tin-lead alloy bullet in both cases, the former 480 grains and the latter 384 grains.
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Za uspiekh nashevo beznadiozhnovo diela! Last edited by Icelander; 12-12-2014 at 01:08 PM. |
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12-12-2014, 01:19 PM | #32 |
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Oz
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Re: Budget and roles
No, the guns in a pair of guns ought to be a pair. You use them together on the same game at about the same range, alternating between the pair rather than choosing either according to circumstances.
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12-12-2014, 01:29 PM | #33 | |
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Iceland*
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Re: Budget and roles
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Is there a need for a 10-gauge sporting shotgun for social shooting in England? Or is Col. H.E. Wilkinson sufficiently provided with a pair of Westley Richards doubles in 12-gauge and one lighter gun? What kind of game did gentlemen take with their 12-gauge doubles, when (if ever) was it absolutely imperative to have a lighter gun and is there any game that is socially important in England to be able to shoot that calls for a 10-gauge double? We don't want him to be at a social disadvantage for his poverty, but at the same time, his job and most of his hobbies take him far abroad and he only visits England occasionally. He does want to go shooting with peers, naturally, and to appear to lack for nothing in tasteful and well-made sporting gear, but he would rather avoid spending all his newly acquired income on shotguns to shoot driven game near stately homes, as opposed to all the exciting new tools to decimate larger game around the world that are being invented all the time.
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Za uspiekh nashevo beznadiozhnovo diela! Last edited by Icelander; 12-12-2014 at 01:41 PM. |
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12-12-2014, 01:40 PM | #34 |
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Oz
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Re: [Adventure Guns] The gun cabinet of a Victorian explorer, hunter, Col. (Ret.)
I'm not sure, because gun gauges have tended to come down a little, and I'm not sure when it happened. I think it has to do with the introduction of choked bores, but smokeless propellants are yhe other obvious possible driver. Ten-bore and other big fowling pieces were certainly out by the Twenties.
The socially important things to shoot are pheasants, and to a lesser extent grouse. You might want a lighter gun for doves and partridges, quail and snipe, but you can take ducks perfectly well by using coarser shot — number four or five instead of six or seven — rather than a bigger gun. You might need a heavier gun for geese or swans at any sort of range — I'm not sure — but that's hardly game shooting. I think that shooting swans might not even have been allowed. Remember that hosts with coverts to shoot over have gun-rooms full of guns for lending to family members and guests. So it is practically a matter of knowing where your towel is. If you are the right sort of chap people will understand perfectly that you don't have an armoury of fowling pieces because you're "kitted out for lion and antelope, old boy", and lend you a pair of guns and a loader when they invite you for a weekend of grouse-shooting. It's really more important to have the right togs.
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Decay is inherent in all composite things. Nod head. Get treat. Last edited by Agemegos; 12-12-2014 at 07:05 PM. |
12-12-2014, 02:43 PM | #35 | |||
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Iceland*
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Re: [Adventure Guns] The gun cabinet of a Victorian explorer, hunter, Col. (Ret.)
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What about chokes? The guns of a pair apparently should be identical, so either both are choked or neither, but which would be preferable? The Colonel wants to have a quality pair that's clearly bought exclusively for English shooting parties and marks him as a sportsman of taste and skill, but would he be more likely to shoot at short ranges or long when invited for pheasant or grouse? What would be a baseline assumption for choke? Quote:
And ought they be doubles or single-barrels? Quote:
The reason Col. Wilkinson needs to make a special effort to ensure he's perceived as the right sort is, of course, that he's entirely lacking in respectable relations, was until very recently forced to live off a military officer's salary without owning any land or other assets and his ancestry would not stand close scrutiny*. Rugby, a few months at Oxford and 23 years of honourable military service ensure that he looks, acts and talks like the right sort. A gratifying if modest fame for heroics at the North-West Frontier and his success as an explorer and ethnographer have solidified his place as Status 2 and he has an income of some £600/year by now (mostly from his literary efforts), but Col. Wilkinson nevertheless feels keenly that he has neither the wealth nor the ancestry of his supposed social peers. *He has no actual claim to the name Wilkinson and the deceased junior officer of that name who fell in the Crimea was in any case not married. Not only is the character secretly a bastard, but his mother was a very light-skinned and Aryan-looking Persian.
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Za uspiekh nashevo beznadiozhnovo diela! Last edited by Icelander; 12-12-2014 at 03:13 PM. |
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12-12-2014, 03:32 PM | #36 | ||||||
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Oz
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Re: [Adventure Guns] The gun cabinet of a Victorian explorer, hunter, Col. (Ret.)
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I don't know when the custom of having an unchoked left barrel and half-choked right, or a half-choked left and fully-choked right, started. Later than 1890 I think. Quote:
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12-12-2014, 04:59 PM | #37 | |||
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Iceland*
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Re: Budget and roles
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Col. Wilkinson needs a much more powerful load and double barrels. I've seen (online for sale) a traditional double rifle in 4-bore that weighs 21 lbs. It must be enough gun for a load with more power than the Greener 8-bore packs.
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12-12-2014, 09:14 PM | #38 | |
Join Date: Sep 2010
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Re: Early Times of Col. H.E. Wilkinson
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12-12-2014, 09:40 PM | #39 | |
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Iceland*
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Re: Early Times of Col. H.E. Wilkinson
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Note that when I cite amounts in $ without qualification, I refer to GURPS $, which are a game system artifact used for Starting Wealth. I'll give period prices in pounds sterling (£1=$120 GURPS), gold guineas or shillings.
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12-12-2014, 10:19 PM | #40 | ||
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Iceland*
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Re: [Adventure Guns] The gun cabinet of a Victorian explorer, hunter, Col. (Ret.)
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Is it unutterably common to select the plainest field grade from a very respected firm like Westley Richards, for £26? A typical Best Quality Double from anyone but H&H, Purdey or Boss will run you around £55. The very best from the very best are £100+. Col. Wilkinson is technically able to afford a better finish and engraving than the £26 field grade, but the player does not want to unless not doing so actually makes a statement about his character that is other than the 'knowledgable sportsman who doesn't care for effete luxury, but projects good taste and good sense with his choices' that he is going for. What does a severely plain gun from a very skilled maker say about the character? Is it what the player is going for here or should he spring for +50-100% in value to send that message?
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