12-12-2014, 11:58 PM | #41 |
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Charlotte, North Caroline, United States of America, Earth?
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Re: [Adventure Guns] The gun cabinet of a Victorian explorer, hunter, Col. (Ret.)
With his military background, I don't see why he couldn't pass that off as a quirk of his time and soldierly aspect. A stern man, with a background in very stern matters, I think his preference could bother some, while appealing to others. If he knows the rest of his bag, then he should be able to blend in fine with most people accepting the eccentricities of his character to come from prolonged time abroad.
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12-13-2014, 12:51 AM | #42 | |
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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Wilkinson isn't going to make it into the haute ton: you need Family for that, and he just doesn't have it. He's a "decent sort of chap", but not an aristocrat. Off-Row and provincial tailors and very respectable firms of gunsmiths existed precisely to supply country gentlemen with less than ten thousand acres, and Wilkinson isn't ever going to pass for anything more.
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12-13-2014, 07:05 AM | #43 | ||
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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In essence, I don't know if field-grade guns are exclusively meant as secondary guns for rougher handling in the collection of someone who already has a pair of Best Quality Doubles, or if they are a respectable choice in their own right as a primary shooting pair, for someone who values craftsmanship and materials over expensive finish and engraving. Quote:
But he's always the gimmick guest in Great Houses, no one ever confuses him with a real social equal.
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12-13-2014, 10:56 AM | #44 | |
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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Apart from the Secret of his bastardry and non-European ancestry on his mother's side, Col. Wilkinson also has deeply suspicious interests and sympathies, having through his service career been subject to slurs due to his facility with the languages and cultures of colonial peoples. There have even been, in his remote youth, whispered rumours that he may have embraced certain un-English practices in the realm of amour, one which dare not speak its name. So when Col. Wilkinson was preparing for retirement from the Army and had begun to be received by the proper sort of people, he would have purchased his English sporting gear and wear in a deeply self-conscious mood. Granted, he must take care to display the professional expertise that was one of the foundations of his social acceptance when choosing sporting guns, and he would therefore be deeply invested in the details of technology and craftsmanship that go into his acquisations, but he'd also be extremely careful that his choices would send the right social signals. Col. Wilkinson is a confident, assertive man, but when it comes to social acceptance by the elite of England, he has enough going against him to make him understandably, if uncharacteristically, eager to conform in all the little ways of dress and fashion.
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Za uspiekh nashevo beznadiozhnovo diela! Last edited by Icelander; 12-13-2014 at 03:12 PM. |
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12-13-2014, 12:09 PM | #45 | |||
Night Watchman
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
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Re: [Adventure Guns] The gun cabinet of a Victorian explorer, hunter, Col. (Ret.)
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A 4-bore rifle would fire a spherical ball of about 1250 grains, or a blunt bullet of about 1880 grains, with an aspect ratio of only about 1.5. Those weights imply the actual bore diameter was a bit below true 4-bore, since a 0.25lb lead ball would be 1750 grains. The charge was 325 to 380 grains of black powder, for a velocity of 1300 to 1500 feet per second. The rifles weighed 20-25lb. An 8-bore rifle would fire an 860 grain ball or a 1250 grain bullet at 1650 or 1500 feet per second respectively, using 270 to 325 grains of black powder. The rifles typically weighed 15 to 16lb, so they were quite a bit easier to handle than the 4-bores and thus more popular. If Col. Wilkinson does have a 4-bore, I suspect he may have got a near-new one cheap when the original owner discovered he didn't really want to fire it regularly. This book has no information on 6-bores, which doesn't mean they didn't exist, but probably means they weren't popular. Quote:
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12-13-2014, 04:08 PM | #46 | ||||
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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And do you know what other, less prestigious makers were charging for their 8-bore double rifles? Quote:
I can figure the Dmg myself, using Cole's spreadsheet, but if you happen to know it, it'll spare me the work of entering the variables (running out now, back later tonight). :) Quote:
The player will decide if he wants to have had the gun refurbished in 1881-1884 or so to use a hammerless action and automatic ejectors. The license fee to use an Anson & Deeley boxlock is 15 shillings and I'll have to figure out how much the materials and work come to. *While this is indeed the famous Manton name, it belongs to a Calcutta-based outfitters founded by a nephew and the guns are built by other gunsmiths, in Birmingham or Belgium. Quote:
But in the mid-'70s, Wilkinson will have been a Captain at the very least, making Major before the Second Anglo-Afghan War, so he's quite likely to have wanted a fancier hunting rifle for medium game than what the common soldiers are carrying. And after 1880, Col. Wilkinson will have had a much higher income and better prospects than ever before and I find it highly plausible that he'll have bought a modern new black powder rifle or two at that time.
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12-13-2014, 04:48 PM | #47 | ||||
Night Watchman
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
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Re: [Adventure Guns] The gun cabinet of a Victorian explorer, hunter, Col. (Ret.)
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12-13-2014, 04:59 PM | #48 | |
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Oz
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Re: Early Times of Col. H.E. Wilkinson
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Note that in 1858 the European and artillery regiments of the EIC's armies (Bengal Army, Bombay Army, and Madras Army) were amalgamated with the British Army, but that the native regiments were not. It is these presidency armies (with British officers and native NCOs and men) that are referred to as the "Indian Army" and "Indian regiments" until they were amalgamated into a single Indian army in 1895 and absorbed into the British army in 1903. Service with the Indian Army (i.e. with native regiments) was low-prestige but lucrative. Pay was much higher than in the British Army, and field grade officers often retired with enough money to buy a place in the country and live as country gentlemen (but not to cut a dash in London). It was correspondingly sought after by younger sons &c. for whom the Army was to be a true profession rather than a genteel social position to dignify wealth and rank. I am not certain whether the purchase system ever pertained in the Indian Army. The EIC's armies (up to 1858) promoted strictly on seniority. When the European regiments joined the British Army they will have come under British Army rules and thus suffered the purchase system until 1871. But I don't know that the Indian Armies did. I'll do more research and get back to you. Note, too, that there was no purchase in the Artillery or Engineers. You had to be actually trained at the Royal Military Academy to get into those, and advancement was strictly by seniority. This was anathema to the upper class, so Artillery and Engineers officers tended to be middle-class "Methodist, married, or mad".
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Decay is inherent in all composite things. Nod head. Get treat. Last edited by Agemegos; 12-13-2014 at 05:03 PM. |
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12-13-2014, 05:23 PM | #49 | |||
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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That's going from a 450 grain bullet propelled by 70-grains of black powder to a 1250+ grain bullet propelled with 325+ grains of black powder, unless that particular gun was a very underpowered 4-bore. Quote:
Note that in GURPS, the difference between a very plain item and one that's regarded as fashionable, stylish, elegant and otherwise desirable is expressed with Styling, +1 CF to +19 CF for a +1 to +4 Reactions for connoisseurs. A £25 double shotgun is Styling +1 in GURPS terms, according to HT:AG. I'm not sure whether a Greener Elephant Rifle in 8-bore (HT:AG p. 32) is meant to represent the same basic Styling +1 level or whether it's meant to have no Styling at all. If it's meant to have no Styling at all, it's hard to square with other fine hunting weapons, which get a +3 or +4 to Reactions at prices around $10,000-20,000 GURPS.* *If GURPS $3,000 was a rock-bottom price, not including any Styling at all, +3 Reactions would cost at minimum $30,000 and +4 Reactions would cost a minimum of $60,000. This is not reflected in the GURPS prices of the H&H Royal or the Rigby Best Quality Double, they are instead priced more like the basic rifle without Styling (which in this case is name cachet, finish and engraving) ought to cost around $1,000-$1,500. Quote:
I've suggested to the player a double express rifle in .500 (Black Powder) Express with a 3" receiver for general hunting of medium game and for long-range work, a Fine (Accurate) single-barrel in .450, using 110 grains of black powder and a 440+ grain bullet with over 3:1 aspect ratio. Also, he'll naturally buy a Winchester 1876 in .45-75 Winchester and a Bullard Repeating Rifle in .50-115 Bullard. For the very newest weapons in his arsenal, the player is mulling over the possibilities. Since I plan to have weapons that are currently being adopted by an armed force carry a fairly high premium, representing the necessity of offering enough to cause them to divert one rifle to you, it may be that he won't buy a Lebel after all. A Lee in .402 Enfield or an Enfield Martini Mk1 Rifle in .402 with the magazine are both tempting and so are the Mauser IG1871/84 and Mannlicher M1886-88. The first two were not adopted, but quite a few test models were made and buying one that was scheduled to be put into storage or converted to a different chambering would not be difficult for the Colonel. The latter two are service rifles that have just been adopted, but already been superseded by new 1888 models designed to eventually use smokeless powder. Obtaining a couple could be much cheaper than buying a smokeless powder gun and they are the very pinnacle of black powder weapon engineering, incorporating almost all of the principles that smokeless military weapons do.
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12-13-2014, 05:24 PM | #50 | |
Join Date: Aug 2007
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Re: [Adventure Guns] The gun cabinet of a Victorian explorer, hunter, Col. (Ret.)
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I'm not sure of this. It's all terribly arcane but your spherical bullets would come closer to 1/4th of a Troy lb.
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high-tech, victorian, weapons |
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