[Ultra-Tech] Bioplas Guns?

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by Varyon

A search didn't find prior discussions of this, but would Smart Bioplastic (UT170) be a suitable material to make firearms out of?

Sure, assuming its heat stable and isn't so brittle that it fractures due to chamber pressure.

I see no reason why you couldn't come up with some bioplas firearms, except for the fact that lower weight realistically means higher Rcl unless you come up with some advanced recoil reduction system (e.g., a counterweight shooting forward just before the gun fires, like on some modern artillery).

Bioplas weapons are likely to have an early advantage at evading sensors, but presumably sensor technology will catch up, limiting bonuses to evade scans.

Originally Posted by Varyon

If doable, there would be many advantages of bioplas guns. Their self-repairing nature would likely reduce maintenance requirements.

It wouldn't reduce the need for cleaning, however, and if the bioplas isn't as rugged as metal or ultratech ceramics, there might be a limit to the number of consecutive shots you can fire before the gun needs to "heal." You can push the limits, but at a risk of your gun blowing up. For a UT gun, there would probably be a smart sensor system to detect material failures, however, and possibly an auto shutdown beyond a certain failure percentage.

Originally Posted by Varyon

They would be readily collapsible, making use of their nature as memory materials, making them easy to conceal and carry around

You could base this idea on the Cannibal Nanotech gadgets from Ultratech as well as magical/superscience convertible gadgets.

Originally Posted by Varyon

One serious drawback I can see to using bioplas is that, if I'm calculating things right, it appears that it has roughly 1/10th the weight of steel.

You could build them like modern automobile engines are built, with a few critical parts like the barrel being made of rugged metal or ceramics surrounding by bioplas (taking the place of the aluminum engine block). Legal bioplas guns might be required to have some non-bioplas parts for safety or sensor detection. You wouldn't get quite the weight and space savings as pure bioplas, however.

Originally Posted by Varyon

*The bullets are an obvious one here. Ceramic bullets would potentially be doable, but would probably have low damage due to their density and be frangible; bioplas bullets might also be an option, still suffering reduced damage but probably not frangible.

Clay bullets were used historically, but quickly abandoned for the reasons you mentioned. There's no reason why you couldn't have self-forging bullets made from high density bioplas or liquid metal, however. Even the ability to alter bullet shape would be an advantage for shooters, since you could program the gun to shoot any mix of AP, Frangible, HP, etc. ammo you wanted.