Modern Monster Hunting Guns [XM500, MICOR Leader 50, etc.]

[dcarson]

I'd also have a paintball gun and the kit to custom load balls. Lots of things you want the right chemicals for.

[Tenex]

Originally Posted by adm

box fed shotguns strike me as the best solution.
If you are going after a dragon, get .50 BMG or one of the 20mm options.

Beat me to it on the shotgun suggestion. By the way, a 12 gauge shotgun is roughly .73 caliber. There's a good amount of space in a 12 gauge slug to drill it out and put in your additive of choice if you handload.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Tenex

Beat me to it on the shotgun suggestion. By the way, a 12 gauge shotgun is roughly .73 caliber. There's a good amount of space in a 12 gauge slug to drill it out and put in your additive of choice if you handload.

This is very true.

Shotguns are also easily available to most PCs, fairly inexpensive and simple to operate. Not to mention the versatility.

Whenever PCs in my campaigns become aware of the existence of supernatural threats, shotguns are usually the first weapons they acquire.

Large bore carbines are upgrades from shotguns mostly because of higher magazine capacities and the ability to carry about two times more rounds per pound of encumbrance. At least one person per monster hunting team still generally carries a shotgun, as a breaching device and to deliver larger payloads.

Unlike almost any other commercially available modern ammunition, hollow-point or hollow base shotgun slugs are large enough to fit a wooden stake that might actually transfix a vampire heart effectively. There is something to be said for every hunter going after vampires where a good staking is absolutely necessary carrying a short, pistol-gripped shotgun loaded with specialty hollow cavity stake slugs for finishing shots at close range.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by dcarson

I'd also have a paintball gun and the kit to custom load balls. Lots of things you want the right chemicals for.

That's certainly an interesting option for substances that affect supernatural threats on contact, as opposed to needing to get inside their bodies. So it works with holy water, probably not with silver nitrate, may or may not work with something like garlic or wolfsbane.

[Tenex]

Off topic for this thread, but if you want to get creative with chemicals a repressurized fire extinguisher or bear spray canister filled with your favorite monster poison could be an effective delivery system.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Tenex

Off topic for this thread, but if you want to get creative with chemicals a repressurized fire extinguisher or bear spray canister filled with your favorite monster poison could be an effective delivery system.

A flamethrower that works with unthickened fuel would work with holy water too. :)

Eh, the vampires probably wouldn't let you get within range with a regular flamethrower though that's who the disguised Russian one might work on.

Now demons might laugh as you approached them with a flamethrower.

[mr beer]

Shotguns are a good delivery system for silver shot. There's no need for expensive bespoke craftsmanship of the sort that might be required for silver bullets. In a pinch, even a novice could cut up bits of silver and put them in shotgun cartridges, not saying that would be a great idea but better than nothing for silver-allergic vampires.

[tanksoldier]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

I do think the 20 round double column magazine looks like a small loaf of bread and isn't likely to fit your LBV very well. Still, if you want to maximize boom-power this might be a serious candidate.

They fit in any mag pouch that will fit two regular AR mags, or they’re supposed to....

Originally Posted by Tenex

Beat me to it on the shotgun suggestion. By the way, a 12 gauge shotgun is roughly .73 caliber. There's a good amount of space in a 12 gauge slug to drill it out and put in your additive of choice if you handload.

“Dragons breath” rounds don’t work as described in Hi Tech, there are videos on YouTube. It’s not a 3 second fountain, it’s a single burst of flaming projectiles like burning shot... and hollow slugs which can be filled with explosive or other substance and topped with a shotgun primer are easily available....as are shotgun blank rounds.

You probably wouldn’t want to put the explosive slugs in a standard tube magazine but one of the stick magazine conversions... and smokeless powder equivalent to 1/4 oz of black powder in volume would make a target sit up and notice.

Effectiveness may be debatable but in theory Fire, explosive and wooden stake projectiles are easily acquired even in a realistic game... as is silver shot as mentioned above.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by tanksoldier

You probably wouldn’t want to put the explosive slugs in a standard tube magazine but one of the stick magazine conversions... and smokeless powder equivalent to 1/4 oz of black powder in volume would make a target sit up and notice.

Can you fit 1/4 oz. of anything interesting as payload into the volume of a shotgun slug?

I mean, 1 1/4 oz. of lead, which is a fairly typical solid lead alloy slug, only takes up a total volume equal to a tiny fraction of an ounce of water or any explosive or other payload with a similar density. Even if 100% of the projectile weight was payload, it wouldn't amount to even 1/8 oz., and it's not as if anywhere close to 100% of the projectile can be payload.

[Tenex]

Originally Posted by Icelander

Can you fit 1/4 oz. of anything interesting as payload into the volume of a shotgun slug?

I mean, 1 1/4 oz. of lead, which is a fairly typical solid lead alloy slug, only takes up a total volume equal to a tiny fraction of an ounce of water or any explosive or other payload with a similar density. Even if 100% of the projectile weight was payload, it wouldn't amount to even 1/8 oz., and it's not as if anywhere close to 100% of the projectile can be payload.

It would be more difficult, but you could extend a shotgun shell length (in the old days they were made out of paper). You could then fit it in a double barreled breech loading shotgun. An extended shell wouldn't fit in a Remington 870 or a box magazine, but there's no reason you couldn't put one in a breach loader.

I doubt it would blow up in your face if you kept the weight the same, but perhaps someone with more physics can opine on the effect of more volume. I leave it to someone else to conduct the real world experiment.