Wapsi Square Forum

FreeFlier wrote:If memory serves, punt guns were usually about eight feet long, and didn't have actual shoulder stocks.

I want to build one someday.

--FreeFlier

Donald Hamilton's Western novel The Two-Shoot Gun describes something that sounds a lot like a punt gun The gunsmith who owns it says he loads it with a dram of powder in each barrel, as i recall (been years since last i read it) - i forget what shot load he describes - then take it down to the local lake while migration is going on, fires both barrels and harvests enough waterfowl to meet his needs, plus a lot left over to sell to the local hotel dining room.

It's eventually used as a riot-control device...

{Great line from an Amazon review of the above: "Beware the man with only one gun. He probably knows how to use it."}

I suspect that what actually happened was that the rounds went through the walls, and not the door. here we see that the chair is actually perpendicular to the door. Which means, if the rounds DID come from that direction, they did so at a very acute or obtuse angle. This is reinforced in the next strip where we don't see any bullet holes.

So, my theory is this: They're renting out the place, they didn't have time to tear out all the load-bearing walls and replace them with metal-reinforced, just install the panic-door (which is probably also attached to a screamer somewhere in MIB). The rounds in the chair came from very near the side wall, possibly from that corner, screaming in at a very obtuse angle. However, because of the funky angle, it's not going to look like a through-and-through unless you look at it at just the right angle, so looking right at the door, you see a metal door slammed shut, and some holes that don't have any light shining through them and don't look like they penetrated. So the OPFOR bugs, assuming the walls are also reinforced.

ShneekeyTheLost wrote:So, my theory is this: They're renting out the place, they didn't have time to tear out all the load-bearing walls and replace them with metal-reinforced, just install the panic-door (which is probably also attached to a screamer somewhere in MIB). The rounds in the chair came from very near the side wall, possibly from that corner, screaming in at a very obtuse angle. However, because of the funky angle, it's not going to look like a through-and-through unless you look at it at just the right angle, so looking right at the door, you see a metal door slammed shut, and some holes that don't have any light shining through them and don't look like they penetrated.

"Yeah, we're not getting that damage deposit back."

AnotherFairportfan wrote:

FreeFlier wrote:If memory serves, punt guns were usually about eight feet long, and didn't have actual shoulder stocks.

I want to build one someday.

Donald Hamilton's Western novel The Two-Shoot Gun describes something that sounds a lot like a punt gun The gunsmith who owns it says he loads it with a dram of powder in each barrel, as i recall (been years since last i read it) - i forget what shot load he describes - then take it down to the local lake while migration is going on, fires both barrels and harvests enough waterfowl to meet his needs, plus a lot left over to sell to the local hotel dining room. . . .

AFAIK punt guns were usually single-barrel, though market gunners sometimes had more than one in a punt.

And he definitely used more than a dram of powder . . . mild 2-3/4 inch target loads are 2-3/4 dram (equivalent).

Some of those standardized gauges are scary . . . It's tempting to claim that the AA was so named because it was an Anti-Aircraft weapon!

--FreeFlier

Hodgson's Law, people.

I don't know that reference.

Alkarii wrote:I don't know that reference.

Lmgtfy

Wow, that site has changed since I used it last. It's been a while since I had an opportunity to pull this one out on someone...

Yeah, I'd actually been avoiding Google lately, because any time I click a result, the page has trouble loading. This is probably due in part to my phone's internet speed being greatly reduced after using so much high speed data.

It also will do this very annoying thing where a page will have loaded completely, and then, moments AFTER it finishes loading it will be replaced with an error screen, saying "We're having trouble displaying this page right now.". As in, after it has already displayed the page.

I tried using Google to keep up with the election, but pages wouldn't load at all.

Edit: Yeah, it just sends me to TV Tropes, which I have only gotten to load on my phone maybe twice.

GlytchMeister wrote:

Alkarii wrote:I don't know that reference.

Lmgtfy

Wow, that site has changed since I used it last. It's been a while since I had an opportunity to pull this one out on someone...

Good ol' Google-

http://www.hodgsonlawoffices.com/

What?

Tv tropes calls it the MST3K mantra, which is "it's just a show, I should really just relax"

Yeah, it actually did load after a while, I just forgot to mention that. I've been a little busy today.

Following up on the Depleted Uranium as firearm rounds, Wikipedia had a headline speaking on the naming of some Trans-Uranium Elements...

The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry announces official names for recently discovered superheavy elements nihonium (113), moscovium (115), tennessine (117), and oganesson (118).

Which led to...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nihonium
Which led to...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transactinide_element
Which led to...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Period_7_element
and led to... and led to...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island_of_stability

jwhouk wrote:Hodgson's Law, people.

I don't know about the others, but I'm an engineer . . . this is how I enjoy myself.

--FreeFlier

TazManiac wrote:Following up on the Depleted Uranium as firearm rounds, Wikipedia had a headline speaking on the naming of some Trans-Uranium Elements...

The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry announces official names for recently discovered superheavy elements nihonium (113), moscovium (115), tennessine (117), and oganesson (118).

Which led to...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nihonium
Which led to...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transactinide_element
Which led to...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Period_7_element
and led to... and led to...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island_of_stability

That's pretty much the start of the chain of thought Dave and I had when we were working on figuring out a workable system for the Vimana Cells. Haven't had an opportunity to mention it in the stories yet, but we spent more than a few days hammering it out. I'm quite proud of it.

Basically, an element that gets so heavy that it doesn't give off any radiation?

jwhouk wrote:Basically, an element that gets so heavy that it doesn't give off any radiation?

No; transuranics that have half-lives in days/months/years instead of microseconds.

jwhouk wrote:Hodgson's Law, people.

I was going to equate that to the Hilbert Hotel, but unfortunately there does not seem to be a hotel by that name anywhere in reality. Not even in Hilbert, Wisconsin.

(Hilbert's Hotel does exist as a thought experiment, and it's rather interesting... but as a review of a BBC TV show about it ends, Warning: this film could make your brain hurt.)

Warrl wrote:

jwhouk wrote:Hodgson's Law, people.

I was going to equate that to the Hilbert Hotel, but unfortunately there does not seem to be a hotel by that name anywhere in reality. Not even in Hilbert, Wisconsin.

(Hilbert's Hotel does exist as a thought experiment, and it's rather interesting... but as a review of a BBC TV show about it ends, Warning: this film could make your brain hurt.)

I thought that might be what that was.