It's a little hard to conceal in this configuration, and a tad bigger than a spetsdod round, but have a look at the Taser Xrep ...
Future is getting here in a hurry ...
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14 comments:
Question,
Has anyone ever tried to make a spedsdod? And if so, did they shoot themselves in the foot?
Great. Given the number of questionable tasings in the last twelve months, adding to their "shocking" arsenal isn't very settling. Hopefully the boys in blue will get more training on what constitutes a threat and therefore a reason to employ a weapon.
I made a crude version, using the guts from a Daisy CO2 BB pistol.
Air guns and gas guns have been around a long time -- Lewis and Clark had a repeating air rifle with them on their expedition. I have a friend who is an engineer said he could tool up and produce them, if he had a couple million bucks.
Anybody with a shop and some ability with tools could probably make one that shot BBs, pellets, or darts.
I didn't have the touch-sensitive trigger on mine, but that wouldn't be hard to do; a retractable barrel, made like a spring-blade knife, would make it a lot safer, but even so, I didn't shoot myself in the foot ...
I imagine the round will be spendy, but I can see a lot of homeowners who might think it was useful.
Won't go into production until after they test it, and if it works, I expect civilians can buy them, just as they can tasers.
Of course, birdshot would be a lot cheaper, if somewhat more final; still, there are a lot of folks who would prefer less-lethal solutions.
What concerns me is how things will change if tasers become common enough. Sure, a non-lethal weapon is great in theory. But if I'm set upon by, say, _two_ bad guys, I'm hosed. I can tase one, but not both.
Even with only one--how many times can I zap him before the battery runs out? (Or _shoot_ him anew if using the xrep? And will it work if he's already lying on the ground, since it used the "pendulum" action of recoil to set the second barb?)
Given how long it can take the police to show up, I'm not sure that "zap and run" is nearly as effective a deterrent to crime as the risk of being _killed_ by an armed victim.
Oh, I'm not a fan of meeting lethal force with something like a taser or pepper spray. The preferred term these days is "less lethal," not "non-lethal," since people have died after being tased or hit with bean-bag or tear-gas shells.
If somebody is trying to shoot or stab you, lethal force is legally (and for me, morally) justified to stop them.
Five or ten seconds of knockdown with a taser is great if you are a cop with handcuffs and fleet feet; not so good if you are a little old lady at home who doesn't realized that in few seconds, the bad guy is going to get back up under his own power.
I just think the idea of a self-contained zapper is interesting. We're talking high voltage/low amperage, but how possible it is that that the knockdown round could be ramped up to become a more crippling or even fatal shock?
Got to know somebody is thinking along those lines.
In an old Cracked magazine cartoon was a sign that said, "Never hit a man while he's down, he may get up again." While funny, I feel better advice would be, "If your opponent goes down, make sure he stays there."
When I first heard of the H & K G-11 years ago, I started to think that a much smaller version of the round it uses would make a good spedsdod round, particularly if you just mounted the propellant behind the bullet, similar to the Daisy V/L ammo, and didn't go for the complicated two-stage firing. Mount that behind something like a Beeman Silver Sting eight grain, .177 caliber pellet, add electronic firing, and you've got a start. Let's see... collapsible barrel, some sort of fancy trigger mechanism.... Hmm... I may be giving this too much thought.
Hm. Another unadvertised use for Pelican batteries.
Touching back to the orginal stories, do little kids want a spedsdod and are they told that they are going to shoot their eyes out?
Probably little kids want guns as much in the future as they did when I was a lad, and they do now, but I didn't get into child-rearing and that was a deliberate choice.
Kids and dogs are tough to work with, on-stage, on-screen, on the page.
Earl Emerson had a dog in one of his books and when he wanted to get rid of it, his editors wouldn't allow it.
Reaves and I had a dog in Hellstar and at the end, when reality has imploded and the ship is breaking apart, time doing funny things, the only question our editor had was: "What happened to the dog?"
We shrugged. Who cares?
Everybody cares, bucko. Give me a scene showing that the dog survived.
So we did. I'm glad, given as how I became a dog person later and I'd have hated myself for not taking care of the dog.
The more I learn about people, the better I like my dogs ...
I'd think Matadors' kids would be bound to have spedsdods; probably start 'em off with some sort of Nerf rounds. Still, birthday parties would be interesting, wouldn't they? It's been a few years since I thought about how you might make a spedsdod, and as it turns out there are some developments that might be useful, such as very lightweight high-pressure containers (aluminum wound with graphite), small, precise metering valves and the like. I'd go with a floating breech and nitrogen as the propellant, and it would be easy enough to add a laser sight for those of us who aren't quite up to the Matador skill level. You can send me a check anytime, and I'll get right to work...
If you were going to use a gas canister for propellant, as the original spec calls for (!), I'd think about putting not only the charged canister in the magazine, but the metering valve and the rest of the receiver. You'd want to hang on to your magazines when you were done with them, but it would make the rest of the weapon fairly simple.
This isn't quite a spedsdod, either, but it's closer. And from the nineteenth century, no less. Looks like it uses .17 shorts, maybe .22 shorts.
http://bestpicsaround.com/pic-804-Ring-Pistol
Yep, a pin-fire -- see that little flange on the end of the cartridge? Hard to tell caliber, but .177 would be about right for a ring.
No barrel, so it would have to be almost at contact distance, and that close, a knife would be better; still, the cool factor is hight.
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