forever gun book 4

THE FOREVER GUN BOOK 4

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note: Family Dollar, after the last reported dead battery fiasco, continues its fine tradition of racing to the bottom by discontinuing its affordable toilet paper.  Well, at least they are currently having a sale on summer footwear.  I got two sets of soccer sliders at half price.
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BP & ARCHERY

Obviously, after a few seconds of thought, you’ll know it is impossible to ever be unarmed.  Prisoners can find the smallest bit of metal and turn it into a “shiv” ( a homemade knife for those who’ve never read a book or watched a movie, or fuzzy foreigners who have little to no idea what in the bloody hell us Yanks are yammering on about-and, yes, I forgive you for calling me a Yankee as you know not of what blasphemy you speak ).  Deposited naked in the wilderness, some of you might be able to knap a rock and create a spear.  In the ruins of our civilization you shall be able to find a twenty-five cents paring knife, remove the handle and make a much better spear.  Bows are merely a matter of finding the right wood and a LOT of practice, both to construct and utilize.  If you inhabit a desolate area, you could do a lot worse ( IF you have the aptitude and the fortitude ) than living a Stone Age existence.  Any better armed intruder won’t be able to match your woodcraft and you can ambush him easily.

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For the rest of us civilized folk who enjoy the company of others, the other side of the coin of society is our fellow man acting badly.  You need to be well armed to dissuade anti-social behaviors.  In this case, what kind of weapon takes on significantly more importance.  You can’t arm yourself in too inferior a manner, even if tactics and terrain make a difference.   For instance, in a defensive position black powder firearms, utilized in bulk behind earthworks, are not as disadvantaged as when mobile-at least not if the enemy has smokeless arms.  In the eastern seaboard area, dense and lush growth in the mountains put invaders at a disadvantage and being armed with a flintlock, given your knowledge of the area and practice navigating it, doesn’t automatically work against you tactically. 

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So, if your situation allows it, a black powder flintlock isn’t the worst choice for a Forever Gun.  It does have to be flintlock, because if you are buying percussion caps you might as well just stick with modern smokeless arms.  The cost of a small pistol primer and a charge of pistol powder is barely over the cost of a percussion cap.  Why handicap yourself if you don’t need to?  And to be clear, you will NOT be able to manufacture your own caps.  It is possible.  Anything is possible.  Hell, if we see an ELE ( extinction level event ), you might actually be one of the whole ten thousand humans globally to survive.  It certainly is as probable as you making modern arms components at a cottage industry level.  The real challenge with a flintlock is going to be keeping the moving parts from breaking, or replacing/repairing them, not making black powder.  And reproduction flintlocks are FAR from affordable.  Expect to spend closer to a grand than to a few hundred bucks. 

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It is feasible to use a flintlock as a Forever Gun, but not recommended.  I’d advise using the same amount of money to buy reloading components for the rifle you already have.  Sometime in the future, flintlocks might be the weapons of the new superpowers ( being defined, of course, as much smaller than today since surplus energy is needed for transportation ), but for now they are very problematic compared to what you could be using or what your opponents will be using against you.  The original concept of the Forever Gun still stands.  All things being equal, it is far better tactically to employ even a smaller smokeless round against a bigger black powder one.  All other things being equal being the telling phrase here.

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Archery is great for hunting, and I include crossbows here if you need to bypass the training issue, and have zero issues ( or near enough, in the case of the crossbows given their need for metal.  It should be some time before salvage gives out ) with the “forever” part.  Alas, they blow monkey chunks compared to firearms.  Before gunpowder, you had two basic types of weapons, far back into antiquity when metal was first used in arms.  You had missile weapons and you had shock weapons.  Missiles utilized distance but you usually, baring luck, needed multiple hits for a casualty ( or, much time for a bleed-out.  In organized combat, time was usually a factor ).  They had inferior stopping power, in other words.  Shock weapons incapacitated your enemy nearly instantaneously.  Nothing like a chopped off leg or a bashed in skull to stop the attack.  But you were TOO close and hence it was a very dangerous practice.

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Firearms changed that equation, which was the only reason they were revolutionary ( otherwise, they just would have been another missile weapon that needed less training and hence allowed the peasantry to be drafted into a more effective force ).  A bullet at powder induced velocity acts as a shock weapon.  With the distance of a missile weapon.  You combine both advantages into one weapon, AND you need far less training for your troops.  And shoulder arms are relatively lower tech.  And relatively affordable.  Needing ten thousands of them, that was another matter that forced governments to grow to evolve with the finances needed, but you couldn’t NOT build a gunpowder army if you wanted to survive.  And archery weapons were pretty close to zero competition.  If you like military history, check out “The Imjin War”.  The military contrast between the two was briefly covered.  Just note that the Russian Empire finally overcame the nomadic horsemen archers only after arming with firearms.

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Archery has a place, but not on the near future battlefield.  It is a Forever Weapon, but not a Forever Gun.  It wouldn’t hurt to know how to make bows and arrows, but hope that you can always have a real gun, even black powder, instead.

The price is the best-basically free, but the price tactically is unacceptable.

END

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