Realistic Sword Gun design

Yeah!

FF 8 being my first FF game, I was more than hesitant to accept the Mass Effect style gunblades of 13, but looking at the Camo Machete "Edged Carbine"◊ and Batman switchblade "Enkindler"◊ made me think otherwise.

As far as energy-based gun swords go, they seem the most practical.

edited 4th Dec '13 6:01:20 PM by Paktra

And I just realized the Wiza-Sword-gun uses a similar design to the Final Fantasy 13 sword guns.

I should have looked closer.

I can see the mechanical resemblance.

Makes me think they're on to something here...

Enjoy pics of some actually produced prototypes of swordgun weapons back around the time guns weren't as trusted.

Gunhammer◊ Another gunhammer◊ Gunsword◊ GunAXE◊ Gunsaber◊ Gunspear◊

Gunspear was the only one actually practical out of the whole bunch, and actually used for hunting purposes. It had a barrel on each side of the blade, and shot two of them right after stabbing something. Because some boars need just that much overkill to put them down.

Gunspear makes a lot of sense.

Man, Gunswords are pretty hard to make.

Those are SHWEET!

Some more flintlock machetes◊, Gun Cleaver◊, Gun Bowie knife◊, and pretty sweet gunblade forum, Ka-Bar pistol◊, bladed pisol tonfa◊, switchblade brass knuckle pistol◊, and AR chansaw bayonet◊!

EDIT: Redneck rifle lightsaber bayonet◊ and blaster saber◊.

edited 6th Dec '13 11:46:17 AM by Paktra

If I were to do it, I would go with meat cleavers.

More specifically, I would use meat cleavers with a fat top edge, in which would be the barrel. The ammunition would be flares, stacked Roman Candle style into the centre of the handle. Realistically, this would be difficult and impractical, but it sounds plausible enough that you don't need any phlebotinum to justify it.

It's also incredibly lethal to anything in a close to medium range. Think about it, you are literally launching a missile of flaming chemicals into someone. Even a near miss could blind, burn and scar, as well as set fire to whatever else it hit.

Also, I would be sorely surprised to see Meat Cleaver Flare Pistols from an author who hasn't read this thread yet :P.

That Luger-katana looks Awesome Yet Practical! I'm surprised I haven't seen that before, given how much the internet loves katanas.

The folding swords... still look like pretty ridiculously unrealistic swords. :P

I could buy that - especially since the cleaver has a certain Psycho Weapon status, and wielding one that conceals explosive rockets inside the part you hold in your fist just increases that factor.

Thanks, I was pretty stoked when I dug that one up! Here's another◊

VSS Katana Sniper◊ Its just a slick paint job but still...

Holy crap! How many Sword guns did people try to make?

As many as would make "The Cut"...

OOOOOH that's right, I just went there!

edited 7th Dec '13 9:52:05 PM by Paktra

^^ Whenever a gunman felt frustrated by the inability to stab someone, or a swordsman wished they could attack their foe from afar, they happened.

Incidentally, what sort of fighting style did the OP have in mind for their swordsgunmen? Because that would probably be the main influence on their design.

edited 8th Dec '13 8:33:23 AM by Bisected8

That, and available technology and culture system. "Cyborg Katana Vs Steampunk Bowie Knife"

Paktra, that gunblade forum you linked to a few posts back dug up a double-barreled flintlock katar◊.

*_*

edited 8th Dec '13 6:25:13 PM by Noaqiyeum

Wicked! Voldo◊, Zhang He◊, and Kiros◊ would be proud!

And yes... they're all dudes

Can I just say that all those designs make my practical side shudder. You're ending up with a design that's not optimized for shooting or stabbing.

I notice someone posted the objection earlier that bayonets wouldn't qualify due to the blade being too short. I beg to differ. For additional fun, mount that bastard onto a shortened gun like a Mosin-Nagant M/44 carbine.

The justification for sword bayonets was that in the late 19th century, the "cold iron" school of military thinking—the ones that didn't see much difference between the breechloaders of WWI and the muskets of Napoleon's day—thought that battles would still be decided at the point of the bayonet; given that, a longer bayonet would give the infantryman more reach. There was even a minor arms race going on between the different powers, until battlefield experience proved that it was a moot point anyway against accurate and voluminous fire.

Well, that much is obvious... they are the worst of both worlds.

But, you are correct about sword bayonets (emphasis on the "sword"◊ part). And while they would most effective, they also detachable which wold disqualify them from being what we're looking for... blades as guns or guns in blades.

I don't know who said they would be too short...

edited 10th Dec '13 11:35:35 AM by Paktra

The Luger-katana had a detachable blade. It was just oriented in an un-bayonet-like position. :P

I think the point about bayonets not counting was that they're usually mounted on long-barreled weapons and hence become more of a gun-polearm than a gun-sword.

edited 10th Dec '13 12:33:48 PM by Noaqiyeum

Upon closer inspection, the blade of the katana◊ seems to fit where the magazine of the Nambu(pistol), would slot in. So.... either the gun is simply a custom non-firing hilt or, the firing mechanism, mag, and, trigger could be swapped for the blade.

Ether way, its disqualified.

See, there's the thing. Assuming the engineers have time to tinker with the design for a while, there's going to be a strong pressure to make the components detachable. There are a lot of obvious advantages for doing so, starting with the ability to field-strip it to clean the firearm component (would you want to clean the barrel of the firearm component with a big sharp blade pointed at your eye, or, alternatively, stuck into the ground with the blade now needing resharpening?) and optimizing the weapon for one role or another as required.

That said. The Web Archive has a PDF copy of The Great War of 189—, written in 1895, trying to predict how the next war might turn out. One of the more fanciful weapons they came up with was a cavalry lance with a single-shot firearm built along the haft, which gave Russian Cossack lancers a small tactical advantage against Austro-Hungarian Uhlans at the charge. That might form the basis of some weapon or another.

edited 10th Dec '13 2:46:56 PM by SabresEdge

Would a fixed bayonet on a Hand Cannon with a Telescoping Staff as it's stock still be too gun pole-arm for your purposes?

So I just stumbled across another design that could work:

Mega Man Zx and it's design for the Z buster / Saber◊.

Of course, this is only good for an energy sword, but I still like it.

To ask a stupid question: Does a weapon have to expel a solid projectile in order to be considered a gun?

If not, you could have a design like a Final Fantasy Gunblade, and rather than the explosion adding to cutting power (or what ever the ridiculous in-game explanation for such a horribly designed weapon was), the weapon could fire essentially blanks, which would expel the heated gas out of/near the blade, giving you effectively a pseudo-lightsaber (without the light...or control).

It might be usefully against an opponent/target who has defenses against physical assault but not heat. (Hey, it worked in the Dresden Files).

I believe I've already said that the Final Fantasy 13 style gunblades do have energy projectiles.

Also what you're thinking of is a combination of a Vibro Weapon and a Hot Blade.

edited 11th Mar '16 4:15:34 AM by Paktra

Look up the Qualta Blade from Farscape.

http://farscape.wikia.com/wiki/Qualta_Blade

edited 11th Mar '16 5:28:18 PM by pwiegle