Browning hi power

[Mark Mohrfield]

I’ve often thought that this pistol would be useful to investigators due to it’s large ammunition capacity relative to other period sidearms. Does anyone know when it became available to the general public?

[SDLeary]

I believe that it was available to civilians in the year of its release, 1935; or shortly thereafter. I see no reference stating that it was available for military sales only.

SDLeary

[Guest Vile Traveller]

In the US firearms restrictions didn't really begin until the mid-30s, and only applied to short-barrelled shotguns and rifles, machine guns, firearm mufflers and silencers, and some other specific weapons.

[SDLeary]

Also remember though, this is a European firearm. While it may have been available in Europe, that doesn't mean that it was available in the US. I see that Canadian manufacture was set up in the early 40s, but that was a War concern... and apparently to assist in fulfilling Chinese contracts.

SDLeary

[Guest Vile Traveller]

2 hours ago, SDLeary said:

While it may have been available in Europe, that doesn't mean that it was available in the US.

Interesting, according to the Browning website the Hi Power didn't make it to the US until 1954! I presume a certain Mr. Colt had something to do with that. Yet another reason for those investigators to nip off to Europe for a bit of shopping (may as well pick up a Mauser Schnellfeuer while they're there).

Edited September 6, 2022 by Vile Traveller

[Mark Mohrfield]

Would they have been available via import, presumably at a more expensive price?

Edited September 6, 2022 by Mark Mohrfield

[SDLeary]

7 minutes ago, Mark Mohrfield said:

Would they have been available via import, presumably at a more expesive price?

Why not! Whether or not it was in the real world is irrelevant! 😉

SDLeary

[Mark Mohrfield]

12 minutes ago, SDLeary said:

Why not! Whether or not it was in the real world is irrelevant! 😉

SDLeary

Good answer, especially since I’ll probably be using the Pulp rules.

[SDLeary]

3 minutes ago, Mark Mohrfield said:

Good answer, especially since I’ll probably be using the Pulp rules.

In fact, if you are Evil™ like me, you might want to say that not only did it cost more, but that there was some... "special handling involved in getting it into the country. Oh, and don't get arrested with it!"

SDLeary

[svensson]

At the beginning of the Great Depression in the US, it was still legal for private citizens to own fully automatic firearms, such as BARs and Thompson SMGs. They could not own belt-fed, tripod-mounted MGs. The first nation-wide licensing of firearms and restrictions to ownership began with the Federal Firearms Act of 1938.

As for the Browning Hi-Power itself, there are in-game arguments for and against. There's no denying that having a lot of rounds in the magazine is a good thing, but there are quite a few Mythos creatures that are highly resistant firearms damage. You need a large number of damage dice to get past that resistance, if it's even possible at all. This is why a lot of CoC characters really like the shotgun over pistols and rifles generally. My advice, get you a Winchester 1897 trench gun. Nothing says 'EFF YOU and all your friends' like a pump-action 12 gauge with 2 ft. long bayonet on the end of it.

As for 'evil'.... You guys keep saying 'evil' like there's something wrong with it or something. An awful lot of what we define as 'evil' is just the shit you do that would embarrass you if your momma found out about it... 😁🤣😂

PS: There IS one thing that says 'Eff you and all your friends' better than Model 97... but the China Lake pump action 40mm grenade launcher [aka 'Sooper-Bloop'] wasn't invented until the Vietnam War.

 

Edited September 7, 2022 by svensson

[AlHazred]

For Mythos beasties, get yourself a decent-but-not-pretty used trench gun and use Dragon's Breath rounds. The rounds replace the shot with exothermic metals like magnesium, so it basically becomes a gout of flame and shrapnel. It's recommended to use only single-shot breech-loading trench guns for this, because having a full loadout of Dragon's Breath rounds that "cook off" when the magazine gets too hot is not conducive to Investigator longevity.

Edited September 7, 2022 by AlHazred

[Guest Vile Traveller]

23 minutes ago, AlHazred said:

It's recommended to use only single-shot breech-loading trench guns for this, because having a full loadout of Dragon's Breath rounds that "cook off" when the magazine gets too hot is not conducive to Investigator longevity.

<pedantry> Technically a "trench gun" is a pump-action shotgun fitted with a bayonet mount and a perforated barrel shroud. Single- or double-barrelled break-open shotguns are not included. </pedantry> 😉

[Agentorange]

16 hours ago, svensson said:

 

It really does have a " don't f**k with me" quality to it........

[svensson]

18 hours ago, Vile Traveller said:

<pedantry> Technically a "trench gun" is a pump-action shotgun fitted with a bayonet mount and a perforated barrel shroud. Single- or double-barrelled break-open shotguns are not included. </pedantry> 😉

"Uh, sar? Leftenant, sar? Yer Purdys tain't gonna help you much, Leftenant Archibald. Not wit th' Willys 'cross No Man's Land using those bloody kugelspitze contraptions. Wot say we gitcha some proper killin' iron, eh?"

Edited September 8, 2022 by svensson

[svensson]

I got a couple PM's on what a 'China Lake sooper-blooper' is.

During the Vietnam War, USN Special Warfare [the SEALS] issued a requirement for a man-portable repeating grenade launcher that fired the standard 40mm grenade of the M79 single shot GL. After some trial and error, the engineers at the China Lake Weapons Test Center submitted their prototype. It got rave reviews. Essentially a 'grenade launching shotgun', the China Lake GL held one round in the barrel and three in a tube magazine. A skilled operator could fire all four rounds before the first one landed on the target. Somewhere between 20 and 30 of the weapons were made.

Just a little something to add to your Delta Green character's letter to Santa 😁

Information link below:

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

PS: No, I've never fired one before. I've never even SEEN one before. My personal military experience starts with Reagan. For that matter, I only found out about the all-too-short existence of these beauties in the last three years or so. My home state would take a VERY dim view of such a device in private hands. But it'd be fun as Hell while it lasted! 🤣😁😂

 

 

Edited September 8, 2022 by svensson

[SDLeary]

Doesn't seem to like training rounds...

SDLeary

 

 

[svensson]

50 minutes ago, SDLeary said:

Doesn't seem to like training rounds...

SDLeary

 

 

This one is remake... made by a different company from the original plans.

There were a few, um, bugs...

[AlHazred]

After 1961, my Investigator characters always try to get their hands on the BGADS, better known as the Davy Crockett.

[Mark Mohrfield]

5 hours ago, AlHazred said:

After 1961, my Investigator characters always try to get their hands on the BGADS, better known as the Davy Crockett.

Ask a question about a high-capacity semi-automatic pistol and get replies about shotguns, grenade launchers and nuclear weapons. Talk about escalation!

[EricW]

Just give them a Browning 1911 specially chambered for .45. There were tons of them around after WW1, and they can always change magazine if they need more shots, or even have a special magazine made. 

People were tinkerers back then, so no problem with the availability of modified kit.

[svensson]

On 9/8/2022 at 11:19 AM, Mark Mohrfield said:

Ask a question about a high-capacity semi-automatic pistol and get replies about shotguns, grenade launchers and nuclear weapons. Talk about escalation!

In my defense, I justified the shotgun for sound CoC in game reasons... 😁

[Guest Vile Traveller]

To be honest, a lot of the early Cold War man-portable nuclear weapons really had no practical application other than the Mythos - read into that what you will ... 🐙

Edited September 12, 2022 by Vile Traveller

[svensson]

On 9/12/2022 at 5:30 AM, Vile Traveller said:

To be honest, a lot of the early Cold War man-portable nuclear weapons really had no practical application other than the Mythos - read into that what you will ... 🐙

And here's the thing about Mr. Nuka-Crockett....

You could fire that thing at maximum charge and you'd STILL be inside the instantly lethal radiation zone, if not the actual blast radius, when the SOB went off.

So, yeah, unless it's Cthulhu his-frikkin'-self at the end of that trajectory, you can bet that Mrs. Hicks' Little Boy IS NOT pulling the lanyard on it. It ain't much of a face, but it's the one my momma give me and I'd kinda like to keep it.

[AlHazred]

11 hours ago, svensson said:

You could fire that thing at maximum charge and you'd STILL be inside the instantly lethal radiation zone, if not the actual blast radius, when the SOB went off.

This isn't completely accurate. The firing range of the M28 Davy Crockett was 1.25 miles; the M29 version increased this to 2.5 miles. They fired the M388 nuclear round which contained a W54 Mod 2 nuclear warhead; this thing only had a yield of 20 tons, as opposed to the 21 kilotons of Fat Man and 15 kilotons of Little Boy. The M388 had an instantly lethal radiation dosage (in excess of 10,000 rem) within 500 feet, and a probably fatal dose (around 600 rem) within a quarter mile. The blast radius was somewhat larger, but still fell short of the range given above. Of course, it was always possible to accidentally fire the round short, but that's not following the manufacturer's requirements and so voids the warranty.

[Butters]

I think the Harrods catalogue from 1912 has been scanned and is a crazy good resource for items that are around from guns to fire extinguisher grenades. 

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/61985/61985-h/61985-h.htm

 

The Gutenberg was slow to load for me but it seems to be available on other sites.

Edited September 14, 2022 by Butters