What are magnums? I thought they referred to high powered pistol rounds, but I'm not sure. And what's a monowire? What's the science behind their deadliness?

Well, monowire is basically a high-tensile strength "bucky" tube of sorts. It is only a few atoms thick and thus acts like a hot lightsaber through flesh as it's incredibly small surface area multiplies any force applied to it a few thousand fold (think darn near infinitely sharp knife).
Almost useless against barriers though.

Magnum comes from latin 'magnus' (grand, big or great) and refer either to a format of bottle (usually champagne) or to ammunication calibers, the more commonly known being .357 Magnum .44 Magnum and .338 Lapua Magnum. That's a way to say to customers that it's bigger than the other (IIRC .357 Magnum is basically a modified, bigger .38 Special ammo).

But what's a bucky tube?

Sorry, a Bucky tube is a form of nano-construct currently being experimented with today, it will likely form the foundation for the composite materials of tomorrow, like new nano enhanced body armor, space station construction materials, etc.

It is composed of carbon atoms if I recall, is around 20 times the strength of steel and in general costs a ton to make currently.

Fullerene or Buckminster-Fullerene are molecules where carbon atoms are organized in simple, regular, geometric form (triangle, pentagon, hexagon...) that 'pave' a structure, the same way a D20 is made of 20 triangle-shaped faces. You talk of buckytube when they make a tube, Buckysphere when they make a sphere. They have some interesting properties, and their specific shape can be used to build nano-mecanism. Prior to them, the only carbon structure known were graphite and diamond. They were named after Richard Buckminster Fuller, an architect famous for his geodesic domes.

'Magnum' is one of those words used by arms and ammo manufactures to sell a new cartridge. In today world velocity sells and Magnum implies more velocity. Now there are the Ultra Magnums by Remington, more velocity it what they’re selling.

Just remember your shoulders and wrists guys. Those things start to get annoying pretty quick. Probably more annoying on the other end, but I'm just a wuss sometimes.

Raygun could go into more detail but magnum bullets were developed in the late 19th century. They had a bigger propellant charge meaning they carryed more energy into their target. They were originally designed for big game hunters inn long arms. The name Magnum, was given because they were BIG, and expensive and so were given the same name as a big bottle of champagne. The bullets are physically larger than round of the same caliber so they had to be used in guns specifically chambered for them.

The long arms never really caught on, they were expensive, heavy and big game hunting was dying out and the rifles were too damn big for military use, also they were designed for 1 shot 1 kill take downs, not the mass consuption fire of ww1 battlefields were MG's and SMG's were becoming the dominate line of development and even bolt action rifles were firing 15-20 rounds a minute.

Hand guns with a kick however became far more popular as a back ups. not just on the batle filed but among outdoorsmen where a big pistol could be a lifesaver in areas like the rockies or Alaska with large wildlife like bears. That kept the industry around until law enforcement in the 1920's wanted bigger guns to deal with gangsters.

I think the Ruger Superwarhawk, doing more damage with its standard load than other heavy pistols is supposed to represent this.

The Magnum idea is also starting to leak over into other weapons under the name "+P". It's basically an established caliber (9mm, for example), with the bullet mass shrunk and more propellant packed in.

Only problem is that some guns can, quite literally, not take the forces. I don't know if any have actually exploded, but I know it's a concern.

That's not a magnum. A magnum bullet involves lengthening the cartridge while leaving the bullet the same size, allowing more propellant to be packed behind it. +P and +P+ rounds are just variants of the same caliber ammunition designed to operate with higher chamber pressures (hence P), resulting in higher velocities.

I know they aren't magnum. It's somewhat of the same idea being brought over.

Thank you for clarifying my horribly mushy statement.

"Magnum" and "+P" are two completely different things. As has already been said, "magnum" relates to a larger capacity case for a particular type of bullet. There's more room to put either more powder or a bigger bullet in. "Magnum" means bigger case, "+P" simply means more pressure.

Like a magnum, more powder is stuffed into the cartridge case of a +P load in order to increase its ballistic performance, only the cartridge case isn't made any bigger or longer. It is possible to make .357 Magnum +P or .44 Magnum +P loads. Lowering the bullet's weight isn't a prerequisite for +P, though typically lighter than normal bullets are use in order to maximize powder capacity and thus velocity and kinetic energy. The problem with increasing pressure, as moosegod said, is that evenually something will fail. Not only are you loading the cartridge beyond its intended pressure envelope, you're usually introducing the gun firing it to pressures it wasn't designed to handle. In other words, you're increasing the risk of the gun blowing up in your face for a marginal increase in ballistic performance.

9mm Para
124 grain (8.0 g) FMJ
Muzzle Velocity (4" barrel): 1150 fps (350 m/s)
Muzzle Energy: 364 fpe (493 j)

9mm Para +P
115 grain (7.45 g) FMJ
Muzzle Velocity (4" barrel): 1350 fps (350 m/s)
Muzzle Energy: 465 fpe (630 j)

.44 Magnum
240 grain (15.5 g) JSP
Muzzle Velocity (6" barrel): 1180 fps (359 m/s)
Muzzle Energy: 742 fpe (1106 j)

.44 Magnum +P (Garrett Hammerhead)
330 grain (21.3 g) JSP
Muzzle Velocity (6" barrel): 1383 fps (421 m/s)
Muzzle Energy: 1401 fpe (1899 j)

While the British began developing large, blackpowder rifle cartridges for use on dangerous African game in the latter half of the 19th century (called "express" cartridges), the term "magnum" in reference to firearms was not popularized until about 1912, when Holland & Holland introduced the .375 H&H Magnum, a smokeless powder rifle cartridge with a belted case designed for dangerous game hunting. The term was used exclusively for rifle cartridges until 1935, when Smith & Wesson introduced the .357 Magnum.

EDIT: The +P correction was made by someone else while I was writing this up.

There are firearms designed to handle +P or +P+ rounds, such as the H&K USP. Some parts in the gun will wear out faster, of course.

EDIT - now that I think of it, there's a Magnum we haven't discussed...

I always thought +p was a risky idea. There's nothing keeping someone from dropping a 38 special +P into a gun designed for regular 38 special pressures and blowing the gun up. There is no quickway to tell the difference without looking at the head stamp.

Darwin Rules! It's a self blanacing scenario.

What are you going to do with it? To big to really carry, even the 4" barrel version is going to give you back problem on your hip. The heaviest version is over 5lbs. You can get a Rem. mountain rifle in 30-06 for only another 1.5 or so. Its big but short of pistol season for Elk I can't think of much else practical to do with it.

Maybe intimidate the local troll gangers??


mcb

It's not for practicality. Like the Desert Eagle, it's a horrible weapon but a great, ahem, compensator.

It's a shitload more practical for the Shadowrun universe, that's for sure. As for today, I'd much rather have a rifle. The novelty of shooting the S&W 500 whithers pretty quickly. Especially with the 440 grainers. Wouldn't mind seeing a Marlin 95 in .500 Mag, though.

The Desert Eagle is actually a pretty good pistol, I think. It's big, heavy, loud and it recoils pretty good, but it does what it supposed to do pretty well. Plus it's about the only gas piston operated pistol out there, so it's mechanically interesting.

And the slide makes a very distinctive cha thwack sound everytime you fire it because the slide travels halfways across maine.

Yes, given that trolls are effectively bipedal dinosaurs that can operate guns, the girth and general impracticality of the .500 really becomes less of an issue. As it stands, for us normal sized people, it's far too cumbersome to fit the role of a defensive sidearm, and far too impotent to replace a full size weapon. Not to mention that nasty recoil.

From what I've read, this and more is true of the Desert Eagle, which is supposedly harder to handle (though I imagine in recoils less), far too large for a defensive weapon, and extraordinarily unreliable. While I've never fired one myself and do admit that this is all second hand information, I've read a lot of reports saying it can practically jam if you so much as draw it incorrectly (.357 Magnum version supposedly doesn't suffer in this regard nearly as much). Of course, the Desert Eagle was only initially devised as a combat weapon and was then reworked as a civilian curiosity, which is a purpose it serves eminantly well. Personally, if I were willing to suffer dealing with a weapon that big, it's an Mk. 23 Mod. 0 for me.

It's impotent in comparison to carrying around a full size weapon, like an assault rifle, which only weighs slightly more. That's all I was saying. I'm not disputing the fact that it can hit pretty hard.

On the other hand in my personal opinion, the weight and the recoil are bigger drawbacks than the increased energy is an asset.
In that situation you are better off carrying a magana-ported Colt Commander in .45acp and having to shoot your target twice.
The result is the same.

Point taken.
However in my own defence I'll point say that I meant was as a urban self defence pistol. If I'm in a situation where elephant charges are a regular occorance then I'll be walking around with a .375 H&H thank you very much

Ah. I thought you were putting that in the context of SR, where there are very large things, though not quite the size of an elephant, out there to possibly maul you in an urban setting.

There's already the intimidation and style matters people mentioned earlier, but I doubt they apply to professional soldiers

I think if I were a shadowrunner, I'd leap at the chance to use a DE, simply because of the recognization the weapon has. It's gained infamy with its' many appearances across various popular media (counter strike pistol, matrix agent's gun, etc). Most people (who aren't gun nuts) even consider it the most powerful handgun in the world.

If it isn't going to get people to squeam in fear of their head blowing clean off (as dirty harry and his .44 put it so nicely so many years ago), then I'll be content in using what I myself deem as a stylish weapon.

That isn't to say I won't pack a spare predator III or SMG under that long coat for when the drek really hits the fan.

Found it. Here.

The .50BMG sends a bullet over twice as heavy well over twice as fast, for 10x or more the muzzle energy of the .50AE. That's not to say that a .50AE isn't powerful, it's just that the .50BMG is insanely powerful.

[Edit]And don't sweat it. It seems to be a rather common, if unfortunate, misconception. We're just lucky there's no rifle caliber that's called 9mm or .45.[/Edit]

What i've heard about the .357 DE seeing combat service is in the hands of the Mossad (which isn't full-scale military combat, obviously, but the possibility of getting into a gunfight when you go to assassinate someone is still pretty high). Reportedly, they wanted a handgun-sized weapon that had better penetration than the average handgun, because they were encountering targets who would get some significant cover between them and the Mossad shooter, making it harder to get a fast, reliable kill.

Raygun: H&K's P7 series is gas operated, although I'm not sure if they use a piston or not. Wonderfully solid gun to shoot, but damned if the underside of the gas system doesn't get awfully hot after you run a few mags through one in short order...

What's the range on a .50 AE anyway? I had a picture around here a moment ago comparing it and a .223 Remington and the .223 came off looking slightly smaller. Although the .50 looks a lot less aerodynamic so I've no idea of their ballistic whatsit- how they act.

The effective range for a standard 6" barrel .50 AE Desert Eagle is often quoted as 200 meters (indeed 200 meters is quoted for most DE calibers). The US Army official effective ranges for M16s and M4s are 550 meters and 500 meters, respectively, for point targets -- other sources often give figures between 300 and 400 meters for the M4. I expect a very short 5.56x45mm carbines effective range to be around 300 meters. I wouldn't know, though, I've never fired one.

Apart from being less aerodynamic (which includes caliber), I expect the muzzle velocity has a lot to do with effective range. All else (aerodynamics, muzzle energy, stabilization, everything) being equal, I'd expect the gun with the higher muzzle velocity to have better effective range -- it gets to the target sooner, and doesn't have as much time to drop.