You're going to be a colonist....

[Dale Allen Raby]

... on the second human colony off planet. The place you are going has plenty of rabbit-like, squirrel-like and game-birdish creatures that can be eaten by us safely. There are also several large predator species that some egghead who planned your mission decided would be a good idea to introduce (lions and tigers and bears, oh my!). This happened fifty years before your launch date... and with Einsteinian relativity, they've had several hundred years to reproduce and adapt to the new environment. The first human colony hasn't been heard from in many years. They had communication devices using quantum entanglement... so it is instantaneous.

The eggheads decided that the loss of the first colony was due to the colonists being killed by those evil unmentionable weapons they took with them. The second colony will only have muzzle loading weapons. Weight is an issue, so each male colonist (yeah I'm a male chauvinist pig) gets to take one gun, and only one gun, a per-determined amount of black powder, shot, round balls and/or bullets and/or molds. You can have some accoutrements in your possibles bag.

What gun from your current collection would you take? Why that gun? What job would you have on the colony?

I'll start off: T/C Renegade .56 SB with a .54 caliber extra barrel... if they let me have the extra barrel. If not, same gun with only the SB barrel. My logic is that the shot will be suitable for small game hunting and a .550 RB will kill the large predators that likely ate the first colonists. This is assuming that I cannot persuade the egg-heads to be a little more reasonable and allow M1-Garand rifles, 1917 Enfields and 1908 Springfields.

My job is colony blacksmith, so I'll be making bigger and better guns as soon as the ship finishes processing an iron asteroid in the new system into a supply of wrought iron and some steel..

 

[Johnny Tremain]

Me ----------------------------------------------------------------------10 foot pole

 

[Sidney Smith]

Nope, I'll leave the colonizing to the younger generation. My roots are too deeply seated right here on Terra Firma. I'm not going anywhere.

 

[cynthialee]

well you didn't say nothing about the lady folk, so I will assume I get to take my entire arsenal

 

[Dale Allen Raby]

well you didn't say nothing about the lady folk, so I will assume I get to take my entire arsenal

Welll.... Yeah, I suppose you do! It's a nice loophole I never considered. Old saying, I think by Robert Heinlein: "A woman can never be disarmed because most of her weapons are natural." In my experience, this is most certainly true. In any case, yeah, take the whole kit and kaboodle. History would seem to indicate that there is no such thing as too many guns in any colony.

 

[cynthialee]

oh and I suspect my job would be farming and camp cook
but I can be called on in a pinch to pull an armed watch I suppose, would rather leave that to you fellas

 

[Billy Boy]

... on the second human colony off planet. The place you are going has plenty of rabbit-like, squirrel-like and game-birdish creatures that can be eaten by us safely. There are also several large predator species that some egghead who planned your mission decided would be a good idea to introduce (lions and tigers and bears, oh my!). This happened fifty years before your launch date... and with Einsteinian relativity, they've had several hundred years to reproduce and adapt to the new environment. The first human colony hasn't been heard from in many years. They had communication devices using quantum entanglement... so it is instantaneous.

The eggheads decided that the loss of the first colony was due to the colonists being killed by those evil unmentionable weapons they took with them. The second colony will only have muzzle loading weapons. Weight is an issue, so each male colonist (yeah I'm a male chauvinist pig) gets to take one gun, and only one gun, a per-determined amount of black powder, shot, round balls and/or bullets and/or molds. You can have some accoutrements in your possibles bag.

What gun from your current collection would you take? Why that gun? What job would you have on the colony?

I'll start off: T/C Renegade .56 SB with a .54 caliber extra barrel... if they let me have the extra barrel. If not, same gun with only the SB barrel. My logic is that the shot will be suitable for small game hunting and a .550 RB will kill the large predators that likely ate the first colonists. This is assuming that I cannot persuade the egg-heads to be a little more reasonable and allow M1-Garand rifles, 1917 Enfields and 1908 Springfields.

My job is colony blacksmith, so I'll be making bigger and better guns as soon as the ship finishes processing an iron asteroid in the new system into a supply of wrought iron and some steel..

12 ga percussion double - the gun that won the west- with a bag of shot and a pocket full of round balls..

 

[hanshi]

I'm too old and also not suited for colonizing other worlds. I'd take a .338 mag even if I had to tote it under a trenchcoat. Other than that my .50 flint longrifle if my subterfuge were to be discovered.

 

[Ed C.]

I guess I'll be hunting big game as I don't have anything smaller than .44 in BP. So I guess I'd take the .50cal Hawken and if possible the 1851 Navy as a smooth running, accurate self defense weapon. At this point, I'll just stay here. If we go back in time I'd be fixing and building things using common sense and muscle.

 

[Louisk]

I'd take my Pedersoli Brown Bess Carbine. That's my only smoothbore and only flintlock longarm. The smoothbore for shooting shot at small game and big chunks of lead at lions and tigers and the flintlock since you didn't mention providing a lifetime supply of caps (which is hard enough to find on this planet.) That's assuming the geology is similar to Earth's and there's some flint somewhere to be found.

Interesting thoughts. I've occasionally wondered if a bunch of people with a wide knowledge base were relocated somewhere where they had only the basic means of survival, their knowledge and skills and the natural resources of an earthlike planet, how much technology could be regained in a generation.

 

[Dale Allen Raby]

I'd take my Pedersoli Brown Bess Carbine. That's my only smoothbore and only flintlock longarm. The smoothbore for shooting shot at small game and big chunks of lead at lions and tigers and the flintlock since you didn't mention providing a lifetime supply of caps (which is hard enough to find on this planet.) That's assuming the geology is similar to Earth's and there's some flint somewhere to be found.

Interesting thoughts. I've occasionally wondered if a bunch of people with a wide knowledge base were relocated somewhere where they had only the basic means of survival, their knowledge and skills and the natural resources of an earthlike planet, how much technology could be regained in a generation.

Well, hopefully they have a set of Foxfire books and printed encyclopedia sets in their well-stocked library. High tech won't survive very long without an advanced infrastructure to support it. If they have good intelligent people with good educations and nothing really bad happens, they should be able to expand the population and advance the technology.

On the other hand, if they left in a ship that is subject to Einsteinian physics where ship time is but a fraction of Earth time, they might find a thriving civilization of Humans who arrived a couple hundred years ago on warp ships* who'll be waiting for them.... hopefully with open arms and homesteads and farms all set up for them in unsettled areas of the planet that still need exploration.

Despite the late Senator Proxmire's disdain for the colonization of space.... a "nutty fantasy" in his words, it still makes for an interesting concept.

*ships that make use of warping space to shorten the distance to a destination.... think Star Trek. NASA's Advanced Propulsion Laboratory started some actual experiments based upon Dr. Miguel Alcubiere's theories a while back. There hasn't been much about it in the news for some time now, so my theory is that they ended up with an operational warp field and are probably experimenting with the technology as I type this. Giving the population an actual new frontier would be too disruptive for the rich folks who run this world, so anything like this would be suppressed and hidden away if it were allowed to exist at all.

I'd go in a heartbeat if they would take me. I am not the best of humanity though, so I would not be picked.

 

[appalichian hunter]

Dale, what you been smoking.

 

[oldwood]

Like I saw in a John Wayne movie , once. Quoting one of the guests ,an old Indian chief not wanting to participate in a white mans brawl , the chief said before leaving , " Whoe Maklintock , no whiskey , we go home now."

 

[windini]

so I would not be picked.

The New World is never established by those who got "picked!"

Intrepid souls with a natural lust for exploration and adventure will find a way.

.50 cal flintlock, will assume weight limitations would make a SB bbl impractical. I'll trade the weight (mass, for you space nerds) for more powder.

Wee drabs of powder for small game, a good bit more for the bigger beasts. And prior to my departure, I'll practice loading a large charge while running!

For birds, I could take the larger Dodos and Turkeys with the rifle, and I'll rig snares for the quail. I may have to forego Dove season until Master Raby has his forge up & runnin', and I've had a time to saw planks & make barter goods for one of his fine New World Smooth Bore barrels.

How warm is this colony/area? Gotta figure out if I can strip down to a loin cloth and trade more clothes weight (mass) for more powder...

 

[deerstalkert]

54 cal rifle over .62 smooth bore . snares for eating size game.
all the powder and lead weight restrictions would allow. and my knapping tools.
would research and see if the right minerals were available, if so just enough lead and powder to make it until i could mine enough minerals.
I suppose I could be many things for a new colony.
could be a Lawyer but wouldn't, having folks hate you gets old.
could be an Electrician, plumber, and general contractor, and auto mechanic but wouldn't , having folks hate you gets old.
could be a soldier, but only if they gave me a boost in rank. Stars are pretty cool on the collar.
or i could be a democrat and get others to support me!

 

[Omahkapi'si]

Don't forget your Bud Light....

 

[deerstalkert]

my late brother had an apt description of Bud Lite.
tastes like horse urine with the foam farted off. always too chicken to ask him how he knew what that tasted like, he drove log truck before they had power steering. bicep's like barrels.

 

[Hermit Tim]

That first colony wasn't called Jamestown, was it? My first thought was my .56 SB. Then I decided on my .45 SB. Then changed my mind again thinking a rifled .45 or .50 might be best. Birds and other small stuff is easy enough to trap, like those Cloud Forest hunter dudes over in Laos do. And I'm just nerdy enough to be into atlatls and stuff like that. So I'm thinking rifle for sure. Gotta think on this one.

 

[Dale Allen Raby]

Dale, what you been smoking.

Good stuff....

 

[Louisk]

On the other hand, if they left in a ship that is subject to Einsteinian physics where ship time is but a fraction of Earth time, they might find a thriving civilization of Humans who arrived a couple hundred years ago on warp ships* who'll be waiting for them.... hopefully with open arms and homesteads and farms all set up for them in unsettled areas of the planet that still need exploration.

Showing up from a couple of hundred years in the past with a flintlock in your hand is something folks in this group would be uniquely comfortable with.