A while back, our favorite gun guy besides Gryphon, Ian McCollum, did an entire series of videos about a gun near and dear to my own heart, the Calico Light Weapon Systems 9mm Liberty Carbine.

A radical departure from traditional assault rifle designs, Calico's philosophy centered around creating a gun that is simple and straight-forward in design, has a massive magazine capacity (fifty or one hundred rounds), and being stable enough to allow a person to simply pour on the dakka without worrying too much about hitting the target.

And despite some early issues with burred feed lips, they more or less succeeded. The only reason why they aren't more popular now is because in addition to the feed lip issue, they never landed any law enforcement or military contracts, and then along came the high capacity magazine ban.

Ouch.

But the company somehow lingered on, and every great now and then you'll see one at a range. People may chortle and guffaw at the seemingly sci-fi looking gun (to whit, it actually has been used in several sci-fi films, most notably and ignominiously, Spaceballs) and are immediately silenced when the shooter burns through several targets, leaving nice, tight groupings, only ever reloading once, and all in a matter of just a few minutes.

Ian McCollum has heard much about the 'unreliability issues' these guns supposedly have and is curious to see how much of it had to do with improper use of the high capacity helical feed magazines, which has a button to relieve the tension on the spring that pushes the feed follower, and a crank to reapply that tension.

Video one, where Ian goes over the pistol and carbine, along with their quirks and features.
https://youtu.be/CbKj2t7MnBg

Video two, where Ian takes the Carbine out to the range with a 100- and a 50-round magazine...
https://youtu.be/YqhLfEmNuEA

Video Three: Endurance testing...
https://youtu.be/5pu1M6ZffiM

Video Four: Endurance testing continued...
https://youtu.be/72yM_wrcb1k

Video Five: where issues really seem to finally set in.
https://youtu.be/AB-53jXwz6Y

The last video... we have no idea what happens afterwards. Some commenters speculate that the firing pin may actually be worn out. When Ian last cleaned the gun, he may have removed the bit of carbon from the firing pin that was letting it fire reliably. But until he gives us an update, we won't know for sure.

In the UF-verse, I can see a small number of these guns floating around, each one modified in some way or another, or even one-off productions based on a Calico. Wielders of such weapons would certainly think them priceless as few would ever expect such a relatively small gun to carry so much ammunition without some kind of transmat magazine (which is the province of only the most well-heeled mercenaries and operatives).

Perhaps a young man from a family of (lovable) crazies with penchants for fast ships, insane mods, a run-watcha-brung (to the battle field) mentality, and coffee with highly inadvisable caffeine content would possess such a gun... ;)

5 years down the line, I've always found the LOOK of those helical mag beasties cool as hell. The company went under 2 years ago but apparently there were plans for a goddamn pump-action Calico shotgun, which would be the most Cyberpunk Nomad weapon of all time. Seriously, can you even imagine how nifty that'd be?

Anyway, good choice!

I seem to remember Zoner had a fascination with the Calico system, back when it was the kind of thing you only saw in magazines (and maybe certain TTRPG equipment lists). Don't remember offhand if he ever wrote himself packing one, but I wouldn't be surprised.

--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

>I seem to remember Zoner had a fascination with the Calico system,
>back when it was the kind of thing you only saw in magazines (and
>maybe certain TTRPG equipment lists). Don't remember offhand if he
>ever wrote himself packing one, but I wouldn't be surprised.
>

He carried one in Warrior's Legacy 2.

Peter Eng
--
Insert humorous comment here.

>(and maybe certain TTRPG equipment lists)

I love those. Many different games had the Pancor Jackhammer, despite only three models (including a single working prototype) ever being made. It just looks like a gun you'd see in the future.

LAST EDITED ON Nov-05-26 AT 10:31 AM (EST)
 
Lotta silly guns like that in, say, the 2020 ttrpg. Jackhammer... which couldn't be reloaded in the field, which makes it a horribly bad idea... no shortage of caseless wonders... actually it's funny, looking BACK as a Zooomer where you'd see, say, an AMT-2000 and I'm all 'a-ha, of course, they need an Automag in this game even if it's mechanically identical to another magnum, for players to play with That Gun In The Future'. Or the Nomad Bolt Gun from Albert Pyun's Cyborg. Or the Tsunami Helix gatling shottie from Split Second. List Continues.

Calico guns are like that, honestly, similar to a lot of the crapshoot PDW designs from way back when feel like they evoke that sci-fi novelty. The more modern and never quite realized CBJ-MS and its sabot armor-penetrator round has always, to someone younger like me, felt like it's in that same strike zone. The fancy drum mag, the super-round, and the stamped-metal Late Cold War look.

(Oh wait, Zoner used the AMT in Hopelessly Lost, I forgor. Then again, the coolest weapon either protag had in HL were their supercars... Gawd Damn.)

Edit: No, wait, Priss drew a that AMT. But it doesn’t look like the iconic automag in the core rulebook???

>Calico guns are like that, honestly, similar to a lot of the crapshoot
>PDW designs from way back when feel like they evoke that sci-fi
>novelty. The more modern and never quite realized CBJ-MS and its sabot
>armor-penetrator round has always, to someone younger like me, felt
>like it's in that same strike zone. The fancy drum mag, the
>super-round, and the stamped-metal Late Cold War look.

I feel like the only one of those that really took off is the FN P90, which has the spacegun looks and the Gucci new cartridge, but has actually seen pretty wide adoption (and the 5.7×45mm cartridge has caught on quite well). I'd love to have one of the semiauto PS90 models.

>Edit: No, wait, Priss drew a that AMT. But it doesn’t look like the
>iconic automag in the core rulebook???

AMT didn't only make the AutoMag line; they also produced a high-end 1911 clone, the Hardballer, and a compact model called the Backup, which I've eyed from time to time. The Hardballer is the basis for Agent 47's signature weapon in the Hitman games, and one of the "Longslide" models is featured in The Terminator (with a totally-made-up laser sight that wouldn't have worked in real life :).

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Ah, okay, got it on both accounts. The latter makes more sense: Terminator Gun is more SOIBAPENK than the Automag. Understand that I have never fired a gun in my life and don't intend to. They're cool and neat in a tech nerd way, but not knowing details and not high-level shit is to be expected with me.

Also, has the p90 really taken off? I recall the whole anecdote about Stargate taking all the ammo for it to the point that it ruined the FBI's ability to use it or something like that.

>Also, has the p90 really taken off? I recall the whole anecdote about
>Stargate taking all the ammo for it to the point that it ruined the
>FBI's ability to use it or something like that.

I mean, it's not H&K MP5-level ubiquitous, but a lot of police agencies around the world use it. The cartridge was once virtually unobtanium on the civilian market, but it's a lot more widely available than it was 20 years ago, now that manufacturers other than FN are chambering guns for and/or making it.

(... Also, wait, why would the producers of Stargate have been buying live ammunition?)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.