Phaser Rifles

[Cary L. Brown]

I'll spot folks most of the other advantages of a phaser rifle over a phaser pistol, but I am not sure "accuracy" is one of them. It's a directed-energy beam weapon, not a slug thrower, after all.

Well, "accuracy" isn't merely a function of the weapon itself, realize. It's also a function of how the user can handle the weapon.

Take a weapon which can be used with a stock or without a stock... and compare the relative accuracy of the version with the stock in place (or deployed). By virtue of being able to hold it more securely, and to keep it more stable as well, you add a significant improvement to the accuracy.

If you've holding a teeny little trinket in the palm of your hand... how accurately do you think you can aim? Take that same tiny little trinket and put it onto a (totally non-functional) frame which you can hold securely, and how accurately do you think you can aim, then?

Now, if I had said "it has a longer barrel which makes the beam more accurate" that would be nonsense. However, that's not what I was saying. I hope it's clearer now.

 

[JNG]

I'll spot folks most of the other advantages of a phaser rifle over a phaser pistol, but I am not sure "accuracy" is one of them. It's a directed-energy beam weapon, not a slug thrower, after all.

Well, "accuracy" isn't merely a function of the weapon itself, realize. It's also a function of how the user can handle the weapon.

Take a weapon which can be used with a stock or without a stock... and compare the relative accuracy of the version with the stock in place (or deployed). By virtue of being able to hold it more securely, and to keep it more stable as well, you add a significant improvement to the accuracy.

If you've holding a teeny little trinket in the palm of your hand... how accurately do you think you can aim? Take that same tiny little trinket and put it onto a (totally non-functional) frame which you can hold securely, and how accurately do you think you can aim, then?

Now, if I had said "it has a longer barrel which makes the beam more accurate" that would be nonsense. However, that's not what I was saying. I hope it's clearer now.

Without recoil, I think the value of a stock per se is minimal, and as a practitioner of point shooting, I feel I could aim the small phaser by pointing with my hand more accurately than I could holding a larger assembly. However, the larger phaser can hold a greater charge, and can mount useful stuff like flashlights and targeting equipment that would do a lot of the work for me, so I can see why they exist.