Guns, Shooting Velociraptors Out Of

Oh, you're from Portland! That's cool, that's where my novel is set.

As for your question about firing Velociraptors out of guns, I have a few theories which you may want to consider.

First of all, what if there was somehow a kind of black hole existing inside the barrel of the gun, compressing all its contents (i.e, the raptors) until they were released?

Or, the gun could be loaded with Velociraptor eggs (if they hatch. If not, then embryos of some sort) which pass through a rapid age-accelerator upon fire?

There's two ideas for you. I like the sound of where this novel's going.

That has to be one of the most amazing concepts I've ever heard.

Firstly, we need to consider the speed at which the dynamic dinos will be launched. A handgun can produce a wide range of muzzle velocities depending on barrel length and charge size. Lets start at the low end for a standard bullet and use a speed or roughly 1000 feet per second (ft/s). If I did the math right, that's almost 700mph!
At that speed, I could imagine the skin/scales of the Velociraptor exploding off its body. While that may give you a chapter figuring out how to not have that happen any more, Its not so good for your ammunition. I recommend turning the dial from 11 to about 4. Maybe flying at 50-60 mph would be better... though depending on range and what you are firing at, it still may break some bones. At that speed, I don't think wind resistance would have that much of an effect either.

As for them coming out of the gun, there is a company in Arizona called Dinagami that has found a way to fold dinosaurs down into the size of a standard bullet casing. The force of the explosion from the gunpowder makes them spring back into place like a slap bracelet.

I lol'd. Hope that gets you closer to where ever it is you are going with this idea =D

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2006: Below the Rain - Winner - 50,300
2007: Untitled modern urban fantasy - epic fail - 13,000

It makes me think of those magic sponges that you can buy in toy stores. You know, the capsules that you drop in the bath, and a few minutes later, the capsule dissolves and a big fluffy dinosaur emerges, plumped up by the water.

I had a soul ... but NaNoWriMo eated it. :(

Breeder of Plot Wolverines

Well, assuming this is a magic world... what if the gun actually carries small velociraptor eggs? And the triggering actually accelerates the velociraptor though time as well as space, so it grows from embryo to full adult in the space of time it takes to get from the firing chamber to the target? The gun is a kind of time machine device.

Oh and I have one question... can I have some of whatever you're smoking? :D

ETA: Damn I just read an earlier answer! Same idea. :D But my question still stands. ;-)

When I first read the topic heading, I had an image in my mind of velociraptors being shot out of circus cannons.

My contribution: Perhaps the gun is part enlarging ray. There are shrunken velociraptors in the barrel, maybe inside regular bullets. When they're shot out of the gun, they're automatically enlarged to full size as they hurl toward the target.

That would be one really PO'd dinosaur. Just being hit by one of those would knock you out. If you were still alive, it would tear you into mincemeat.

Who collects all the velociraptors after they're fired, though? And how?

2005: In Back of the North Wind (urban fantasy) -- WINNER!
2006: Leopard's Paw (mystery) -- WINNER!
2007: The Old Straight Track (urban fantasy) -- WINNER!
2008: The Other Side of the Wall (urban fantasy)
Origami cranes: 42

"Eat or be eaten."

See, that was my thought, too. "What's the worst thing evar? A violently angry veloceraqptor being shot at you as fast as a speeding bullet?"

My question is, is this veloceraptor recently fed or ravenously hungry?

Collecting the veloceraptors: EXCELLENT point! I mean, if you don't put the genie back in its bottle, in this case you're going to have the same problem as with golems. If the original creators die before the golem is destroyed, the golem can go berserk with no one to control it.

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Pullman, WA Forum co-Mod

Coolest. Idea. Ever.

You may want to consider the recoil of such a gun, because it is going to push back with just as much force as it takes to launch a velociraptor. Even assuming you're using a real velociraptor weighing about 30 pounds (as opposed to the ones in Jurassic Park which are much more like Utahraptors), that's going to be quite a recoil to deal with in a handgun.

Maybe the gun doesn't shoot the raptor itself, but rather shoots a device which, upon impact, causes a live raptor to teleport in from a holding pen somewhere? Unfortunately that would get rid of the awesome mental image I have of projectile raptors... so, take it or leave it.

My blog about science and space exploration - http://martianchronicles.wordpress.com

I hope you know that the title of this thread is insanely attention-grabbing. LOL.

And, that's a really freaking awesome idea. I wanna read it! >:D Now, for my kooky contribution...

Maybe the velociraptors are in a sort of compressed, dehydrated form when in the gun, but when fired, the gun flash-reconstitutes the velociraptors. Which sounds really weird and not nearly as awesome as other peoples' suggestions... :P

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Screnzy!09: TBA

Have you ever seen Samurai Pizza Cats? Just a thought. Along similar lines, your "basic concept" doesn't mention the need for the raptor to actually come out of the gun with the trigger on it. Maybe his pistol is really a laser targeting device, and when he pulls the trigger a velociraptor is launched from long-range dinosaur artillery several miles away - or if the artillery is currently out of range, from the orbital raptor bombing satellite. The dangers of re-entry to the velociraptor can be mitigated by covering it in spray-on insulating foam, but if your story doesn't have a local chapter of the RSPCVSFG (Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Velociraptors Shot From Guns) I'm fairly certain a flaming hunk of velociraptor char dropped on someone from orbit is going to hurt a bit.

i have nothing to add to this topic. i just wanted to say that i will buy ten copies of any book with this weapon in it.

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NaNo 08: untitled. Regency Romance with ghosts & robots.
Screnzy 08: Ceres. Failed.
NaNo 07: The Dragon Herald. Failed.
NaNo 06: Jerusalem O'Kira. I won!

this is quite possibly the best thread to ever exist XD

my suggestion is a sort of "just-add-water" dealie, as in: velocaraptor pellets with a sort of time release type thing -- like when the trigger is pulled a small drop of water douses the pellet just before it shoots out, and within a millisecond of exiting the barrel it sprouts into a full sized scaley nightmare.

this also brings to mind interesting scenarios, such as: what would happen if the person being shot was hit at clost enough rrange that the pellet hit them before growing into a dinosaur, and then winds up clawing it's way out of their bowels.

now isn't that a lovely mental image? :D

I'm going to hate myself for doing this, but who cares?!

I <3 <3 <3 the idea of a clip of tiny mottled eggs being loaded in a gun!

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I just had to say it. But when I read the title I thought of 'raptors being hurled out of a circus cannon! Having an angry raptor with a singed bottom hurled at you can never be a good thing. It also reminds me of pokemon - somehow the creature is compressed, but can come shooting out later. The velociraptor can be turned into electrical energy or digital code, Tron-style, and stored in the gun, then when it is released, extra energy will shoot it forward? But that'd be one hell of a kickback.

At least two. I'm poor.

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I have nothing constructive to contribute. I just had to say that I am in awe of your imagination -- the velociraptor gun is the most awesome weapon ever! You rock, dude. :D

…. I want that gun. And I want your book…
Any hoo. Possible ideas:
1) The gun contains Dr Who like tardis technology, allowing for full size raptors to be contained within a bullet. When the bullet is fired from the gun it is cracked, causing rapid spatial expansion of the confined space, causing the full size raptor to leave the gun
2) There exists a recipe for raptor that when cooked for 30 minutes at gas mark 6, produces a full size living raptor. Alternatively the process can be speeded up by heating the recipe at high pressure, I.e in a gun (bullets contain the recipe obviously)
3) Hitch hikers guide to the galaxy style, and the gun has some improbability drive that causes a worm hole to form in front of an unknown raptor moving at high velocity, somewhere in the universe, that comes out at the barrel of the gun.

You must publish this. I demand a copy, or twenty. Though two of my characters are now threatening to kill you if this weapon is ever actually used. (Another note- the Jurassic Park folks' worst nightmare. How intelligent are these things, anyway?)

I have no ideas for how it works, but I do have an idea for the collection of velociraptors: you could have a switch on a gun that, when flipped, works sort of like a dog whistle but for raptors. And, well, they could be collapsible dinos. (Now, there's a mental image, even if it *is* nothing compared to the one of a velociraptor shooting out of a gun)

The other idea I had is that each velociraptor explodes after a certain amount of time goes by, or there's a switch on the gun that makes any currently deployed raptors explode. I suppose you just have to hope PETA doesn't track you down if you use that one...

It made sense in my head, I swear.

Dawg, you are insane. *shakes head* Guess who? :D

I personally think that it should be a bullet that is shot into a person, where it reacts with the blood of the Zombie person shot, and then a raptor explodes out of them and eats them. Is that to gorey?

You could use a pokeball effect. Your cowboy has raptor pets, and he just puts them back in their bullets.

And I totally have to read this, Haim. But I am not buying it. Sorry. I'm cheap. :tease:

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Open up the dirty wndow
Let the sun illuminate the words that
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I forgot to say that when I first read the topic, I too had a mental image of an enraged velociraptor (with singed tail) being shot out of a circus canon. Perhaps you should take some of that imagery and use it?

As the quote above, I've also got all kinds of scenarios going on in my head.

Something to consider: Have you ever seen the special features section of the LotR Two Towers DVD, where they show a computer mock-up of a warg running, and how that affects the orcs that are riding them, because they don't have a horse's straight-spined gait? Try to find a description of *precisely* how a grasshopper's back moves as it's jumping -- or FLYING! -- and imagine how that's going to affect your main character as a rider. Now design a special saddle for him based on those needs. How is all of this frantic movement going to affect the main character when combined with the gun's unusually hefty recoil?

Also, is your main character the only one to own this gun? If he is, perhaps this gun falls into the wrong hands at some point? Or, did he acquire this gun from an expendable character?

I ask, because I have a horrible visual. First, I'm assuming the velociraptor is perfectly likely to turn on the person who fired him from the gun if in close proximity. The person holding the gun has only one bullet left. He is cornered in an alley (or perhaps an arroyo) by a whole lot of enemies. He angrily commits suicide by shooting himself in the head, and as a result, an angry, brains-covered velociraptor blooms out of his dead skull and confronts his attackers.

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First thing I thought of: someone needs to alert the writer of the xkcd comic, cause he has a recurring theme of velociraptors (And I think he would get a kick out of this!).
Second thing: The weird toys that you soak in water that expand to many times their original size. Maybe have a compartmentalized bullet with an outer membrane that reacts to air or something and mixes velociraptor and water.

Good Luck!

1) I'm imagining the trigger, which makes not a BANG but the sound of a velociraptor call, creates a micro-wormhole right in front of the barrel, from which a velociraptor emerges. The velociraptor is drawn through space (and time), and only adults are attracted to the gun's call. A tracker is attached to the raptor as it enters the cowboy's space, and after a set time, the raptor is returned to its own place.

It'd be a cool pun on the name too. The raptor of raptors.

2) Genetically engineered velociraptors that can regenerate body parts. Shoot the tail, or the tip of the tail, and once it clears the barrel, the rest of the velociraptor grows from the tail. There might be a bit of resistance as the raptor flies backwards, and the tail is at a weird 120 degrees angle, but the circular momentum or whatever it's called might be enough to flip the raptor around so the target gets an upside snarling raptor.

I don't know if it'd snarl, though. Some sketches of raptors are kind of cute.

I can only imagine a suicide scene....

Anywho, a typical wild west revolver uses a flint/steel type of reaction, the hammer hitting the cap on the back of the bullet creates a spark that ignites the gunpowder in the bullet and forces the bullet out of the casing and barrel of the gun through the use of (more or less a controlled explosion) I can imagine that creating a localized explosion behind a velociraptor would seriously piss off the beastie. Not to mention a singed tail. Another thought would be more like a paintball gun, which uses compressed air, as opposed to a localized explosion, I'm sure a hard burst of air up the butt would be a lot less damaging than gunpowder, but I digress.

Have you considered maybe a crossbow? or a blowgun?

Or perhaps a bazooka with a T-Rex (last resort)

Flattening out a velociraptor would certainly improve its aerodynamics, as firing it flat on its belly headfirst would provide much more distance and speed than a roughly 6'0" wall of dinosaur, however it would more likely make up for it by being able to have its feet moving before it hits the ground, whereas the flattened dino would most likely skid to a halt on its belly first, before becoming horribly irate at its predicament.

Just a thought.
X

I'm giggling myself silly over the visual of "a 6'0" wall of dinosaur." Particularly one of irate, carnivorous dinosaur.

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Pullman, WA Forum co-Mod

What is the recoil of a gun that shoots velociraptors? Is it relative to speed at which the dinosaur is expelled from the gun, or to the amount of force required to generate a fully formed dinosaur?

I like LuckySeafan's idea of a time/space portal of some type being made by the gun. But, really, do you need a reason? Couldn't part of the fun be that the gun is entirely inexplicable?

You know, guns sometimes misfire, or jam, or even blow up in a person's hand. Or you could have a hangfire.

I was once shooting a black powder pistol with a guy that I was dating. One time it didn't fire, and I, being totally new at it and not knowing any better, turned the gun and looked down its barrel, which caused the guy who was trying to teach me how to shoot to gibber frantically and darn near pee his pants. You see, a hangfire will sometimes have a several second delay in firing, and I could have lost my head over it.

Literally.

Anyway, these might make some interesting story elements.

2005: In Back of the North Wind (urban fantasy) -- WINNER!
2006: Leopard's Paw (mystery) -- WINNER!
2007: The Old Straight Track (urban fantasy) -- WINNER!
2008: The Other Side of the Wall (urban fantasy)
Origami cranes: 42

"Eat or be eaten."

Wind resistance would be a huge issue, since a velociraptor has a considerably higher cross-sectional area than a bullet. The recoil would also be considerable - the recoil from a gun is considerable, and that's just a tiny bullet. Recoil, as a force, increases proportional to mass, and velociraptors are more massive than bullets.

One of my roommates also points out that the transportation of the velociraptors could be an issue. My other roommate suggests PokeBalls.

Gun? Well, shore, it may have a barrell an' a trigger an' all. But I ain't seein' no gun here.

What I'm a seein' is a trans-millenial portal. See, you simply pull on this little spring-loaded thingy here and it reaches back in time - waaaaay back - grabs the nearest velociraptor by the scruff o' the neck and pulls 'em forward a few generations. Past the mammoths at least. I ain't so shore that yer cowboy is gonna git the acceleration that he'd like. Trajectory is pretty piss poor, too. My adivce is ta keep it pointed at'n the ground and run. Ya see, that's gonna be one confused raptor for the first few seconds. After that, I 'spect it won't be his eye that gits shot out.

markwier, mah friend, methinks yer coat is kinda brown.

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Pullman, WA Forum co-Mod

Pullman, WA Municipal Liason
Pullman, WA Forum co-Mod

Just spitballing (because its way too late at night) but what if it used a combination of a teleport and cloning system? Like the computer in the gun would have a blueprint of what's needed to digitally create a velociraptor so it can do it over and over again. Then you wouldn't be limited to physical matter, you could have it run on an energy pack that can be replaced as easily as bullets.

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