Hogstopper

"Hogstopper" (cf. Moorish Paracerdo) is a generic term for a big-bore repeating cartridge rifle suitable for hunting large animals, such as camels, moose, lions, polar bears, or murderous man-eating hogs. (Your average Moor tends to wildly overestimate the size and danger of feral pigs.)   Repeating rifles were still new technology at the time of their introduction, and hogstoppers were the most powerful ones yet. Their heyday was short, however; advances in propellant chemistry made higher chamber pressures and muzzle velocities possible. Ross ended production of its naft-cartouche Jag95s in 1902, and dropped them from its catalogue two years later.

Who Uses It

As Our Story Begins, hogstoppers are a traditional weapon of the King's Own Alexandrian Horse Patrol — better known as the infamous Scotch Ponies — who are issued them for parades (when mounted), border-patrol postings, and mounted work in rural areas. Thus, hogstoppers are familiar in Alexandria and Scottish Alaxia, and ammunition for them is readily available.   Outside the Scotch Ponies, however, hogstoppers are a stereotypically backwards gun. In the pulp tradition, a hogstopper signifies that its owner is either tradition-minded (Montagnards, for instance), too poor to afford something modern (subsistence hunters, Mexican banditos, and the like) or both (Alaxian tribals and proud campesinos). Taiping China still manufactures and uses hogstoppers, but the Taiping are both too poor to afford something better and weird, so the stereotype holds.  

Variations

The hogstopper in the stat block is the model carried by the King's Own Alexandrian Horse Patrol: a short-barreled pump-gun with a trigger disconnect (to prevent accidental discharge at full gallop), sling rings, a nitro blue trigger, and a steel buttplate.   Bespoke: Yusuf II, a diehard sportsman and gun aficionado, bought a few hogstoppers of a quality appropriate to his station and added them to his collection. He set them aside (and perhaps forgot about them) after falling in love with the Alzamendi rifle, but they're still in the Alcazar's gun racks to this day.
Rules Changes: Probably built as a long rifle (q.v.), but Accuracy 5, +2 to reaction rolls, and Cost $3,000.   Lever-gun: Much more widely available than the listed version.
Rules Changes: none.   Long rifle: The Scotch Ponies are, technically speaking, issued with a short-barreled gun. The full-length original's been out of production since last century, but that doesn't stop it from seeing use.
Rules Changes: Damage 4d+1 pi+, Range 370/2,300, Wt. 10.1/1, Shots 12+1(2i), Cost $460.

See Also

• 40/40 carbine, developed at the same time and using the same basic technologies
• Ross Jag95, the modern equivalent

 

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