# Best small arms for use against...robots?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-small-arms-for-use-against-robots/291754
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [February 24, 2005, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-small-arms-for-use-against-robots/291754 "2005-02-24T19:50:35Z")
**Posts on this page:** 11
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@DougC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DougC)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2005, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-small-arms-for-use-against-robots/291754/41 "2005-02-27T20:27:16Z")
> [@](#):
>
> …A small-caliber, high powder charge, depleated-uranium armor piercer? A weapon like THIS, but with the above-mentioned ammo? - **Bos**
## -You couldn’t put heavier bullets into that gun, because it’s blowback-operated. You’d be better off getting something gas-operated if you want to use uranium bullets in it. Kind of like… um… the FN2000. 😃
You _will_ be able to buy one though, if you live in the US.
It will have a longer barrel, to meet fed regs.
Late 2005/early 2006 they say–they didn’t have them on display but at the SHOT show, FN was showing them off to journalists. PS90 =~$1300, FN2000 =~$1500…
Impactguns is one place currently taking no-deposit orders/line tickets for the civie models.
[http://www.impactguns.com/store/fn\_p90.html](http://www.impactguns.com/store/fn_p90.html)
[http://www.impactguns.com/store/fn\_f2000.html](http://www.impactguns.com/store/fn_f2000.html)
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### Author:  [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2005, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-small-arms-for-use-against-robots/291754/42 "2005-02-27T20:40:39Z")
I hate to sound bitchy, but didn’t I already mention autoloading weapons firing AP ammo umpteen posts ago? :rolleyes:
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### Author:  [@DougC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DougC)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2005, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-small-arms-for-use-against-robots/291754/43 "2005-02-27T22:07:00Z")
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- Yea but you weren’t specific enough. If we could get it now, we wanted a _shopping list_.
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### Author:  [@Ficer67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ficer67)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2005, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-small-arms-for-use-against-robots/291754/44 "2005-02-27T22:32:43Z")
Companies already make Armored Piercing rounds which will go through more than 1" of steel. These rounds can be chambered for all kinds of weapons, though a .45 caliber round would be more effective than a .22 caliber weapon.
If the threat of robotic attack becomes imminent, companies will make more effective weapons and ammunition against them.
Anyone remember the movie Runaway with Tom Selleck?
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2005, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-small-arms-for-use-against-robots/291754/45 "2005-02-27T22:50:05Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Actually, given its effect on electronic components, a can of Coke should do the trick quite nicely - I should know, having spilt some on a VCR once, back when they cost real money.
But I thought we wanted something harmless to humans? 😉
And yeah, hydrochloric acid is pretty nasty if it gets into your eyes. Heck, anything other than a mild saline is nasty if it gets into your eyes. But we’re not talking about jumping into a swimming pool full of the stuff with the robot; ideally the human would have no contact at all with the acid. We just want to make sure it’s not a quick and painful death if a little of it spills or splashes on you.
Finally, I should emphasize that the ultimate decision should depend on the specifics of the particular robot or robots you want to combat. For any of the methods suggested thus far, one could probably design a robot capable of surviving it, but I can’t think of any way to make a robot immune to all threats. If nothing else, you have to decide what the outer layer should be resistant to: If it’s metal armor, it’ll conduct heat to the inner layers. If the outer layer is insulative, you can probably shoot that off. If you have metal covered by a corrosion-resistant polymer, then shoot holes in the polymer and then attack it with acid, and so on.
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### Author:  [@DougC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DougC)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2005, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-small-arms-for-use-against-robots/291754/46 "2005-02-27T23:07:23Z")
> [@](#):
>
> …Anyone remember the movie Runaway with Tom Selleck?..
- Yea, that was way back when Gene Simmons was still cool, after he was out of Kiss but before he tried to pull this whole “Original G” rapper/gangsta thing off… :rolleyes:
…
-And of course, in the movie the police used a psychic to help “find” him… ( :rolleyes: x 2)
* * *
- I tend to think that overall, Blade Runner (the director’s cut) is still the best robot movie yet. From what I heard, _I Robot_ sucked so bad I never even tried to see it, it bore the scarlet “W”, the “mark of Will Smith”…
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### Author:  [@Ficer67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ficer67)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2005, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-small-arms-for-use-against-robots/291754/47 "2005-02-27T23:08:03Z")
Sorry about the reference to AP Ammo, but other methods (magnetic projectiles, EMP weapons) simply do not exist right now. Or they do not exist in the forms that would make them useful to you, defending against a robot attack.
As a side note, the link to the robot site does not work, so I cannot see the robot in question.
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### Author:  [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2005, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-small-arms-for-use-against-robots/291754/48 "2005-02-27T23:30:44Z")
Well the link didn’t work for me, but my guess is something new has to be invented.
Perhaps something that explodes into conductive material to short out components.
Something to produce a very hard impact to loosen/break internal components and/or deform ‘exo-structure’ hindering movement.
Something that overloads or destroyes sensors effectivally blinding it or disrupts balance.
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### Author:  [@Scarface\_Z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarface_Z)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2005, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-small-arms-for-use-against-robots/291754/49 "2005-02-27T23:40:31Z")
I’ve thought of two possibities:
1: Now I am no electrician, and slept through large portions of physics class, but what about a magnetic bullet? I know magnets can screw up all kinds of electronics, it shouldn’t be hard to magnetize a bullet which could interfere with the robots computer chips once lodged inside.
2: How about we take that acid and put it inside a bullet? A bullet (resistant to corrosion) that’s filled with a particularly nasty acid (say, hydroflouric) could definately melt some circuitry once it gets in the robot. It is possible to make a liquid filled bullet, I think that it’s one conspiracy theory that Kennedy was shot with a liquid filled bullet.
In retrospect, the key glitch with these options is that the require the bullet to stay in the robot. If they pass through the robot they don’t work. However, if you’re dealing with a robot that is that lightly armored, consider yourself lucky.
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### Author:  [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2005, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-small-arms-for-use-against-robots/291754/50 "2005-02-28T00:21:20Z")
Sorry the original link is down—(I fear we “Slashdotted” it)—[here’s another.](http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/t/t800.htm)
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### Author:  [@Valgard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Valgard)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2005, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-small-arms-for-use-against-robots/291754/51 "2005-02-28T00:29:06Z")
All the fun ideas aside I think it’s quite telling that just about every weapon in existence depends on one of two ways to destroy the target:
1. Blow it to smithereens.
2. Punch a hole through it.
Sure you could have a missile that latches onto the robot magnetically, drills a hole through it with a diamond-tipped bit, uses a high-pressure turkeybaster to fill the inside with mercury and then fires pulses of electrical energy throughout with the special capacitor banks stored on the missile but it’s more complicated/prone to failure/slower than shooting the target full of .50 caliber holes.
What makes a robot different to destroy than a truck? Or a refrigerator?
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