Not really "obscure", but I enjoy things that are janky, stupid, or cursed, so: FN 5.7x28mm. Invented to defeat mythical Soviet paratroopers with titanium body armor, mostly used by warrior cops and the Stargate program. What makes it an example of cursed engineering is that FN really really wanted that long, totally straight magazine on top of the P90 so they designed 5.7 with no taper whatsoever. This makes extraction very challenging, so their solution was to just coat every single case in a layer of slick plastic, in a classic example of "so what if it's twice as expensive, we're selling these to NATO."
"mr storylets"
- he/him
- brunodias.dev/
writer (derogatory). lead designer on Fallen London.
http://twitter.com/notbrunoagain
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in reply to @bruno's post:
not an answer I was expecting but that's a pretty good one. I suppose nobody stops to think about what the P90 is shooting, just that it's a cool looking gun, I had no idea about the plastic coating thing.