[quote=@rezay]
Well, that's the thing, NJ doesn't have the industrial capacity. Not yet at least. When they do eventually have the industry, they'll probably be stuck with rifled musket-type small arms for a long time. Somewhere in the 1820s to early 50s is where NJ is at.
They'll have to re-develop the last century and a half of firearms design, helped along by old world technology to make it more like a few decades.
Then again, maybe cavalry won't be so big. It relies on a wealth of other industries that are very specialized, advanced knowledge of which is not likely to have survived the apocalypse— saddle making, etc. Strapping a horse to a cart is probably easier than an artisan making a saddle to ride one. I imagine when they do ride horses, they do so bareback.
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Its actually harder make a cart than a saddle. You could technically just throw a carpet on the back of a horse and ride it, then maybe use like special boots with spurs like the cowboys to steer it. Even then making a basic saddle isn't that hard. Cart making is its own entire thing since that requires a good deal of math to actually be able to make circular wheels, strong enough axels and good enough construction so the thing doesn't fall apart when it hits a hole.

[quote=@rezay]
*I'm not exaggerating when I call NJ an upstart shantytown. There's nothing there but fishermen and farmers (for now). All the iron they source from the ruins, salvaging rebar from old reinforced concrete and such. There are maybe 3 blacksmiths (as in specialists where that's their only job and they are masters) in the entire town. Not much industry to be waging war on something like a US Civil War scale. 
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To be fair, I assume most people are glorified shanty towns at the moment.

[quote=@rezay]
They have a handful of firearms from the old world (revolvers from bunker security forces), which is all I could think of helping along their weapons technology in the short term.

*Important to consider, how would they re-invent smokeless powder? How would they re-invent black powder for that matter? I imagine they'd have to recover that knowledge from the ruins somehow. Might ask GM. The guns they have they can only use because of ancient stocks of ammunition scavenged from the ruins.
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100+ years might be asking a bit much for old revolvers, especially if they haven't' been treated well. Also consider this: what are you trying to learn from them? The firing mechanism? Well you can learn that but then you'd need to learn about the bullet. You likely have no idea what combination of chemicals the powder is made of and forget about the primer's materials. That's generally the thing that just because you have a thing doesn't mean you can fully remake it. You have no idea the type or quality of metal used to make the gun and if you did know, you probably don't have the facilities to make it yourself. This is something you see when people ask why didn't X country just remake Y country's stuff in WW2? Its because looking at a tank hull gives you jack shit in the processes used to make that tank hull.

Also doesn't gunpowder like go bad after a while? If its been a century at least then I can't imagine a lot of it would be advisable to use.