I agree with airflamesred.  The edge stepping effect you see there is just a matter of the smoothing angle.  I don't believe there's any problem with the topology.  I've created cylindrical objects without any ring segments, and they rendered just fine in both AR and Vray (C4D).  Smooth as silk, regardless how thin or long the polys were.

Daniel, being a professional of your caliber, I'm surprised that you're talking about sliver polys, mate.  Sliver polys are caused by overlaps or gaps in the topology.  Anyone looking at the mesh in this thread can see that isn't going to be a problem.  Luxxeon, I don't see ANY problem mapping that mesh either.  It's not a continuous single model, so unwrapping each piece individually, and scaling the UV islands to match each other will be just fine.  No offense, but you guys are comical when it comes to critiquing topology, talking about "every possible situation".  A mesh doesn't need to be perfect for every situation.  The only situation that matters is the situation at hand.

The gun looks okay, mate.  A little average overall, but okay.  Unwrap it, texture it, and prove to these topology nazis that you don't need to model everything in square quads. lol.