>Whereas contemporary solid slugs utilize a propellant charge contained in a casing that forces the bullet down the barrel upon ignition, in contra...

>Whereas contemporary solid slugs utilize a propellant charge contained in a casing that forces the bullet down the barrel upon ignition, in contrast, a bolt is self-propelled; it features its own integrated solid fuel propellant that propels the bolt at high speeds, essentially acting like a miniature rocket.

>The .75 caliber is now the standard for bolts in the late 41st Millennium. Standard Bolter ammunition utilizes a mass-reactive fuse, designed to penetrate the target before detonating within, maximizing damage to the target and leaving little chance for survival.

Is this possible with modern tech? How much more expensive would this ammo be to produce than regular bullets?

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  1. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Gyro jet maybe comes close.
    Find a way to mix that with modern grenade launchers and you’re golden.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      Think an M203 shell, but the projectile is a gyrojet rocket that deploys along with the powder charge. In my understanding bolters are still heavy recoil, since they've got a hefty powder charge for the initial acceleration and the rocket maintains or continues to increase the kinetic energy once the projectile's left the barrel. So it doesn't have the flaw of needing to accelerate after leaving the barrel to accumulate speed.

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        Accuracy will be a factor to consider.

        • 2 years ago
          Anonymous

          You'd still have the initial spin imparted on it by the barrel, so I'd imagine it would be reasonably accurate.

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        Did you know that there are actually a lot of older sources insisting that the bolter is just a single stage gyrojet, and even virtually recoilless?

        • 2 years ago
          Anonymous

          >40k lore is dumb and contradictory, news at 10

          I do remember there also being two calibers of bolters, one for humans and one for Space Marines since the ones for the latter would snap the arms of the former.

  2. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    >Is this possible with modern tech?
    the gyrojet, which the bolter was inspired by, is from the 70s

    >How much more expensive would this ammo be to produce than regular bullets?
    a lot more
    since the propellant has to burn evenly the whole time, it needs to be manufactured to a much higher standard
    an exploding shell also needs much more effort to produce than a bullet, since it needs a fuze, explosive filler, and a hollow projectile instead of just jacketing a piece of lead in copper

    not that you couldnt mass-produce such a design
    but each one would use a lot more materal, more types of material, and a lot more effort to assemble

  3. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Gyrojet was a similar thing back in the 60s. Ammunition was very expensive, unreliable and inaccurate. Performance was also less than stellar if it did manage a hit. This was with an inert projectile so adding explosives might make it worthwhile, but then why not just have a high caliber explosive tipped slug fired by conventional propellant which would be cheaper, more reliable and accurate.

    It is also possible to have caseless ammunition without it being a rocket.

    So basically yes it could be done. Yes something like it has been done. But no, it's a dumb way to do it with many disadvantages and no real advantage. Warhammer does it because it's fictional and they go for rule of cool rather than a practical and plausible approach. Just looking at that model it wouldn't work because it has some sort of unnecessary rim which would just jam it and stop it from launching, and wouldn't be necessary because there wouldn't be any need for extraction. They just designed it with a rim because some existing ammo has tons and they probably thought that looks cooler.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      >Warhammer does it because it's fictional and they go for rule of cool rather than a practical and plausible approach.
      Yes, also bolters are actually considered pretty high end weapons even for a million planets empire.

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        they're considered high end weapons because nobody but the techno diddlers knows how to make them anymore

        • 2 years ago
          Anonymous

          bolters are premium basics, not as common as the lasgun or stubber, but still readily available any human willing to spend cash for it
          plasma weapons are the archaeo-tech that you can go your whole life without seeing once

          though for some reason plasma guns are available as a special weapon replacing the flamethrower for basic ass guard squads

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      >Ammunition was very expensive, unreliable and inaccurate.
      Disregarding expense, is this accurate of new ammunition that was purchased and fired whilst ammo was still in production?

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        >, is this accurate of new ammunition that was purchased and fired whilst ammo was still in production?
        problems were twofold
        firstly is that the round travelled at transonic speeds, where trurbulence is at its worst
        secondly, the round did not have the fins it was supposed to have and instead used angled jets to impart spin, which was too unrelihrhdnable

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      >Ammunition was very expensive, unreliable and inaccurate.
      Disregarding expense, is this accurate of new ammunition that was purchased and fired whilst ammo was still in production?

      >, is this accurate of new ammunition that was purchased and fired whilst ammo was still in production?
      problems were twofold
      firstly is that the round travelled at transonic speeds, where trurbulence is at its worst
      secondly, the round did not have the fins it was supposed to have and instead used angled jets to impart spin, which was too unrelihrhdnable

      I recall some anon getting his hands on a gyro jet and a box of (factory) ammo years ago and running tests - it turned out that the rear cap was slightly twisted on every round, obscuring the jets and causing it to spin incorrectly and sometimes fly off course completely when some of the rear cap broke off or something.
      After fixing that by properly aligning the cap gyrojet turned out to be actually surprisingly accurate, not incredibly so but it went from rarely hitting the target at all to decent pistol groups.
      I wonder to this day if gyrojets reputation of inaccuracy stemmed only from a manufacturing defect that wasn't caught. Probably wouldn't save the project if it got fixed but still.

  4. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    The new russian 40 mm AGL grenade is essentially a bolter shell where the rocket burns out inside the barrel.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      That's a good point. It's not a rocket really, since it uses an exploding propellant charge but it is caseless and works like a bolter projectile in every other sense.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      dude, 40mm is a big way of .75 calibre. You also know the Imperial Guard use grenade launchers that are much more destructive than a bolt gun shell. Stop wanking to self made 40k lore.

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        Not him but some depictions have bolters way goofy strong, way more than a 40mm grenade others about the same, others way way less. Off the top of my head I remember one time regular bolts were blowing half foot holes in a solid steel wall, and another where someone mag dumped a bolteron a normal Ork boy and the body was still mostly intact afterwards.
        40k is pretty moronic about consistency.

        • 2 years ago
          Anonymous

          i'm pretty sure orks are like 100% dense muscle.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      That's actually sounds pretty smart if using a two stage system. The height of a pressure curve in traditional ammo is typically within the first inch or two of bullet travel. Having a second stage to keep up pressure in the latter half of travel could massively improve velocity.

  5. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    If a bolt is a self propelled rocket or gyrojet round, how come the bullet is always shown attached to a brass propellant charge case? Why are these 'self propelled' bolt guns shown ejecting the said propellant casings? The writers and artists are no guns idiots and all the lore is made up moment from moment into whatever they think is cool.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      Because boltguns operate with an initial charge to get them up to speed for point blank engagements, engage the rifling to generate enough spin to actually be reasonably accurate, and because ejecting brass is cool.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      Because boltguns operate with an initial charge to get them up to speed for point blank engagements, engage the rifling to generate enough spin to actually be reasonably accurate, and because ejecting brass is cool.

      Dumbass 40k writers never bothered to change it or properly update it. Boltgun rounds should indeed have an initial charge afterwards it turns into what is basically a gyrojet round made to explode on or in the target.
      Also the barrels and cartridges, as portrayed in artwork and tabletop, are almost always gigantically oversized. it's 0.75 cal, still a lot bigger than what we're used to be the barrels look frick huge as well as how individual cartridges look like 40/50mm cannon shells.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      If Space Marines were actually 'Marines' (ship to ship boarding troops), a recoiless rocket gun would actually be a good weapon for use in zero-G. In rogue Trader, the bolter doesnt even have shoulder stock, meaning it has low or no recoil. Sticking the bolt rocket shell in a casing with a pre charge defeats this, as this would give the gun recoil.

  6. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    >Are video games real
    40k is a parody setting written by hacks who never looked up what a gun is, and they went with Hollyisraelite logic to keep everything easily digestable and normie friendly.

    As other posters noted, bolts happen to look like gyrojet projectiles, but make even less sense.

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