Traktat o bloteru

[Degman]

Bolters – a study into the internal, external and terminal ballistics of the most iconic weapon of the 41st millennium.

1) Classification.
The ‘Bolter’ family is wide and diverse, ranging from the Bolt Pistol, the standard side arm of the Adeptus Astartes to the Vulcan Mega Bolter, a Titan mounted anti infantry weapon. What can be said to link all of these different weapon system? The key component in any Bolter class weapon is its ammunition. Bolt shells, regardless of their calibre, contain a micro rocket motor and a warhead (of many designs), making them more akin to a rocket propelled micro-grenade than a conventional bullet or artillery shell. Calibres of Bolt shells vary according to the weapon systems using them. The smallest shell of note was then 12.5mm micro deluxe round used in custom Bolt Pistols for high ranking Imperial Guard officers, the largest was 125mm ‘Vulcan Delta IV’ as used in the Mars D4 pattern Mega Bolter.

We shall be focussing on the classic bolter in this article, yet even this weapon is often misclassified by scholars, being called everything from a rifle to a sub machine gun and everything else.

Firstly a rifle is such named due to its ‘rifled’ barrel, the adding of spiral grooves to the barrel to impart spin on the round, stabilising it in flight. Many Bolters are smooth bore, so calling it a rifle would be incorrect.

A sub-machinegun is generally defined as an automatic weapon firing a pistol cartridge. As the Bolter fires its own, unique rounds, this can not also be correct.

The most commonly accepted definition is that of a ‘Heavy Assault Carbine’. Carbines, generally, have been shorter and lighter than rifles, firing a lighter cartridge to reduce felt recoil. The Bolter fits into this category with its shorter barrel and lighter recoil (for its calibre). Bolter rounds are certainly not less powerful than regular autogun rounds but due to the method of propulsion a classic bolter would produce less recoil as there is no charge to propel it out of the barrel, only its own rocket. The ‘Heavy Assault’ prefix to the carbine is in reference to the Bolters heavy rounds and sustained fire capability.

If you look at the normal usage of a Bolter by the Adeptus Astartes you will find that is generally used in the same situations the would call for Carbines for the Imperial Guard: shorter range engagements where the rapid deployment of sustained fire is more important than long ranged, accurately placed single shots.


2: Ammunition.
It is a common error to think that Bolters only come in a single calibre, or even a small range of calibres. A logistics survey of the 7th Darius crusade in M38 was fortunate enough to be given permission to inspect the weapons of an Imperial Fists Demi-Company (half of the esteemed 1st company, no less!) This survey revealed that most of the Marines carried their own, personal, weapon that had been in their use for an average of 35 years and had been in use by the chapter for an average of 120 years. The oldest weapon was forged in M34 (though had been modified many times) and the newest weapon was less than 3 years old (Terran Standard) having only just completed its ritual blessings and firing ceremonies and being used for the first time in battle. Between this range of weapons over two dozen different cartridges were present varying in calibre, length, weight and other characteristics. Many Marines carried Bolt Pistols that used the same calibre Bolt Shell as their Bolters (with both weapons accepting the long standard magazines and the shorted ‘pistol’ magazines) though one individual was found to be carrying 3 different shells with him, one for his rifle and one each for a pair of Bolt Pistols given to him by his Captain 50 years ago in recognition for an undisclosed act of valour. It would appear that the inconvenience of supplying units with no standard ammunition is not an issue of the Adeptus Astartes, instead they rely of the bond between each warrior and his own weapons.

It has been found that for each calibre of infantry weight Bolt Shell manufactured there will generally be the full spread of Bolt Weapons able to fire it, from the Bolt Pistol through the Bolter and Storm Bolter all the way to the Heavy Bolters. The calibres found varied from the (previously mentioned) 12.5mm micro deluxe (generally only found in Bolt Pistols and gatling format Heavy Bolters) through to the 30mm Obliterator class shell (found in the relic weapon from M34). The 3 most common calibres were the 19mm Mars pattern (also called the .75), the 17.5mm Wolf (both long and short) and the 20mm Armageddon cased round.

As mentioned there were often more than 1 Bolt Shell in a given category, most commonly a longer and shorter version (equivalent to regular and ‘Magnum’ shells for hand guns) and in some instances there were cased and caseless ammunition.

This brings in another common misconception about Bolter ammunition, that is always caseless. This will be explained in the next section.


3: Internal and external ballistics.
As has already been mentioned the defining characteristics of a Bolt Shell is the rocket base and a warhead capability. This rocket base is the defining characteristic of the flight of the Bolt Shell (its external ballistics).

The advantage of a gyro jet round is that it allows the weapon to fire a relatively heavy round with little or no recoil, allowing a soldier to carry a weapon for more powerful than normally possible. It is because of this that some Imperial Guard officers are able to carry the weapon,s all be it in much lighter calibres than the soldiers of the Adeptus Astartes.

The firing cycle of a classic Bolter is fairly simple, the mini rocket in the shell is electronically activated by the pulling of the weapons trigger. The rocket ignites providing thrust which accelerates the round out of the weapons barrel and towards the enemy. The 19mm Wolf round has a rocket rated at 15Kj meaning it increases the kinetic energy of the round by around 30000 Joules per second. The rocket burns for 1 seconds meaning at the end of the burn cycle the round has 30 KJ of energy, meaning the 125 gram shell is travelling at almost 700 meters per second.

The round will be stabilised in one of 3 ways, either by rifling on the barrel (which is rare), by retractable fins that spring from the round when it has left the barrel or, most commonly, by the angle of the jets which propel it.

One issue with gyrojets is that at vary short ranges there is not enough time to allow the round to accelerate to a useful velocity. It takes over 450 meters for the round mentioned above to reach its maximum velocity. At ranges of 100m (quite common for the close range fighting Marines often have to undertake) the round has only accelerated to around 415 meters per second and thus will have only a third of its final kinetic energy. At ranges of 10m, for room to room fighting, the shell is travelling at under 200 meters per second with less than a twelfth of its maximum energy.

As a result many Bolter weapons systems use a hybrid cartridges which contain both a gyrojet and a normal powder charge. These weapons often use cased ammunition to contain the charge though some weapons use solid blocks of propellant and remain uncased. Due to the charge in the case the Bolt Shell will carry less propellant, typically burning for half the time of a classic Bolt Shell (around half a second).

To get any noticeable muzzle velocity for such a heavy round a considerable charge is needed and as a result only the enhances strength of a Space Marine is enough to use these weapons, but as very short range fighting is their speciality it is very common to see them use cased bolter ammunition.

A typical cased Bolt Shell might have a muzzle velocity of around 500 meters per second, giving the weapon formidable punch and point blank range (thought the recoil this produces is around 8 times that of an autogun, completely unmanageable for an infantry weapon if it were not for the Space Marines’ enhanced strength and Power Armour). With this initial boost the round will have achieved its maximum velocity (700 meters per second, slightly less than the classic Bolter Round) in only 300 and at 10m will have over 6.5 times the energy of a classic bolter round.

The use of the cased bolter rounds sacrifices maximum velocity/energy and low recoil against effectiveness at short ranges. Pressing the barrel of a bolter armed with classic gyrojet only Bolt Shells to the head of an enemy will result in only mild bruising (or catastrophic barrel damage if the round detonated upon impact). With a cased round there is enough velocity to cause horrific injuries even at point blank range but the massively increased recoil makes the weapon harder to use at anything over a hundred meters range. By balancing the amount of propellant in the case and the amount of fuel in the Bolt Shell it is possible to custom build a set of ammunition with ideal ballistic characteristics for a specific mission.

It is for the above reasons that many members of the Imperial Guard consider Bolters to be caseless weapons yet almost every example seen of Marines firing their weapons shows spent cases being ejected from their Bolters.

[TIFUSAR]

Ja u to ne vjerujem!

[Degman]

Ma sve je to živa istina, kažem ti!

[TIFUSAR]

Nemre to bit

[Malleus Malleficarum]

Ova saga o bugačici ima nekoliko grešaka s tehničke straneČ

1. karabin je oružje koje ima kraću cijev od puške pa samim time i manju snagu streljiva - ovo znači da je oružje namjenjeno za gađanja bližih ciljeva i borbu na malim odstojanjima

2. prema opisu streljiva bolter je gyrock oružje - GY(RO)scopically stabilized ROCKet oružje. Ili

Ako je tvrdnja 2 točna onda to dobro opisuje zakaj su space marinci neprecizni i zakaj imaju mali domet oružja, ali mi nije jasno zašto i oni onda na 1 i 2 nemaju overheat pravilo jer je raketica eksplodirala u cijevi zbog stvaranja iznimno velikog pritiska izgorenih plinova (ili su to riješili stavljanjem malenih raketnih motora koji da jedva izguraju raketicu iz cijevi no tada orušje ima preveliku snagu).

Ili da sve ovo sažmem na Berine riječi - yep, opet su uprskali.

[Likvor]

Nemoj zaboraviti da se to ipak događa 40000 godine gdje su pronašli mnoga tehnička rješenja za današnje probleme.

[Dark Cross]

ma ja brijem da to nije tak!!??.........ma bolter more sve..

[Degman]

A nemojte zaboraviti niti 'dark age of strife' koje je sve gurnulo u k...c, tj. natrag u kameno doba, sve do dolaska emperora.


A ni nakon njega nije bilo baš pretjeranog teh. napretka

[Malleus Malleficarum]

Tako je. PA 40K je na nivou prvog svjetskog rata, Verdun, Ypress, Galipolje - sve junak do junca, a o pouzdanosti oružja da i ne govorimo.

[Rasho]

KOol.

Oću ja jenoga.

[Krunkova]

Odi ga fotografirat u tehnicki muzej...

[Rasho]

Odi ga ti...

[TIFUSAR]

Ste vidli Krunkovu negdi??!