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Is there a purpose to the weird drum on the top of the auto bolt rifle? At first I thought it might have to do with shell casings, but that would be ridiculous because you'd have to change out the drum after shooting for a bit, my current hypothesis is that it's a liquid cooling system.

Is there a book or accredited source somewhere that actually says what this is, because it's really bothering me. You can find the same sort of drum, although smaller, on the sides of Inceptor heavy bolters.

According to Games Workshop, that bit is called the "overcharger". Obviously with that name it's responsible for the increased rate of fire, but the exact mechanism (like with most technology within 40k) is not explained.

Coolant is definitely a good guess as to what it actually does though. I would also theorize that it could either be some sort of rotary loading mechanism (so instead of multiple rotating barrel and chambers you'd just have the chambers) or a gas reservoir (assuming bolters are gas-operated, more gas = faster rate of fire).

On the top example, perhaps it's a rotating rear iron sight offering different apertures for different ranges? That's about the best I can come up with. It's insanely overbuilt for that, and would appear to be interfering with the action of the weapon (not the first time such a thing has happened with bolters), but that's about all I can think of

On the bottom, i've got nothing, maybe a housing for a side mounted laser?

EDIT: nevermind, apparently it's an "overcharger" TIL.

I'd second some sort of enhanced feed/loading mechanism. if you look at pictures of the m134 minigun, it has a similar drum as part of its assembly, which I believe houses some of the gear components ( but dont quote me there)

Overcharger just sounds dumb..typical GW nonsense

It also sits above the ejection port, so I don't see how it could interact with the rounds at all.

Yeah, I was looking at the bottom picture..the top one doesnt really make sense at all

Maybe the drum contains mechadendrites that do, you know, things...

Its probably supposed to be reminiscent of the generator on modern Miniguns. Which isnt necissary because Bolters dont have barrels that need to automatically rotate, though they could be used to speed up the feed of the rounds.

I know it's not official, but I kinda interpreted as a rotating feeding mechanism.

Given how few rounds are actually in the Auto Boltrifle magazine it seems weird they'd want or even need anything to increase the fire rate. Also, where are the spent cases ejected from on either of those weapons?

Slipspace wrote:
Given how few rounds are actually in the Auto Boltrifle magazine it seems weird they'd want or even need anything to increase the fire rate. Also, where are the spent cases ejected from on either of those weapons?

The red circle on the Bolt Rifle literally goes across the ejection port...

 Platuan4th wrote:

Slipspace wrote:
Given how few rounds are actually in the Auto Boltrifle magazine it seems weird they'd want or even need anything to increase the fire rate. Also, where are the spent cases ejected from on either of those weapons?

The red circle on the Bolt Rifle literally goes across the ejection port...

Ah, I see, that explains it. I'll just chalk up the "overcharger" thing to typical sci-fi writing gone a bit overboard and leave it at that then.

Could act as an automated jam clearer?

Would allow for more efficient sustained fire?

I think it's like the clickity-clacks that you get on a child's bicycle.

Could be a delinker for linked ammunition. Sort of like on IRL miniguns.

 Wunzlez wrote:
I think it's like the clickity-clacks that you get on a child's bicycle.

This. It just goes "DAKKA DAKKA DAKKA” real loud and fast. So when you sweep fire over a horde of orks, it uses their own psychology against them. Obviously it’s more killy then a regular bolter (more dakka) so it kills more orks. Despite having the same rate of fire as a conventional bolt rifle.