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Usefully, bolters fire bipropellant rounds though. So there should be little recoil as all the oomph in the round should come from the rocket motor. All the cased propellant needs to do is kick it clear of the muzzle

 Flinty wrote:
Usefully, bolters fire bipropellant rounds though. So there should be little recoil as all the oomph in the round should come from the rocket motor. All the cased propellant needs to do is kick it clear of the muzzle

They're still capable of deep penetration at point blank range (as boltguns are often used for close range shooting anyway, such as space hulks) and the books mention the rounds going well over supersonic speed just from the kicker charge alone (unless they're firing subsonic bolts meant for soft targets). A boltgun typically isn't firing a small kicker charge just to get it out of the barrel, but to accelerate it to what's more or less the normal speed of the round. The rocket engine just keeps it going at that speed for a greater distance. A boltgun that didn't accelerate to around the peak velocity from the kicker charge would be useless in close combat and be incapable of piercing things such as carapace armor or tyranid chitin.

 Flinty wrote:
Usefully, bolters fire bipropellant rounds though. So there should be little recoil as all the oomph in the round should come from the rocket motor. All the cased propellant needs to do is kick it clear of the muzzle

OTOH 'little' is relative after all bolters are regularly used point-blank with bolts often failing to detonate due to detonator not activating - but not totaly impotent acting as slugs. And some rounds, like Krakens, have heavier propellant charges. Not to mention that Bolters are often fired in 3-4-shell bursts.

 Flinty wrote:
Usefully, bolters fire bipropellant rounds though. So there should be little recoil as all the oomph in the round should come from the rocket motor. All the cased propellant needs to do is kick it clear of the muzzle

Nah, they still have an initial charge like a modern firearm. More than enough for the round to be lethal at close range, and give a good amount of recoil.

But the reason Bolter recoil is difficult for humans to handle is because the weapon is awkward to use for a human, at least one that was designed for Space Marines. Marine bolters will have space marine hand sized grips. Any firearm that isn't held properly can injure its user when it fires. Which is probably where the rumor that humans will injure themselves when shooting a bolter comes from, because it can happen, but a human who is trained in its use can use it without hurting themselves. And as most humans are NOT trained to use Bolters, well its not a myth that they could hurt themselves.

The rocket just adds to the lethal force of the Bolter at longer ranges, but its still plenty powerful up close.

regarding the RPG rules, it's worth noting that the figures in the Deathwatch book is wrong and they errata'd it, the actual damage differance between a boltgun and the Astartes boltgun is about 4 points of damage differance, which I'm pretty sure wouldn't translates into an effective differance in Table top stats.

Even in the errata, a godwyn's mass-reactive round (1D0+9, Tearing) is superior to a 'mundane' non-astartes heavy bolter (1D10+8, Tearing), making it more akin to the assorted horus heresy custodes bolter patterns (lastrum?) which essentially fire heavy bolter calibre shells.

 Grey Templar wrote:

 Flinty wrote:
Usefully, bolters fire bipropellant rounds though. So there should be little recoil as all the oomph in the round should come from the rocket motor. All the cased propellant needs to do is kick it clear of the muzzle

Nah, they still have an initial charge like a modern firearm. More than enough for the round to be lethal at close range, and give a good amount of recoil.

But the reason Bolter recoil is difficult for humans to handle is because the weapon is awkward to use for a human, at least one that was designed for Space Marines. Marine bolters will have space marine hand sized grips. Any firearm that isn't held properly can injure its user when it fires. Which is probably where the rumor that humans will injure themselves when shooting a bolter comes from, because it can happen, but a human who is trained in its use can use it without hurting themselves. And as most humans are NOT trained to use Bolters, well its not a myth that they could hurt themselves.

The rocket just adds to the lethal force of the Bolter at longer ranges, but its still plenty powerful up close.

Also not surprising when considering they rarely have stocks. Not a problem in power armour where the armour can be locked as a stock. Quite an issue for someone trying to shoulder the thing. They are basically stuck as overpowered SMGs for most users.

 Haighus wrote:

 Grey Templar wrote:

 Flinty wrote:
Usefully, bolters fire bipropellant rounds though. So there should be little recoil as all the oomph in the round should come from the rocket motor. All the cased propellant needs to do is kick it clear of the muzzle

Nah, they still have an initial charge like a modern firearm. More than enough for the round to be lethal at close range, and give a good amount of recoil.

But the reason Bolter recoil is difficult for humans to handle is because the weapon is awkward to use for a human, at least one that was designed for Space Marines. Marine bolters will have space marine hand sized grips. Any firearm that isn't held properly can injure its user when it fires. Which is probably where the rumor that humans will injure themselves when shooting a bolter comes from, because it can happen, but a human who is trained in its use can use it without hurting themselves. And as most humans are NOT trained to use Bolters, well its not a myth that they could hurt themselves.

The rocket just adds to the lethal force of the Bolter at longer ranges, but its still plenty powerful up close.

Also not surprising when considering they rarely have stocks. Not a problem in power armour where the armour can be locked as a stock. Quite an issue for someone trying to shoulder the thing. They are basically stuck as overpowered SMGs for most users.

it's definatly worth noting that the Primaris bolt carbine basicly looks like a godwyn pattern boltgun

One thing that would really hurt a normal human (or anyone technically) firing a standard boltgun of any caliber is it's lack of a real stock on most standard models. That would make it much harder to control since you really can't shoulder the thing properly.

The plastic bolter from 2nd edition (and one or two metal models) had a stock, and a few bolters used by non-Marine humans have them (the Escher combi-bolter, for example).

I believe I've read about Marines being both inquisitors and Rogue Traders.

As for Inquisitors wearing Power Armor of the Marine type....here is an official miniature or an Inquisitor in Terminator Armor.