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A hand grenade is not an "explosive projectile". The 40mm launched grenade is more than 400g in weight.

Those DPU and HEAP rounds fired by the autocannons and chainguns might also weigh more than 400g. These might also not be classed as "anti-personnel" in purpose.

I also remember reading that it is also illegal for a projectile to explode once penetration has been achieved. I cant seem to find the article, I am sure some one can back me up. But I did find this.

42. Explosive and penetrating weapons cause a variety of different physical
injuries. These may be grouped into injuries due to blast and injuries due to
penetration of the human body by one or more missiles, such as projectiles
or fragments. Penetrating weapons cause the latter type of injury, whereas
explosive weapons may cause either or both types. As is described in Chapter
IV, explosive weapons can be designed to maximize one or other of these two
casualty effects, in which event they may be classified either as blast weapons
or as fragmentation weapons

Basically you can have either a blast, or a penetrating weapon against a person, but not both. This is because it would cause unnecessary damage. Either the penetration should kill, or the blast. Having a bullet explode upon penetration and turning you into pink gibblets is frowned upon if that is the weapons intended purpose.

I think to have a research paper on the ethics and mechanics of a bolter would be pretty interesting.

 Psienesis wrote:
A hand grenade is not an "explosive projectile". The 40mm launched grenade is more than 400g in weight.

Those DPU and HEAP rounds fired by the autocannons and chainguns might also weigh more than 400g. These might also not be classed as "anti-personnel" in purpose.

This page indicated that all common US 40mm grenade rounds are about 200-300g.

http://www.inetres.com/gp/military/infantry/grenade/40mm_ammo.html

The page I saw quoting stats for the XM25 launcher also indicated the rounds were less than 400g, and the 20mm round for the old OICW must have been in the range of 100-200g, being that much smaller than a 25mm round. these latter weapons are definately classed for anti-personnel use, designed to take guys behind walls and in trenches.

Hmm, that seems awful light.... but, then, I haven't had a 203 in my hands in almost 20 years.

 Psienesis wrote:

 Maniac_nmt wrote:

 Psienesis wrote:
While that's true, realistically speaking, it should be noted that Space Marines never run out of bullets unless it is dramatically appropriate that they do so.

*That* is some technology that we should be investigating!

Though the 30 rounds is the main boltgun, not the heavy bolter, which packs 200 in the backpack, iirc.

There is no way on even 40k terra there is 30 rounds in a bolter, no artwork has ever made a clip big enough to contain that many rounds. Those are like 10-15 round clips in the artwork.

Here is a 50 round 7.62mm clip as a reference.

http://www.gunsamerica.com/UserImages/5212/907877400/wm_1483739.jpg

Note it in comparison to the gun. Now, a 25mm round is between 3 to 4 times the size.

Take a 30 round clip again and compare

http://www.southernoutdoorlife.com/mouseguns/sub2000/ak47.jpg

The clip for a bolter is shorter even than this, with at a scale of 3 to 1 means you are scrapping to even get 10 rounds into a bolter, 30 would be good for a Heavy Bolter to even approach. Yes they could carry more ammo, but not in massive quantities to make a HB worth it as a sustained fire weapon or squad support weapon, which is the tactical roll it is supposed to fill.

It's less a question of weight as it is bulk, the Marine isn't sufficiently 'big' enough to carry truly large quantities and noting in the art or modeling would back up anything different.

Marines are just lucky, their 6 shot revolver actually carries as many bullets as needed until it's dramatic to reload like something from a B movie Western.

DH lists the standard boltgun as packing 24, you are trying to apply real-world logic to 40K, and that is both a fallacy and the path to madness.


As far as Marines carrying extra ammo? They're encased in strength-enhancing ceramite. Slap some magnets to your magazines and then slap them onto your PA. You could probably fit ten mags on each leg, and another three on each forearm.

Actually, I'm just asking 40k to use it's own visual showcasing of an item to have it apply to itself (I'm not trying to apply real world per say, just showcasing the physical size the clip would be to contain that many bullets). The artwork and models clearly depicts that it is not a 24 round mag.

http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Bolter
http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?prodId=prod1560134&setLocale=de_DE

Unless of course the Imperium has space fold technology incorporated into the bolter ala Transformers, you can actually count the shells on these things, 5 high in an expanded drum mag, with say maybe 3 to 4 across maximum based on rendering, in a drum mag.

Of course you can slap on extra mags, it's not the weight. A Marine is what, 7-8 ft tall? A 10-15 round clip would get close to the length of his forearm. Carrying a lot of these would just get in the way, reducing mobility.

Heh. Probably for the best

3lb unloaded and 3.5lb loaded are the stats apparently, or about 1.3kg and 1.5kg respectively.

I believe the magazines are double-column loaded, so if it looks like it only holds 8, it actually packs 16. I'm not sure how they accomplish this, and I'm sure that this was written to compensate for the visual appearance of the artwork... but so it goes.