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I mean, they work with strings, no smoke no fire, only thing coming out of that hole is a big piece of metal and sound, so why do they have a muzzle?
   
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Bolsters produce an unhealthy amount of smoke and fire. Why do upyou think they don't?

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There's got to be something propelling them out of the chamber, whether it's the rocket igniting or a preliminary charge. Personally I operate under the assumption that a bolter is fired with an initial charge rather than running on the rocket alone, since that explains why people can use bolters at point-blank range and why they've got muzzle brakes, recoil, and muzzle flash.

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Because it looks cool. That's the entire basis of the visual design of a boltgun.

But other than that, go with AnomanderRake's post.

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Bolters are not just rockets.

They have 2 stages to their ammunition. First, an initial explosive stage exactly like any modern firearm which propels the round to lethal velocity, and due to the rifling in the barrel it gives it the gyro-stabilization that increases accuracy. Then after it has exited the bolter, the rocket stage kicks in and propels it to even greater velocity.

A bolter is really a .75 caliber firearm which has a rocket assisted projectile.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket-assisted_projectile

This is really what a bolter is. A scaled down rocket assisted projectile.

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 AnomanderRake wrote:
There's got to be something propelling them out of the chamber, whether it's the rocket igniting or a preliminary charge. Personally I operate under the assumption that a bolter is fired with an initial charge rather than running on the rocket alone, since that explains why people can use bolters at point-blank range and why they've got muzzle brakes, recoil, and muzzle flash.


This

Pure rocket propelled projectile guns are not very effective. Rounds dont leave the gun fast enough to allow for anything close to rapid fire.

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 Exergy wrote:
 AnomanderRake wrote:
There's got to be something propelling them out of the chamber, whether it's the rocket igniting or a preliminary charge. Personally I operate under the assumption that a bolter is fired with an initial charge rather than running on the rocket alone, since that explains why people can use bolters at point-blank range and why they've got muzzle brakes, recoil, and muzzle flash.


This

Pure rocket propelled projectile guns are not very effective. Rounds dont leave the gun fast enough to allow for anything close to rapid fire.


Thr bolters ports are sideways. This has a key thing of sending that blast out away from the persons line of vision and maybe reducing upwards recoil.
It might help keep the marines vision clear from the flash.

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Sideways muzzlebreaks are pretty standard on heavy weapons.

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 Grey Templar wrote:
Sideways muzzlebreaks are pretty standard on heavy weapons.


...Is there such a thing as a vertical muzzle brake? I've never seen one.

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 AnomanderRake wrote:
 Grey Templar wrote:
Sideways muzzlebreaks are pretty standard on heavy weapons.


...Is there such a thing as a vertical muzzle brake? I've never seen one.


In theory such an arrangement would work the same but the downward jet of the blast would kick up dust and debris in front of the firing weapon.
Of course many guns have ports to help stabilize the barrel when fired, but tend to be on the top of smaller weapons to inhibit muzzle rise.
   
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 amanita wrote:
 AnomanderRake wrote:
 Grey Templar wrote:
Sideways muzzlebreaks are pretty standard on heavy weapons.


...Is there such a thing as a vertical muzzle brake? I've never seen one.


In theory such an arrangement would work the same but the downward jet of the blast would kick up dust and debris in front of the firing weapon.
Of course many guns have ports to help stabilize the barrel when fired, but tend to be on the top of smaller weapons to inhibit muzzle rise.


i belive the Thompson SMG had one to send so much up to counter recoil but the sidways alos works as it looks to push that energy in a way to counter the force going backwards or just dispipate it away to the side where it cannot push it away from the direction of recoil.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2017/03/21 15:27:20


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Pedro31 wrote:I mean, they work with strings, no smoke no fire, only thing coming out of that hole is a big piece of metal and sound, so why do they have a muzzle?


The muzzle is the point of the barrel where the projectile leaves the weapon, what you mean to ask is "Why do they have muzzle brakes?" And the answer would be because they are a two stage round, so to help further control the recoil, and lower the muzzle flash.

AnomanderRake wrote:There's got to be something propelling them out of the chamber, whether it's the rocket igniting or a preliminary charge. Personally I operate under the assumption that a bolter is fired with an initial charge rather than running on the rocket alone, since that explains why people can use bolters at point-blank range and why they've got muzzle brakes, recoil, and muzzle flash.


It is a two stage weapon, your assumption is correct.

Grey Templar wrote:Bolters are not just rockets.

They have 2 stages to their ammunition. First, an initial explosive stage exactly like any modern firearm which propels the round to lethal velocity, and due to the rifling in the barrel it gives it the gyro-stabilization that increases accuracy. Then after it has exited the bolter, the rocket stage kicks in and propels it to even greater velocity.

A bolter is really a .75 caliber firearm which has a rocket assisted projectile.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket-assisted_projectile

This is really what a bolter is. A scaled down rocket assisted projectile.


Correct.

AnomanderRake wrote:
 Grey Templar wrote:
Sideways muzzlebreaks are pretty standard on heavy weapons.


...Is there such a thing as a vertical muzzle brake? I've never seen one.


There are, and they are common enough. Like jhe90 mentioned the 1920's and earlier model Thompsons had them, the Polish and Belgian BAR's have them (on some models). The German FG-42, The Spanish CETME, the AK-74's have two holes on top of theirs to allow vertical release as well as the horizontal more easily seen.

That's just to name a few.

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2017/03/21 16:02:36


 
   
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One of the early 40k novels gave a rather amusing onomatopoetic description of the four-stage sound of a bolt round being fired; pop-raaaawrk-thud-crump, as the initial propellant detonates in the breech, the rocket ignites after clearing the barrel, the round impacts the target and finally explodes.

There are solid-tipped and silenced bolt rounds, which presumably omit the explosive warhead and the rocket motor respectively.
   
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 jhe90 wrote:
 Exergy wrote:
 AnomanderRake wrote:
There's got to be something propelling them out of the chamber, whether it's the rocket igniting or a preliminary charge. Personally I operate under the assumption that a bolter is fired with an initial charge rather than running on the rocket alone, since that explains why people can use bolters at point-blank range and why they've got muzzle brakes, recoil, and muzzle flash.


This

Pure rocket propelled projectile guns are not very effective. Rounds dont leave the gun fast enough to allow for anything close to rapid fire.


Thr bolters ports are sideways. This has a key thing of sending that blast out away from the persons line of vision and maybe reducing upwards recoil.
It might help keep the marines vision clear from the flash.



Well Astartes can mentally change their vision to protect from bright lights and improve night vision, as well as see in UV and IR spectrum. Plus autosenses are designed specifically to protect against sudden flashes and loud noises, so I'd assume all that would negate or significantly reduce flash from the gun. Plus, I've pretty sure they either have a crosshair on their HUD (or just are trained to the point where) that they can fire from the hip with no loss in accuracy, so they wouldn't even have flash in from of their face

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