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Notes -
Seems like the DoD should also start a GMO program to produce soldiers which can actually use these weapons effectively.
The funny thing is that 40k bolters are recoilless guns, if I remember correctly.
They're not. There's an initial charge that kicks the bolt out of the gun, after which the rocket propulsion comes online and brings it up to max speed. Just the initial stage is supposed to have an enormous amount of recoil, if it's an Astartes bolter, it breaks the arm of human Mk. 1s. Fans have been confused by this for a while, as the energies involved don't really warrant this, AFAIK.
If you want to deliver a lot of energy on the target, the energies involved in recoil would absolutely warrant it.
Bolters look to be something like a 1" caliber if not more, meaning it'd kick like a mofo even if it were kinda slow.
Here's a huge guy firing a 4 bore rifle.
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The lore is wildly inconsistent on that topic.
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