Warhammer 40,000: Bolter | Weapon Breakdown

Spacedock Sci-Tech Returns as Alasdair breaks down the holy boltguns of the Adeptus Astartes.
• Video
SUPPORT SPACEDOCK:
www.patreon.co...
FACEBOOK: www.facebook.c...
TWITTER: / spacedockhq
TWITCH: / spacedockhq
REDDIT: / officialspacedock
SPACEDOCK MERCHANDISE:
www.redbubble.c...
Do not contact regarding network proposals.
Battlezone II Music by Carey Chico
Sci-Tech Intro Features Animated Elements by SKIBBZ.
Spacedock does not hold ownership of the copyrighted materiel (Footage, Stills etc) taken from the various works of fiction covered in this series, and uses them within the boundaries of Fair Use for the purpose of Analysis, Discussion and Review. Produced by Daniel Orrett. Owner/Executive Producer at Spacedock.

[@Spacedock]

Big shout-out to Alasdair who kindly stepped in to cover this video while I was working on some upcoming BSG Deadlock content. He wrote, voiced and edited all of this video and he did a fantastic job!

[@Transgender-ProphetMohammed]

its not bad🙄

[@patricksonjoseph1475]

40k for life

[@darth_yoda]

Neeed more War40k on the channel! ^^

[@citamcicak]

... and Sisters of Battle.

[@sarkhan_guy]

Alasdair did fine. Not as good you though.

[@Apollo-tj1vm]

"So you want a machine gun or a rocket launcher?" "Yes"

[@annamills7560]

Thus the bolter is made

[@eletrictarantula2321]

Or having a tank cannon that can fit in your hand.

[@underscore_nick1344]

I want a gun that can fire rounds the size of red bull cans

[@Elodin001]

​@@underscore_nick1344 The Mk19 says hello.

[@underscore_nick1344]

@@Elodin001 but like i should be able you hold it in one hand

[@tennoshenaniganizer9234]

Space Marine 1: "The Emperor protects." Space Marine 2: "Having a loaded Bolter never hurt either."

[@midshipman8654]

Tenno Shenaniganizer >Implying the very existence of bolters is not a physical manifestation of the Emperors Devine protection. Heresy.

[@TheMugbearer]

Walk softly. And carry a big gun.

[@alecadanglao8386]

*flashbacks of that heresy filled movie* HERETIC!!!! *WHIPS OUT HEAVY BOLTER*

[@CaptainFirespitter]

Alec Adanglao I’m pretty sure that quote came from something else before being taken by... *That* movie.

[@patrickflying17]

the gaurd campaign in DOW 2 had a something similar to it. still a good line.

[@weldonwin]

The Bolter is pretty emblematic of the Imperium itself, combining highly advanced technology with deliberate brutality. Its firing huge rounds, that explode inside their targets, the effects of which would be truly horrific to behold

[@iAmDiBBz]

but in terms of installing fear into enemies im still more of the mind set that the eldars do the better job with harlequin's kiss. which not even categorised as a projectile weapon. this melee weapon is so feared by a huge amount of people that one would rather take a boltor to the head!

[@ThePCguy17]

@@iAmDiBBz Duh, a bolter to the head would be instant death. Death by the Harlequin's Kiss would involve exploding in a bloody shower, and it would give you enough time to realize what was happening before you died.

[@Galvars]

Mass reactive detonator was design to fight against orks, it fear installing characteristics are byproduct.

[@ThePCguy17]

@@Galvars A truly deadly, effective weapon. Mass-producible, too.

[@sambullock8339]

It’s also used by some of the imperiums most fearsome enemies, like chaos or the Genestealer cult (praise the four armed emperor)

[@ColonelFrontline1152]

*_"Having a loaded Bolter didn't hurt either."_* ( Yes I'm fully aware the movie was Heresy by the way. )

[@curseofgladstone4981]

HERESY!!!

[@TARINunit9]

That movie is mild heresy. Mild heresy is still heresy

[@tyrstark8673]

We don't talk about Ultramarines. That movie belongs in the darkest warp hole.

[@theQuickining]

@@tyrstark8673 yea it would be nice to get a well done Warhammer movie

[@rabidrednek]

I will say the Bolters sounded absolutely perfect in that movie. Really brought across how powerful those weapons are.

[@Shrimp_Rider]

What is our duty? To serve the emperors will! What is the the emperors will? That we fight and die! What is death? It is our duty! What is our duty? To serve the emperors will!

[@davfree9732]

“What is Death?” “Read more?” “Heresy!!!”

[@Daimon-X]

"The Emperor watches," "The Emperor knows."

[@SonsOfLorgar]

@@Daimon-X The false Emperor is just a long time dying.

[@Transgender-ProphetMohammed]

SonsOfLorgar u sure mean that palpatine guy, dont you?! 🗡

[@kameradin8964]

@@Transgender-ProphetMohammed No thats the Senate

[@FlyingWalnut]

The 40k universe is even more terrifying when you realize the Space Marines struggle to dominate their enemies even with weapons as horrifying as Bolt Guns.

[@utterchaos1765]

If the astartes struggle. How more do the guardsmen armed with glorified laser pointers and flak armour?

[@FlyingWalnut]

@@utterchaos1765 For every 1 Space Marines, you're talking 100 Guardsmen with flashlights.

[@glynrh8892]

@@utterchaos1765 lore wise as well the Lasguns are brutal, they can cut limbs off normal humans. Problem is, when are the Guard fighting normal humans

[@mongoliandeathworm2994]

Did you know that the creator of the Bolter was Gunther van Bolt

[@Cannon6969]

@@mongoliandeathworm2994 fuck off you’re joking right is this the same situation as the dude who found the STC for the Land Raider being named Arkhan Land

[@Sifeus]

Each bolter round is a two stage rocket. Bless 40k and its way of turning up every aspect of its lore to the highest extreme.

[@philiphunn194]

Sifeus 40K turns it up to 11, then turns the knob around to 11 again and again until it breaks off. There really is no such thing as “too far” for that setting 😂

[@EMan-1920]

And then you have the starships of 40K that average 6km in length, a necessary size against the foes of humanity in the 41st millennium (especially Tyranid Hive ships).

[@analligatorwithinternetacc6969]

@@philiphunn194 they turn the knob up to 40,000, that’s why it’s called Warhammer 40k

[@muzanjackson8827]

@@EMan-1920Continent sized Ark Mechanicus go brr

[@SwiftGundam]

You know, when you are breaking down weapons, a good title to use is something like "Spacedock: Armory" or something like that.

[@Haren94]

Not that any weapon breakdown was performed in this video.

[@niklashall5969]

Never tell a man how to run his KZbin channel.

[@CoffeeMaus]

I hate how the games portray the standard bolter as merely an oversized machine gun with pathetic accuracy, when in reality it's more like a deadly accurate machine for organ liquefaction. Case and point, Ghazghkull the #bestwarboss was almost killed by a *glancing* shot to the head, meanwhile in the Space Marine game called Space Marine, normal humans take 2 body shots to down and they don't explode either.

[@ArcturusOTE]

Humans, as in Chaos Marines?

[@Parabueto]

Although, if you slow Space Marine down you do see the initial blood spatter as it penetrates then a bigger one as the round detonates. They did it pretty well imo.

[@anamericancelt6534]

The games aren't canon?

[@steves3538]

It’s based off the gyrojet, a gun that failed commercially due to its poor accuracy (6+ moa within 2.5 m), you can even check out videos of guys shooting it, this is because the projectile lacks stabilization fins, the bolter round also lacks stabilization fins.

[@SonsOfLorgar]

@@steves3538 however, the bolter round has a kicker charge that provides an initial velocity of a regular bullet and imparts the nessesary stabilization spin velocity from the barrel rifling, The gyro-jet rockets ignited in the barrel which was too short to allow them accelerate enough to get a stabilizing spin before leaving the weapon. The kicker charge of the boltgun mitigates that problem on top of the fact that some of the non-standard bolt rounds has homing systems able to correct the flight path with a few degrees.

[@krimverse5903]

Nothing like a hand-held 20mm autocannon to cleanse heretics!

[@Skhmt]

19mm

[@krimverse5903]

At that point it hardly matters, 1/3rd or more of your cranium will be missing regardless.

[@vaughnhelthira1704]

Huh? A .75 caliber weapon is 17.55mm. Where is 19mm coming from? Is that .998 caliber or something, or is my math wrong?Edit: My Math is wrong. It's 19.05mm... .75 × .254 = .1905. Move the decimal over two places, and there you go. Apologizes😶

[@krimverse5903]

Caliber roughly translates to how fat the round is in inches, so 0.75 inches translates to 19.05mm

[@Skhmt]

@@vaughnhelthira1704 www.google.com/search?q=0.75+inches+to+mm What math are you doing?

[@maukka1545]

Boltgun is the 40k in a nutshell. It looks so fucking simple but as soon as you start reading the backstory and lore for it you're like "Holy shit this is cool".

[@mrtno4582]

An inelegant weapon, for a more, uncivilised age.

[@weldonwin]

The Emperor's own Dakka

[@shdwfx40001]

Ha! Bolters work great with elegant civilizations! We shoot them in the head and they die! We win so we don't care about their civilisation!

[@CoffeeMaus]

Heresy! Burn the witch!

[@mrtno4582]

so uncivilised.

[@gherkinisgreat]

Pfft, guns are the ultimate tool of civilisation, there's a reason why they come with enlightenment and not before like blades.

[@sschuster2180]

Gotta love how the bolter has a 30 round magazine but Space Marines are rarely if ever shown to have mag pouches on them ... while fighting in battles without pause or sleep for days if not weeks at a time.

[@marlinazul7786]

MY FAITH IS MY AMMO

[@Hamchunk1968]

Yup. A 30 round clip isn't much. You'd expect them to be loaded down, if they're fighting Orks or Genestealers.

[@tfan2222]

@@Hamchunk1968 i do agree, to some extents. From what’s shown it appears astartes are best primarily in quick decapitating strikes, so I don’t imagine too many mags would be needed, and I think when fighting orks or tryanids they’re typically hunkered down in fortifications with ammo near by

[@diapason89]

"The Emperor protects." "But having a loaded bolter never hurt either."

[@DeadSpaceWing]

The most "shoot the thing until it dies" weapon you can possibly get.

[@garrettsattem4799]

Or in the Bolter’s case: “shoot the thing until it becomes a mass of unmoving warm, red jello.”

[@phoenixfire9176]

Nice work Alisdair 👌

[@derekk.2263]

I've never gotten the lack of stocks on weapons in Sci fi. It doesn't matter how strong you are, you need a cheek rest to have any chance of consistently lining up the sights. There's a reason they exist in real life.

[@analligatorwithinternetacc6969]

You don’t need to line up shots when your opponent is a mile long murdersnake you’re fighting from 30ft

[@jinglejangle1533]

I always figured bolters didnt have stocks because a marines oversized shoulder armor had more than enough surface to rest the weapon on

[@EstebanGilChillington]

@@jinglejangle1533 that is actually true, the armor does provide some form of recoil dispersion and also mainly because the armor is around the entire body Plus the gun is sorta connected to the space marines helmet which has a built in scope, and other random stuff that allows them to not miss a shot

[@milotura6828]

The space marines helmet has a connection to the guns laser and shows it to user through the visor like a reticule in a videogame

[@alfalegionnaire3451]

Most sci-fi has larger shoulder armor, ie. Clone troopers, Terran marines, space marines. Even then some of them do have stocks, but those weapons are usually less mobile, expected to be used in a position where you can take a few seconds to shoulder it. Space marines are simply so large that recoil doesn't bother them 9 times out of 10, Terran marines couldn't shoulder anything if they wanted to with that wierd armor, and clones have advanced HUDs and enough training that the dc15a can be used in the close combat they favor without any need for a stock.

[@taliawtf6944]

Beats the hell out of an E-11 blaster. xD

[@TARINunit9]

The E-11 is more of a lasgun anyway

[@taliawtf6944]

@@TARINunit9 I think a lasgun is more effective though it has more uh... splash damage potential. Flash boiling water in flesh and all.

[@TARINunit9]

@@taliawtf6944 You would need a lascannon to get that. Going by most canon sources, a lasgun at standard power settings can only punch a hole in flesh the size of your fist; that's not going to boil enough water to hurt your target's friends very much

[@taliawtf6944]

@@TARINunit9 That's not the point, the point is it will kill a target very fast not kill several in one shot. At no point did I ever claim that I only pointed out the lasgun causes a flash boil of fluid in tissue. That's it go reread my comment.

[@TARINunit9]

@@taliawtf6944 >the point is it will kill a target very fast not kill several in one shot Yeah the bolter will rip a human in half, but the E-11 also reliably kills humans in one shot too. Both in the movies, and in the lore (both "Legends" and "Disney" count as lore now because I've stopped caring about these people who honestly think Legends was good even after the people who made Legends came out and basically admitted it was all kinda shit, and that Thrawn was the only good idea they ever had) and even in the video games where it's actually kinda hard to find enemies that can survive two hits. Well besides Battlefront I guess

[@iAmDiBBz]

if yous really wanna see the devastating nature of the boltor. check out the short film series WH:40k Astartes. the 2nd episode will showcase this!

[@caad5258]

That was sick. The animation was insanely detailed!

[@scelonferdi]

But Space Marine also made them into rapid firing girly guns with very slight recoil.

[@iAmDiBBz]

@@Vespuchian space marine IMHO done a overall horrible job on boltors let alone scale of an actual space marine. when you first come in contact with the front line foot soldiers you barely tower over them as much as a space marine should. remember space marines are 9foot tall roughly.

[@scelonferdi]

I think in several puplications it is described how the space marines have to actively manage it's recoil. Also according to Imperial Armour it isn't fully automatic but only has a semi-auto and a 3 shot burst mode.

[@TXTypewriter]

The only sources I've ever seen that actually put a specific number on the height of an average Space Marine all show or state that they're around 7 feet tall. Where are you getting 9 feet from? The sources I'm referring to are the scale drawings by Jes Goodwin, which have actually contributed a bit to the notion that SMs are 8 feet tall - the original one he drew listed the Marine's height as 8 feet, but it also listed the floor as being 1 foot tall. He drew a corrected one later that was correctly labeled with the floor being 0 feet, and the Marine as 7 feet. The other sources are the Deathwatch and Black Crusade rule books for White Wolf's 40k RP series, both of which state the average Marine, in armor, is 2.1 meters or around 6'10". In Space Marine the SM characters all stand a little more than a head taller than the guardsmen, so they're at least a foot taller and as such they're properly scaled.

[@diesozialistischeweltrepub332]

Ahhh, my favorite sci fi weapon, shooting someone with a weapon that would make them into a smoothie

[@weldonwin]

Its basically a fully automatic 40mm grenade launcher

[@thefirstprimariscatosicari6870]

@@weldonwin No. Stop with the 40 mm fully automated anti-tank rpg grenade launcher nonsense. Standard Great Crusade era bolter characteristics: It fires a 18.75×120 mm gyrojet APHE round with an initial explosive charge. The velocity achieved by this round in unknown, but believed to be hypersonic (5 times the speed of sound). Using the density of Depleted Uranium I will now calculate its penetrative power with a degree of uncertainty (0.5×(17500×0.01875×0.01875×0.120)×(330×5)^2)÷(2400×squared(18.75))= 96.7 mm at point blank range.

[@djcuevas1057]

YES THANK YOU This 40mm shit is getting really old. People dont know what the fuck there talking about most of the time.

[@jamesharrington001]

@@weldonwin 19mm, .75 inches is 19.05mm... I don't mind people going overboard with it, but please stop exaggerating the bore size. For referance the Heavy Bolter is 25mm as it is a 1 inch bore... for referance see what the bushmaster AC on the Bradly IFV can do...

[@thefirstprimariscatosicari6870]

@@djcuevas1057 Especially since if Bolters fired 40 mm rounds they would have to reload each 4 shots.

[@thefirstprimariscatosicari6870]

Standard Great Crusade era bolter characteristics: It fires a 18.75×120 mm gyrojet APHE round with an initial explosive charge. The velocity achieved by this round in unknown, but believed to be hypersonic (5 times the speed of sound). Using the density of Depleted Uranium I will now calculate its penetrative power with a degree of uncertainty (0.5×(17500×0.01875×0.01875×0.120)×(330×5)^2)÷(2400×squared(18.75))= 96.7 mm at point blank range.

[@AutismIsUnstoppable]

Is that penetrating rolled homogeneous armour?

[@thefirstprimariscatosicari6870]

@@AutismIsUnstoppable Yes.

[@bengrogan9710]

A few corrections, The early bolter rounds where 0.60cal (15.24mm) for a Tigris pattern and 0.70cal (17.78mm) for a Phobos pattern bolter19.05mm not 18.75mm Later patterns of The Bolt gun are 0.75 caliber, with 1.00 caliber being 1 Imperial Inch or 25.4mm The term "Gyrojet" is a misnomer - there are angled exhausts to induce spin and allow directional control, however the main impulse is a sustainer motor - The muzzle velocity is low to relieve chamber pressure for accurate sustained fire and the Bolt accelerates down range for approximately 8 second before the sustainer burn out

[@SonsOfLorgar]

@@thefirstprimariscatosicari6870 and then there's the idiots who claim E-11 blasters are better...

[@thefirstprimariscatosicari6870]

@@SonsOfLorgar Those things are probably inferior to a lasgun. They can barely kill an unarmored person, while Bolter or Lasgun will blow you up.

[@TheShadowwarrior80]

Fun Fact: The Bolter is actually based off of a real world weapon known as the Gyrojet. Created in the 1960s by a man named Robert Mainhardt, the weapon fires a .51 caliber round that's capable of piercing a steel truck door then entering a filled 55-gallon water drum before existing out the other side.

[@Technoanima]

Interesting. Which makes sense then for the bolter to have an AI (machine spirit) that calculates and adjusts each bolt’s timer to detonate at the right time for maximum damage.

[@jochentram9301]

Gyrojets were a staple of 1950s and 1960s SF novels, and commonly seen as the next logical step in the evolution of firearms. Too bad the real-world iterations were wildly inaccurate.

[@TheShadowwarrior80]

@@jochentram9301 Actually, I think the studies showed that the biggest problem was with recoil as the weapon was extremely accurate in the prone position with a bipod supporting it. Sir Isaac Newton's third of motion is a bitch for weapons.

[@jochentram9301]

@@TheShadowwarrior80 Could be, I haven't looked at the details. That would still make the weapon useless for general issue, though possibly interesting for snipers. I also suspect there was a cost issue - a round of 5.56 or 7.62 costs next to nothing. Gyrojet rounds require precision machining, so would likely be significantly more expensive. And if you're going through a few hundred rounds per month, per soldier, that can add up right quick.

[@simonbarnes7620]

Should have read the rest of the article and that fact is only hearsay, fun fact if you are close enough the gyrojet would have the same effect of someone throwing a stone at you, with very little recoil, the guns were wildly inaccurate, forgotten weapons has a good video on it.

[@DarthEarp]

one thing about the bolt gun that always bugged me. why do they say the recoil is heavy? it's a gyrojet gun. which means the bulk of the shell's velocity comes after it has left the barrel. and it's also stated that the bolter is very heavy, which would reduce recoil.

[@Striker_Osprey]

As stated in the video, the weapon utilizes a two stage firing system. The first stage being a conventional bullet casing to launch the main projectile clear of the barrel. That's why the modern depictions of bolters have an ejection port.

[@TheArklyte]

Because reasons and need to portray mary sue marines as overpowered as possible... don't mind that they're trash both ingame and tabletop compared to their in-universe price that would allow you to field several APCs instead and who'd roll over them any day.

[@Striker_Osprey]

That's why I prefer the guard over the space marines.

[@Galvars]

It is huge round, two stage firing system. One throw a round from a barrel and give it a proper speed, then the rocket engine kick in and increase that speed further. But even such initial kick deliver enough recoil to the bolter to kick back. Astartes power armor easy compensate that, for human it would be too much. Scale, look at the scale of weapon. In hands of Astartes it may look normal but Astartes is much bigger then classical human. Also it is automatic weapon, multiple rounds in series create constant recoil. For Astartes recoil is in accepting parameters, for human it is heavy to very heavy.

[@kevinwilson4482]

yeah it would operate like a rpg with a kicker charge to clear it from the shooter then a rocket to take it where it needs to go, so it would be much less difficult to fire than a standard modern day rpg, because the projectile would be tiny compared to a shoulder fired missile

[@BlackWolf18C]

I was hanging out with a gunsmith, thinking up ideas based on fiction for a gun we could build IRL, and we ended up spending the entire weekend just drawing and debating the mechanism of the 40k Bolter. We ended up with the idea that the primer would be housed in the base of the projectile, with a transfer bar in the casing to trigger it, then the igniting rocket fuel would light the kicker charge to send the projectile out of the barrel. We never got to actually build even a single inert test round, but it was fun to debate and try to engineer something straight out of fiction. I still have a hope that someday I'll see at least a .50 caliber Bolt Pistol using rocket rounds and a kicker charge in a casing. Bolt guns are just special in that we have all the technology to make them work, unlike lasguns or plasma, but that they're different enough from what's available to make building one interesting.

[@stratigangames508]

As an aspiring gunsmith, I would love to try this, but ammo manufacturing would be an absolute pain.

[@deadlyalexander7582]

How about loading a gyrojet round into a musket cartridge?

[@stratigangames508]

@@deadlyalexander7582 The problem is, you have to manufacture that gyro jet round. Nobody makes them.

[@argokarrus2731]

note they don't fire red bull cans

[@kingjonstarkgeryan8573]

I see you too are a man of culture. Comizar Garza's video was great

[@valeriyparshin2886]

EnderGMZ Ganza has a point but he just read the wiki for it, instead going in why. If you look at older depictions of Marines and their Boltgun sizes, you will notice where that thought came from. It isn't too far fetched to have both existing in Canon, when both do the same thing at the end without too grievous alterations in terms of strength. Ganza isn't a cultural enriched lore reader, he just took the basic information you can find on the 40k wiki or lexicanum and played a large trumpet, proclaiming himself as a new messiah of lore.

[@argokarrus2731]

well yeah I checked the wiki ad did find that info, but what he did do differently was give examples of the size of them, which is why I agreed with that previous comment, I'm not saying Gamza is some great "God Emperor of the Lore" or something.

[@thehypest6118]

glad to find this here

[@TARINunit9]

@@valeriyparshin2886 "read the wiki" nothing. It's been accepted fact for DECADES that a Bolter is .75 calibre. Your supposed "older depictions" are just idiots looking at slightly stylized artwork and assuming bad measurements from them

[@gloydorangeboar3136]

do the M-8 Avenger from Mass Effect.

[@casbot71]

I'm now curious about Volkite weapons and other relics from the dark age of technology like disintegration, heavy conversion beamer, graviton gun ect. Stuff that casual fans from Dawn of War video games wouldn't have encountered. And also the other common weapons that are still in use, such as plasma and melta guns.

[@SonsOfLorgar]

Yes, and also what the respective weapons would do to something soft and squishy behind a plastoid armor panel ;)

[@garygcrook]

The Volkite series of weapons utilise a powerful yet relatively short-range ray that can punch through armour and deflagrates organic matter. Conversion beamers are heavy weapons that create subatomic implosions in their target, with the added effect of the further away the target, the more powerful the effect. Though there is a limit on their overall range. Graviton guns work by projecting gravitons onto an area thereby increasing the gravity of mass in that area. The larger the mass the more extreme the effect, so an Imperial soldier would be somewhat hurt whilst the Astartes next to him would be injured possibly killed.

[@pendraco2000]

I love the hell out of the Convie. Have a Master of the Forge with one. first match i ever used it in, my MoF was on the top of a Bastion and lined up a shot on an Ork Battlewagon. literally disintegrated it around the Boyz inside it, who promptly took a Demolisher shell from my Vindicator

[@Sereze001]

Bolt shell- for when a slug of metal at extreme velocity just doesnt cut it anymore.

[@lexington476]

How about a video on the Warhammer 40K autogun and lasgun? You know, the Imperial Guard flashlight. Oh and the Stormtroopers Hellgu / Hotshot Lasgun.

[@mr.pavone9719]

I love me a Bolter, but a 30 round, .75 cal magazine would be the size of a modern day .50cal ammo can.

[@MCF2233]

Personally my favorite bolter pattern ive seen is the Manticore pattern from the Astartes Project. I know its homebrew, but it looks the most feasibly functional to me and the cleanest.

[@markfreeman4727]

a sci-fi weapons series? yes please!

[@Debbiebabe69]

40k lore - bolters are a kind of winder weapon that fire exploding self-propelled rockets of doom that rips squadrons of men to pieces. 40k reality - bolters have exactly the same chance to hit, kill, and range as a normal everyday rifle, the only difference is they pierce the skin of a man on a dice roll of 3+ rather than 4+.

[@imscary2]

My favorite thing about 40K is how the weapons are organized. you have a bolt pistol, bolt gun and Heavy bolter. There is the same thing for Las guns and auto guns. and all the armies have access to them.

[@CarlosHernandez-ec3vb]

Interesting breakdown weapon of 40k, I have one request by chance you would breakdown Lawgiver in judge dredd the weapon itself interesting very versatile a perfect weapon for to take galaxy far far away, but two different version one could electricity false user another version self destruct I prefer electricity if someone tries use my gun 🔫 on me it become a barbeque roasted just the way i like it

[@spindlephysalia7564]

Jesus Christ, that voice shocked me a little bit. Even so, great video and congrats to Alasdair!

[@luiscaballero3840]

Only 40k could come up with something so absurd and glorious at the same time, making a 75 cal rocket fuel propelled sub machine gun look totally normal

[@harrysmith1711]

'With blade and bolter. With faith and fire'. 'And we shall know no fear!'

[@alfredtg6762]

Hey could you do a video on Tau tech? I never hear about how their pulse weapons work, the last thing I heard was that it was like some kind of plasma tech. If you could explain it better, I would appreciate it!

[@skipmage]

.75 cal = 19mm, or about a 12 gauge not the 40mm people keep comparing it to Deuterium filling means that the projectile weighs just 6-10 grams after it exhausts its propellent. the Diamantine penetrator is less than a millimetre wide and the explosive is demonstrated to be directly behind it. 1 Gram of TNT is equivalent to one calorie, or 4.18 kilojoules Octanitrocubane is the fastest chemical explosive currently know it approaches two grams per ml and is 2.38 times more effective than TNT this means that a bolt penetrator is hitting with less than 10 kilojoules 10 kilojoules is the energy of a single AA battery or 1 gram of sugar more usefully 10Kj is like having 100kg dropped on your chest from hip high. but it's as thick as a 22gauge needle. And so every time I tried to run the numbers on it's penetration I found -the penetrator is not long enough -the penetrator is not strong enough -the penetrator does not met the minimum mass requirements for this calculation -the penetrator is not stabilized it contains less than a gram of explosive, so far from exploding into dangerous fragments killing the people around the target this round penetrates just 7mm of steel at it's maximum speed. it's pressure wave maxes out at just 140Db, as loud as a gun shot, and a person jus 20 meters away isn't even in danger of hearing damage. it's explosive fragments, if it produces them, are traveling slower than a regular .45acp (averaging just 230m/s) and finally if it detonates outside of the target, and produces random shrapnel, and that shrapnel hits someone at these concentrations it is only lethal to .3m or one foot, and can produce wounds on totally unarmoured subjects at a bare 5m. I am pleased to inform that should the round penetrate, and fragment, the target will suffer massive trauma like being in a bad car accident, without a seatbelt. but the man next to him will have to live with the nightmares because he is totally safe. Deuterium is very light, and is non-explosive, but it does burn very well in atmosphere, so when a bolt detonates outside of armour it LOOKS very impressive, kind of like a shot of petrol thrown at a fire, but produces superficial burns at best, and can actually cauterize the wounds you just spent so much effort inflicting. All of this is at it's most lethal What about point-blank? where we see most bolt shots. A bolters primary propulsion is a chemical shock detonator that flash boils compressed water ignoring that compressed water would be type seven ice and a chemical detonator is less stable lets go with electro-ignition and an actual liquid water. dropping the energy of a lightning bolt into the dribble of water in a bolt shell causes it to expand based on it's heat, running through some math I found that this steam was pushing at about 500psi Assuming that Admech know their stuff I gave the round a friction of 0.15 the lowest metal on metal friction we on earth can produce, dividing by the area of a circle and adding the mass of the unlit rocket as the work, we still need length of travel. if a bolter is in scale with the round it fires barrel length comes out to a whole 171...mm and the bolter itself becomes a more reasonable slightly larger than an MP5 finally we find that this incredible steam piston accelerates to 2.9m/s delivering with a full weight bolt 0.12 ftlbs or 0.16joules or setting a teacup down on the saucer. GW really wasn't kidding when they said it just push the bolt out the barrel. Finally, even the official mock up of a bolter magazine only fits 6 rounds At a modest RPM of 400, those six rounds are gone in .9 seconds And with a standard Marine only carrying two spare mags that's just 18 shots. a tactical marine is slightly better off with up to 32 rounds, But anyone trying to fight a war with 30 rounds is in for a bad time.

[@vlweb3d]

*NOW YOU'RE TALKING MY SCI-FI !!* *CLEANSE AND PURGE !!!*

[@eduardextreme4387]

I wish Ahoy would make a video about this behemoth of a gun

[@ExcaliburHeavyBattlecruiser]

Ayy, Ahoy enjoyer!

[@cornvuscornax4719]

Can you do a long ass video on the horus heresy?

[@astartes8621]

You can have Arch or Luetin cover that request

[@Gigas0101]

I love how the boltgun and so stupidly large and unwieldy yet has such a (admittedly proportionate) compact and efficient design. Also I love how I don't think there is a single piece of media that portrays these "self propelled grenade launcher rifles" properly.

[@CornishMoose]

Terenin like it says in the video bolt rounds are two part, traditional propulsion from a shell casing then rocket once it leaves the barrel. So there is a shell casing that needs ejecting from the first stage which also gives the rounds recoil.

[@luscinius2933]

There is a slight mistake: standard bolter round use depleted deuterium, not uranium, core. Essentially making those rounds into thermonuclear minirockets.

[@danielclem5693]

I would love to see an in-depth video like this about the Autogun or the Lasguns.

[@the_nerd5976]

so picture this. There are two bases in a box canyon, standing upon one of bases is a blood raven and a fire hawk. the blood raven looks to the fire hawk and says "do you ever wonder why we're here?"

[@L0stEngineer]

The bolter is cute and all, but I'd rather take an imperial guard regiment in las gun fireline formation anyday.* * so long as that line is "reinforced" with bolt gun armed commissars.

[@pendraco2000]

Not Heresy! Uh.... *Commissar looks confused* ...just what the hell am i supposed to do? *BLAM* *Catachan Guardsman whistles nonchalantly and walks off*

[@WritingFighter]

I'm really glad to see 40k content on the channel, but I also really hope the narrator has since upgraded their recording quality.

[@malcolmhaldin3667]

Imperial bolter : A pray made solid

[@feralprocessor9853]

I love the sound of the bolters in the ASTARTES video.

[@KrisHandsome]

As cool as Volkite weapons are, the bolters are all incredible and incredibly powerful guns. Like a portable version of an anti aircraft gun today. Great job Alasdair!

[@WordBearer86]

Agreed on their awesomeness, but it's more like an automatic grenade launcher and a RPG. AA guns fire proximity fuse or impact detonated shells, bolt rounds are mass reactive so they explode inside the target.

[@KrisHandsome]

I get how they work. I guess my first thought was on AA guns because they’re both large automatic weapons that fire explosive rounds, albeit ones that work differently from each other.

[@blackmetalops4415]

I think the 20mm cannon is a decent comparison. There's a disturbing scene in Saving Private Ryan where one gets the drop on a squad of paratroopers just as they've finished a successful assault on a Tiger tank and it chops them to pieces in an instant.

[@Self-replicating_whatnot]

Happy Bolter Day yall.

[@lelieutenant7386]

to you too

[@fallouttoonlink]

An elegant weapon for an uncivilized age. Pure perfection. And the storm bolter is perfection². Heavy Bolter is perfection³

[@deidryt9944]

How does a genetic lock in the grip work when the Space Marines are almost always wearing power armour?

[@SonsOfLorgar]

Information sharing through the armour via the black carapace?

[@alexanderson3847]

Yeah the last organ the space marine gets implanted with is the black carapace which allows them to interface with their suit as if it was a second skin for maximum control and efficiency.

[@deidryt9944]

Seems needlessly complex if it were the case (that the information is shared between the space marine/black carapace/power armour/bolter). And why would genetic matching even be needed in that case? Just have the power armour's machine spirit interface with the bolter.

[@y.kazayaki3681]

@@deidryt9944 because Chaos Marines or Orks tend to use SM bolters in case they ran out of ammunition. So the moment they use the bolter of a SM it won't fire .

[@deidryt9944]

@Johnston Steiner Power armour is hermetically sealed, though, on top of being proof against all forms of attack. Doesn't really sound right that a weakness would be allowed for something like an external gene scanner to do direct scans, no matter how small the weakness.

[@johnDoe-gz1qz]

Bolters: Because why make The Emperor do all the hard work?

[@imperialadvisoraremheshvau3788]

You had me at 75 caliber.

[@benihanah]

I can't believe it. I asked for 40k content on this channel and it happened. Can't take credit for it but man is this a happy coincidence. WHOO!!!

[@tyrstark8673]

This video should be commended to the highest records of the Adeptus Astartes archives.

[@Gunnar001]

Here's some examples from the official lore describing the devastating power of Bolters: _"Bolters fire self-propelled armour-piercing mass-reactive explosive missiles called bolts. These detonate a split second after penetrating a target, blasting it apart from within. The force of the explosion can destroy even armoured vehicles"_ *- 3rd Edition Rulebook, pg. 60* _"Uttam's guardian spear spat a bolt from the weapon beneath the blade and the man's body blew apart into vaporised blood and bone shrapnel. Two of the nearest soldiers went down with the force of the explosion..."_ *- The Outcast Dead, pg. 397* _"Bolter rounds were explosive penetrators. The men he hit popped like blisters, or shredded like bursting fruit."_ *- Horus Rising, pg. 10* _"The enemy’s bolts tore limbs from bodies or simply burst men apart like wet sacks. I turned to shout something, I forget what exactly, when I felt a searing pain in the back of my head and I fell over the remains of a man who’d had his entire left side blown off. It looked like he’d exploded from the inside out."_ *- Tales of Heresy: The Last Church, pg. 353* _"The bolt pistols thundered again. Each round found its mark, and fifty more bodies were reduced to bloody fragments. The rest of the mob staggered on, their outstretched hands little more than a metre away._ _At Zahariel’s command, the squad took one last step back and fired five more rounds into the press. Firing bolts locked back on empty magazines as fifty more bodies erupted into gory mist."_ *- Fallen Angels, pg. 320* _"Larana watched as one of the giant warriors casually gunned him down, a single bolt from his weapon blasting the man's entire torso away."_ *- Storm Of Iron, pg. 77* _"With a small movement, the warrior raised the barrel of his bolter and shot the Governor at point-blank range, blasting his body apart."_ *- Nemesis, pg. 399*

[@rhodes3983]

Bolters brothers!

[@swordmonkey6635]

"Perhaps the most recognized weapon of the Imperium..." The chainsword would like to have a word with you...

[@johnprice.2727]

“So large is the Godwin pattern, that no man could lift, let alone use it” No one tell him about commissar yarrick using a storm bolter.....

[@Bembel81]

"Try again Bragg" from Gaunts Ghosts used a heavy bolter.

[@blackvial]

@@Bembel81 Bragg is a giant of a man Considering the Orks of Armageddon I wouldn't put it past Yarrick to be able to use one

[@Dwarficus]

*Makes the sign of the aquila over his heart* You carry the Emperor's will as your torch, with it destroy the shadows.

[@venerablebrothergoriate5844]

“WHAT WAS THAT? I COULDNT HEAR YOU OVER THE SOUND OF YOUR SHREDDED FLESH SMEARING ACROSS THE GROUND!!”

[@pudlordtynan919]

Bolters! Perfect watching for this STORMY weather....😐

[@feralprocessor9853]

Pretty rare for Spacedock to do an overview of specific armaments.

[@scottlidstone1902]

The enemy doesn’t need to listen to reason... only the bark of our bolters and the roar of our chainswords.

[@mixartjohnson8968]

In the grim dark future of 40k. There is only war unless you take into consideration...

[@mixartjohnson8968]

Getting High on drugs. Living in a privileged world. Already being dead. Any more straws to add?

[@WTFisTingispingis]

"I wanted to make a weapon that was brutal." - the creator behind the concept of the Bolter.

[@necromorphkiller2553]

Can you do the UNSC Valiant class super heavy cruiser and Reaper class battleship?

[@garretwoeller7669]

Funny think to note the bolter fires bullets the size of 12G shotgun shells so yeah standard bolters are not as huge as some folks assume also is this man gonna talk about the new bolt rifle

[@nightwolf9160]

wow spot on Bolter info lore accurate to the letter! job well done my friend, this was an awesome video

[@ethancarlson1973]

The bolter is one heck of a gun, because it is a beef, just all beef.

[@Reeveli]

Uriah Olathaire (in The Last Church) describes bolters being used by the thunder warriors during the unification wars, so they clearly were widely used even before the Crusade. So one would assume they were always the common weapon of the astartes. Whats the source on volkites being the standard issue? The bolter itself must have been a STC design since similar technology was encountered during the Crusade, like in Caliban (Descent of Angels). As such one would assume bolters being used by humanity ever since the dark age.

[@dontuseyourcellulardata7599]

Probably as hunting rifles though

[@KaiCalimatinus]

Awesome job, the nod to the new and old and some of the more esoteric patterns, great watch.

[@quazar5017]

The fact that he say "in the grim darkness of the future" instead of "far future" makes me slightly nervous.

[@dariustiapula]

I prefer the Las Gun. Just go for the eyes.

[@Erika-gn1tv]

You mean the standard-issue IG flashlight?

[@dariustiapula]

@@Erika-gn1tv Yup. Some might dismiss them for simply being "weak". But in all honesty. Las gun are not only accurate over everything, but also have respectable damage. If you can focus that damage. Like say the eyes. Which is why my favorite weapon in 40k is not the boltor that requires ammunition or Tau pause rifle. But the Long Las.

[@ISAFSoldier]

@@Erika-gn1tv It's not that the Lasgun is weak....its that everything it goes against is ridiculously strong.....

[@hearestthou5714]

@@ISAFSoldier I.e it is weak

[@ISAFSoldier]

@@hearestthou5714 when you regularly go up against things that can eat the equivalent of 120mm tank shells for breakfast and want seconds.....no shit....

[@grendelprime166]

So many artists have no idea how real guns work or how the Bolter, based off real firearms work. The upper extrusion above the barrel is a gas block adjuster. An artist thought it would be cool to make it into a laser sight. Lasers today can be packed in the tiniest of casings so I figure in the 41st millennium they could make the adjustment knob into a laser. The Lower extrusion under the barrel is an accessory lug for a bayonet, chain blade, or one of the mounting points for a grenade launcher.

[@SirLazz]

*EAT BOLTGUN* Very good video, very informative! Looking forward to more 40k content!

[@MrOiram46]

3:13 *mississippi queen plays*

[@shiran31]

Just want to point out that there are non-modified humans that can carry Space Marine issued bolt guns.... Although I don't know if you can count Catachans as normal humans. There is a model of Sergeant Harker of the Catachan regiment in the imperial guard carrying unaided a heavy bolter.

[@sicarius6501]

No. They're beyond human

[@martinjoseph5410]

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

[@pendraco2000]

Well, as was mentioned, the Godwyn, Baal and so on are specifically designed for Marines. The Adeptus Mechanicus does make some standard-human-capable used ones, like Commisar bolt pistols. should also be noted that the Catachans in general use said Bolters a lot, as Catachan Sargeants are known to carry boltguns as well. Harker's just considered nuts for the fact he carries around a HEAVY Bolter (he's also not the only guardsman to ever do so, as there's also Ox from the 13th Penal legion, aka "The Last Chancers," who also does).

[@armorhide406]

What gets me is the portrayal of full size 28 mm scale proportions. .75 caliber is just over 19 mm in diameter. It's not shooting beer can sized rounds. Some people did some calculations and got a low ballpark estimate of kinetic energy 27-64 kJ at impact, not including the explosive payload. Even if they didn't explode, it's several times more powerful than a 50 cal given future materials and rocket propellant

[@grand-dadmiral]

The Emperor protects!

[@SAITO2]

any chance you could do a video on the Universal Century ships and mobile suits and mobile armors used in the various series under original universe? for example the Pegasus class or Musai class

[@s.sradon9782]

Add a stock, lengthen the barel, skeletonize the construction and with modern metal 3d-printing of those complex mini-rocket nozzle components a real life bolter becomes feasable.

[@s.sradon9782]

The hybrid conventional-rocket propulsion is interesting, however the opposite is true atleast as far as real world physics go: The chamber is under less pressure with a rocket charge than a conventional one since as the projectile moves along the barrel the volume for expanding gas increases and a rocket generates this gas over a longer period of time, utilizing this effect to create a much duller pressure spike. Interestingly this allows for the use of much, much heavier bullets or an extremely light barrel.

[@essex3777]

Logically speaking Bolters are very different from Gyrojets, and I don't mean the trans-human super soldiers wielders. To have the kick and roar they are described within the books, the rocket fuel would have to be high powered yet slow-burning with the kicker charge having to extremely powerful because there is no way your fitting enough standard power in there to get the desired velocity, it would have to be more like a firecracker than excellent. It sort of handwaved away by saying that the shells are actually assisted by coil-gun rails, but if that's the case then they can reduce the charge significantly to where it only meets the rails and they take it from there but this the Imperium so they don't do anything that makes sense. There are also problems with the rocket fuel itself, even if you get an energetic but slow-burning, there will not be enough to get it a decent range or velocity while still putting the mass-reactive charges for that explosive punch, now this can but compensated for by extending the shells to include more of everything. Now everything I've just said operates on the assumption that Bolter shells are all self-contained like the normal Gyrojets, they do not. In nearly all media I can find, be it in games, art(both fan and official), or books, Bolters eject casings like normal chemical weapons. So this in mind, we can rework the shell itself. Moving the chemical kicker charge to the casing, more room is added for the fuel without cutting into mass-reactive explosives. It also explains the kick, with simple physics we understand what normal recoil is, and it's compounded with the fact, that if the rocket-fuel is set off immediately, it will also be pushing backward with the normal recoil. By adding an outer cartage you would also be able to seal it up to the elements while eliminating the various other problems I brought up. If anything, the gyro-jet part would just give the large projectile an obscenely flat trajectory.

[@elliotyourarobot]

I agree to me its just a large chemically propelled bullet. All this talk about it being a rocket or grenade is just silly and over engineered.

[@GhostOfSnuffles]

Emperor "i have this new weapon for you" SM "Is it a machine gun or RPG?" Emperor "Both" SM "What kind of bullets does it shoot?" Emperor "All of them"

[@CHRF-55457]

Never thought Spacedock would do a video on this...

[@JustTooDamnHonest]

The Space Wolves are my favorite unit of the Space Marines.

[@drewgilbertson]

In an interview the original creators of 40k said the bolter came from a debate over what guns the first space maries should use. One wanted an automatic bazooka, the other wanted a gun that shot hammers. I think they found a brilliant middle ground.

[@kira68200]

"so large that no man could lift let alone wield on in combat" well ... except catachan boys

[@gruvee9334]

Me with a bucket on my head: "EAT BOLTGUN! WHUAAAHHHHHH!" Great video. Thanks for the breakdown!

[@lorddeathofmurdermountain76]

Space marine:"the greatest day of my life was holding my bolter for the first time" Space marines son:"what about the day I was born"? Space marine:"nope not even close".

[@Wraith-Knight]

biometric signature probably pointless with power armour unless an unarmoured marines escapes from other marines

[@phantasmo9998]

This is round is close to the bullet fired by the m242 Bushamster of Bradley fighting vehicle.

[@thomaskirkness-little5809]

How does a biometric sensor work through a power armour gauntlet?

[@KopitioBozynski]

The black carapace implant of an Astartes allows their armor to become their second skin. Their armor is quite literally a removable part of them.

[@Livingeidolon]

Stop being logical!

[@caav56]

I think that, under normal conditions, it just links to the armor and uses data from it for authentication. The biometric sensor is in it for special occasions, when the armor cannot establish uplink and/or space marine has to grab it with bare hands.

[@blockygamez1048]

You should do the lasgun next