Why does Gauss Rifle = no recoil?

[McPerth]

There was a discussion on this board somewhere (I haven't a hope of finding it, though it could be upthread here, I haven't checked) that suggested gauss 'needles' could be hollow tubes, as the aerodynamics of a tube reduces the supersonic boom.

Being not a physics nor metalurgy nor weapons expert, I wonder how would that affect the penetration/stopping power of this round.

I've heard about making densier core rounds to have better penetration (APCR/DS), but never about less dense (in this case hollow) rounds, and so question.

 

[Icosahedron]

Being not a physics nor metalurgy nor weapons expert, I wonder how would that affect the penetration/stopping power of this round.

I've heard about making densier core rounds to have better penetration (APCR/DS), but never about less dense (in this case hollow) rounds, and so question.

Well, a tube has gotta be the mother of all hollow points.
The tubular round doesn't have to be a unitary construction. If you consider a tube as a rolled up sheet, and then figure the sheet as a sandwich of hard, dense and deformable layers, that might work. I dunno, I'm not a munitions expert either, I just read the article somebody linked to.

 

[aramis]

Certain target rounds have been made that are a discarding sabot launching a ring-shaped copper wadcutter. They do some rather impressive damage to bowling pins in .357+P+...

 

[McPerth]

Certain target rounds have been made that are a discarding sabot launching a ring-shaped copper wadcutter. They do some rather impressive damage to bowling pins in .357+P+...

And what about penetration?

For what I know, usually lethality and pentration are inversly proportional, as what makes a round to penetrate well makes also it to 'just pass through' the target, while what makes good lethality (deformation/explosion/fragmentation that disperses damage inside the target) also makes the armor to be more effective.

 

[Xerxeskingofking]

And what about penetration?

For what I know, usually lethality and pentration are inversly proportional, as what makes a round to penetrate well makes also it to 'just pass through' the target, while what makes good lethality (deformation/explosion/fragmentation that disperses damage inside the target) also makes the armor to be more effective.

pretty much. damage is, at it''s simplest, the tranfer of energy, while armour penetration is about preventing the trander of energy so that the round carries on moving though the target.

personally, i think a tube round would have poor proformance agianst armour, as it wouldn't focus it's efforts on a single point like normal rounds, but along the whole of the tubes leading edge.


a solid needle desgined to be unstable in the target (i.e. to tumble) would more than likey show much better peneration and damage figures.

 

[nyrath]

Wow, old thread.
Yes, gauss rifles are NOT recoilless. They might give you steady pressure instead of a swift kick, but Newton's law of action and reaction cannot be denied.
As a matter of fact, there is a proposed spacecraft propulsion system which is basically a huge coilgun: it's called a "mass driver."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_driver#Spacecraft-based_mass_drivers

(note at the start of the wikipedia article is states "A mass driver is essentially a coilgun")

 

[nyrath]

A .75 Recoilless, on the other hand, does not.

This is a handgun much used by Harry Harrison in some of his stories, capable of putting large holes into robots. He doesn't deign to explain just how the recoillessness is achieved, just implies that something with that caliber packs a punch far bigger than any handgun on Earth today.

Maybe it's a Gauss gun?

No, from the description the Stainless Steel Rat's .75 pistol is a futuristic version of a recoilless rifle. That is, it is like a bazooka. It is recoilless because it fires a rocket projectile.

The action is the rocket going forwards, the reaction is the rocket exhaust going to the rear, but there is on reaction on the gun itself.

 

[Rover]

No, from the description the Stainless Steel Rat's .75 pistol is a futuristic version of a recoilless rifle. That is, it is like a bazooka. It is recoilless because it fires a rocket projectile.

The action is the rocket going forwards, the reaction is the rocket exhaust going to the rear, but there is on reaction on the gun itself.

he must hold it out to the side or he's getting a rocket blast to the face.

 

[Icosahedron]

he must hold it out to the side or he's getting a rocket blast to the face.

Not necessarily. The initial expulsion force could push the bullet far enough forward that the exhaust wouldn't be noticeable. It wouldn't be completely recoil-free, but more like a large bore Accelerator Rifle.
It could easily work with no more kick than an air gun.

 

[Rover]

Not necessarily. The initial expulsion force could push the bullet far enough forward that the exhaust wouldn't be noticeable. It wouldn't be completely recoil-free, but more like a large bore Accelerator Rifle.
It could easily work with no more kick than an air gun.

OK that I could buy, maybe, but that is very different in operation than the bazooka or recoiless rifle linked to above. Even if the rocket doesn't kick-in untill the projectile leaves the barrle, any .75 cal projectile would be large and heavy meaning there would be a good deal of propellant burned causing some back blast to wash over the shooter.

I read the Stainless Steel Rat books maybe 25 years ago and I must admit I never gave the physics of his .75 cal recoiless pistol much if any thought. But I think the recoil dampening would come from some as yet undiscovered means.

R