NationStates Jolt Archive

I can't figure this out. What does gauss weapons mean? Gas operated? What does caseless means? Caseless ammo as in a belt, or has just one piece? If that is possible...

The gauss weapon is a magneticly propelled caseless weapon. Mos tof the time it can only fire one shot before reloading but everynow and then a rapid fire one will come.

Thanks, that helps.

Yeah, a gauss rifle is basically a nickname for any gun using an electromagnetic launcher.

Caseless ammunition is ammunition that eliminates the the metal casing that holds the the primer and the explosive charge that propells the bullet and instead holds the primer, charge and bullet together with a binding agent.

Traditional ammo consists of four parts: bullet, powder (propellant), primer, and the case. The case is the metal cylinder that holds the other three together and seals the breech end of the barrel against rearward escape of the gasses produced by combustion of the powder. So, caseless ammo is ammo without a case. Normally, this means that the bullet and primer is attached to or embedded in a chunk of propellant. They have yet to make a really successful caseless weapon in the real world. (Unless you want to get nitpicky and call blackpowder firearms "caseless".)

I suppose since propulsion in a "Gauss gun" would be a magnetic field produced by the weapon, the ammo would really just be a bullet.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coilgun

A web page explaining gas operation:
http://www.rkba.org/guns/principles/operating-systems/gas.html