Opinions Please - Are Assault Rifles Perfected?

[copeab]

Originally Posted by Legbreaker

It's possible, but I'm thinking it'll most likely be in the ammunition itself, probably with the development of a stable caseless round.
4.7mm as used by the G11 had loads of potential, but I believe there were still problems with the propellant cooking off, or being effected by moisture (possibly both). All would have been sorted out in time though I think...

Caseless ammo has bigger problems.

(1) Fragile: dropping a caseless round (even in a magazine) can cause the propellant to crack or completely break, leading to a malfunction.

(2) Malfunctions: to clear a malfunction on the G11 you essentially had to field strip the gun. For regular cased ammo, operating the bolt manually (to eject the unfired round and chamber a fresh round) is usually sufficient.

(3) Overheating: Brass cases absorb heat from the propellant exploding and are then ejected out of the gun. Caseless rounds don have this to get rid of some of the heat from firing and will overheat much faster.

No, caseless ammo is really a dead end.

(Talking about small arms here, not the ammo for larger cannons and howitzers)