Bolter

A Space Marine standard Godwyn pattern Bolter with Standard Bolt ammunition

The Bolter, also called a Boltgun, and its variants are some of the most powerful hand-held weaponry in use by the military forces of the Imperium of Man. It is a powerful assault rifle that fires explosive kinetic rounds colloquially referred to as bolts. The Bolter is a weapon synonymous with the Adeptus Astartes, and rightly so. However, although the Space Marines are its primary user, the Bolter finds itself in use in military organisations throughout the Imperium. The weapon is fearsome, with explosive rounds capable of ripping through or blowing apart a foe. The Chaos Space Marines of the Traitor Legions were issued their Legions' Bolters before the Horus Heresy, and therefore, use generally older variants than the patterns available to present-day Loyalist Space Marines.

The Bolter is a mid-range anti-personnel weapon that lies between the lighter Bolt Pistol and the more effective Heavy Bolter. The standard pattern Bolter can easily be wielded by a Space Marine, but smaller pattern Bolters must be used by the Battle-Sisters of the Adepta Sororitas.

For both the Space Marines and the Sisters of Battle of the Orders Militant of the Adepta Sororitas, the Bolter is viewed as a weapon intended by the Emperor of Mankind to bring his wrath to the enemies of Mankind. Every Astartes carries a Bolter lovingly handcrafted by the Artificers of his Chapter's Armoury or of one of the Adeptus Mechanicus Forge Worlds. At each point in its construction special rituals are observed by the Artificers or Tech-priests, and even an Astartes' daily maintenance of his weapon carries an air of religious devotion. The Bolters used by the Space Marines are known to be coded to Astartes genetic signatures so that they are only functional for members of the Adeptus Astartes.

Description

Appearance

The Bolter is a large, .998 calibre assault rifle. It has a much greater mass than most standard-issue rifles such as the Lasgun, although it is slightly shorter in length. Unlike most rifles, it lacks a stock, resulting in a grip much like a pistol's or a submachine gun's. A Space Marine's bulky Power Armour would make shouldering a stock an awkward experience, but Power Armour is most likely also able to compensate for vibrations and oscillation, making a stock redundant. Stocks are sometimes used, however, with an extended barrel and an M40 Targeter System to transform the Bolter into a sniping weapon system. These sniper Bolters, known as Stalker Pattern Bolters, are most often used with Stalker Silenced Shells.

Standard Bolter Round

Bolter ammunition (a bolt) is primarily a solid slug. Conventional solid slugs utilise a propellant charge contained in a casing that, when ignited, forces the bullet out of the barrel. In contrast, a bolt is self-propelled; it features its own integrated solid propellant that propels the bolt at high speeds, essentially acting like a miniature rocket. The propellant itself is shaped to control the bolt's direction and speed; however, this method of rocket propulsion would normally warp the barrel due to gas pressure. The Bolter uses an ingenious method to prevent this.

As well as the rocket propellant, a tiny amount of conventional charge is also utilized. This charge is just strong enough to force the bolt out of the barrel and ignite the bolt's propellant. The rocket-propellant is carefully fused to ignite just after leaving the barrel, alleviating any possibility of pressure build-up. The bolt then accelerates away towards the target under its own power.

The standard Bolter ammunition is designed to penetrate the target and then detonate, causing immense damage to the target and leaving little opportunity for survival.

Construction

The Bolter is complex to produce and requires dedicated maintenance, which prevents it from being issued more widely throughout the Imperial Guard. Furthermore, the Space Marine warriors, or Astartes, are a breed of genetically-enhanced supersoldiers. The Chapters of the Astartes also wear massive suits of Power Armour that further enhance their control over the powerful recoil of the weapon, and aid the already prodigious skill of the individual warrior with autosense uplinks and suit-integrated targeting systems. The Bolter is simply far too heavy to be wielded effectively by the average human being or Imperial Guard soldier. The Bolter also is far more susceptible to being fouled by dirt and mishandling than the basic Lasgun issued to Imperial Guardsmen, requiring much more training to use than the Guard is ready to give the standard line trooper. The Bolter's need for physical ammunition demands far more logistical organisation than the standard Lasgun, and Astartes Chapters have been known to go through a small stockpile of rounds in a single campaign.

Variants

File:Standard Bolter.png

A diagram of a standard Godwyn pattern Bolter

Over the millennia, the Bolter has been improved and changed many times. There have been hundreds of variants, but only a few have made any radical differences. All of these have the same basic features, but each have different additional features (depending on the weapon's pattern) to improve it. The current standard-issue Bolter for the Space Marines is the .998 caliber Godwyn pattern Bolter.

Some other variants include:

• Astartes Umbra Pattern
• Ceres Pattern
• Crusade Pattern
• Filienostos Pattern
• Godwyn Pattern
• Godwyn Mark IIIa Pattern (older pattern of Bolter used by the Dark Angels Chapter)
• Godwyn-Deaz Pattern (used by the Orders Militant of the Adepta Sororitas)
• Heresy Pattern
• Locke Pattern (variant of a pattern used by the Adeptus Arbites, now most common pattern of Bolter in use in the Koronus Expanse)
• Nostra Pattern
• Perinetus Pattern "Solo" Mark II
• Phobos Pattern
• Stalker Pattern (a standard Godwyn Pattern Bolter modified with an M40 Targeter System to also serve as a Sniper Rifle)
• Ultima Pattern
• Umbra Pattern
• Umbra Ferrox Pattern

Ammunition Variants

Standard Bolt

Standard Bolter Slug

The Standard Bolt is the standard-issue antipersonnel ammunition for the Bolter. It is designed to penetrate a target and detonate, causing horrific injuries.

Internal Details

1. A solid-fuel rocket propellant base
2. An outer casing containing conventional charge
3. Gyrostabilizer
4. Mass-reactive fuse. Has a split-second timer to delay detonation upon impact until after the shot penetrates the target.
5. Hardened diamantine penetrating tip. This allows for the bolt to penetrate most armour before detonation.
6. Main Charge
7. Depleted uranium core. This is a very dense material, adding weight and thus momentum to the round when in flight. This aids in the bolt's penetration of the victim.

Kraken Penetrator Rounds

Kraken Pattern Penetrator Rounds

Kraken Penetrator Rounds are powerful armour-piercing rounds. The uranium core is replaced by a solid admantium core and uses a heavier main charge. Upon impact, the outer casing peels away and the high-velocity adamantium needle accelerates into the victim, where the larger detonator propels shards of super-hardened metal further into the wound. These are effective against heavily-armoured infantry.

Internal Details

1. The main charge is increased to enable a larger explosion.
2. The uranium core is replaced by a core of pure adamantium to optimize the penetration of reinforced armour.

Inferno Bolt

Inferno Bolt

Inferno Bolts are designed to immolate their targets and destroy them with superheated chemical fire. The uranium core is replaced with an oxy-phosphorus gel, known as Promethium. However, due to the decreased projectile mass, armour-piercing capabilities are compromised.

(It should be noted that the Thousand Sons Traitor Legion has their own similarly-named but unrelated type of Inferno Bolts, which are actually psychically-bound slugs that release arcane energies; these slugs explode with sorcerous Warp energies upon impact.)

Internal Details

1. In this bolt, the uranium core is replaced with a special gel that ignites with oxygen.

Hellfire Bolt

Hellfire Bolt

Hellfire Bolts are designed for use against organic targets, specifically the Tyranids. The core and tip are replaced with a vial of mutagenic acid and thousands of needles. When the round enters the target's body, the vial shatters and the needles pierce the victim's flesh, pumping the acid into the target.

Internal Details

1. In this bolt, the uranium core is replaced with a vial of mutagenic acid. The point is also replaced with a chemical substance that causes the vial to detonate once it has penetrated the enemy's armour.

Metal Storm Frag Bolt

Metal Storm Frag Shell

In the Metal Storm Frag Bolt, the mass-reactive fuse of the standard bolt is replaced with a proximity fuse, and the uranium core and Diamantine tip are replaced with increased high-explosives and a fragmentation casing. This means the bolt explodes when it nears an enemy, creating a lethal hail of shrapnel. This bolt is capable of inflicting casualties on multiple lightly-armoured targets, but its effectiveness is dramatically reduced when facing heavily-armoured foes like Chaos Space Marines.

Internal Details

1. Mini-gyrostabilizer
2. Fragmentation Casing
3. Increased Charge
4. Fragmentation Charge
5. Proximity Detector

Stalker Silenced Shells

Stalker Silenced Bolt

Stalker Silenced Shells are Bolter rounds with low sound signatures, meant for covert fighting. They are often used in conjunction with an M40 Targeter System, an extended barrel, and a stock to create a sniping weapon system. A gas cartridge replaces both the propellant base and main charge for silent firing, but this sacrifices muzzle velocity as a result. A solidified mercury slug replaces the mass-reactive warhead for lethality at sub-sonic projectile speed. These rounds are used when stealth and precision are required.

Internal Details

1. Gas Cartridge
2. Solidified Mercury Slug
3. Smooth Diamantine Tip

Psycannon Bolts

Psycannon Bolts are used by the Inquisition, primarily the Ordo Malleus and its Grey Knights Space Marine Chapter. They are very similar in nature to the rounds fired by their namesake, the Psycannon, and are similarly used against psychic Heretic and daemonic targets. Of all the rounds available to the Bolter, these are the most expensive, as each and every bolt is inscribed with arcane runes on a microscopic level. According to some sources the bolts derive their anti-psychic effect from being impregnated with an extremely rare negative psychic energy; the sole source of this energy is a metabolic byproduct of the Emperor of Mankind's Golden Throne. The anti-psychic nature of these rounds are not only effective at destroying daemonic targets but also highly efficient at piercing the powerful barriers created by force field generators (such as the Tau Shield Generator and the Imperium's own Iron Halo and Storm Shield).

Vengeance Rounds

Vengeance Round bolts were created using unstable flux core technology that makes them hazardous to use but extremely potent at penetrating through heavily armoured targets. As their name implies, these bolts were developed by the Imperium specifically to target the Chaos Space Marines of the Traitor Legions.

Dragonfire Bolts

Dragonfire Bolts are hollow-shelled bolts that explode with a gout of superheated gas that can eliminate the value of cover for enemy troops.

Bolter Magazines

As well as the different types of ammunition available for the weapon, there have also been several different types of magazines. The standard magazine for the Bolter is the Sickle Magazine.

• Sickle Magazine: The standard-issue magazine, seen on most Bolter patterns. The magazine's shape is slightly curved to take up less space. Carries 20 to 30 bolts.
• Straight Magazine: A straight version of the sickle magazine. Holds less ammunition (only 10 to 20 bolts), but is easier to load in more intense situations.
• Drum Magazine: Drum magazines are a relatively rare sight in the 41st Millenium. This is due to their unreliability; drum magazines have an unfortunate tendency to jam. However, drums can carry 40, 60 or even 100 bolts, negating the need to reload as often. Despite the frequent jamming, they still brook some favor with local Hive Gangs or planetary defense militia. They are also frequently seen on Storm Bolters or in brutal assaults, where running empty in a firefight can mean certain death.
• Belt Feed: Some troops forgo using magazines at all, preferring to feed the bolts directly into the firing chamber using a linked belt. Because the belt is exposed to the elements, it is frequently clogged with dirt or dust. This can, like the Drum Mag, lead to jamming, and is rarely used within the Imperium, although it is very commonly used by the Chaos Space Marines of the Ruinous Powers.

Note that Space Marine Heavy Bolters have the ammunition belt protected by a tough, flexible feed chute.

• Duplus X: This type of magazine is quite popular amongst local planetary law enforcement or Hive Gangs. It involves two standard Sickle Magazines which are attached together by some means, usually a band of cloth or tape (similar to the "ready-mags" of ancient Terra). This means when the weapon has to be reloaded, the user can simply flip the magazines around and insert the loaded magazine. This type is rarely produced officially, usually being "manufactured" by those who utilise it.

Other Bolt Weapons

Although the Bolter is the Adeptus Astartes' weapon of choice for Space Marine Tactical Squads, it is by no means the only bolt weapon in the Astartes arsenal. As well as the variants of the standard Bolter, there are several different bolt weapons.

Bolt Pistol

File:Bolt Pistol.png

A standard Bolt Pistol

The Bolt Pistol is a common variant of the Bolter, and apart from the Space Marines, is also available to officers and seasoned veterans of the Imperial Guard. They are awarded to Commissars, both for battle and to perform field executions of those too cowardly to serve the Emperor properly, leading to the weapon being nicknamed the "Bravery Bolter". A standard Bolt Pistol magazine, due to varying manufacturing skills and machinery, is capable of housing between 6 and 12 rounds of ammunition. Such weapons are often used by the Assault Squads of the Space Marines, the Sisters of Battle, and the Chaos Space Marines. Many users of the Bolt Pistol prefer to wield a Bolt Pistol in one hand and a melee weapon, such as a Chainsword, in the other, allowing them to switch from a firefight to a close-quarters battle instantly. In extended engagements, when reloading can mean almost certain death, a drum magazine can be utilized, with the same capacity as those used on Storm Bolters.

Storm Bolter

File:Standard Stormbolter.png

A Storm Bolter

The Storm Bolter is a double-barreled version of the Bolter. As it is designed for brutal assault, and consumes more ammunition than a normal Bolter, it is not normally utilized by Space Marines attired in standard Power Armour. However, they are standard issue for Space Marine Terminators, and often serve as an Imperial tank's pintle-mounted weapon. They are also used by the Grey Knights as a gauntlet-mounted weapon with its feed sourced from the back of their armour or from a magazine on the side of the gauntlet (as seen in Dawn of War - Dark Crusade). Like Bolters, Imperial Guard veterans and officers rarely carry a Storm Bolter. The Sisters of Battle will sometimes designate a member of a squad to carry a Storm Bolter as a special weapon. Due to the weapons' high munitions consumption, and the lack of manual dexterity in Terminator Armour, most Storm Bolters are fed from a large box magazine, carrying approximately 60-150 rounds depending on the size and style of the magazine. When the weapon is used without Terminator Armour, it usually has a more conventional magazine containing 60 rounds, which, given the double barrels and firing mechanism, gives the wielder approximately 30 shots before the magazine has to be replaced. These rounds are identical to those fired from Bolt Pistols and Bolters.

Before the Storm Bolter was created by the Tech-priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus, Terminators were often equipped with special Combi-weapons which were essentially two Bolters fused together. These "Combi-bolters" were capable of a higher rate of fire than the Storm Bolter when at short range, but without a synchronized firing mount were less effective at longer range. As the Storm Bolter was one of the few perfections of preexisting technology the Imperium achieved after the Horus Heresy, Storm Bolters have replaced Combi-bolters in Imperial armies, while Chaos Space Marines use Twin-linked Bolters instead.

Heavy Bolter

File:Heavy Bolter.png

A standard Heavy Bolter

The Heavy Bolter is a powerful fire support weapon. Unlike other Bolt weapons, it uses a much larger calibre round and is in common use by all but the Imperium's least well-equipped martial forces, such as backwater Imperial worlds' Planetary Defence Force units. It has a high rate of fire, long range, is inexpensive to manufacture, and tolerant of mistreatment by inexperienced users. It is equipped on Imperial tanks and a variety of vehicles as an anti-infantry weapon as well as on fixed defences.

Heavy Bolters operate differently than other Bolt weapons. Instead of a firing pin physically striking the bolt shell to activate the projectile, a specific electronic pulse is applied in the firing chamber. Bolts are fed into the chamber by an electric motor, rather than exhaust gases cycling the action as in other Bolt weapons. Exhaust gases are used to generate the power needs of the weapon; the initial power and the impulse for the first round are provided by working a slide on the weapons side. These features enable the Heavy Bolter to maintain rates of fire that are physically impossible for a standard Bolter or Bolt Pistol.

Due to its bulk and weight, Imperial Guard infantry operate Heavy Bolters using a two-man team, mounting the weapon on a tripod. A single Space Marine, being physically much larger and stronger than a normal human, can carry both the Heavy Bolter and its ammunition alone, and fire it from a braced standing position (even with very little aid from the servos of their Power Armour). Space Marine Scouts without Power Armour can fire Heavy Bolters in this manner. The Sisters of Battle, with the assistance of their own Power Armour-augmented strength, are also capable of carrying the Heavy Bolter and ammunition alone. When used in this way by heavy infantry, the weapon itself is carried with both hands and fired from the hip, with the ammunition belt-fed from a backpack, optical aiming provided by a Heads-up Display (HUD) and an integrated laser painter mounted just above the Heavy Bolter's barrel. It is also referred to as the "Back Breaker" or the "Bruiser" particularly amongst the inhabitants of various hive cities' underhives who have felt its kiss in the myriad battles between Underhive gangs.

Sources

• Imperial Armour Volume 2 - Space Marines and Forces of the Inquisition, p. 101
• Warhammer 40,000: Wargear (2nd Edition)
• Warhammer 40,000: Wargear (4th Edition)