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From:	DV82REL8 <GRAFF85@********.CORTLAND.EDU>
Subject:	Caseless ammo
Date:	Tue, 26 Oct 1993 12:47:53 -0400

Message no. 1 Q29udHJhZGljdGlvbnMgQ29udHJhZGljdGlvbnMgQ29udHJhZGljdGlvbnMNCg0K
V1JUIHRoZSBub3ZlbHMgYmFzZWQgb24gdGhlIGdhbWU6ICB0aGUgYW1tbyB1c2Vk
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From:	"GCS/MU d? -P+ c++ l u-(+) e+(++) m(+)(*)@ s/+ n-(---) h f+@ w+
Subject:	Re: Caseless ammo
Date:	Tue, 26 Oct 1993 13:53:10 -0400

Message no. 2 Ummm..... 'scuse me....

WHAT WAS THAT????????

(Insert uuencode-look-alike-but-not-quite-mess here).

and anyway,

WW ww
wW ww
wW ww ww
H H wW WWww ww A
HHH wWWw wwww AAA
T H H WWW www A A P

(stealth thwap)

--Short Fuse

//\\
<< >> "To you, it is a silly BUAG. To me, it is life."
\\//

From:	"Robert A. Hayden" <hayden@*******.MANKATO.MSUS.EDU>
Subject:	Re: Caseless ammo
Date:	Tue, 26 Oct 1993 13:37:23 -0500

Message no. 3 On Tue, 26 Oct 1993, GCS/MU d? -P+ c++ l u-(+) e+(++) m(+)(*)@ s/+ n-(---) h f+@ w+ t+ r+
y+(**) wrote:

> Ummm..... 'scuse me....
> WHAT WAS THAT????????
> (Insert uuencode-look-alike-but-not-quite-mess here).

BASE64 encoding. Somehow the mailer thought it was a binary fie, mostly
likely because of ^M linefeeds, and encoded it into a 7bit format.

____ Robert A. Hayden <=> hayden@*******.mankato.msus.edu
\ /__ -=-=-=-=- <=> -=-=-=-=-
\/ / Finger for Geek Code Info <=> Veteran of the Bermuda Triangle
\/ Finger for PGP 2.3a Public Key <=> Expeditionary Force -- 1993-1951
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
(GEEK CODE 1.0.1) GSS d- -p+(---) c++(++++) l++ u++ e+/* m++(*)@ s-/++
n-(---) h+(*) f+ g+ w++ t++ r++ y+(*)

From:	"Michael A. Kauffman" <mak9@******.EDU>
Subject:	Re: Caseless ammo
Date:	Tue, 26 Oct 1993 19:34:31 EDT

Message no. 4 >V1JUIHRoZSBub3ZlbHMgYmFzZWQgb24gdGhlIGdhbWU6ICB0aGUgYW1tbyB1c2Vk
>IGlzIE5PVCBpbiBhIGJsb2NrIG1vcmUgbGlrZWx5DQplYWNoIHJvdW5kIGlzIGhl

Hayden are you giving this guy lessons on how to send messages. (of course
this probably looks fine to you.)
+---------------------+----------------------+--------------------------+
| Michael A. Kauffman | Lehigh University | 670 Atlantic Str. |
| A.K.A. Amonchare | Chemistry Department | Bethlehem, PA 18015-3538 |
| Guak | 6 E. Packer Ave. | (215) 758-5468 (w) |
| mak9@******.edu | Bethlehem, PA 18015 | (215) 868-5043 (h) |
+---------------------+----------------------+--------------------------+

From:	cocheese <ZKLJ1@****.EAST-TENN-ST.EDU>
Subject:	caseless ammo
Date:	Mon, 5 Jun 1995 14:40:40 EDT

Message no. 5 A friend and I (we take turns being the gm for shadowrn) got in an interesting
discussion about caseless ammo the other day.
Caseless ammo supposedly has the chemical solvent or whatever to entirely burn
away or dissolves when fired, thus leaving no physical traces (with the except-
ion of chemical traces in the firearm) that it ever existed.
I don't think that this is possible.
One, the U.S. army has the equivalent of caseless ammo in its main gun rounds
except that the very end (where the firing pin strikes the round and ignites
the powder) continues to exist. The entire round either goes down range,
ignites in the barrel and becomes smoke or the back plate of the round (about
half a pound in weight) gets ejected from the barrel.
This is (and my second point...) because the firing pin must hit a metal primer
which in turn ignites the powder. There must be SOME metal involved in the
process, thus there is no true caseless ammo.

Comments, suggestions, ideas?

Trey

From:	Stainless Steel Rat <ratinox@***.NEU.EDU>
Subject:	Re: caseless ammo
Date:	Mon, 5 Jun 1995 16:35:44 -0400

Message no. 6 >>>>> "cocheese" == cocheese <ZKLJ1@****.EAST-TENN-ST.EDU>
writes:

cocheese> Caseless ammo supposedly has the chemical solvent or whatever
cocheese> to entirely burn away or dissolves when fired, thus leaving no
cocheese> physical traces (with the except- ion of chemical traces in
cocheese> the firearm) that it ever existed.

You mean the plasticizer that bonds the powder into a solid block.

cocheese> I don't think that this is possible.

You're right. Anything that burns (oxidizes) is going to leave traces of
some sort somewhere: on the weapon, on the projectile, in the air down
range, whatever.

--
Rat <ratinox@***.neu.edu> | Happy Fun Ball may stick to certain types
http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/ratinox | of skin.
PGP Public Key: Ask for one today! |

From:	Gurth <gurth@******.NL>
Subject:	Re: caseless ammo
Date:	Tue, 6 Jun 1995 11:58:29 +0200

Message no. 7 >One, the U.S. army has the equivalent of caseless ammo in its main gun rounds
>except that the very end (where the firing pin strikes the round and ignites
>the powder) continues to exist.

You mean the M256 120mm smoothbore gun? That's not, technically, a caseless
weapon. The cartridge casing is made of plastic or something or other, and
burns away, leaving the metal base plate with primer to be ejected from the gun.
In caseless ammo, the cartridge has no casing; instead, the outside of the
cartridge _is_ the propellant, whereas in the 120mm rounds there is
definitely a casing around the propellant before the round goes into the gun.
There was lots of trouble with the earliest models of such rounds, for
example in the 152mm gun/missile launcher mounted in the M551 Sheridan -- in
Vietnam, the casings of those rounds tended to crack, spilling propellant
into the turret.
OTOH, in the German 4.7mm caseless round, _nothing_ is ejected from the gun
apart from the bullet.

>This is (and my second point...) because the firing pin must hit a metal primer
>which in turn ignites the powder. There must be SOME metal involved in the
>process, thus there is no true caseless ammo.

The 4.7mm round has a primer in the back of the round, I don't really know
what this is made of, but it does not need an ejection mechanism to get rid
of it. My guess is that it burns up on firing... You could, for example,
make it of a metal that burns together with the propellant (what, you
thought all metals were as fire-resistant as steel? Try chucking a piece of
rubidium into your fish tank...)

Gurth@******.nl - Gurth@***.nl - http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/index.html
Leave the making of mistakes to the government
Geek Code v2.1: GS/AT/! -d+ H s:- !g p?(3) !au a>? w+(+++) v*(---) C+(++) U
P? !L !3 E? N++ K- W+ -po+(po) Y+ t(+) 5 !j R+(++)>+++$ tv+(++) b+@ D+(++)
B? e+ u+@ h! f--(?) !r(--)(*) n---->!n y? Unofficial Shadowrun Guru :)

From:	Michael Orion Jackson <moj0001@****.ACS.UNT.EDU>
Subject:	Re: caseless ammo
Date:	Tue, 6 Jun 1995 08:13:47 -0500

Message no. 8 On Tue, 6 Jun 1995, Gurth wrote:

[snip]
> OTOH, in the German 4.7mm caseless round, _nothing_ is ejected from the gun
> apart from the bullet.
>
> >This is (and my second point...) because the firing pin must hit a metal primer
> >which in turn ignites the powder. There must be SOME metal involved in the
> >process, thus there is no true caseless ammo.
>
> The 4.7mm round has a primer in the back of the round, I don't really know
> what this is made of, but it does not need an ejection mechanism to get rid
> of it. My guess is that it burns up on firing... You could, for example,
> make it of a metal that burns together with the propellant (what, you
> thought all metals were as fire-resistant as steel? Try chucking a piece of
> rubidium into your fish tank...)
I'm not entirely certain, but I think the G-11 uses an electric ignition
system with a rotating bolt. Basically, the round (bullet, propellant,
sensitized chemical ignition compound(primer)) drops down into the bolt
when the chamber is vertical. The bolt rotates 90 degrees and an
electric "sparker" ignites the "primer." Although primer usually
means a
tiny metal box with an impact sensitive explosive inside, I don't see why
an electrically sensitive compund could be used for the same purpose
(i.e. igniting the main proppellant). The round travels down and out the
barrel as usual, the bolt rotates another 90 degrees, another round drops
in, and so on. Again, I am not certain if this system was ever used,
although I know that it was at least researched by the US army about
fifteen years ago (read about the concept originally in a USArmy research
periodical). The advantages of the system:

1.High rate of fire. (No need for a firing pin to mechanically cycle)
2.Semi-Sealed action (less way for crap to get into the gun)
3.HUGE magazine capacity (each G-11 magazine had something like
45 rounds, and three could be carried
in the weapon at any one time)
4.Reduced maintenance (see advantage #2)

ILLUSTRATIONS: (the attack of the annoying ASCIIart)
ROTATING BOLT (in firing position)
/
___/
_______________________________ /___\ _____
BARREL <||||| <-------Electric ignition
_______________________________ ___ -----
\___/

Magazine Rounds
\ /
_________\___/________________
^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^/^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ | ^ <----Bullet
|#|#|#|#|#|#|#|#|#|#|#|#|#|#| | # <----Propellant
|#|#|#|#|#|#|#|#|#|#|#|#|#|#| | #
|#|#|#|#|#|#|#|#|#|#|#|#|#|#| | #
-----------------------------
/|^|\
| |#| | <----Rotating Bolt after round has
| |#| | dropped in
\|#|/

As a side note, the properties this system has concerning high rate of
fire might explain the SuperMachineGun class appearing in FoF. Maybe
Ares dug up some old USArmy research and decided it was worth a go.

> Gurth@******.nl - Gurth@***.nl - http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/index.html
> Leave the making of mistakes to the government
> Geek Code v2.1: GS/AT/! -d+ H s:- !g p?(3) !au a>? w+(+++) v*(---) C+(++) U
> P? !L !3 E? N++ K- W+ -po+(po) Y+ t(+) 5 !j R+(++)>+++$ tv+(++) b+@ D+(++)
> B? e+ u+@ h! f--(?) !r(--)(*) n---->!n y? Unofficial Shadowrun Guru :)
>

__________________________________________________________________________
|Michael Orion Jackson |"A college student is a mechanism for |
|moj0001@****.acs.unt.edu |converting caffeine into finished |
|>Flaming is immature.< |homework" -unknown, but perceptive author |
__________________________________________________________________________

From:	Todd James Gillespie <toddg@****.ACS.UNT.EDU>
Subject:	Re: caseless ammo
Date:	Tue, 6 Jun 1995 09:14:39 -0500

Message no. 9 On Tue, 6 Jun 1995, Michael Orion Jackson wrote:

> On Tue, 6 Jun 1995, Gurth wrote:
> > of it. My guess is that it burns up on firing... You could, for example,
> > make it of a metal that burns together with the propellant (what, you
> > thought all metals were as fire-resistant as steel? Try chucking a piece of
> > rubidium into your fish tank...)

Even better. While dicussing chemistry over dinner, a few friends and I
came up with the very simple idea for a bomb. Just drop a few tons (in a
more or less spherical shape) of cesium onto the deck of a carrier. There is
the crew, running like ants, and the sphere is smoking. "It's on fire!", they
say, "Get the hoses!" Hee Hee Hee......

From:	Paul Jonathan Adam <Paul@********.DEMON.CO.UK>
Subject:	Re: caseless ammo
Date:	Tue, 6 Jun 1995 02:27:49 GMT

Message no. 10 > A friend and I (we take turns being the gm for shadowrn) got in an interesting
> discussion about caseless ammo the other day.
> Caseless ammo supposedly has the chemical solvent or whatever to entirely burn
>away or dissolves when fired, thus leaving no physical traces (with the except-
> ion of chemical traces in the firearm) that it ever existed.
> I don't think that this is possible.

>This is (and my second point...) because the firing pin must hit a metal primer
> which in turn ignites the powder. There must be SOME metal involved in the
> process, thus there is no true caseless ammo.

The Heckler and Koch G11 round has a firing pin more like a drill than a
pin: it grinds into the primer, which contains glass shards to generate
the frictional heating and fire it. I believe the primer is in a plastic
cup: combustible, but not usually completely consumed, and it leaves the
barrel with the bullet.

There is also a copper cup which acts as a "booster" to drive the bullet
into the barrel, sealing it before the majority of powder ignites. This,
too, leaves with the bullet and falls free a few yards in front of the
weapon.

The point of "caseless" ammo is not to have no residue whatsoever: it is
to eliminate the extraction/ejection cycle and so allow a sealed breech
and higher rate of fire.

--
When you have shot and killed a man, you have defined your attitude towards
him. You have offered a definite answer to a definite problem. For better
or for worse, you have acted decisively.
In fact, the next move is up to him.

Paul J. Adam paul@********.demon.co.uk

From:	Robert Watkins <bob@**.NTU.EDU.AU>
Subject:	Re: caseless ammo
Date:	Wed, 7 Jun 1995 14:56:11 +0930

Message no. 11 cocheese wrote:
> This is (and my second point...) because the firing pin must hit a metal primer
> which in turn ignites the powder. There must be SOME metal involved in the
> process, thus there is no true caseless ammo.

I'm no gun nut, but as I understand it, all the firing pin does when
hitting the primer is create a spark, which in turn causes an explosion,
which shoots the bullet out of the barrel due to a build up of pressure.

Anyway... if that's all the pin is used for, you could get true caseless
ammo if you can think of another way to create a spark. A small generator,
activated by pulling the trigger (or maybe a battery pack) could do the
job.

--
Robert Watkins bob@**.ntu.edu.au
Real Programmers never work 9 to 5. If any real programmers
are around at 9 am, it's because they were up all night.
*** Finger me for my geek code ***

From:	Robert Watkins <bob@**.NTU.EDU.AU>
Subject:	Re: caseless ammo
Date:	Wed, 7 Jun 1995 15:08:38 +0930

Message no. 12 Todd James Gillespie wrote:
>
> Even better. While dicussing chemistry over dinner, a few friends and I
> came up with the very simple idea for a bomb. Just drop a few tons (in a
> more or less spherical shape) of cesium onto the deck of a carrier. There is
> the crew, running like ants, and the sphere is smoking. "It's on fire!",
they
> say, "Get the hoses!" Hee Hee Hee......

Ah... where do you get a couple of tons of cesium? How do you machine it
into a spherical shape? And how do you get it out to the carrier when the
humidity in the air (this _is_ over the ocean) will cause it to ignite?

--
Robert Watkins bob@**.ntu.edu.au
Real Programmers never work 9 to 5. If any real programmers
are around at 9 am, it's because they were up all night.
*** Finger me for my geek code ***

From:	Andy Butcher <Fiend@*********.CO.UK>
Subject:	Re: caseless ammo
Date:	Wed, 7 Jun 1995 15:52:22 +0100

Message no. 13 Trey wrote:

>Caseless ammo supposedly has the chemical solvent or whatever to entirely burn
>away or dissolves when fired, thus leaving no physical traces (with the except-
>ion of chemical traces in the firearm) that it ever existed.
>I don't think that this is possible.

It's not that there's no physical evidence that it existed, it's just that
the propellant leaves an utterly miniscule amount of residue in the firing
chamber. There's still going to be a whole lot of oxidised propellant
around, though, mainly in the form of gas and/or very small particles. The
advantage is that the action of a caseless weapon can be sealed (no need for
an ejection port as there aren't any cases, etc). This means that the gun is
very reliable, and doesn't need nearly as much maintenance as an equivalent
cased weapon. It also has fewer moving parts, and thus less to go wrong.

>One, the U.S. army has the equivalent of caseless ammo in its main gun rounds
>except that the very end (where the firing pin strikes the round and ignites
>the powder) continues to exist. The entire round either goes down range,
>ignites in the barrel and becomes smoke or the back plate of the round (about
>half a pound in weight) gets ejected from the barrel.
>This is (and my second point...) because the firing pin must hit a metal primer
>which in turn ignites the powder. There must be SOME metal involved in the
>process, thus there is no true caseless ammo.

I can't remember the details exactly - I read about it a long time ago now -
but the Heckler & Koch (spelling?) G11 assault rifle is a truly caseless
weapon. The action is sealed, and in fact the rifle can't be field stripped
- cleaning and maintenance are performed regularly by a gunsmith. I honestly
can't remeber the chemistry, but while there is still a 'firing pin' it
doesn't hit anything metal. I seem to remember it 'ripping' into the round
somehow, but I'm not sure.
I do remember that there were two real advantages to the G11. First off the
rate of fire was horrific - in burst mode the third bullet is fired before
the the first leaves the barrel, so you only feel one 'kick' when firing,
and secondly the ammo weighed a mere fraction of the equivalent cased rifle.
I also remember reading that the gun was the first significant development
in small arms since about 1930 - just about every other gun around today is
directly based on technology that was developed more than 50 years ago.

Andy Butcher | "Whether you think you will succeed
PC Gamer Magazine | or not, you are right."
Fiend@*********.co.uk | Henry Ford

From:	Adam Getchell <acgetche@****.UCDAVIS.EDU>
Subject:	Re: caseless ammo
Date:	Thu, 8 Jun 1995 17:49:28 -0700

Message no. 14 On Wed, 7 Jun 1995, Robert Watkins wrote:

> Anyway... if that's all the pin is used for, you could get true caseless
> ammo if you can think of another way to create a spark. A small generator,
> activated by pulling the trigger (or maybe a battery pack) could do the
> job.

A piezoelectric crystal would do nicely, and it would still use a hammer
mechanism (to crush the crystal).

> Robert Watkins bob@**.ntu.edu.au

========================================================================
Adam Getchell "Invincibility is in oneself,
acgetche@****.engr.ucdavis.edu vulnerability in the opponent."
http://instruction.ucdavis.edu/html/getchell.html

From:	Shad Owens <shadow@******.LINFIELD.EDU>
Subject:	Caseless Ammo
Date:	Fri, 20 Oct 1995 09:31:58 -0700

Message no. 15 This question may have already been answered, and if so could
somebody fill me in. How exactley does caseless ammo work? Technically I
mean. Does the gun hace some sort of air pressure system? Is it just
assumed that technology has advanced to the point where someone has
figured out how to combine the bullet and primer? Does a gun have to be
specifically modified for caseless ammo, or is it assumed that all guns
can fire this ammo? I have a feeling I'm missing something here.

SHAD OWens

From:	Stainless Steel Rat <ratinox@***.NEU.EDU>
Subject:	Re: Caseless Ammo
Date:	Fri, 20 Oct 1995 13:47:37 -0400

Message no. 16 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----

>>>>> "SO" == Shad Owens <shadow@******.LINFIELD.EDU>
writes:

SO> This question may have already been answered, and if so could
SO> somebody fill me in. How exactley does caseless ammo work?
SO> Technically I mean.

Exactly the same way as a weapon that fires cased ammunition. The only
difference is that the chamber of a weapon that fires caseless
ammunition has to be stronger as it serves as the casing at fire time.

SO> Does the gun hace some sort of air pressure system?

No.

SO> Is it just assumed that technology has advanced to the point where
SO> someone has figured out how to combine the bullet and primer?

We had caseless ammunition some 50 years ago. The problems were
stability of the powder, not the mechanics of it.

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--
Rat <ratinox@***.neu.edu> \ Warning: pregnant women, the elderly, and
PGP Public Key: Ask for one today! \ children under 10 should avoid prolonged
http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/ratinox/ \ exposure to Happy Fun Ball.

From:	Gurth <gurth@******.NL>
Subject:	Re: Caseless Ammo
Date:	Sat, 21 Oct 1995 10:22:56 +0100

Message no. 17 Shad Owens said on 20 Oct 95...

> This question may have already been answered, and if so could
> somebody fill me in. How exactley does caseless ammo work? Technically I
> mean. Does the gun hace some sort of air pressure system? Is it just
> assumed that technology has advanced to the point where someone has
> figured out how to combine the bullet and primer?

Caseless ammo already exists since the 1960s or so. I think it was Daisy
who made a caseless sports rifle that never became popular, but today he
best example is the H&K G-11 that was the rifle-to-be of the Bundeswehr
but is now no longer.
It's quite simple really: you take a solid block of propellant (the G-11
uses a variant of RDX explosive), you stick the bullet into the front of
that block, and a primer into the back. The whole thing is therefore one
item, just like a cased round. When it feeds into the gun it works just
like a regular round, except there is no empty casing to eject after
firing. That, in turn, makes for a simpler mechanism that can have a
higher rate of fire (2000 rpm in the G-11 when in 3-round burst mode, but
only 600 rpm on FA).

> Does a gun have to be
> specifically modified for caseless ammo, or is it assumed that all guns
> can fire this ammo? I have a feeling I'm missing something here.

InShadowrun, you mean? You have to modify your gun, as explained in Fields
of Fire. The ammo weighs 20% less than normal, and your gun can hold 20%
more rounds (rounded down).

--
Gurth@******.nl - http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/index.html
Lost in our little lives
-> NERPS Project Leader & Unofficial Shadowrun Guru <-

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From:	Nathan Walker <NTWALKER@******.SUNYGENESEE.CC.NY.US>
Subject:	Re: Caseless Ammo
Date:	Sat, 21 Oct 1995 08:54:36 -0400

Message no. 18 From: Gurth <gurth@******.NL>
>Caseless ammo already exists since the 1960s or so. I think it was Daisy
>who made a caseless sports rifle that never became popular, but today he

Ummmm...In a sense, the very first guns had caseless ammo...it was just a
little harder to put in the gun... :)

>InShadowrun, you mean? You have to modify your gun, as explained in Fields
>of Fire. The ammo weighs 20% less than normal, and your gun can hold 20%
>more rounds (rounded down).

Yeah, but some of us don't have those....Hey! Wait a minute! I have that
sourcebook! :)

>>>>>>>> Nate
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
| NTWalker@******.SUNYGENESEE.CC.NY.US |
| a.k.a. The Joker |
| |
| Where does he get those marvelous toys? |
| - Joker |
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From:	Paul Jonathan Adam <Paul@********.DEMON.CO.UK>
Subject:	Re: Caseless Ammo
Date:	Sat, 21 Oct 1995 14:26:32 GMT

Message no. 19 > This question may have already been answered, and if so could
> somebody fill me in. How exactley does caseless ammo work? Technically I
> mean. Does the gun hace some sort of air pressure system? Is it just
> assumed that technology has advanced to the point where someone has
> figured out how to combine the bullet and primer? Does a gun have to be
> specifically modified for caseless ammo, or is it assumed that all guns
> can fire this ammo? I have a feeling I'm missing something here.
> SHAD OWens

Okay... long answer for those who already know or don't care.

The caseless ammo currently used in the H&K G11 looks like a rectangular
block of plastic with indentations near one end (so you know which end is the
bullet). These are stored bullet-down in a magazine above the barrel
and drop down into a cylindrical block (the chamber of the weapon)
which then rotates 90 degrees to present the round to the barrel.

When the trigger is pulled, the firing pin drives into the primer composition,
not in the usual "spear" manner but with a grinding motion like a drill. The
primer is mixed with glass flakes, to generate enough friction to fire the
primer.

The primer fires the "booster charge", which forces the bullet forward to
seat solidly in the barrel rifling and thus seal the front end of the
chamber. (Normally the cartridge case does this, but hey, no case!)
The propellant then burns, generating the gas pressure to force the bullet
down the barrel and expelling the copper cup the booster charge is contained
in. Gas pressure is tapped off in conventional manner to rotate the chamber
back and forward to chamber the next round.

If a round misfires, the cocking handle is rotated a further 90 degrees to
open the chamber to the air via a channel through the pistol grip (normally
used to brush out the chamber) and allow the dud to fall out. The weapon
is then recycled normally to continue firing.

The three fundamental problems of caseless ammo are chamber sealing, cook-off
and fouling. Traditional ammunition does most of the chamber sealing by the
brass or steel case, which merely has to be supported by the breech and
chamber. Caseless weapons require better tolerances and some ingenuity
to seal the propellant gases into the chamber.

Cook-off refers to a weapon which has become hot enough that a round
spontaneously ignites in the chamber. Cased ammo has the advantage that
a lot of the generated heat is carried out by the hot case, whereas
caseless ammo transfers all that heat to the weapon. The G11 solves this
by using a propellant based on denatured RDX, which is extremely stable
and cooks off at a temperature several hundred degrees above normal
double-base propellants.

And fouling is a problem because any propellant residue left in the fired
cartridge case is simply ejected, whereas in a caseless weapon it is left
to clog the breech. This was a problem of the early experimental caseless
weapons: the G11 is less prone to it due to the clean-burning propellant,
but it is still recommended to brush out the chamber once in a while ;)

I can't see a way to have a weapon designed for cased ammo converted to
caseless or vice versa... choose when you purchase it (or get stuck with
it when you steal it) and stick to it. To be honest I can't see how you
could have cased and caseless versions of the same weapon and still have
any real design commonality... but that's an IRL objection and sixty years
of progress may have cured that :)

--
"When you have shot and killed a man, you have defined your attitude towards
him. You have offered a definite answer to a definite problem. For better
or for worse, you have acted decisively.
In fact, the next move is up to him." <R.A. Lafferty>

Paul J. Adam paul@********.demon.co.uk

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