This article is rated Start-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects:

Firearms Low‑importance This article is within the scope of WikiProject Firearms, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of firearms on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.FirearmsWikipedia:WikiProject FirearmsTemplate:WikiProject FirearmsFirearms articles Low This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale. An editor has requested that an image or photograph be added to this article.

It is requested that a mechanical diagram or diagrams be included in this article to improve its quality. Specific illustrations, plots or diagrams can be requested at the Graphic Lab. For more information, refer to discussion on this page and/or the listing at Wikipedia:Requested images.

Do they have to be cocked before the first shot? --Gbleem 04:49, 12 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I have limited pratice with open-bolt weapons, but as for the MG3 (7.62mm version of the MG42), the weapon is actually cocked AFTER the last shot, or at least BEFORE loading ammo into it. But in any way, the striker/firing pin has to be cocked in a way or another, otherwise the weapon just could not fire.

breversa 14:58, 3 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

In open bolt firing weapons where the firing pin is held fixed to the bolt carrier, just the action of the bolt carrier moving forward causes the firing pin to indent the primer. With these types of weapons there is no hammer to strike the base of the firing pin. The simple action of the bolt face feeding the base of a cartridge into the chamber, generally with split back disintegrating belts, not full round belts, as the bolt carrier is rotating and locking the bolt into the breech/chamber housing, the bolt carrier, and therefore the firing pin, is still moving forward, while the bolt is now locked and stationary, until the bolt carrier, and the firing pin, gets to the forward stop of it's operating movement, indenting the primer with the firing pin fixed to the bolt carrier. 70.59.136.31 (talk) 13:54, 17 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Does anybody feel like finding or making a diagram of how an open bolt works? My only gun experience is from video games, so I'm curious... Ailes Grises 02:57, 15 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

If I understand the "no need for cocking after reloading" part correctly, it is simply just not true. Yes, the gas from the last round will send the bolt back into its ready position, but unless you let go of the trigger at EXACTLY the right time(that is, at the right nanosecond, not practically possible), the bolt will move forward into the chamber, and since there's no round there, nothing will push it back again. So if you load a new mag/belt, the bolt will be in the FORWARD position, and you do have to cock the weapon, otherwise nothing will happen.

The exception is, of course, if you replace the mag/belt BEFORE it's empty, in those cases there would be no need to cock it, but then again that is true for closed bolt weapons also.

Bottom line: There is no difference between open and closed bolt weapons regarding the need to cock the weapon after reloading.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't open bolt firearms generally have a higher rate of fire than closed bolt firearms?--LWF 01:33, 28 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

"Thus, the improved heat dissipation of open-bolt designs is generally more desirable in automatic weapons." - As far as I can tell, there is no improvement in 'heat dissipation', both designs dissipate significant heat from spent casings. It's just that in an open bolt configuration, new cartridges are kept away from the hot chamber area prior to being fired, eliminating the 'cook off' problem. EeekiE (talk) 14:53, 19 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I do not agree with the fact that "all modern aircraft are jet powered" ("Disadvantages" section). First off, its important to remember that not all modern aircraft are jet powered - many of them, civilian and military alike, still use propellers (example: Lockheed C-130 Hercules). And, although turboprop aircraft indeed use jet engines, they still have propellers.

But, if the intention here is to talk only about specific military aircraft that are armed with machine guns, such as fighters and fighter-bombers, the affirmation is not true yet, since there is at least one modern military aircraft that uses machine guns and also have a propeller: the Brazilian Embraer Tucano, which is used by some South American military forces in both training and light attack roles.

Therefore, I highly suggest the above phrase to be altered.

189.15.213.61 (talk) 22:51, 6 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The single reference cited has no inline citation and is a broken link to the NFA Handbook, which has no discussion of open bolt firearms. Fixing the link won't improve the article, and with a broken link the article has no references. 96.35.172.222 (talk) 21:24, 9 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The current link for the NFA Handbook would appear to be http://www.atf.gov/publications/download/p/atf-p-5320-8/atf-p-5320-8.pdf . If we can determine which chapter of the handbook supports the material cited, we could link to it directly via the links listed at http://www.atf.gov/publications/firearms/nfa-handbook/ . -- ToE 04:03, 4 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The inability to synchronize an open bolt machine gun to fire through a propeller was questioned at WP:Reference desk/Archives/Science/2012 January 1#Interrupter gears and a respondent removed the material from this article as being unreferenced, but as the statement makes sense and is corroborated by similar statements in other articles, I have restored most of it. As noted above, nearly the entire article is unreferenced; it was tagged with a ((Refimprove)) two years ago now. Perhaps we can request help from WP:WikiProject Firearms. -- ToE 10:19, 6 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

the only reference link of the page is broken: http://www.atf.gov/publications/download/p/atf-p-5320-8/atf-p-5320-8-appendix-b.pdf

GdV — Preceding unsigned comment added by 192.167.204.14 (talk) 08:46, 16 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Firstly, the bolt retention mechanism may fail 70.59.136.31 (talk) 13:46, 17 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]