Editing Autogun (section)

==Autoguns versus Stubbers==
There is [[Skub|significant debate]] over the actual power of Auto and Stub weapons, with the "higher power" team citing higher tech level and advanced materials, and "modern power" team citing no mention of any kind of recoil compensation (limiting power) and less innovative designs. Modernist evidence implies some or even most autoguns may actually be less advanced than modern firearms. After all, 21st century cannon rounds are definitely more advanced than the average autogun, and autoguns are meant to be built on all sorts of backwater worlds. Regardless, it is more than likely that both sides are right, since strictly speaking an Imperial autogun is generally any type of automatic rifle, firing solid slugs. As such, there are great many models and patterns in existence, different in both internal mechanics of their action and the ammunition they use. While some autoguns *are* just a backwater-colony's locally-designed crude weapons, using black-powder-filled cartridges and prone to jamming, *other* autoguns may be high-tech products of Toasterfucker factories, firing hypervelocity discarding-sabot needle-bullets, capable of easily punching through carapace armour. The debate rages on, with the question being what is considered average or typical for the weapon, with both sides for the most part aware that all types exist.

There is also a third possibility, which involves the Dark Age of Technology. It's conceivable that "Stubber" is a derogatory term for old gunpowder weaponry made before the Dark Age, and "autogun" was a Dark Age classification created to delineate the super-futuristic projectile weapons of the then-modern era from Stub Guns. The difference was only significant during the Dark Age of Technology, when "autogun" meant something more akin to a [[Eclipse Phase|Smart Assault Rifle]] and a Stub Gun meant an M1 Garand. But that's not a great theory since the original autoguns were made well before the Dark Age of Technology, sometime early in our current millennium. Bizarre high-calibre low-velocity weapons firing brass bullets.

Another theory is that the main difference would seem to be it's complexity. The heavy stubber, while automatic, relies on size for it's lethality and reliability and is simple for an automatic weapon. It's rate of fire is largely due to the fact that it can fire in long bursts. A high calibre autogun, while firing fairly powerful stubby rounds, is harder to design and build in a functional form. But the Mechanicus' "stub" weapons defy this trend.

The final theory has it come down to ammunition used as opposed to the gun itself, that being a futuristic rifle the weapon can take different sized ammunition, meaning it could be equipped with thirty regular gunpowder rounds no different than an AK-47 or [[What|twelve big ass canister rounds filled with jet propellant and in theory act just like a bolter but with a solid slug instead of a explosive round]]. It also answers the question why local PDF forces in some primitive backwater can field the weapon en mass while the guard (requiring more complex devastating rounds for what they fight) got rid of it for logistical reasons.

For further comparison between Stubbers and Autoguns, [[Stubber#Disambiguation|click here]].