Editing Bolter (section)

==Firepower==
Much like [[Lasgun]]s and [[Autogun]]s, the exact power of a Bolter is subject to [[skub|debate by lore enthusiasts]] and differing depictions by [[Black Library|authors]]. The following assumes that Bolters are the superpowered death machines they are generally described as. An average [[Ork]] Boy has a very good chance of just walking off direct hits from aforementioned Lasguns and Autoguns, and he would [[Skub|probably (debatably)]] find the experience of being shot at by a modern day assault rifle to be about as threatening as venomless bee stings. An average [[Tyranid]] Gaunt is also very resilient, though a direct hit from a Lasgun or an Autogun does indeed have a significantly better chance of killing one than it does an Ork Boy. Let's also not forget that most of these enemies are very good at ignoring pain and are very, very difficult to frighten. And you don't actually have to worry about a single Ork or Tyranid, you have to worry about hundreds of them rushing at you so they could chop your head off/OM NOM NOM you. This is where the Bolter's extreme firepower comes in handy, as does its extreme way of dealing damage. If the Bolter were to just penetrate through, the target would just have a hole in it, though a rather big hole, a whole lot of things in this grimdark universe can fight with several organs missing. A good-sized hole is not going to stop these killing machines. If it just exploded in an airburst before hitting the target, it would spray debris (''or shrapnel, if the particular bolt has them'') and a good concussive field, but even an average Guardsman's Flak Armour can easily block out a thing like that (but most enemies' armor isn't nearly as good as flak armor).

Most importantly, modern explosive rounds don't use nearly the strongest explosives available. They go for "cheap" alternatives because either way the target dies or a building gets a new door. Also, explosives can be strong enough that there may be risk to friendly troops. The Imperium doesn't have this problem and goes overkill on everything. It's entirely possible that one shot from an Astartes' boltgun could blow up an entire squad of Guardsmen or cultists. This is without considering that the canonical sizes of bolt shells is stupidly tiny compared to the massive Space Marines and clearly made by someone who has never seen a .50 cal or .75 cal round.

[[image:Bolt_numeric_labels.png|thumb|left|200px|bottom|Anatomy of a Bolt]]
1. '''Solid-fuel rocket propellant base'''.

2. '''Outer casing (likely plasteel) containing conventional charge'''.

3. '''Gyrostabiliser (again, likely plasteel)'''.

4. '''Mass-reactive (gravitic sensor) fuse. Typically timed to delay detonation until shortly after impact'''.

5. '''Hardened [http://www.dictionary.com/browse/diamantine diamantine] penetrating tip. This allows for the bolt to penetrate most armor before detonation'''.

6. '''Main explosive charge'''.

7. '''Dense, metallic core; some sources claim to be depleted uranium which is used in modern APFSDS anti-tank rounds, although adamantium would make more sense for the Imperium'''.
{{clear}}
With that being said, one of the ''specialist'' rounds is stated to be air-bursting fragmentation ammunition. Although since bolts fly so quickly Space Marines can’t usually dodge them, the sheer velocity of this shrapnel would still slaughter most enemies. If it exploded on impact it would do quite a lot of ripping and tearing, but you would still be wasting energy as the explosion goes in all directions outward from the intended target. Penetrating the target and '''then''' exploding ensures the destruction of whatever is in inside the target while ensuring maximum efficiency in dealing damage. Thus, rather than just putting a hole into an enemy who would scoff at a .50 cal machine gun (''Heavy Stubber''), it blows them to tiny bits from the inside. 40k being 40k, quite frequently a Bolter user will encounter an enemy who is very much capable of surviving an average bolt. Despite being designed to pierce armor, there are plenty of armor that are too strong for bolts to actually pierce, which helps quite a bit in the task of surviving a Bolter shot, as is simply having so much mass that the exploding bolts cannot completely blast it apart; having both (''[[Carnifex]] and Plague Marines are good examples'') helps quite a lot. Occasionally, when you are facing simply massive creatures, especially Nurglite Daemons, penetrating about an inch before exploding means penetrating only an inch into its skin before blasting that part off without getting into the body at all, really. This tells you just how stupidly powerful the fighters in this Warhammer are. Assumption of devastating killing power ends here.

The ammunition magazines used vary by a fair amount: the most commonly used is the curved "sickle" magazine – one on a normal Bolter, two on a Storm Bolter – which, judging by their relative size, would hold between 20 to 30 bolts each; occasionally used is the straight magazine, which only holds between 12 to 20 bolts, but are easier to reload than the standard sickle design. Employed by more elite forces who carry bigger stuff (''Terminators, Sternguard, etc'') is the box magazine, which holds between 40 to 60 bolts. Some [[Chaos Space Marines]], thanks to a shortage of magazines due to them having less in the way of infrastructure to support them, use belt feeds. Obviously the capacity of these varies depending on the personal preferences of the Chaos Space Marine in question. They also tend to get stuck or blown away, but apparently they can be reloaded rapidly. Proper belt feeds can be found on heavier classes such as Heavy Bolters, where the belt itself is armored.

Bolters have a spotty history in video games as far as portrayal goes. [[Warhammer 40,000: Fire Warrior]] got it right with the weapons firing miniaturized rockets as they are supposed to. But [[Dawn of War]] depicted them as machine guns, while [[Dawn of War 2]] tried to fix that for the most part, turning them into high-powered semi automatic guns. For all of [[Dawn of War 3]]'s faults, they still did manage to get Bolters to feel right at least. Thankfully, the Space Marine game seems to have gotten it right as well, with some truly badass Bolter effects and impacts. Although the Bolter and Storm Bolter are a bit lacking in terms of damage capability, this is excusable, as A) it is needed to make the game moderately challenging, and B) you are fighting Orks, who are too simpleminded to die until reduced to mush and later Chaos Marines, who are in Power Armour (attendant Grots and Traitor Guard get blown apart too). All in all, it looks and feels epic, giving a good impression for what a cool weapon should be like. [[Darktide]] has so far managed to get the best rendition since [[Warhammer 40,000: Fire Warrior|Fire Warrior]] on how a boltgun should feel like in terms of destructive power (and also handling), literally blowing heretics to smithereens, but also acknowledging its bulkiness in its handling. While the weapon ingame is smaller than an astartes - being designed for regular human use - it gives you the right idea how extremely powerful such a weapon would be against human sized enemies who aren't wearing anything short of power armour.

Finally, despite being the signature weapon, regular Bolters are not exclusive to Space Marines. They are also used by other adepts of the Imperium. Notable examples being the [[Sisters of Battle]] and [[Adeptus Arbites]]. Both the Sororitas and Arbites, however, use smaller versions compared to the ones issued to Space Marines; this has no in-game effect on them, however. Speaking of the game, the stats for this thing on the tabletop are as follows, as stated by any of the countless '''''free''''' PDF system reference document sheets released by [[Games Workshop|GW]]:

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