On Sun, Nov 27, 2016 at 9:28 PM, Bruce Johnson <xxxxxx@pharmacy.arizona.edu> wrote:
In fact, caseless might be at a disadvantage here, because conventional brass cases utilize the case to form a seal in the end of the firing chamber, do they not? They form a new chamber each round; whereas a caseless one has a single chamber, subject to thermal expansion.

With caseless ammunition, there is no need for an extraction system, which system is where most automatic firearm jams occur. Specifically, expanded casings usually get stuck in the chamber and either do not eject or only partially eject. I would suspect that a chamber and bullet casings which repeatedly entered then left vacuum conditions would probably have increased issues with extractions. Much better to simply seal it up and worry only about the magazine feeding reliably.
 

The issues with conventional firearms would be the volatility of lubricants and, with longer term disuse, vacuum welding.

Those, too.
 
In Zero gee you DEFINITELY want a ported muzzle :-)

And that.
 

--
Bruce Johnson
University of Arizona
College of Pharmacy
Information Technology Group

Institutions do not have opinions, merely customs

-----
The Traveller Mailing List
Archives at http://archives.simplelists.com/tml
Report problems to xxxxxx@simplelists.com
To unsubscribe from this list please goto
http://www.simplelists.com/confirm.php?u=CKGWeUlXNVzOv9Ey6KwqX8aXjeTXlVSV



--
Richard Aiken

"Never insult anyone by accident."  Robert A. Heinlein
"I studied the Koran a great deal. I came away from that study with the conviction there have been few religions in the world as deadly to men as Muhammed." Alexis de Tocqueville (1843)
"We know a little about a lot of things; just enough to make us dangerous." Dean Winchester
"It has been my experience that a gun doesn't care who pulls its trigger." Newton Knight (as portrayed by Matthew McConaughey), to a scoffing Confederate tax collector facing the weapons held by Knight's young children and wife.