Changes

Bolt weapons fire self-propelled mass-reactive munitions known as ''bolts'' at hypersonic velocities{{Fn|21}}^{[[Bolt weapon#Cased vs Caseless|[Conflicting Sources]]]}, which are timed to explode just after penetration for maximum lethality. The standard bolt is .75 calibre with a super-dense metallic core and [[diamantine]] tip. Overall bolt ammunition is expensive and difficult to manufacture and the weapons themselves regularly require maintenance and rituals to appease their spirits, but they are no doubt terrifying and destructive weapons.{{Fn|1a}}

Using this method, personal bolt weapons can easily fire in bursts of three to four rounds in rapid succession. However, in order to keep the ammunition capacity high, bolt shells lack a subsequent booster stage or fin stabilization.{{Fn|4}} This limits their effective range, though this is seen as less of a problem given their role as a shock and assault weapon.{{Fn|2}} [[Heavy Bolter]]s fire a larger round with extra propellant, giving them superior range and hitting power to hand-held [[bolter]]s and [[bolt pistol]]s.{{Fn|4}}

===Cased vs Caseless===

Even as of 2025, there has been somewhat of a longstanding conflict between boltgun ammunition being cased or caseless:

*In [[1st Edition]] (Rogue Trader), bolts are described as self-propelled explosives akin to small missiles.{{Fn|1b}} This is reiterated in later publications.{{Fn|33}} This by definition makes them [[Wikipedia:Caseless_ammunition#Internal-propellant_caseless_ammunition|internal-propellant caseless ammunition]].{{Fn|1b}} According to both the [[Liber Astartes (2nd Edition)|2nd]]{{Fn|20}} and [[Liber Astartes (3rd Edition)|3rd editions]] of ''[[Liber Astartes]]'', bolt weapons fire caseless ammunition.{{fn|24}} This description is depicted in ''[[Ultramarines: A Warhammer 40,000 Movie]]''{{Fn|32}} as well as ''[[Secret Level]]''.{{Fn|34}}

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**In ''[[The Flight of the Eisenstein (Novel)|The Flight of the Eisenstein]]'', [[Kaleb Arin]] wears an engraved bolt shell case on a chain around his neck.{{Fn|31}}

**[[Marksman's Honour]] medals are described and presented as being made from spent bolt shell casings fired by [[Roboute Guilliman]].{{Fn|37}}

Bolt Shell Adepta Sororitas Penitence.jpg|^{<small>Bolt cases from [[Adepta Sororitas: Penitence]]</small>}

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|quote = <small>"Bloody Bolters! 'Mass-Reactive Caseless Ammuntion' says it right there in 40k, [[Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader|Rogue Trader]], right from the get go: caseless. What do artists always do with boltguns? Cases flying everywhere! Because it looks awesome, alright. Anybody whose seen particularly late 80-90s action movies - 'Dakka-dakka-dakka' brass flying everywhere - knows its one of those things that conveys kinetic violence happening. So when it comes to doing a static image that you're trying to show a guy firing a big rapid fire gun of course an artist is going to reach for having casings flying out of it or it's a heavy battle so there's loads of brass on the ground and things like that, because it's a visual key for people to clue into even subconsciously about what's happening. So actually 'caseless' was useless as a term to describe them because it fought against what the art wanted to do. So eventually we kind of lampshaded it basically, or I did, and wrote in that they use a little kind of like sabot thing to launch them out of the barrel kind of like RPG-7s do. So at that point it's fine, I no longer have to shout at artists whenever I see brass coming out of bolters cause it's fine, we need it, and it looks good."{{Fn|25}}</small>

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==See also==