What does the Gauss Rifle shoot?

[White Guy from New York]

So I read a lot about the Gauss Rifle, from what I can tell, the gun either shoots energy bolts, or shoots rails enhanced by energy but if that was the case where do the rails come from and wouldn't the gun be classed as a "Gun" and not an "Energy Weapon" in that case?

[Ladez]

It shoots projectiles, just like guns, but it uses elecromagnetic coils to propel them. As such, it's somewhat closer to an actual firearm, it just uses a different energy source. And it would actually have recoil, which scientifically accurate laser weaponry doesn't.

[White Guy from New York]

Originally posted by Ladez:

So it does shoot a "bullet" in a sense, but that bullet is propeled by the gun's coils, and the coils themselves' are powered by the Microfusion cells?
Where do the "bullets" come from then?

[Ladez]

Originally posted by Spookyena:

Where do the "bullets" come from then?

I suppose a reasonable explanation is that the gun has either 1) a canister containing tens of thousands (or more) of microscopic projectiles or 2) a large piece from which microscopic pieces are chipped off when the user fires. Remember that we're talking about extreme velocities. You really don't need a large projectile to do massive amounts of damage.

Either way, the weapon would need to be refilled eventually, but it could potentially last a really, really long time from a single refill.

[White Guy from New York]

Originally posted by Ladez:

Thanks for the explaination. I really like the Gauss Rifle, and the way it works has always confused me.

[Vita, Mortis, Careo]

For further reading, check out Wikipedia's article on real life coil weapons.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coilgun

[Ladez]

After re-reading the article for the gauss rifle on the wiki, it seems the 2mm EC cartridges used by the M72 gauss rifle from Fallout 2 carries the 2mm slugs that it fires in addition to the battery.

In the section on the Chinese gauss rifle (FO3/NV variant) it states that it has to be loaded with ferromagnetic slugs separately.

So my theory about a huge internal supply of microscopic slugs may not be entirely accurate.

fallout.gamepedia.com/Gauss_rifle

[talgaby]

It uses 2mm projectiles, but since Bethesda wanted an energy sniper, they converted the old gauss rifle to that in Fallout: Operation: Anchorage. And New Vegas has the same assets. In NV, mods later converted back the weapon to the original form and added in the proper ammo as a rare ammunition.

[Bansheebutt]

Yeah, there is that thing on the side of it that somewhat resembles some kind of magazine.

[red255]

a Gauss weapon takes metal pieces and uses magnetic rails to propell them at high speeds.
the energy consumed in the shot is represented by the microfusion cells consumed I suppose.

but its actually shooting some metal round super accelerrated by electro-magnetism.

[MissRockyqo]

They took the Sierra Madre vending machine technology, and put it in a gun. It's also conviently powered by common MF Cells.

[Dosbilliam, Boring but Practical]

If you look closely, you can also see the Mass Effect weaponry explained in this thread. :D

[Ladez]

Originally posted by Dosbilliam, 200% Ultra-Bitter:

If you look closely, you can also see the Mass Effect weaponry explained in this thread. :D

That was exactly what was going through my head when I wrote it. :D

[NotSchizophrenic]

you press right click to shoot

[Dosbilliam, Boring but Practical]

Originally posted by Ladez:

Originally posted by Dosbilliam, 200% Ultra-Bitter:

If you look closely, you can also see the Mass Effect weaponry explained in this thread. :D

That was exactly what was going through my head when I wrote it. :D

As a fun fact, I actually tried reading the Wikipedia page for a Gauss weapon. For reference, in my Algebra 2 class it took me about ten seconds to fully understand everything about i, so when I say that I gave up after a couple minutes reading about Gauss weapons, that should say how complex that ♥♥♥♥ is.