Does a bolt action rifle produce more energy than a semi auto?

Answer 1

Bullet energy depends on two factors, bullet weight and bullet velocity.

Does your truck get the same gas mileage run down the highway pulling a travel trailer as it would it would going down the same highway pulling nothing?

All ammo muzzle velocity is tested on a locked bolt design test weapon to get maximum velocity readings.

On a semi auto whether blow back or gas piston design all utilizes energy diverted from the projectile it self.

Which does result in a lesser muzzle velocity, all ammo and weapon manufactures will even tell you this if you e-mail them and ask.

The most common items that will reduce your muzzle velocity is.
1- semi auto action.
2- a shorter barrel the used to determine muzzle velocity.

Stop to consider the ammo utilizes a powder with a set burn rate to achieve optimum performance from the barrel length being utilized.

You don’t use powder designed for pistol in a long barrel pistol and expect the same muzzle velocity.

You don’t use powder designed for a rifle in pistil with a 2 to 4 inch barrel and expect the same muzzle velocity.

The bullet is with in the last 2 to 3 inches of the barrel when the action operates.
The bullet acts like a plug allowing the gases to divert to the gas piston.
If the action operated after the bullet left the barrel the a semi auto action would work when firing blanks, and it does not work when you use blanks if you don’t have a blank adapter on the muzzle.
The blank adapter acts in much the same way as a bullet allowing pressure to build up in the barrel and there by allowing the gases to divert and work the action.

Powder Burn Rates chart
http://www.netrifle.com/shortmags/ref_data/Ramshot-burnrate.htm

So the answer is YES the bolt or locked bolt design weapon ( bolt, lever, brake open and falling block) does have more energy over the semi auto of ether blowback or gas piston design.

D58

Answer 2

I'm only going to address kinetic energy of the bullet.

Yes, the bolt gun firing the same cartridge will impart more energy to the bullet than a semiautomatic. The difference is so small, you will not notice. It's certainly not enough of a consideration to help decide which rifle to buy. Shooting matches are won with both action types, and snipers use them both.

A bullet fired from a blowback desgin semiautomatic rifle (for the most part 22 LR), will have a little less kinetic energy than if the same cartridge were fired in a bolt action rifle. The bolt starts back before the bullet is free of the barrel. The difference is small, because the bolt doesn't move very far, and the slight increase in volume behind the bullet doesn't decrease the pressure much.

The breech of a gas operated semiautomatic action is locked until the bullet passes the port in the barrel where gas is tapped off to cycle the action. From that point, there is still a lot of pressure behind the bullet, and only a fraction of the gas is tapped off, but no gas is tapped off in a bolt action rifle. So the difference will be small, but the bullet from the bolt gun will have slightly more kinetic energy.

Answer 3

If you were firing 2 guns with the same exact bullets, barrel length, etc, the ansmer would be yes, a bolt action does produce a little bit more energy than a semi-auto, but nothing signifigant.

The reason is that the semi auto uses a teeny tiny bit of its energy to operate the action.

Answer 4

No. Not to any real degree, that is.

A specific bullet marked on the box "2600fps" as an example will make that rating no matter what type of rifle it's fired from. The barrel length is the only real variable.

Semi-autos do in fact bleed off some gas to work the action, but it's happening after the bullet has left the barrel so the loss of gas pressure isn't effecting it.

The differences in muzzle velocity in a semi vs a bolt action are less than if you tried to compare a 22" barrel to a 23".

Answer 5

Not necessarily. Also, the bores are generally different and, therefore, the sizes of the cartridges are different. It's the powder in the cartridge of the round that produces the energy. In case the cartridges + bullets (=rounds) and bores of the rifles are the same, and the barrels are identical, both bullets whether from bolt-action or semi-automatic, will attain the same kinetic energy. In case of bolt action rifles, more energy of "recoil action" gets directly transferred to the shoulder, whereas, in semi-automatics the "recoil energy is mostly absorbed by the springs and reloading systems, including part of the recoil energy being used for loading a fresh round into the chamber. The butt spring also absorbs energy and uses it to reload the weapon and only very little recoil energy transfers to the shoulder." The recoil energy is equal in both cases, but, in a semi-automatic the recoil energy is distributed intelligently. The total recoil energy from identical rounds (bullet + cartridge), in identical barrels, will remain the same in bolt-action and semi-automatic rifles, and will impart equal kinetic energy to the bullet heads, in either case, even if the weights of the rifles are different ! Barrels, bores and rounds, however, must be identical.

Answer 6

The short answer is yes, but your question is imprecisely put.

The type of action has nothing to do with the energy produced upon firing. That is dependant on the load and the capacity of the rifle to withstand chamber pressure. Bolt actions are capable of handling higher pressures, hotter loads, and therefore can produce higher muzzle energy than semi-auto designs.

Answer 7

Energy is a product of how the bullet is loaded. Broadly speaking the bolt action will 'conserve' more energy which can be utilized in the launching of the bullet whereas the semi auto will expend a bit of that energy to eject the spent casing.

Hope that helped.

H

Answer 8

Yes because most automatics are designed to blow back the bolt and eject the casing.This uses some of the pressure that is released when the gun is fired.A bolt action or a pump will send all the pressure down the barrel with the bullet.

Answer 9

sort of. it depends on the length of the barrel, type of ammo. action.the autoloader FEELS like it has less energy because the force of the recoil forces the bolt backwards, loads a new cartridge into the magazine, and then pushes it into the chamber. a bolt action rifle has no mechanism to push back apon so it FEELS like it has more recoil.

Answer 10

No, the energy a particular round develops is depended on the load, not the rifle, which is only used for delivering the round to the target.