Floating breech
Encyclopedia
A floating breech is a breechblock
of a firearm
that is not held rigidly to the barrel at the moment of firing, but instead is free to move in the opposite direction to the projectile. This can help to reduce the recoil induced in the body of the firearm so long as the subsequent motion of the breechblock is retarded in some manner - either by a spring, or by back-pressure against a piston attached to the breechblock provided by tapping the expelled propellant gases. The motion of the breech and/or the expansion of the expelled gases can also be used to power a case-ejection mechanism and/or reloading mechanism.
If the ammunition is caseless, the time required to expel the previous case is removed from the cycle time of an automatic firearm and a higher rate of fire can be obtained than with normal ammunition.
The Heckler & Koch
G11
Assault rifle uses caseless ammunition, but has a rotating breech, not a floating breech. However, the barrel, breech and magazine as a whole 'float' within the housing of the weapon. Note that the breechblock in this firearm rotates about an axis perpendicular to the main axis of the barrel, whereas most other rotating breechblocks rotate about the same axis as the long axis of the barrel.
Breechblock
A breechblock is the part of the firearm action that closes the breech of a weapon at the moment of firing....
of a firearm
Firearm
A firearm is a weapon that launches one, or many, projectile at high velocity through confined burning of a propellant. This subsonic burning process is technically known as deflagration, as opposed to supersonic combustion known as a detonation. In older firearms, the propellant was typically...
that is not held rigidly to the barrel at the moment of firing, but instead is free to move in the opposite direction to the projectile. This can help to reduce the recoil induced in the body of the firearm so long as the subsequent motion of the breechblock is retarded in some manner - either by a spring, or by back-pressure against a piston attached to the breechblock provided by tapping the expelled propellant gases. The motion of the breech and/or the expansion of the expelled gases can also be used to power a case-ejection mechanism and/or reloading mechanism.
If the ammunition is caseless, the time required to expel the previous case is removed from the cycle time of an automatic firearm and a higher rate of fire can be obtained than with normal ammunition.
The Heckler & Koch
Heckler & Koch
Heckler & Koch GmbH is a German defense manufacturing company that produces various small arms. Some of their products include the SA80, MP5 submachine gun, G3 automatic rifle, the G36 assault rifle, the HK 416, the MP7 personal defense weapon, the USP series of handguns, and the high-precision...
G11
Heckler & Koch G11
The Heckler & Koch G11 is a non-production prototype assault rifle developed during the late 1960s, 1970s and 1980s by Gesellschaft für Hülsenlose Gewehrsysteme , a conglomeration of companies headed by firearm manufacturer Heckler & Koch , Dynamit Nobel The Heckler & Koch G11 is a non-production...
Assault rifle uses caseless ammunition, but has a rotating breech, not a floating breech. However, the barrel, breech and magazine as a whole 'float' within the housing of the weapon. Note that the breechblock in this firearm rotates about an axis perpendicular to the main axis of the barrel, whereas most other rotating breechblocks rotate about the same axis as the long axis of the barrel.