Hand blasters and recoil

Eleas · Post by **Eleas** » 2003-10-03 01:02am

All right. We know that turbolasers exhibit recoil. Do we know to what degree hand blasters do, or even if they do? The question came up when discussing how accurate a blaster set on burst mode would be. If the blaster had no recoil, the grouping would be as narrow as you'd like - obviously this might prove very beneficial in a combat environment.

So, anyone have any ideas?

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2003-10-03 02:36am

Blasters have recoil comparable to real life guns, especially considering that the prop guns fired blanks.

Old Plympto · Post by **Old Plympto** » 2003-10-03 08:53am

You can see the recoil onscreen quite clearly, and Carrie Fisher flinching because of it, during the escape from Cloud City, under the Millennium Falcon, in the Empire Strikes Back.

Ender · Post by **Ender** » 2003-10-03 11:10am

Yet the bolts themselves have very low momentum as the lightsabres don't seem to move back at all when they deflect them.

Chardok · Post by **Chardok** » 2003-10-03 11:54am

Lightsabers don't move, true, but there could be a factor with the force which causes that.

Old Plympto · Post by **Old Plympto** » 2003-10-03 12:07pm

Heh! It would be cool to show onscreen a bunch of Jedi easily deflecting blaster bolts left and right, then a non-Jedi picks up a discarded lightsaber, ignites to do the same, and a single bolt strikes the blade and sends it flying away.

Chardok · Post by **Chardok** » 2003-10-03 12:10pm

Lightsabers are more danger to the untrained user than they are to an enemy of an untrained user. I think it has something to do with the fact that the blades are weightless...fucks up our perception or something, I don't know, I would find it weird, too...swinging around a something that can melt through bulkheads and shit and it doesn't weigh anything....that's got to be difficult as hell.

The Dark · Post by **The Dark** » 2003-10-03 12:46pm

Did Leia's sporting blaster have a recoil when she fired it at the stormtrooper in ANH? I don't recall that pistol having any recoil.

Connor MacLeod · Post by **Connor MacLeod** » 2003-10-03 02:41pm

Ender wrote:Yet the bolts themselves have very low momentum as the lightsabres don't seem to move back at all when they deflect them.

Yet we've seen the guns visibly recoiling. think some sort of "explosive interaction" occuring inside the gun.

And as noted its possible the Jedi *might* counter recoil with Force-TK.

The Silence and I · Post by **The Silence and I** » 2003-10-03 09:17pm

Yes, every make of blaster except the Clone Trooper rifles has shown varying degrees of recoil, sometimes much, sometime little. A good rule of thumb seems to be the larger the flash the more the recoil (as others have said the OT used blanks+real guns, so they have both bigger flashes and more recoil than the NT, which is less consistent in its recoil).

Edit: A great example of recoil from the NT is in TPM, when Amidala's chief of security blasts out the palace window, the gun is on automatic and fire wildly with erratic aiming at best due to the heavy recoil. Same thing in ANH when Han covers his retreat to the Falcon in Hanger bay 94.

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2003-10-03 11:24pm

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:Blasters have recoil comparable to real life guns, especially considering that the prop guns fired blanks.

Blanks produce a small fraction of the recoil of an actual round.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2003-10-04 12:43am

Well, I didn't know that, having never fired a black cartridge.

But at least there is still some recoil present.

His Divine Shadow · Post by **His Divine Shadow** » 2003-10-04 10:17am

Connor MacLeod wrote:
Ender wrote:Yet the bolts themselves have very low momentum as the lightsabres don't seem to move back at all when they deflect them.
Yet we've seen the guns visibly recoiling. think some sort of "explosive interaction" occuring inside the gun.

And as noted its possible the Jedi *might* counter recoil with Force-TK.

I think explanation two might be right, as indicated by the Jedi who got his saber knocked out of his hand by the blaster bolt fired by Jango, there was definitly momentum to that bolt.

Ender · Post by **Ender** » 2003-10-04 12:22pm

His Divine Shadow wrote:
Connor MacLeod wrote:
Ender wrote:Yet the bolts themselves have very low momentum as the lightsabres don't seem to move back at all when they deflect them.
Yet we've seen the guns visibly recoiling. think some sort of "explosive interaction" occuring inside the gun.

And as noted its possible the Jedi *might* counter recoil with Force-TK.
I think explanation two might be right, as indicated by the Jedi who got his saber knocked out of his hand by the blaster bolt fired by Jango, there was definitly momentum to that bolt.

This implies that blasters either use a differnt mechanism (and have mass in their shots, but this has problems with alot of blaster stuff matching what we see from TLs), or that that shot was pretty fucking powerful.

or would momentum=energy/C not apply for some reason?

Durandal · Post by **Durandal** » 2003-10-04 04:04pm

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:Blasters have recoil comparable to real life guns, especially considering that the prop guns fired blanks.

The primary recoil from a weapon firing comes from the momentum of the slug. Simple gaseous expansion of gun powder won't create recoil anywhere near that of the slug's motion.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2003-10-04 04:10pm

Sea Skimmer already corrected me on such.

In my defence, I've never fired a gun with blanks, nor have I ever read about blank rounds before.

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2003-10-04 04:19pm

Durandal wrote: The primary recoil from a weapon firing comes from the momentum of the slug. Simple gaseous expansion of gun powder won't create recoil anywhere near that of the slug's motion.

Depending on who made the blank, there may be a small chunk of wood being shot out, though most use basically cotton and paper to hold in the propellant.

Knife · Post by **Knife** » 2003-10-04 04:44pm

In the blaster, it doesn't necessarily have to be the bolt creating the recoil that is observed, rather some internal action that creates the bolt. Perhaps when the Tibanna gas is excited, it creates a small explosion comparable with a round being fired in an Earth gun that creates the recoil of the weapon.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2003-10-04 04:47pm

You see more substantial recoil with the Rebel soldiers in the trenches in TESB when they fire their rifles. In that case, one can reasonably assume they've probably got their guns cranked to maximum yield.

Chardok · Post by **Chardok** » 2003-10-04 05:28pm

His Divine Shadow wrote:I think explanation two might be right, as indicated by the Jedi who got his saber knocked out of his hand by the blaster bolt fired by Jango, there was definitly momentum to that bolt.

I suppose, also, it *is possible* that jango caught that particular jedi unawares/off guard so that he could not call upon force TK to counter the momentum? I don't recall that particular scene...was the jedi looking at jango? Or concentrating on other combat around him?

neoolong · Post by **neoolong** » 2003-10-04 07:20pm

Chardok wrote:
His Divine Shadow wrote:I think explanation two might be right, as indicated by the Jedi who got his saber knocked out of his hand by the blaster bolt fired by Jango, there was definitly momentum to that bolt.
I suppose, also, it *is possible* that jango caught that particular jedi unawares/off guard so that he could not call upon force TK to counter the momentum? I don't recall that particular scene...was the jedi looking at jango? Or concentrating on other combat around him?

Trebor looked to be about to attack Dooku and was looking that way.