Board Thread:Off Topic/@comment-27425734-20170826213348/@comment-27144409-20171207124454

Well if the wikipedia link isn't helping, I'll do my best to explain it here.

A recoiless rifle is a bit of a combination between a rocket launcher and a rifle.

The rifle similarities are that it (usually) has rifling (or projectiles with rifline grroves on them, and that the projectile is (usually) driven by only the force of the rounds propellant that is triggered on firing, as opposed to having a rocket motor continue to provide forward force and acceleration.

The "recoilless" aspect, which really just means reduced recoil, comes from the weapon having a hole or holes in the back of the weapon itself, and sometimes the cartridge, that allows close to half of the force and gas from the propellant to escape out the back