Board Thread:Off Topic/@comment-27447621-20180223225208/@comment-25396609-20181012005743

The problem with using electromagnetic systems for fully automatic weapons is that you wear down the rails much faster. When operating a railgun, there's a chance that the projectile will brush against the rails, in which case the electrical current passing through can actually cause the round to partially weld to them. Operating at a higher rate of fire means you will be cycling rounds faster and you have increased risk of one such a failure.

Keeping the charge going through the rails continuously will also cause them to heat up and possivly even warp.

And of course, there's the charge time. You need to build up an electrical charge into a capacitor bank in order to get enough power into a railgun for the shot fired to do any real damage. To maintain consistent performance at higher rates of fire, you would need more capacitors able to fire in sequence; which is going to make the gun heavier and cause it to need more maintenance.

Without that contingency, you will see rapid dropoff in effectiveness with each succesive shot fire.

Overall, while I am a fan of railguns and coilguns, I cannot say they make a good choose for fully automatic weapons. Single shot or semi-auto they work better, as that provides a chance to rebuild the charge between shots.