Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-24116544-20131101010026/@comment-17732608-20131110174953

A semi-Auto conversion would make the weapon less reliable. Bolt-actions are known for being fairly failure-proof. Less moving parts tends to mean more robust.

Secondly... EMP? Seriously? In the context of the RWBY world, electricity plays second-banana to Dust. There's also very little point to a monster-hunter carrying an anti-tech device.

Thirdly... You're talking about asking teenaged characters to either make, or acquire stuff that's fairly out of their purview. We haven't seen anyone who's demonstrated any ability (as far as we've seen) or skill with electronic engineering.

Would it be useful? Sure, probably.

Would it make sense at any level? No, not at all.