I’m not super familiar with firearms and usually only see them in video games. I notice that pistols and sub machine guns use something called blowback to load the next round from the magazine. My understanding is that the recoil of the round pushes the bolt back and ejects the bullet. This works for pistols and submachine guns like a Glock or MP40.
For rifles though, they have to be gas operated or put in a separate tube so that the gas can go backwards to push the bolt back. Why is this the case? Why can’t rifles like the M16 or AK47 simply use blowback and let the recoil of the gun push the bolt back and load the new round?
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I’m seeing a lot of convoluted answers here. To explain it to a 5 year-old, it’s best to say that rifle cartridges have a lot more energy than pistol rounds when they are fired. Enough energy to damage the internal components of the gun. For this reason, many automatic rifles let some of that energy from the exploding powder dissipate before collecting it in a separate tube closer to the muzzle.
You can make a blowback rifle but it has a lot of draw backs compared to gas systems.
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