The development of caseless ammunition started a long time ago and various military experiments were done around this concept. The caseless/combustible design idea for sporting cartridges dates from the 1970’s, when the construction company HILTI, was working on a project to get their nail guns working with caseless ammunition. One of the project engineers was a man called Herbert Uhsel, who wanted to take the caseless/combustible case design further in terms of producing rifles. Voere in Austria developed a rifle and the project was unveiled to the public at the 1991 IWA show in Germany. The project was plagued by difficulty from the beginning, the number one reason being the cost factor of producing the rifles.

Many military caseless developments had a square “case design” and according to research, that concept led to a heat problem in the chambers, resulting in “cook-off” as well as sealing problems with mechanical ignition. Voere on the other hand opted for a cylindrical design and electronic ignition. The heat problem still existed however, and this led to their invention of an enlarged gas capacity chamber with the help of Israeli engineer, Nehemiah Sirkis. The rifle had additional safety features as well. According to Voere the VEC-91 project ultimately failed as a result of the fact that they could not produce ammunition at sufficient quantities, which though it seems like a good explanation, the cost factor did much more damage to the concept.

In order for any project to ultimately succeed, one needs enough buyers of a product, as stated clearly in any economics 101 handbook. Therefore it is the goal of any manufacturer of anything that can go bang to focus on the USA because they have a fully functioning Second Amendment. There was a rumour however that the Violence Policy Centre in the US had a problem with the VEC-91 because criminals might use the guns and not leave enough evidence for the forensic people to get on with what they are paid to do and they therefore recommended to the ATF to limit imports of the VEC-91 into the US, which in all probability was the main reason for the demise of the caseless round for sporting shooters.

   Proof

Close up of the electronic ignition system.                                                                                                                                                                                          Enlarged gas capacity chamber