The recoil in the three-round burst is not felt by the weapon's user until after the third round has left the chamber. This is accomplished by having the barrel and feeding mechanism "float" within the rifle casing. When the rounds are fired, the barrel, magazine, chamber and operating mechanism recoils back against recoil springs several inches. Only when it strikes the buffer at the back of the rifle does the user feel the recoil. During the rearward travel of the internal mechanism the rifle loads and fires 3 rounds. When the barrel and mechanism reaches the rearmost point in its travel, the recoil springs push it forward back into its normal forward position. When firing in semi-auto and full-auto modes, the rifle loads and fires only one round per movement of the internal mechanism. Fully automatic fire is reduced to around 460 rounds per minute. The internal workings of the rifle were rather complex compared to those of some earlier designs, with the mechanism being compared to the inside of a compact clock. The number of hours of maintenance required for the G11 as compared to other designs is not clear, especially since the effect of the powder used in the caseless ammo remains unknown. Designers claimed that, because there was no ejection cycle, the internal mechanisms would have little chance to get exposed to external dust, dirt and sand, which would supposedly reduce the need for cleaning.