[geeks] Multi-Barrel Machine Guns

[Phil Stracchino]

On 08/30/11 11:23, Sridhar Ayengar wrote:
> Did anyone ever successfully build a gas-operated Gatling gun?

Far as I know, no-one has ever tried to.  There would be no reason to.
You'd need a gas system on each barrel; it would be heavy, complex,
require lots of cleaning, and be less reliable.  One of the strengths of
the externally driven Gatling-type cannon is that because it's not
dependent upon gas pressure or recoil impulse, you can stop firing
immediately and just clear unfired rounds back into the ammunition feed,
and a dud round doesn't produce a stoppage; you just clear it out along
with the fired cases.


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  Phil Stracchino, CDK#2     DoD#299792458     ICBM: 43.5607, -71.355
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