Difference between revisions of "Gatling Gun"

Revision as of 15:09, 21 September 2016

The Gatling Gun was one of the precursors to the modern machine gun, and the first support weapon to possess a mechanical cycle of function; while previous rapid-fire guns had required multiple barrels to fire multiple shots, Gatling's gun instead used a mechanism resembling a rack of bolt-action rifles with their bolts interfacing with cams to operate them as the barrel group was rotated by a hand crank, using a single common feed source. The gun was initially used with paper cartridges in metal chamber sleeves (effectively making the gun an incredibly bizarre revolver), but switched to brass metallic cartridges with their invention.

Many models of Gatling were produced in various calibres, usually with six barrels but some with up to ten.

In the strictest sense Gatling's invention was not a machine gun since it was still completely manually operated, with the Maxim being the first true machine gun; it is often categorised as one because the effect of the weapon was the same. In the United States, the BATFE has ruled likewise that a crank-operated Gatling Gun is not legally considered a machine gun, since it requires continuous manual actions by the operator in order to fire.

Gatling also experimented with rigging one of his guns to an early electric motor, experiments that would be revitalised during the 1950s with the development of the M61 Vulcan aircraft cannon.

When Gatling guns were ordered by Tsarist Russia their production was overseen by General Aleksandr Gorloff, the military attaché to the Russian embassy in Washington DC. Gorloff slyly had his own name stamped on the weapons in Cyrillic before they were shipped, leading to some confusion in Russia with nationalists crediting Gorloff as the inventor and referring to the weapons as "Gorloff Guns."

Note: This page is reserved for the 19th century models of Gatling Guns build by manufacturers such as Colt. Modern electric driven Gatling-type weapons don't belong here nor should they be linked here.

Specifications

British M1865 Gatling Gun at the Royal Artillery Museum with hopper feed - .58 Rimfire / .50-70

Colt Gatling Gun with Bruce Feed Guide - .45-70

Colt Model 1883 Gatling Gun with 104-round Accles Drum - .45-70

1877 Bulldog Gatling Gun with Bruce Feed Guide - .45-70 Government

(1861-1911)

Type: Rapid-fire gun

Caliber: Various, including .30-03, .30-06, .30-40, .45-70, .50-70, .58 Rimfire and 1-inch on naval versions.

Capacity: Various gravity feeds: manually loaded hopper (M1865), gravity "magazine" with unsprung follower (M1871), Bruce feed guide (M1881), Broadwell Drum (a cylindrical feeding device which was manually rotated to bring stacks of cartridges into position, either a seldom-used 400-round version with 20 20-round stacks or the more common 240-rounder with 20 stacks of 15): 104-round Accles Drum (a feeding system resembling a sideways pan magazine in that it was indexed by the gun's mechanism rather than a spring follower)

Fire Modes: Manual crank operated, speed depending on operator (usually 200-400 RPM), electrically driven Model 1893 tested at up to 1,500 RPM

Crew: 4

Gatling Guns of multiple manufacturers have been used in the following films:

Film

Title	Actor	Character	Note	Date
The Real Glory	David Niven	Lt. Terence McCool	Model 1883	1939
Gunga Din		British troops	Model 1883	1939
Django 1966				1966
The War Wagon	Bruce Cabot	Frank Pierce	mounted in turret	1967
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly		Union Army		1966
Guns of the Magnificent Seven	Bernie Casey	Cassie	1883 model	1969
100 Rifles		Mexican soldiers, Indians		1969
Two Mules for Sister Sara		French Troops		1970
There was a crooked man				1970
Something Big				1971
The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid		Pinkertons		1972
The Outlaw Josey Wales		Union Army		1975
Rooster Cogburn	John Wayne	Rooster Cogburn		1975
Rooster Cogburn	Katharine Hepburn			1975
Young Guns		Union Army		1988
Batman Returns				1992
Bad Girls	Madeleine Stowe	Cody	Model 1874	1994
Nostromo				1996
Wild Wild West				1999
American Outlaws		Union Army		2001
The Last Samurai		Imperial Japanese Army	Model 1874	2003
Van Helsing		weapons tester		2004
Tremors 4: The Legend Begins	Michael Gross	Hiram Gummer		2004
3:10 to Yuma (2007)		cart gunners	Rubber Model 1874	2007
The Book of Eli		Carnegie's men		2010
Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows		Meinhard guards	Ammo fed from Broadwell drums	2011
The Magnificent Seven				2016

Television

Title	Actor	Character	Note	Date
Lock 'n Load With R. Lee Ermey
Black Fox The Price of Peace	Christopher Reeve	Alan Johnson	Mounted on tripod	1995
Rough Riders		U.S Army		1997
Deadliest Warrior		Theodore Roosevelt	Model 1897\| 2009-???

Animation

Title	Character	Note	Date
Rango	The Mole Clan	belt-fed; attached to saddles	2011
Rango	Rattlesnake Jake	attached to tail in place of a rattle	2011

Video Games

Game Title	Notation	Release Date
Resident Evil 4	With M134 drive mechanism	2005
Gun		2005
Call of Juarez	With a drum magazine	2007
Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood	With drum and stick magazines	2009
Jurassic: The Hunted	Used as a turret weapon	2009
Red Dead Redemption	Without a magazine	2010
Lead and Gold: Gangs of the Wild West	With unlimited magazine	2010
Total War: Shogun 2 — Fall of the Samurai		2011
The Showdown Effect	portable	2013
Assassin's Creed Syndicate		2015

Anime

Title	Character	Note	Date
Gun Frontier	Shitalnen		2002
Steamboy		Mounted in Steam Castle	2005
Mystic Archives of Dantalian, The	A group of suitors	Broadwell drum	2011
Suisei no Gargantia	Sailors		2013

@@ Line 43: / Line 43: @@
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 | ''[[Gunga Din]]'' || ||British troops ||Model 1883|| 1939
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+| ''[[Django 1966]]'' || || || || 1966
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 | ''[[The War Wagon]]''|| [[Bruce Cabot]] || Frank Pierce || mounted in turret || 1967
@@ Line 53: / Line 55: @@
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 |''[[Two Mules for Sister Sara]]''||||French Troops |||| 1970
+|-
+| ''[[There was a crooked man]]'' || || || || 1970
+|-
+| ''[[Something Big]]'' || || || || 1971
 |-
 | ''[[The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid]]'' ||||Pinkertons|||| 1972