How a machine gun fires. The very first machine guns

Most ancient ancestor modern machine gun, the so-called ribadekin, has been known since the 14th century. It resembled an organ because it consisted of several barrels mounted on a mobile carriage. Such tools were used until the invention of the American-born Briton Hiram Maxim.

Gatling gun

Previously, Maxim received a patent for the invention of a rapid-fire gun from a native of North Carolina. Richard Gatling(1862). Some rifled barrels rotated around an axis. At first using a handle, later using an electric drive. The shooting was carried out without stopping, and the cartridges were fed under the influence of gravity. The Gatling gun was used in the American Civil War, and the British fired it at the Zulus. An improved version of the gun was capable of firing at a rate of a thousand rounds per minute. With the invention of the electric drive, the speed increased to 3000 shots. The machine gun jammed quite often, and the whole system was too cumbersome. Therefore, with the advent of single-barrel models, the Gatling gun became less popular. Although it was not completely ousted. Gatling guns were produced after World War II. Remember the weapons of Arnold Schwarzenegger's heroes in the films Predator and Terminator 2. Multi-barreled hulks are direct descendants of Richard Gatling's machine gun.

It’s interesting that Gatling himself was initially a doctor, he treated soldiers American army against pneumonia and dysentery with herbal tinctures. I did not gain fame in this field, so I decided to change my field of activity. Gatling dreamed of creating such a view automatic weapons, which would allow one soldier to do the work of hundreds. Then, the inventor believed, countries would not have to recruit huge armies. This is where the former doctor made a mistake.

Anka the machine gunner

Who doesn’t remember Anka the machine gunner and orderly Petka from the legendary 1934 film “Chapaev”? Many events - from bloody battles to declarations of love - take place against the backdrop of the Maxim machine gun. It is believed that its inventor began working on his brainchild in the early 1880s. However, there is information that Maxim presented the first machine gun to the military in the early 70s, however, the American military rejected the new weapon.

On long years Having lost interest in the machine gun, Hiram Maxim emigrated to England in 1881, where he continued his work. New model was very different from the original version, but it also did not interest the now British military. But to the financier Rothschild I liked the idea. The fundamental innovation that the inventor proposed was that the machine gun reloaded itself using recoil force. The average rate of fire was 600 rounds per minute.

They claim that the emperor himself fired a machine gun during a demonstration of a new type of weapon in Russia. Alexander III . After which the Russian side purchased several Maxims. By the way, in Russia the machine gun was modernized. It is known that the wheeled machine was invented by Colonel Sokolov in 1910.

Schwarzlose machine gun

A competition for the best machine gun was announced at the beginning of the twentieth century in Austria-Hungary. The German inventor Andreas Schwarzlose won. Compared to the Maxim, its machine gun had much fewer parts and cost half as much. The new weapon was “fed” with a cloth belt of 250 rounds. They were served using a special drum. True, during rain the tape could warp, and in the cold it was difficult to bend.

At the beginning of the First World War, Austria-Hungary had about three thousand machine guns. The shortened barrel of the Schwarzlose made the automation more reliable, but at the same time the lethality was lost. They compensated for this deficiency with more accentuated shooting and a larger number of cartridges.

Completely manual

First in the world light machine gun invented by a Danish major Wilhelm Madsen. The idea to lighten a heavy machine gun so much that one soldier could easily carry it came to Madsen back in the 80s of the 19th century. Two decades later, the idea was brought to life. The Dane’s weapon weighed almost nine kilograms, which is why horse-drawn vehicles were used to transport it. Actually, after the submachine gun successfully passed tests and several hundred units were ordered for Russian army, special horse-mounted machine-gun brigades were formed. Each of them consisted of 40 horses and 27 people. There were six machine guns per brigade. The new Danish weapons were planned to be used to protect bridges and tunnels. Interestingly, they even tried to install the Madsen machine gun on airplanes, but it was later abandoned in favor of other models.

For Old Man Makhno

It happens: the idea of ​​an invention belongs to one person, and it gets the name of another, the one who embodied the idea. The famous American machine gun was invented Samuel McLean. But the weapon became famous thanks to the colonel Isaac Lewis. The Lewis machine gun was demonstrated in 1911, but the American military was not impressed. Then Colonel Lewis resigns and moves to old Europe, where the Belgians adopt a new machine gun.

In 1914, the British acquired a license to produce the Lewis machine gun. It was only after the outbreak of the First World War that Americans became interested in weapons. The Savage Arms Company began producing machine guns.

Lewis machine guns were purchased in Russia in 1917. About six thousand were American-made, another two thousand were British-made. They used cartridges from a Mosin rifle. Lewis machine guns were used extensively during the Civil War. It is known, for example, that they were in service with Father Makhno’s guards, which is why the guards themselves were nicknamed “Lewisists.” Immediately after the revolution, supplies of machine guns to Russia stopped.

In popular Soviet films“White Sun of the Desert”, “Friend among Strangers, Stranger among Friend” also featured “Lewis” in the script, but machine guns were “made up” for them Degtyareva.

Photo at the opening of the article: First World War, 1914/ Photo: TASS/ Archive

Let's say you are sitting so-so in the office and you are very bored. And suppose you suddenly got the idea to go to a shooting range, take the most powerful machine gun with a silencer, attach a belt of 700 rounds to it and fire them all at once. What will happen in this case? We definitely didn't know about this. They assumed that the machine gun would not be envied at that moment. But so what! Barrel metal heated to the point of redness and a molten muffler, this is what 700 bullets flying out of the barrel will lead to!

The shot from West Coast Armory (not to be confused with West Coast Custom) shows an M249 SAW machine gun and two people, a shooter and an assistant handing him a belt of ammunition. As stated in the description of the video, somewhere after 350-400 bullets were fired, the muffler quickly melted. A few seconds later, the metal at the end of the barrel became so hot that the muffler was literally turned inside out, bent to the side. However, the machine gun continued firing.

As proud testers who managed to slightly melt the barrel of a machine gun said: “The weapon itself shot perfectly and there were no problems with it. The only problem we encountered afterwards was that someone needed to clean up afterwards.".

There is no confirming video with the same machine gun, which would have fired several hundred more bullets. It seems to me, as an amateur in this matter, that after such merciless use the barrel should become completely unusable. Perhaps this is not the case.

While we're talking about machine guns, here's another video that explains one of the most mysterious topics of my childhood: How did fighter planes shoot through working propellers?

Enjoy watching

Despite how it is shown in Hollywood films, accurate shooting from hand weapons requires consistency, technique and practice. Even if you are an experienced shotgun or rifle shooter, accurate shooting with a handgun requires completely different skills. The following outlines the basics of accurate and safe handgun shooting.

Steps

Part 1

Understand the difference between a revolver and a semi-automatic pistol. These are the two main types of hand weapons. A revolver is something that is present in cowboy movies where someone has a "six shooter". The action of a semi-automatic pistol is based on a blowback action and the use of a clip of cartridges. The way each weapon works is different, so you'll need to familiarize yourself with the basics first.

• The revolver uses a rotating drum as a magazine into which cartridges are inserted and spent casings are removed. After each shot, the cylinder is rotated to place the next round against the firing pin. This type of weapon is cocked manually: the trigger is pulled back (to the firing position) with the thumb. Pressing the trigger activates the hammer (striker) and fires. Drum latch allows you to open and tilt the drum to the side.
• In a semi-automatic pistol, each cartridge is automatically chambered from the inserted clip, and the spent cartridge is removed after each shot. The pistol bolt (upper moving part) is designed to load a cartridge into the chamber and can be locked in the rearmost position shutter lag(on the side of the shutter). The detachable magazine/clip is loaded separately from the pistol.

1. Choose the weapon and ammunition that suits your purposes. The choice of handguns is huge, and the types of ammunition are almost limitless. When choosing, consider your physique and the purpose of using the weapon.

   • Most likely, you will not need a .357 Magnum for shooting at targets within a medium radius sighting range hand weapons. Do not buy heavy large-caliber weapons if you are a beginner; on the contrary, purchase a small-caliber reliable pistol, such as .22 caliber.

2. Always protect your eyes and ears with special equipment. Special headphones and ear muffs will protect you from the noise of gunfire. Safety glasses will save your eyes from flying cartridges, gases and other particles formed during a shot.

   • If you wear glasses, you still need to wear safety glasses over yours.

3. When picking up a weapon, follow safety precautions. When holding a weapon, always point it downward. Imagine that the barrel and your target are inextricably linked and aim at general direction targets the entire time the weapon is in your hands. Practice shooting only in specially designated places (shooting range, shooting range), where the safety of the surrounding areas is guaranteed.

   • A common occurrence for untrained shooters is the weapon spinning chaotically when the bolt is pulled or the safety is engaged/removed. Many beginners find it difficult to pull the bolt with just two fingers (thumb and forefinger), especially when the weapon has a tight spring or the shooter has weak hands. If you need to use your palm (or your entire hand) to pull the bolt, move the barrel away from you and point it down.

   Part 2

   We hold weapons

   1. Check that the weapon is not loaded. Every time you pick up a weapon, check that it is not loaded. If you just brought a weapon from the store, check that it is not loaded. If you have just removed your firearm from storage for the first time in many years, check to make sure it is not loaded. If you have just unloaded your weapon, check that it is not loaded.

      • In the case of a revolver, put the safety on, remove the cylinder and make sure that all chambers are empty. In the case of a pistol, remove the clip, pull back the bolt, look into the chamber and make sure there is no cartridge there. If there is a cartridge in the chamber, jerk the bolt and the cartridge will automatically eject.
      • As you practice holding the pistol correctly, lock the bolt to the rearmost position. This will ensure that the weapon is not loaded and will teach you how to properly position your fingers outside the action area.

   2. Gently grasp the weapon with your index finger outside the trigger, extend your finger and place it on the safety guard (surrounding the trigger). However you hold the weapon, make sure it is pointed downwards and away from people.

      • Never point a gun at anyone, even if it is unloaded or for fun. Practice with the pistol unloaded and aim in the general direction of the target.

   3. We hold the weapon in a ready-to-fire position. Open the palm of your working hand (the hand you write with) so that your thumb and index finger are pointing away from each other. Take the weapon with your other hand and place the handle in the palm of your working hand between your thumb and index finger. Wrap your thumb on one side of the handle and your middle, ring and little fingers on the other side, just below the safety guard.

      • In fact, only the middle and ring fingers grip the handle of the weapon, while the little finger simply “rests” on it. The grip on the handle must be strong. Grasp the handle as tightly as you would when shaking hands when you want to prove something to someone. If your grip is so tight that the weapon shakes in your hands, loosen it a little to stop the shaking.

   4. We give the weapon greater stability with the help of the second hand. Place your palm with the weapon in the palm of your other hand. Its main purpose is not to encircle the weapon, but to ensure its stability in the vertical and horizontal planes. Connect thumbs for shooting support and accuracy.

      Make sure your thumbs are out of range of the bolt or trigger. The bolt and trigger are thrown back violently when firing and can easily injure your fingers. A bolt strike can be both very painful and dangerous, as there is a risk of dropping a loaded, cocked and de-safety pistol from your hands.

      Get into the correct shooting stance. Feet shoulder width apart; the leg opposite the working hand is one step behind the other leg. Lean forward slightly with your knees bent and make sure you are in a stable position. The elbow of your working arm should be almost completely straight, while the elbow of your other arm should be slightly bent.

      • Some shooting drills are done using only one hand. In this case, the stance is more “open”: the hand with the weapon and the body make an angle of 90 degrees, the feet are directed along the line of fire. A very strong grip is required here, since only one hand holds the weapon.
      • Never aim to the sides or with your wrist bent like they do in the movies. This is very dangerous and unsustainable.

   Part 3

   Aiming with a weapon

   1. Align the front sight (front) and rear sight (rear). Make sure the top of the front sight lines up with the top of the rear sight and that the front sight is positioned exactly in the center of the rear sight slot. This ensures that the weapon is level and that you can see the target clearly when aiming.

      • It is best to aim with your “working” eye while keeping your other eye closed.

   2. Learn to fix your gaze correctly. The main difficulty when shooting is choosing the point at which the gaze is fixed. Target? Sights? For correct shooting, the top of the front sight is the main point of fixation of the gaze. By fixing your gaze on the top of the front sight, the rear sight and target will be unclear; however, this type of gaze fixation ensures the most accurate shooting.

      • For accurate shooting, the top of the front sight must be aligned with the aiming point. Another method is to align the top of the front sight with the bottom edge of the target while keeping the aiming point higher. Both options are valid; however, it is necessary to know how the weapon is sighted (by what method its sights are adjusted).

   3. Point the weapon at the target. Aim with your eyes fixed on the top of the front sight. You should clearly see the front sight lined up with the fuzzy dot of the sight (or the bottom of the target). You can now put your finger on the trigger.

   4. Charge your weapon. After you have learned how to hold the weapon correctly, stabilize it, aim and fix your gaze, load the weapon for shooting. Keep the safety on while loading and release the safety only after you are in a firing position and aiming. The barrel of the weapon must be pointed down while loading it. Most gun accidents occur while loading and unloading.

      • In the case of a pistol, to start shooting it is necessary to move the bolt to force the cartridge into the chamber.

The invention of the machine gun completely changed the military industry.

At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, European pacifists repeatedly demanded a complete ban on the use of new weapons, which gave an undeniable advantage during the battle. Some models of machine guns are still used in the army arsenal around the world, having established themselves as a standard.

The largest caliber machine gun

KPVT - the largest-caliber machine gun among serial ones

The largest caliber of existing machine guns was recorded in the experimental Belgian model FN BRG-15 - 15.5 mm; this machine gun came close to small-caliber guns. In 1983, Fabrique Nationale presented an experimental prototype, which was subsequently improved. The final version could penetrate 10 mm thick armor at an angle of 30 o from a distance of 1.3 kilometers. However, the model never went into mass production: in 1991, due to financial difficulties, the company froze the project, switching efforts to creating the P90 submachine gun.

The fastest firing machine gun

The very first machine gun

Later, the barrels began to be attached to a rotating shaft, each barrel had its own mechanism and a flint lock - this weapon was called the “Organ” or, as it was known in Russia, a card case.

One of the first machine guns was patented in 1862 by inventor Richard Gatling. This engineer invented a multi-barreled rapid-firing machine gun, which was adopted by the northern army during civil war in USA.

The innovation of the Gatling gun was that the cartridges were fed freely from the bunker. This allowed even an inexperienced shooter to fire at a high rate: at least 400 rounds per minute. However, the barrels of the first Gatling guns had to be manually operated.

Improvement of the Gatling gun continued continuously. By the beginning of the 20th century. it was equipped with an electric drive, thanks to which the rate of fire increased to 3000 rounds per minute. Multi-barrel Gatling guns were gradually replaced by single-barrel machine guns, but were successfully used on ships as air defense systems.

In 1883, American Maxim Hiram announced the creation of the first automatic machine gun. The rate of fire was higher than that of Gatling's invention - 600 rounds per minute, and the cartridges were reloaded automatically. The model has undergone a huge number of modifications and became one of the progenitors of automatic firearms.

The fastest firing multi-barreled machine gun

The unsurpassed machine gun, which received the army index M134 Minigun (modifications for the navy and air force - GAU-2/A), still retains the lead in rate of fire among serial machine guns. Of course, this is not the most dangerous weapon in the world, but it is definitely one of the fastest.

M134 machine gun in action

The fastest firing single-barreled machine gun

Five years later, Shpitalny and Komaritsky presented a modification of the UltraShkas, the rate of fire of which reached 3000 rounds per minute, but due to the low reliability of the model after Soviet-Finnish War it was discontinued.

The fastest firing light machine gun

Famous prototype light machine gun, exceeding the performance of the Stoner 63A back in 1941. This is a prototype of the MG 34/41, an improved version of the German MG 34 universal machine gun, developed by Louis Stagne for the Wehrmacht. The rate of fire reached 1200 rounds per minute. The plant produced only 300 copies of the modification, which were sent to the Eastern Front.

The best machine gun in the world

Demonstration of the power of the KORD machine gun

In the armed forces, the KORD is called a “sniper machine gun” for its amazing accuracy and mobility, which is unusual for this type of weapon. With a caliber of 12.7 mm, its weight is only 25.5 kilograms (body). Also, “KORD” is highly valued for its ability to fire both from a bipod and from the hands at a speed of up to 750 rounds per minute.
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In the history of mankind there are many examples of weapons that have become not only iconic, but have also been used by people for centuries. Exactly to such brilliant inventions This also applies to the Gatling gun.

History of appearance

The Gatling gun is a figment of the imagination and hands of a man who did not have a military education, but was a certified doctor. Despite the fact that instead of saving lives, its creator intended to effectively take them, it was thanks to this weapon that he left a mark on human history. Richard Jonathan Gatling (1818-1903) c youth felt a passion for invention. Having become a certified doctor, he did not devote himself to the health of patients for long, but began to develop effective weapons. In 1862, he received his first patent for the Revolving Battery Gun. At that time, the fastest-firing weapons were revolvers and repeating rifles. Their disadvantage was the long reloading time, which had to be done after several shots. Gatling decided to create a new system that would be convenient, reliable and would not require long downtime to change cartridges.

Operating principle

The first Gatling gun created a real sensation. Many could not even imagine that it was possible to solve the problem of rate of fire and reloading with such grace. The operating principle of the Gatling gun is so simple that it is surprising that the most famous gunsmiths in the world had not thought of it before. For his gun, the doctor chose a rotating cylinder as a means of feeding the next cartridge into the barrel. He brought him to the firing mechanism, which accelerated the firing of shots. The 1862 Gatling gun had 6 barrels. They were attached to a special rotor unit. 6 shutters were placed in its grooves. The Gatling gun, the design of which was elementary to the point of banality, allowed us to take a different look at the possibilities of rate of fire. When the rotor block rotated, each barrel, which had its own bolt, went through 6 stages in a circle:

• opening the shutter;
• removing the sleeve;
• sending a new cartridge;
• closing the shutter;
• Preparation;
• shot.

The Gatling machine gun, the drawings of which are available in our review, is simply amazing in its exceptional simplicity and effectiveness. That is why, even a century and a half after its invention, the military did not lose their interest in it. The Gatling machine gun can now be found in service with many armies around the world. They are installed on armored vehicles, vehicles, aircraft, ships and used manually.

Gatling's innovation

By the 60s of the 19th century, various multi-barreled weapon systems already existed, but they were ineffective in combat because they required long reloading times. Also, Gatling was not an innovator in the arrangement of barrels according to the revolver design. The merit of this inventor is that he was able to design a simple and original mechanism for feeding new cartridges and ejecting spent cartridges.

First demonstration and slow progress

The first Gatling gun was demonstrated in 1862 in Indianapolis. At first it was not much better than the weapons of other inventors. The Gatling gun was able to demonstrate its real advantage only after it used bimetallic cartridges with a pointed bullet and a primer inserted during manufacture. Despite the fact that such ammunition was invented several years before the advent of the Gatling gun, they were used extremely rarely. Only in 1866 did the inventor, Colonel E. Boxer, add a centrally located primer to such a cartridge. Such ammunition received Gatling approval only five years later, when tubes made of copper wire attached to the base proved their worth in rapid-fire shooting.

Ammo

The Gatling gun, like other weapons of the era, used cylindrical cartridges to fire. They were rolls of wax paper into which gunpowder and a bullet were stuffed. The design of the Gatling machine gun for continuous firing provided for the presence of special steel tubes, the walls of which were particularly strong. The cartridges were inserted into them and sealed. A puncture was made in their base, which had room for the detonator. The entire package of tubes with cartridges was fed into the barrel by rotating the breech of the weapon mechanism. It acted as a disposable chamber (a cavity in a gun), removed after firing. After shooting the ammunition, the cycle was repeated.

The advantage of paper cartridges was that they burned almost completely with the charge they contained, so there was no need to remove them from the chamber. This is why Gatling persisted for so long in using new types of ammunition. Copper and brass cartridge cases had to be removed after firing. To facilitate this procedure, they were equipped with a rim located at the base. A special pulling device grabbed the cartridge case for removal from the chamber. There were several varieties of these innovations. Ultimately, the best solution to this problem was to create a bolt device that removed the spent cartridge case and loaded a new cartridge from a special magazine in just one back-and-forth motion. Gatling adapted this device for his rotating machine gun. He almost completely changed the design of the first gun and combined the barrel and chamber.

Trunks

Gatling mounted a group of 6 barrels on one axis. Moreover, they are all evenly located around the central “rod”. By rotating them all together, he was able to solve the alignment problem. A simple fixed cam moved the bolts in each chamber back from the firing position and forward again (on the way down, where the empty chamber was filled again). Blowout spent cartridge case was approximately at the ten o'clock position. It occurred when the shooter turned the handle to rotate the barrel assembly.

The machine gun was equipped with a magazine located on top. The supply of ammunition was carried out without a spring by gravity. During one cycle of rotating the block of barrels by 360°, each of them fired a single shot, was released from the cartridge case and loaded again.

Drive and carriage

The six-barreled Gatling gun was equipped with a manual drive. The military man used a special handle to rotate the block of barrels. The rate of fire and firing range of this system was greater than that of artillery pieces that time. Since the size of the Gatling gun at that time was very large, it was mounted on carriages and was often equated to a cannon.

First order

Your first official order for production multi-barreled machine gun Gatling received from McQuinney, Rindge & Company in Illinois. A batch of guns with a conical bore was ordered by General B. F. Butler. The caliber of the gun was 0.58 inches. For 12 weapons, Gatlig received a decent amount of 12 thousand US dollars. General Butler used the resulting guns during the siege of Petersburg (Virginia) in 1864. Since Gatling demanded a high price for his machine guns at that time, demand for them was quite low. Only small quantities were ordered from the creator of rapid-fire guns, which did not meet his hopes for industrial production on a large scale.

Improvement

Over the course of several years, the inventor continued to improve his creation. The Gatling gun, whose design remained largely the same, achieved a stable rate of fire. It fired 300 rounds per minute. Moreover, in many tests it was even higher. In 1866, the Gatling gun was introduced to the market in two modifications:

1. Six-barreled heavy weapon, the caliber of which was 1 inch. Such guns were mounted on massive carriages with large wheels. From a distance they looked like real cannons.
2. Ten-barreled light gun with a caliber of 0.45 inches.

At this time, the Gatling gun received official approval from representatives of the US Army.

Further promotion

In the late 60s of the 19th century, Gatling sold several large quantities of guns not only to his military, but also to the armies of Great Britain, Russia, Turkey, Japan, and Spain. Gatling guns were constantly being improved. The inventor constantly improved their reliability and rate of fire. In 1876, a mechanical 5-barrel 0.45-inch model fired 700 rounds per minute. The rate of fire of the Gatling machine gun when firing in short bursts reached 1000 rounds per minute. Despite this rhythm of work, the gun barrels did not overheat at all, since each of them fired no more than 200 shots. At the same time, they were also cooled with the help of the air flow created during rotation. The Gatling machine gun in traditional versions has 4-10 barrels with a caliber of 12-40 mm. Firing range - up to 1 km.

IN late XIX- At the beginning of the 20th century, electric drives began to be installed on Gatling guns. This modernization brought the machine gun’s rate of fire to a record 3,000 rounds per minute. There was one significant drawback in such a system: the electric drive made the weapon even more cumbersome. Subsequently, the armies of the world began to give preference to single-barreled machine guns, which were more compact and maneuverable. Gatling's brainchild began to be gradually forgotten.

Modern life

After years of undeserved oblivion, the Gatling gun has become popular again. It was especially relevant during the Second World War. It was installed on warships, vehicles, airplanes. After the war, a large number of different modifications of this machine gun were developed. Moreover, they were all of different calibers and sizes, but the design of the Gatling machine gun remained the same. Various drives are installed on such weapons: hydraulic, electric, gas, pneumatic. The machine gun is loaded using drum magazines or cartridge belts. Modern technologies and materials made it possible to create a very convenient and highly effective Gatling light machine gun, which is often used in special military operations by special forces units.

Gatling's invention lives on beyond the military. You can meet him in the most unexpected places. So, Space Engineers - the Gatling gun is one of the weapons often used in computer game about space adventures.

Since the drawings of this weapon is freely available, and you can find anything you want in stores, many craftsmen, seduced by the simplicity of the tool’s design, decide to make it themselves. And this applies not only to models made of paper or wood, but also to fully combat-ready metal specimens. The Gatling gun was made by hand not only from iron, but even from copper. Moreover, all these attempts were quite successful. So, one craftsman created a homemade six-barreled machine gun Gatling, which was quite functional. But this does not mean that it is worth experimenting with such a serious weapon. Besides, it's illegal. It is better to stick to simple wooden or paper layouts.