22 Cal Gatling Gun Blueprints
Nov 24, 2008 My friend's.22 caliber Gatling Gun replica. It's a gorgeous piece of machinery, all brass, wood and steel - and shoots really well. He's shredding grapefruit on top of a target stand.
I'm in the process of building the model engineering gatling (same one that Butch posted pictures of.)I've been picking away at it for about 3 years, and have a ways to go, but can see the finish line.I'm a software engineer by trade, so I had to learn to machine and aquire tooling along the way as time and finances permitted.There are two sets of prints that I'm aware of.Model engineering is a scale replica of an 1874 in.22 short, and is the nicer/more detailed of the two. Blue prints leave something to be desired, but the guy who sells them can be reached by phone., and has been very helpful.RG&G Industried in Connifer Co. This guy worked up his own design, and appears to have made manufactuability a primary concern. Haven't started on this one yet, but I have looked at the blueprints. They are quite a bit better than the ME blueprints, in that they list tollerences and such, and the design looks to be considerably less time consuming and expensive to build. Just as an example, the body of the RGG gatling is made from readily available brass tubing while the ME gatlings body is turned from 2 1/2' brass bar stock.IMHO if you want one to shoot, build the RG&G gatling, if you want a REALLY nice model that will shoot, but is mostly a display piece, build the ME. I intend to build both.
If I get the time.Regardless of which one you build, I'd suggest using.22 rifle barrels instead of steel tubing with a rifled sleve inserted. I went to gun shows, called parts people from the Gun List, and talked to my local gun smiths looking for used barrels. I ended up with 17 of them that I paid anywhere from $2 to $10 for.If you do go the used barrel route, you'll most likely have to anneal the chamber end as semi autos had the breech face hardened to prevent the bolt from peening it. You could also just cut off a 1/2 or so rom the chamber end and ream a new chamber.
IIRC there are two options for the ME plans. You can get the plans for just the gun with a tripod, or you can get both gun and carriage. I think the full plans were around $60, but it's been several years.I would say that the ME gatling takes at least twice as long to complete as the RG&G. There's a LOT more detail, and the major parts are more difficult machining. One example is that the ME barrels are tapered, while the RG&G are straight.
Since you can't use a follow rest to cut a taper, it forces you to take light cuts. If I had to guess, I'd say that it took about as long to complete one ME barrel as it would take to finish all 10 RG&G.Another example is the yoke. On RG&G, you use a split piece of brass pipe with a small flat machined on the bottom, for ME, it is machined out of a piece of 2x3x5 brass stock with some moderately difficult setup for contour cuts. I must have spent 20 hours on the yoke.
✖You can pump out up to 600 rounds a minute with an 1800's style Gatling gun from RG-G, Inc. The half-size design uses 50-round clips of.22-caliber ammunition fired by a battery of 10 rotating barrels.' I just like taking mine out and firing it,' explains Paul Moore, designer and builder of the gun. 'Sometimes people thinking of buying one will stop by, and we'll set it up and fire off a clip or two.' Moore, an engineer and machinist by trade, fell in love with Gatling guns while watching cowboy movies as a kid. Years later, he built his first one from scratch, relying on pictures of different models introduced in the late 1800's.'
I realized a set of blueprints were needed, so I disassembled the one I had built and drew them up,' he recalls.For many years he built and sold fully assembled and partially completed versions of the guns in addition to parts and plans. Today he only sells the parts and plans.' My guns use the original gravity-fed, in-feed design, ' says Moore. 'The in-feed jams up easily, and then it has to be reset. It's just the way the original design works.' Selling the kits and plans ensures that buyers will understand and be able to fix the guns themselves.
22 Gatling Guns For Sale
Kits consist of all hardware needed (screws, nuts, bolts, bushings, gears, springs and bearings) as well as rifled barrel liners and ground firing pins. Brass and steel parts that need to be machined are also included.
22 Cal Gatling Gun Blueprints
The only raw materials missing are some parts for the carriage and yoke mount.The smaller caliber dramatically reduces the amount of steel and brass needed. This cuts the full-size gun's 350 lbs. To only 55 lbs. For the half-size version. Finished size is 3 ft.
Long by 2 ft. Tall.These kits aren't for the average person, emphasizes Moore, as they require basic mill and lathe work to complete.
'I recommend these guns only be attempted by someone with experience, like a retired machinist,' he says. 'I can only turn out about three a year. Working steadily on one, it will take about 600 hours to complete. Some customers have also successfully modified our plans to produce full-size versions'Even though the difficulty in completing a gun limits the market, Moore says he has sold more than 500 kits and some 8,000 sets of blue prints over the past 18 years. The kit sells for $719, and the fully finished gun, when formerly.
Plans and a CD of 3-D images of each part and assembly are also available.Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, RG-G, Inc., P.O. Box 935, Trinidad, Colo. 81082 (ph/fax 719 404-3782; paulmoore@rmi.net; www.gatlingguns.net). Build Your Own Gatling Gun AG WORLD 33-6-22 You can pump out up to 600 rounds a minute with an 1800's style Gatling gun from RG-G, Inc. The half-size design uses 50-round clips of.22-caliber ammunition fired by a battery of 10 rotating barrels.'
I just like taking mine out and firing it,' explains Paul Moore, designer and builder of the gun. 'Sometimes people thinking of buying one will stop by, and we'll set it up and fire off a clip or two.' Moore, an engineer and machinist by trade, fell in love with Gatling guns while watching cowboy movies as a kid. Years later, he built his first one from scratch, relying on pictures of different models introduced in the late 1800's. 'I realized a set of blueprints were needed, so I disassembled the one I had built and drew them up,' he recalls.For many years he built and sold fully assembled and partially completed versions of the guns in addition to parts and plans.
.22 Cal Machine Gun Plans
Today he only sells the parts and plans. 'My guns use the original gravity-fed, in-feed design, ' says Moore. 'The in-feed jams up easily, and then it has to be reset. It's just the way the original design works.' Selling the kits and plans ensures that buyers will understand and be able to fix the guns themselves. Kits consist of all hardware needed (screws, nuts, bolts, bushings, gears, springs and bearings) as well as rifled barrel liners and ground firing pins. Brass and steel parts that need to be machined are also included.
The only raw materials missing are some parts for the carriage and yoke mount. The smaller caliber dramatically reduces the amount of steel and brass needed. This cuts the full-size gun's 350 lbs. To only 55 lbs. For the half-size version. Finished size is 3 ft.
Long by 2 ft. Tall.These kits aren't for the average person, emphasizes Moore, as they require basic mill and lathe work to complete.
'I recommend these guns only be attempted by someone with experience, like a retired machinist,' he says. 'I can only turn out about three a year. Working steadily on one, it will take about 600 hours to complete.
Some customers have also successfully modified our plans to produce full-size versions'Even though the difficulty in completing a gun limits the market, Moore says he has sold more than 500 kits and some 8,000 sets of blue prints over the past 18 years. The kit sells for $719, and the fully finished gun, when formerly. Plans and a CD of 3-D images of each part and assembly are also available.Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, RG-G, Inc., P.O. Box 935, Trinidad, Colo. 81082 (ph/fax 719 404-3782; paulmoore@rmi.net; www.gatlingguns.net).