Evolution of Machine Guns

By landonsalamone

  • Gatling Gun

    Gatling Gun In 1861, Doctor Richard Gatling patented the Gatling Gun, a six-barreled weapon capable of firing a (then) phenomenal 200 rounds per minute. The Gatling gun was a hand-driven, crank-operated, multi-barrel, machine gun. The first machine gun with reliable loading, the Gatling gun had the ability to fire sustained multiple bursts.

  • The machine gun in 1914

    1914 Machine GunThe 1914 machine gun, usually positioned on a flat tripod, would require a gun crew of four to six operators. In theory they could fire 400-600 small-calibre rounds per minute, a figure that was to more than double by the war's end, with rounds fed via a fabric belt or a metal strip.

  • The vickers gun, the second machine gun created on

    http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:9QMx5VGY36oJ:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vickers_machine_gun+vickers+machine+gun&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us' >Vickers </a>The Maxim, like any prototype, had much room for improvement, and Vickers used high grade steels and aluminum to reduce the weight considerably - by almost 25% in fact. The simple act of turning the toggle action upside down reduced the depth of the receiver by nearly half. Though stronger and lighter than the Maxim, the water-cooled jacket and heavy tripod still made the Vickers a heavy weapon. Air-cooled versions were used in aircraft, and some variants fired .50 calibre and 11mm rounds. The

  • MG-42 gun in World War 2

    MG42The MG-42 is one of the great guns. Designed and produced during W.W.II when the Nazi war machine was at its apex, the MG-42 used the same new manufacturing techniques introduced with the MP-40. Where previous guns had been painstakingly machined from bars and forging, using interlocking parts assembled with screws, pins, or rivets, most of the MG-42 was pressed, folded, induction welded steel. Most of the precision in the gun is in the bolt and barrel extension

  • Machine Gun in World War 1

    Machine Gun in World War 2 By 1939, the bulk of infantry training centred around the machine gun. In the inter-war years, machine guns had become more reliable even though the basics remained the same. Two types of machine guns had developed - heavy and light machine guns. Light machine guns were designed to be mobile and to move when its carrier moved. Heavy machine guns, while mobile, were more likely to be used when dug in for defensive purposes. They also had a greater rate of fire than a light machine gun that tended

  • M249

    M249The M249 light machine gun (LMG), previously designated the M249 Squad Automatic Weapon (SAW), and formally written as Light Machine Gun, 5.56 mm, M249, is the American adaptation of the Belgian FN Minimi, a light machine gun manufactured by the Belgian company FN Herstal (FN). The M249 is manufactured in the United States by the local subsidiary FN Manufacturing LLC in South Carolina and is widely used in the U.S. Armed Forces. The weapon was introduced in 1984 after being judged the most effec