Repeating firearm
Unlike single-shot firearms, which can only hold and fire a single round of ammunition, a repeating firearm can store multiple cartridges inside a magazine (as in pistols, rifles, or shotguns), a cylinder (as in revolvers), or a belt (as in machine guns), and uses a moving action to manipulate each cartridge into and out of the battery position (within the chamber and in alignment with the bore).
Revolvers became very popular sidearms since its introduction by the Colt's Patent Firearms Manufacturing Company in the mid-1830s, and repeating rifles saw use in the early 1860s during the American Civil War.
Repeating pistols were first invented during the 1880s, and became widely adopted in the early 20th century, with important design contributions from inventors such as John Browning and Georg Luger.
When the hammer is cocked (either directly by hand, or indirectly via trigger-pull), internal linkage will rotate the cylinder and index each chamber into alignment with the barrel bore.
Although intended primarily for military combat, the launcher is also suitable as a riot gun for mob control and other law enforcement operations using tear gas or non-/less-lethal munitions.
[65] In 1932, the Soviet ShKAS machine gun, a 7.62 mm calibre aircraft ordnance, used a twelve-round capacity, revolver-style feeding mechanism with a single barrel and single chamber, to achieve firing rates of well over 1800 rounds per minute, and as high as 3,000 rounds per minute in special test versions in 1939, all operating from internal gas-operated reloading.
[66] Around 1935, Silin, Berezin and Morozenko worked on a 6000 rpm 7.62 mm aircraft machine gun using revolver design, called SIBEMAS (СИБЕМАС), but the project was abandoned.
Once closed, an over-center toggle action helps locking the bolt in place and prevents the breech from opening accidentally when the weapon is fired.
This type of rifle is still popular with some local law enforcement branches as it is easier to train police officers who are already familiar with a pump-action shotgun.
An extractor on the bolt will hook onto the rim and pull out any cartridge (either fired or unused) remaining in the chamber, allowing it to be ejected from the gun.
Straight-pull designs do not require the bolt handle to be rotated, allowing the user to cycle the action linearly, reducing the movements needed from originally four to only two, therefore significantly increasing the rate of fire.
Examples of such firearms include the Schmidt–Rubin, Mannlicher M1886/M1888/M1890/M1895, M1895 Lee Navy, Ross rifle, Anschütz 1827 Fortner, Blaser R93/R8 and VKS.
Lever-delayed blowback, as seen in for example the French FAMAS assault rifle, can also handle more powerful cartridges but is more complicated and expensive to manufacture.
The principle has been used in a few other weapons, including Schwarzlose Model 1908, Hino Komuro M1908, HIW VSK, Mk 20 Mod 0 grenade launcher, Pancor Jackhammer and Howa Type 96.
The motion of this piston in turn unlocks and operates the bolt, which performs extraction of the spent cartridge and via spring action readies the next round.
Due to their capability to tolerate extremely rapid-firing (much higher than single-barreled automatic weapons of the same caliber), rotary guns are frequently used to deliver direct saturation fire for suppression and area denial.
One of the main reasons for the resurgence of these electrically/hydraulically powered multiple-barrel guns is the system's inherent tolerance for continuous high rates of fire.
After the cartridge was fired the continuing action of the cam drew back the lock bringing with it the spent casing which then dropped to the ground.
Twelve of the guns were purchased personally by Union Army commanders and used in the trenches during the Siege of Petersburg (June 1864 – April 1865).
[80] Post-Civil War, two Gatling guns were brought by a Pennsylvania National Guard unit from Philadelphia to use against strikers in the Pittsburgh Railway riots.
During the American Indian Wars, Gatling guns saw frequent service, though famously not used at the Battle of the Little Bighorn when Gen. George Armstrong Custer chose not to bring any with his main force.
In 1885, Lieutenant Arthur L. Howard of the Connecticut National Guard took a personally owned Gatling gun to Saskatchewan, Canada for use with the Canadian military against Métis rebels during Louis Riel's North-West Rebellion.
[83] Despite this, the Gatling's weight and cumbersome artillery carriage hindered its ability to keep up with infantry forces over difficult ground, particularly in Cuba and the Philippines, where outside the major cities there were heavily foliaged forests and steep mountain paths, and the roads were often little more than jungle footpaths.
Elsewhere, a Gatling gun was purchased in April 1867 for the Argentine Army by minister Domingo F. Sarmiento under instructions from president Bartolomé Mitre.
The Gatling gun was used most successfully to expand European colonial empires in Africa to defeat mounting massed attacks by indigenous warriors (e.g. the Zulu, Bedouin, and Mahdists).
During World War I, Imperial Germany worked on the Fokker-Leimberger, an externally powered 12-barrel Gatling gun nicknamed "nutcracker", that could fire more than 7,200 rounds per minute,[88] though many accused it of exaggeration.
[89][90] Failures during the war were attributed to the poor quality of German wartime ammunition,[90] although the type of breech employed had ruptured-case problems in a British 1950s experimental weapon.
[91] After World War II, the U.S. Army Air Force determined that an improved automatic cannon with an extremely high rate of fire was required against fast-moving enemy jet aircraft.
In June 1946, the General Electric Company was awarded a U.S. military defense contract to develop a high-ROF aircraft gun, which GE termed "Project Vulcan".
In 1946, a Model 1903 Gatling gun borrowed from a museum was set up with an electric motor and test-fired, briefly managing a rate of 5,000 rounds per minute.
