.38 Gatling Test fire

[cet119]

So I have been quietly working on a 38/357 Gatling Gun of my own.  Today it was above average temps so we went to the range with 150 rounds to give it a try.  It is very much based on what bruski has posted on the forum, with a few mods.  Extractors are a flat formed spring, similar to a marlin 336, carrier is one piece 7075T6 AL, Barrels are from the guy in Sacramento.  Cocking ring and recoil lug are \"one piece\" which was machined out of two pieces of DOM machined separately and then placed one withing then other and silvered together. This is all on a manual lathe and manual mill, no CNC, not even a DRO.

 

This was somewhat of a proof of ability test, now I will go back and start cleaning up, finishing out.  I did run into one issue, cartridges jamming up on the feed.  It seems like some of my brass has a little thinner heads (actually I think some are rounded a bit on the edge) than the others and it managed to wedge one rim behind the other.  For the folks who have experience on this, how does your groove depth relate to the head thickness?  Not sure if  I made the groove a little too wide or not wide enough... I milled it out off a piece of 3/4 sq AL, so I figured I would just try making a couple up with slightly different parameters and see what works better.

 

 

 

 

 

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[Cutter]

For what it\'s worth

Here\'s what I did with the .22 cal.

I made mine rims overlap once plus about 20%

The rim at .04 , slot at .09

They will overlap one side or the other, but no room to jam.

Good Luck

[bruski]

CET119,

 Like cutter mentioned on his, looser the better on the big cartridges. I made my groove with just a .002 clearance and without silicone spray or graphite, they jam all the time but the recoil gets them going again. Tried polishing the groove and still jam with the last few rounds.

 How does your extractor workout. I still get a round that lets loose now and then before it has extracted enough to clear the chamber. Thinking about lowering the extractor groove a little and see what happens.

bruski

[cet119]

I opened up the grove for the rims to 0.110 which work out to 2x the rim + 0.014 and feeding seems much better.  Originally it seamed the recoil was making them tighter, now it seems to keep them moving.

 

Extractors worked great out of the 500 or so that I have ran through it, I had none that did not extract.  I have the ejector pin like you showed in your pictures, but generally i think they are coming off before hitting the pin. The extractor is 0.200 wide with a 6/32 screw holding it down.  The end of the screw goes into a slot in the fire pin as a retainer.

 

The biggest issue I had was making them, I broke as may as I made, they are made out of steel freight strap, I think the biggest issue was caused by to much hardening and not enough annealing.  I also had to add a strip under the screw to avoid breaking at the screw hole as it is very thin right there.

[Sparky_NY]

Any updates at all on this gun?

[bruski]

cett119,

 Just wondering if you are still with us. If so, how did your feeding problems work out in the end? Maybe you are following along with the .357 prototype thread, not sure but feeding time is around the corner with us. Maybe if your interested, could give some input on the magazines that you used for your gun.

Thanks,

bruski