RF Generation Message Board

On multiple occasions, various idiots I know have tried to tell me that the army really equips soldiers with "gatling guns" (or "miniguns" or Vulcan cannons) and that they "only give them to really big guys". This is not true. This has never been true. It only happens in the movies. And while browsing the IMDB I found this cool little piece of trivia which supports my claim.

"The weapon Blain (Jesse Ventura) is using is a minigun. This is a weapon most commonly mounted on the side of a helicopter (or an aircraft carrier) and many, many modifications had to be made to make it useable in the film. It was powered via an electrical cable hidden down the front of Blain's trousers. Despite firing blanks, the actor had to wear a bulletproof vest to protect him from the violently ejecting cartridges. Had he been using live ammunition, the recoil would have been approximately 110 kg sideways force - about the same as lying on your back and trying to push an American football player into the air. Ammo for the 20-second firing sequence would have been 2,000 rounds x 12.5 grams per bullet = 25kg, all of which had to be carried in Ventura's backpack."

So the next time anyone tries to tell you that this is a practical or even useable hand-held weapon, that person should immediately lose all credibility.

-The movie is "Predator".

the army does use thoughs guns like the article said but only mounted on vehicles and helocopters any moron who said they only give them to big people should have been killed on the spot
i think that they arent even used anymore at all i think mostly they use m1's

Large volume fire is very valuable to the military, especially the Army.  In Vietnam, the Jolly Green Giants (a nickname, I forget the mil-spec denomination) where equiped with 6 General Electric Miniguns for suppression of the jungle.  The purpose of the Helicopter was pilot rescue.

Such weapons are still in use today, although they are always mounted on armor or equipment, never carried by hand.

One of the more famous vulcan cannons |D
(http://www.510fs.org/history/ColdWar/Gallery-01/A10-952OnRamp.jpg)

a better picture of it
(http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/photos/a10_cannon_front.gif)

Psshhht, what do you guys know.  When I was in 'Nam I always had my trust minigun with me.  How else would I have defeated the entire Viet Cong army by myself.  I also had a Moonraker laser.














|D

If i didnt know someone from Nam i would be able to laugh at that post but that war was just to fucked up. The guy i knew was sent to gaurd a town with like 10 other guys and he told the people that he was there to protect them but for them not to approach him because he woulnt know if they were frind or enemy and he basically sat behind his bunkered machine gun(i think) he was the only person from his whole platon to return and he died about 1 month ago.

Well i will do it for you then |D [smiley=laugh.gif]. die charlie :shooting:

Thanks |D LOL i guess you gotta luagh [smiley=laugh.gif]

The post I left earlier may have been a little narrow. It still has to be kept in consideration that, at some point, some member of the armed services was given a form of minigun to carry as a sidearm for experimental purposes. I'm not aware of any of those instances, but it doesn't seem totally impossible. Aside from that, I pretty much stick to my guns (no pun intended) and agree with IZRET that "any moron who said they only give them to big people should have been killed on the spot."

By the way, I have seen the A-10 Wharthog's minigun (The one in the pictures you guys posted) firing live ammo during a demonstration at Fort Knox. It's one of the coolest things you could possibly imagine. It fires so fast it pretty much just sounds like a loud fart. As a cool little note, that gun fires 6,000 25mm rounds per minute. This means, from the proper height, it can cover an area the size of a football field at the rate of 1 bullet/square inch in just over 7 minutes. A 25mm bullet is about the width of an American quarter. I have heard that the AC-130 gunship is equiped with a weapon that can achieve similar results in under a minute, but I am not sure this is absolute fact.

Any way you look at it, no one will be carrying these guns outside of Hollywood.

they may only be in the movies, but damn it would kick ass to have one.