Here's what i found on a weapons info page: "Even in real life the idea caught on surprisingly well. Apparently some of America`s Special Forces guys saw Predator and realized that a hand-held Minigun would be a great asset for clearing out landing zones real fast. Having ample acces to the needed equipment, they started experimenting. And ran into some problems.
The first was that the Minigun weighed in at thirty pounds, which was heavy, but carryable. A backpack with a thousand rounds of ammunition and a linkless belt to the Minigun weighed in at another thirtyfive pounds. Backpacks with two thousand rounds weighed in at sixtyfive pounds, and were totally unrealistic in size. Just the gun and the ammo weighed in at sixtyfive pounds.
The second was that in the movie, the power for the Minigun had been supplied by a pair of truck batteries through a cable that simply ran over the ground, and up into the Minigun. Since those batteries weighed some 30 pounds each, it was obvious that only one could be carried by one person (in addition to all the other equipment the soldier was to carry). Thus, the weapon could never be fired at its full rate of fire.
The third problem was that even at "only" a 1000 rpm rate of fire the gun produces about 11 kg of recoil *continuesly*! And this amount of force increases geometrically in proportion to the rate of fire. Firing a large burst would result in the gunner being spun around by his own weapon, and spraying everything around him indiscriminately with bullets. Including his own comrades.....

After some experimenting it was thus realized that the gun would simply be too heavy and cumbersome to be ever used in real life combat, and the concept was abandoned. No army in the world has a hand-held Minigun in its arsenal. "

I'm not sure whether this is true or not, but it certanly makes sense....

Do you want to die?

What was the point of this thread?

Whats wrong with just using a SAW instead?


Theres also something else you forgot though. With the rate of fire of a minigun, you'd probably expect something in the way of 2800lbs (i forget how recoil is measured, i think its lbs) in the way of recoil. I'd like to see Ah-Nohld fire that.

Also barrel would melt after 2 rounds

No it wouldn't, thats the whole point of having 6 barrels.

oh ok then 12 shots :)

I think some miniguns were used as base defences, when you look at it 30 pounds for the gun and 30 for the battery is not that heavy for a support weapon.

Concidering the M2 weighs about 60Kg and is used like that as well.

Also you could dispence with the battery if you use a mechanical system to rotate the barrels (though you may lose some firepower due to the fact you bleed away a small amount of gass (IE propulsion) to rotate the barrels.

Also the mingun would work quite nicely as well in 5.56x45 or better yet in 5.45x39 or even better 4.7mm caseless, maybe even .22 Mag
You'd have
A) lighter ammunition so you can carry more.
B) less recoil (especially with the .22).

A weapon in any of these cartridges would completely dominate CQB (not as in room clearing (well maybe if you built a short barreled entry version in .22 Mag :D) bu mainly as in support fire at short-med range( with the 5.45 and 5.56 you could probably provide decent fire support up to about 1Km (volume makes up for accuracy here).


I wonder if a .30 cal full auto MG was allready much too heavy to be of use who came up with a .30cal minugun in the 1st place. It's just way too heavy for that type of weapon.

The_Fur: Rounds don't have enough power to cycle minigun barrels. Those barrels are built for sustained fire and are extremely durable and consequently very heavy. The entire setup of the minigun is built around the motor system. 6 seperate barrels, 6 seperate chambers, all precisely timed to line up with the feed system that forcefully injects each round into a waiting breach.

Miniguns are only useful in themselves when engaging fast moving targets. The reason many aircraft cannons are rotary barelled.

Otherwise they are simply a waste of bullets.

IC, still maybe in the future, after all they are concidering the OICW as well :)
With technological advances, smaller batteries more efficient motors and polymer components a portable minigun system will be possible.

Tell ya what give me a minigun in 22long rifle and let me go on the inf field :D

Seriously though I seem to remember an magazine story on a rotary barrel assault rifle chambered in 308 (I believe) has a rotary mag on top and can waste ammo at incredible speeds. It was supposedly fairly fast and reliable, but the mag only holds like 50 rounds or so and a single burst can blow them all off dang near instantly if you are not careful. (A mockup of the rifle was used in the movie deep rising)

On Miniguns themselves the reason they are refered to as GE guns is because they were origninally all spun buy a General Electric Motor (other brands are used as well now) running off of the batteries. BTW six (or eight) barrels moving at a high rpm you can fire danged near forever without ever melting a barrel (assuming the guns in functioning properly) (air moving over the spinning barrels cools them, and since you are using six or eight barrels anyway they rarely get above warm even in desert temps.) (as far as I know depending on caliber and what country made them miniguns come in four, six, or eight barreled versions. But since the theory hold sound for danged near any number there are very few limitations beyond power, torque of turning the barrels etc.)

{LOD}WolfBear{:D} -my daddy was a pistol and I am a son of a gun-

I'm checking around, but I do believe that the M134 7.62mm "minigun" is available in electric, pnematic, hydraulic, and recoil-operated models. In the last mode, the barrel assembly spins in one direction while firing, and when the trigger is released, a spring brakes the barrels' rotation. When the trigger is pulled again, the barrels begin rotating in the opposite direction, then fire once they come up to speed.

I may be mistaking this for the M61 20mm Gatling, but then I'm trying to figure out where a light helicopter like the OH-58 Kiowa or an Army firebase in the Vietnamese jungle is running the cables to provide 28 V, 130 A of power. The chopper might have a hydraulic or pneumatic line available, and the firebase may have a generator, but I don't think the army would like the idea of a weapon requiring an external power source. I'll keep looking for more info though.

BTW, the 5.56mm Gatling is apparently the XM214. There is also a 50-caliber version called the "GAU-19" which is Air Force terminology.

http://www.lostcarpark.com/sproutlor...icle=16&page=1

I think the quote in a post above came from:
http://www.kitsune.addr.com/Firearms...14_Minigun.htm

So the 5.56mm mingun is call the XM214....

Somebody at:
http://www.cuenet.com/archive/morrow.../msg00094.html
claims the XM214 was tried as a man-portable MG, like the M2HB 50-cal can be drug into position by motivated people. It was packed in parts and assembled at the ambush point.

http://www-acala1.ria.army.mil/lc/cs/csa/aawpns.htm
"(1970-1971). The
XM214 was a Research and Development project for a six-barrel 5.56mm
(.223 Cal.) Gatling type "mini-minigun". The XM214 was
similar to the M134 "minigun". It was electrically driven
and could be installed on a pintle or in a turret mount. The XM214 had a rate of fire of 2000-3000 spm."

http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ac/equip/m134.htm