WW1 'Gast' German Twin Barrel GPMG

[Jabroni]

Found this WW1 Ripper Gun, The 'Gast'. Roumoured to have an extremely high rate of fire.
http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/7459/gastoe7.jpg

http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/7459/gastoe7.jpg

[Vandervahn]

Thats neither a "GPMG" nor is it one of your fancy "Ripper" guns.... It is, as is clearly said on the pic, an early aircraft gun. Don´t get fooled by the buttstock.

BTW, you could also post this in (your) existing threads.

[Eugene Onegin]

I never seen anything like that before.

[KillerBD]

Nice piece of history you found here.

[Jabroni]

Thats neither a "GPMG" nor is it one of your fancy "Ripper" guns.... It is, as is clearly said on the pic, an early aircraft gun. Don´t get fooled by the buttstock.

BTW, you could also post this in (your) existing threads.

Ok this type of gun doesnt have to be called a ripper gun, Its just a short name for it just like the M134 is called a 'minigun'.

Maybe 'Gast Gun' could be a name for any 2 barrel machine gun like this one, The guns used in soviet fighters like the Mig 21/23 uses a Gast derivative mechanisim, Shame the name hasnt took off like 'gatling' did.

Anyway, what shall we call a 3/4 barrel machine gun(nordenfelt/gardner etc) instead of 'ripper'?, 3/4 Barrel Gast?

[Vandervahn]

Ok this type of gun doesnt have to be called a ripper gun, Its just a short name for it just like the M134 is called a 'minigun'.

The problem starts when you speak about "Ripper Guns" and noone knows what you actually mean - that is, noone who didnt read your posts on one of the dozens of message boards you posted your ideas ;)


...
Maybe 'Gast Gun' could be a name for any 2 barrel machine gun like this one,

No we can´t. The Gast machine gun is defined by its operating principle developed by Karl Gast. So a "generic" 2-barrel gun that does NOT work on the Gast principle simply ain´t a "Gast" gun.



Anyway, what shall we call a 3/4 barrel machine gun(nordenfelt/gardner etc) instead of 'ripper'?, 3/4 Barrel Gast?
Thou shalt call them 3/4 barrel machine gun.

Think about it, multiple barrel weapons are so rare and - often - obscure that they REALLY don´t need a generic "family" name. Even moreso since there are so many different types of it - from the Gast principle weapons you name to the Nordenfeldt, Gardners or Gatling guns, which aren´t real MGs anyway.

[Jabroni]

People would eventually get used to calling the weapon 'Ripper' or 'Gast' Gun, Would still take some time though, It would have to start from somewhere.

And apart from that, I was thinking the 'Gast' gun should be brought back, Make them as Light MG's/SAW's in C-MAG Drum fed form. Here is a sketch i drew last night.

Apart from it 'Looking Cool' or 'Intimidating', There is still a point of 2 Barrels, While one fires, the other reloads making the ROF Higher.
http://img70.imageshack.us/img70/1994/gastua7.jpg

http://img95.imageshack.us/img95/5470/gast1uj2.jpg

[Sabre]

Mate... ...oh never mind. :cantbeli:

[Chops]

The drawing is just gold. Best thread evah! woot

[Blade_Zero]

Thanks for making me laugh!

[James]

Why stop at two barrels?

[BillySing]

good effort with the drawing.....

though i gotta ask, what advantage does having two barrels offer over a single barreled weapon with a higher rate of fire?

[wildheart]

nice scetch :)

[TwoFistedFlava]

Interesting thread, I've been interested in this gun before in the past, and I've also thought about the applications of such a design for an assault rifle or mg. The Gast is so ingenious for its time because both barrels recoil to cycle the operating mechanism for the other barrel, and with such a system its possible to give the gun an incredibly high rate of fire. Such a system could be a lot better than a single barrel firing as fast because the practical rate of fire would be higher due to having two barrels that will not heat up as fast as one. I think the famous British historian/writer/army master armorer Ian V. Hogg said that the rate of fire for the Gast could be as high as 1600 rpm, but I would have to check his book back at home. The Russian AN-94 is a single-barreled assault rifle that uses the recoil principle in part to help achieve a high rate of fire for double taps, but the gun fires on fully auto at only 600 rpm. It was probably designed in this way because a really high rate of fire on fully auto isn't practical for the average soldier, but nevertheless, a lightweight twin barreled rifle might still have some possibilities.

-Bob Stanford

[Tony Williams]

Interesting thread, I've been interested in this gun before in the past, and I've also thought about the applications of such a design for an assault rifle or mg.
The main problem is simply weight: a barrel has to be heavy to withstand the pressures, so two barrels would put the weight of the weapon up a lot.

For an assault rifle, a higher rate of fire would mean more controllability issues with recoil - and you'd just get through the ammo a lot faster!

For an MG, it's better to have a single-barrel gun and carry a spare barrel (which can be changed quickly in any decent design). This gives you the same heat capacity, but the gun is much lighter because the spare barrel isn't permanently attached to it.

A Gast makes sense only when weight isn't so critical and a very high rate of fire is required: i.e. for aircraft or anti-aircraft guns. Russia used a modified version of the system for 23mm and 30mm cannon today.

Tony Williams: Military gun and ammunition website (http://www.quarry.nildram.co.uk) and discussion forum (http://forums.delphiforums.com/autogun/messages/)

[TwoFistedFlava]

Yeah I agree with you completely Tony, it's really not a practical design for a soldier because of the weight. A two-barreled gun would also probably be too complicated and unreliable for any army to accept. I just think it's an interesting idea because the next major advance in small arms seems so far away. Many different rifle designs have been proposed to replace the M16 for example, but none have been able to offer a significant enough improvement to warrant replacing it. Two-barreled guns probably have little hope of ever becoming a significant military weapon again, but it's interesting to see the different solutions engineers come up with.

By the way Tony, love your website, keep up the good work.