Gatling Gun

The Gatling Gun is a rapid fire forerunner of modern weapons, it appears in both Call of Juarez and its prequel.

Mechanics
The Gatling gun is one of the best known early rapid-fire weapons and a forerunner of the modern machine gun. It is well known for its use by the Union during the War Between the States in the 1860s, which was the first time it was employed in combat. Later it was also famously used in the assault on San Juan Hill during the Spanish-American war.

The Gatling gun was designed by the American inventor Dr. Richard J. Gatling in 1861 and patented in 1862. Although the first Gatling gun was capable of firing continuously, it required a person to crank it; therefore it was not a true automatic weapon. The Maxim Gun invented in 1884, was the first fully automatic weapon, making use of the fired projectile's recoil force to reload the weapon. Nonetheless, the Gatling gun represented a huge leap in firearm technology. Prior to the Gatling gun, the only rapid-fire firearms available to militaries were mass-firing volley weapons as the French Reffye mitrailleuse in 1870-71 or grapeshot as fired from field cannons, similarly to a very large shotgun. The latter were widely used during and since the Napoleonic Wars. Although the rate of fire was increased by firing multiple projectiles simultaneously, these weapons still needed to be reloaded after each discharge, which for multi-barrel systems like the mitrailleuse was cumbersome and time-consuming. This negated their high rate of fire per discharge thus making them impractical for use on the battlefield. In comparison, the Gatling gun offered a rapid and continuous rate of fire without having to manually reload by opening the breech.

The Gatling gun's operation centered on a cyclic multi-barrel design which facilitated cooling and synchronized the firing/reloading sequence. Each barrel fired a single shot when it reached a certain point in the cycle, after which it ejected the spent cartridge, loaded a new round, and in the process, cooled down somewhat. This configuration allowed higher rates of fire to be achieved without the barrel overheating.

Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood
The Gatling gun is more common in Bound in Blood than it is in Call of Juarez. This time around, there are two variants. One has a drum magazine and the other has a stick magazine (which Ray can unhinge and carry around). It is first seen used by Confederate Forces during the Civil War. Ray and Thomas man two Gatling guns to ward off a wave of Union soldiers. While heading to their farm afterwads, a Union soldier is seen firing a Gatling gun, which force Ray and Thomas into a nearby cornfield. While in Raytown to rescue their gun runner, the McCalls encounter the Pinkertons who also use a Gatling gun. Later while at an abandoned gold mine, Barnsby's renegades are seen armed with Gatling guns, which they also use during the attack on Running River's village, and during the battle in the Aztec Temple. When Ray and William attempt to leave the Alcazar, the Juarez Gang will open fire in them with a Gatling gun.

Users

 * Confederate States Army


 * United States Army


 * Pinkertons


 * Barnsby's Renegades
 * Juarez Gang

Call of Juarez
The Gatling gun appears only three times in the entire game, and twice in the Extra Missions. The first time, Ray uses one to fight off The Plague to help protect the soldiers trapped on a train. In Episode X, a bandit is seen firing a Gatling gun. In Episode XIV, Ray uses a gatling gun againt Juarez and his gang. In the Extra Mission "Ghost Town", the Bloody Jack gang uses a Gatling gun against the deputy. In "Showdown at Round Rock" Vasquez' gang also use a Gatling gun. The gatling gun ingame uses a drum magazine. A flaw in the model is it doesn't have a crank, which in actuality would render the gun useless.

Users

 * United States Army


 * The Plague


 * Juarez Gang


 * Bloody Jack Gang


 * Vasquez Gang