From: Bruce S. R. Lee <bsrlee@w...>
Date: Wed, 2 Jul 1997 07:34:10 -0400
Subject: What is a 'Rotary Action' S.A.W.?
I have been giving a little thought to the Oceanic troops that are just being put out, and the suggestion that the Saw carried by the squad gunner is a d8 fire power conventional Saw. With the small fire teams proposed (3 rifle men @ 2 fp=d6, 1 saw gunner) you are going to have to get pretty close when compared to other published toe's which seem to generally feature a fp d12 for the squad plus a d10 or so Saw (perhaps I am being spoilt by the NSL & FSE troops we usually play with). Looking at the Oceanic Saw gunner I thought this might be in fact a gas powered 'rotary action' gun, and the rear feed position suggests to me either a Mauser or Dardick type of rotary action (see below). There are about 4 major types of automatic weapon action that use a 'rotary' action that I am aware of: 1) Gatling - several barrels each with its own bolt and feed system. Gererally externally powered by hand or electric power - Dr. Gatling patented the electric belt fed gun but never produced it - and there was at least one patent for a rather peculiar gas operated conversion that probably never saw light of day. In use today as the various, principally US, 'Mini-guns' for 5.56 to 30 mm rounds. 2) Hotchkiss - several barrells with an interupted gear system, a fixed extractor, rammer and firing stations. The barrells rotated, stopped and fired, rotating 1 station where the empty was removed from one barrel, another barrell was loaded and a shot fired. Usually chambered for large calibre shells up to 40mm. Gatling always considered it an inferior attempt to copy his gun. 3) Mauser - developed during WW2, similar to the Hotchkiss but used a revolver cylinder of 5 chambers and a single barrell instead of multiple barrells thus saving considerable weight. The gun was powered by a gas takeoff and piston like a convetional MG which caused a cam plate to reciprocate, powering the rammer and extractor and rotating the cylinder Used in the German MG151 and MG151/20, also post war in the British 30mm Aden cannon - still in service in the Harrier, and I think the current 23mm cannon in the Tornado also used the same system. 4) Dardick - used triangular rounds and a three finned rotor ( a bit like a negative wankel rotary engine) with a linkless feed. This design eliminated almost all reciprocating parts. Not a commercial success in small arms, Dardick is apparently still doing work for the US Navy using the triangular rounds for the next generation of anti missile autocannons. The original war externally powered by a double action revolver type trigger, it could also be electrically driven but there is no reason it could not be powered by a gas piston off the barrell. Any constructive comments, especially for Jon(GZG) would be appreciated.