A friend who has the wherewithall and desire wants to build a Gatling Gun, a full-sized working model in .45/70 caliber. He is a retired district judge and has the proper licenses to make and deal in full-automatic weapons. Anyway, Judge Pearl asked me if I knew anywhere he may get a set of working plans to manufacture such a weapon. I did an internet search and came up with several kits to build a .22 caliber Gatling Gun, but nothing in the .45/70 class. Can anyone out there help, or send me in the right direction? Thanks ... Tom Purdom

FWIW you don't need a Class 3 license to own a Gatling. It is classified just as any other rifle. Some of the mmaazines that used springs did not have a definite ruling from the ATF, but now that the Assault Rifle Ban has expired, it is a moot point any way. Any gravity-fed stick mags are legal under all of the rules

http://www.gatlingguns.net/index.htm RG-G site

The "forum" page is a BBS for Gatlings. THey often talk about full scale plans. I have a set of prints for the RG-G .22 but have not started it yet. That model takes about 450-600 hours to complete, depending on experience

Mark's right. A Gatling gun is manually operated and as such is just like a Mauser or a Rem 7600. Building a crank mechanism to fire a semi-auto is illegal but the Gatling is o.k. I've been to the above-mentioned site and they state clearly that the plans can be upscaled to whatever caliber you want. I've fancied 30/40 Krag, myself, complete with putee's, a campaign hat and a carriage built with light motorcycle wheels of the sort that would be pulled by a single horse. Great fun, I imagine.

AC,
If the guys you know are in California, they're violating the law. Check your BATF compendium of state firearms laws on that one. If you attached an electric motor to a Gatling, (incidently recreating the Vulcan which was itself a recreation of an idea from the turn of the 20th Century) you would have a fully automatic, Class III firearm that would be subject to all the strictures of both federal and the various state laws. Again, I refer you to State Laws and Published Ordinances--Firarms ATF P 5300.5, 25th Ed.

'nuff said.

7x57mm

I have a set of blueprints that I bought from Paul Moore (RG-G Inc.) in 1992. These were some of his first drawings. I started to build from them and things did not seem right.
When I started to ask questions on different parts I would get an answer, (Oh I have changed that). He has since updated a lot of his prints and instructions.With the
problems with the prints and the fact that I did not like the rotary magazine I went looking for a different set of blueprints. In 1998 I bought a set of blueprints from Model Engineering Drawings. These are to be exactly 1/3 scaled down drawings of a Colt 1874 Gatling Gun with a 30 round stick magazine.
A beautiful gun when finished.
Due to time and health I have not built from these prints but they look very good. I will post what contact information I have if anyone is interested.

James