Now it Can be Told!

[Crash_Corrigan]

In 1957 our Family (about 15 of us) gathers for our traditional Thanksgiving weekend in upstate NY at the farm. :-D It was a dairy farm until 1935 that was run by my Grandpa. He was a bootlegger and it was a handy cover for his activities. :drinks: When prohibition ended he moved over to bookmaking and never missed a payday. [smilie=1: Anyway every year we gathered and this post Thanksgiving Friday morning we are all in the kitchen having breakfast when we hear the roar of automatic gunfire coming from about 100 yards away. :Fire: We run out and find 70 something years old Grandpa sitting on his duff in the DuckHouse. :shock: He had apparently had a deer gun on the card table inside the duckhouse and was observing a herd of deer crossing the pasture about 75 yds away. :) He had no deer license. It was his land and his deer he said. :twisted: The only problem was that he had wiped out the whole herd. He took out 8 deer with a full magazine of 30-06 hunting rounds out of a BROWNING AUTOMATIC RIFLE. We had a bunch of cops in the family and they were really steaming. My two aunts and my mom cornered grandpa and found out where he got the BAR. During WW II he worked part time in Brooklyn at the Army Terminal and somehow got a truckload of goodies. Mom and aunties made grandpa show him the goodies. He had a hidden room in the basement loaded with cases of M1's, .45's, Two BAR's, cases of Grenades and enough ammo to start an insurrection. I snitched a case of grenades for bass fishing :mrgreen: and no one ever talked about it again and all the illegal guns dissappeared never to be heard of again. The recoil from the BAR had knocked grandpa to the deck and he was pissed. The remainder of the day was spent by all hands in butchering and dressing out the deer and removing all the evidence of the slaughter. The whole family had venison for the rest of the winter and luckily the game warden never heard about it! The story can be told today since all the adults on the scene have passed on and they cannot prosecute the kids who were there. I had a chance to hold that Browning and since I was only 14 at the time it seemed really big and heavy to me. I saw one recently at a gun show and also seemed not to be something that I would want to carry around for more than 15 minutes. It is heavy but what a firearm!

[Boz330]

I imagine that it probably didn't feel all that heavy when you needed that fire power in a hurry. Talk about something that would keep the other guys head down.
The Brits had some BARs built in semi-auto only for training. When I was working in South Africa one of the gun shops had crates of these NIB in cosmoline. For R550 you got the gun and 11 magazines in a wooden box. I wanted one so bad I could taste it. Because it was a military arm I couldn't get it back into the states. Those puppies bring $3500+ these days if you can find one.

Crash, the old man said that if you tape a couple blocks of TNT to the grenade it works even better. They used to fish in the South Pacific that way. They would just get the natives to take them out in their outrigger canoes and they would fish on the reefs that way. The natives thought it was whole lot easier and quicker than nets.

Bob

[felix]

In my hometown there was a person who made a living filling the stomachs of a few rich folks, and share-croppers alike (mostly). The rich folks supplied the funds necessary to make a living, and supply the needs of the hunt. Anything left over went into the backdoor of Ralston-Purina. He used a blacksmith in town to build him a 12 gage gatling-gun. Mounted on a boat under thick cover, he'd take out the geese and ducks. He was eventually told to stop (or else), and later dismantled the operation and gave the gun to the local historical civil war house (with remaining, well-protected, cannon holes). ... felix

[dakotashooter2]

a 12 gage gatling-gun

Now THAT would be a spring goose hunting gun!

[Scrounger]

I wonder if a Gatling gun would be illegal? It is not an "automatic" weapon....

[Old Ironsights]

I wonder if a Gatling gun would be illegal? It is not an "automatic" weapon....

They are indeed legal... though a 12ga/smoothbore version might have some issues.

I've seen many a pic of perfectly legal gatlings being built and fired. There is a .22cal all brass beauty floting around the 'net somewhere.

[Boz330]

I think that the problem might be the 3 round limit and only 2 in the magazine.

[Old Ironsights]

Yeah, that would do it... at least for Migratory Waterfoul.

Here's where you can buy plans, parts and entire gatling guns.

http://www.gatlingguns.net/

[brshooter]

I have just recieved my 45-70 Gatling Gun four weeks ago. Been ironing out some minor problems, but it works well. It will empty the 40 round Bruce Feed mag in 3 seconds. The supposed gunsmith and "Tool and Die Maker, retired" who originally built it screwed it up so bad it was pitiful. The entire enternals had to be redone. He worked on it for five years and the deal was I supply the castings, barrels, material and prints for two guns and he would build me one. He wants to build them and sell them in the future, what a joke.. His name is Bud Welsh, 80 New Road, East Amherst, NY.. Goes by the name "High Precision" or "Bud Welsh Custom Gunsmithing". Be careful of him, he is one cheap, greedy prick, who is a poor excuse of a gunsmith or machinest.

[Phil]

Is this the Bud Welsh who was involved in ASSRA shooting some years ago?

Cheers,

Phil

[brshooter]

Yes, "Bud" James Welsh.

[kodiak1]

Crash Happy Thanksgiving!! That cracked me up.
Ken.

[Phil]

Hi brshooter,

Yep, I guess the less said the better.

Cheers,

Phil