Guycot: A Rocket Ball Chain Rifle From 1879

[@vampirecount3880]

Imagine your surprise, in 1880, fighting an opponent who fired 80 times in a row without loading.... The cartridge may be weak, but the sheer volume of fire would be frightening

[@atomic_wait]

I can't imagine the report of the gun would be an intimidating boom, though. Seems like it wouldn't have been much noisier than a pellet gun, and not terrifically more powerful per shot.

[@Immopimmo]

Imagine you'll be even more surprised when all the bullets just bounce off your thick woolen coat and sturdy felt hat. 😅

[@buncer]

“Tonight, we’re gonna Rocket!” “Rocket what?” “ROCKET BALLS! He he he…”

[@BlackrockLobbyist]

It hits you in the eye and it doesn’t even do significant damage, yiu just go “ow, fuck” and tear up a but

[@issintf925]

Now imagine a company of them

[@Astraeus..]

A "rocket-ball firing chain-rifle" legitimately sounds like something a 9 year old would come up with if you asked them to make the coolest gun they can possibly think of.

[@SatelliteYL]

Lmao

[@NeoIsrafil]

Ork rifle... 1000%

[@JamesCAlien]

With a HOPPER

[@JonMahn]

Sounds like it could also be a Fallout weapon.

[@johnsutcliffe3965]

Gives a whole new meaning to chain gun!! Lol

[@willfrankunsubscribed]

Ian has finally found the perfect gun for The Chieftain. It even has a track tensioning system!

[@xxxlonewolf49]

Lol

[@johnmc703]

😂

[@Alcochaser]

Ohh my gosh yes.

[@confusedshovel1232]

my god you’re right

[@User_Un_Friendly]

Yes, but is it a Christie system? 🧐🤣

[@bbrown6799]

I LOVE your persona. You’re an absolute gun nut, but not from the demolition ranch style. You’re a scholar of firearms, not a clickbait redneck. Your appreciation of firearms, their history, & so much more, really shines through in every video; I respect & appreciate it.

[@higgme1ster]

"not a clickbait redneck" Tell us how you really think. I'll never forget just into the '60s Dad took our family up on Sand Mountain (the bottom of the Appalachian mountain chain) to visit some extended relatives he was close to in his youth. Redneck didn't used to be a pejorative. To paraphrase Sigmund Freud, sometimes a redneck is just a redneck."

[@spearmint25]

@@theviewbotreal

[@hutt716]

​@@theviewbotfacts. People who shoot nice guns on KZbin aren't "clickbait rednecks" lmao

[@mallison117]

​@@jamesmackes4531You just gave unsolicited advice...

[@mustangandfrankenstein]

amen and thats a super rare quality in todays market....thank god there's one left to enjoy... thank you

[@yutakago1736]

Imagine Clint Eastwood with this weapon - " You're thinking "Did he fire 80 shots or only 70?" Now to tell you the truth, I've forgotten myself in all this excitement. "

[@JamesPolymer]

And that wouldn't just be playful banter; he literally would have lost count at some point.

[@qwertzy121212]

But being as this is a guycot rocketball, the least powerful weapon in the world, and would probably sting considerably, you've got to ask yourself one question: "Do I feel lucky?"

[@mbr5742]

It would be Henri Sordide and played by Jean Reno 😂

[@hopefulpellinore5490]

@@mbr5742 Amazing 😆

[@SatelliteYL]

Hahahaha

[@bjorntrollgesicht1144]

You know, this mechanism is actually quite elegant. I can totally imagine such a thing today in .22 with some sort of transparent side panel to see how the mechanism operates and some tweaks to the reloading system, like a crank powered tool. It would be a really cool, novelty plinker to have fun with.

[@tonytor53]

One could make an improved one with a modern chainsaw!

[@porphyr]

transparent side panel? Don't forget the RGB LEDs

[@hamasmillitant1]

i think this could be used in a air rifle assembly very effectively, you could have a much larger 'charge' for each cartidge with a air chamber. & the chain would only need to be large enough to hold the slug

[@bjorntrollgesicht1144]

@@hamasmillitant1 You may be on to something. Or make it a multi barreled machine of devastation, where turning the crankshaft would prime an air piston, place the pellet in the chamber, release the piston and prime the next one as it turns! Personally I'm for the LED screen though.

[@keithharper32]

I was thinking this. But, if it was firing .22, how would you eject the spent cartridges? would you need to take them all out manually while reloading?

[@lanedexter6303]

Fascinating. I love to see these “paths not taken.” Makes one think of the Volcanic in America. When I look at my old carton of VL caseless .22 ammunition (relic of Daisy’s short lived venture), I think about alternative arms. I wish the Gyrojet had been further developed. It might be a good gun for Space Force.

[@davidgoodnow269]

Heh. *"Moonraker".*

[@ghostmantagshome-er6pb]

The space force would be satellite experts.

[@HighCoupDeTat]

There are air guns now that shoot larger calibers at higher velocities

[@davidgoodnow269]

@@HighCoupDeTat Yeah, I'm looking at the Hatsan .30.

[@michiganengineer8621]

I was imagining this design but with Gyrojet style projectiles.

[@ScarlettDeLion]

Actually this type of system would be kind of cool to be brought back for like a .22 short or long.. obviously it probably won't happen, but the idea of it just sounds kind of fun

[@dominicrichardson5546]

I doubt it would for safety reasons much like turret guns. If an unchambered round went off inside it'd be pretty bad.

[@aarowtheblacksmith789]

Trouble is that it needs to be caseless ammunition, so it would need to be totally redesigned to take .22

[@mintgardener]

@@ryshellso526the 3D printer bros could 👀

[@DanielMartinez-lz3ot]

9mm! Pack a caseless 9mm round into a plastic shroud. The shroud will make for safe distribution and ease of loading. You load the gun by pushing the round into the chamber. The round slips out of the shroud, and you simply flick the plastic shroud away, then move on to the next chamber. 80 rounds for plinking away your time.

[@adriansue8955]

@@aarowtheblacksmith789 caseless? not really, just have the chain retain the shells; and do an extra tedious reloading process where you need to manually extract them all.

[@jeremycrumrine6091]

The ingenuity is pretty impressive. Imagine a modern day version of this in a 22 short or lr.

[@extrastuff9463]

Unless it somehow integrates an extractor somewhere along the chain that'd require caseless ammunition. Could be interesting but I don't see it happening anytime soon. And if it requires manual extraction while cycling the chain, oh man that'd be yet another headache to worry about!

[@starstencahl8985]

@@extrastuff9463I don’t see this making a comeback anytime soon either. But theoretically, you could implement an extractor somewhere down the chain with a pin pushing the cartridges out somehow as a part of the action. Not a practical gun, but for some reason I think it’s really interesting

[@happyjohn354]

@@extrastuff9463 Just make it so you can take the chain out.

[@marcopederzoli4939]

80 rounds is impressive, but a P90 already carry 50 rounds and they are way more effective than .22

[@jeremycrumrine6091]

@@marcopederzoli4939 I was looking at it from a plinking standpoint or varmint control on the farm.

[@marcoluoma3770]

Thanks, this is the very definition of a Forgotten Weapon

[@gardnep]

Thanks, it’s a while since I watched a rifle video and this one was fascinating. So ‘metal storm’ was around a long time ago and appears to have suffered the same fate.

[@CiastoToKlamstwo]

I'd like to see someone manufacture some appropriate ammo for those rocket ball ammo guns like Guycot or Volcanic and see how powerful they really were

[@johnnylego807]

I wanted to see this be used/demo’ed so bad!!! Such a cool firearm of the old days. Would have been neat too see the firepower.

[@usheen42o]

"you can load it on Monday and shoot all week long" is my favorite quote of all time. imma use it for everything

[@jdoerr779]

This is a perfect example of a gun that I really wish there was a company doing a replica of. It would bankrupt the company, and be wildly out of my price range but man this is a cool piece.

[@indescribablecardinal6571]

It seems interesting as a personal project with the right tools and techniques.

[@littlekong7685]

@@indescribablecardinal6571 So you need a chainsaw chain, chisels, a chunk of hardwood, 6 sprockets, iron rebar, and 80 lead weights, and only 1 gram of powder?! What could you possibly be doing with all these?

[@davidgoodnow269]

It really is something that anyone moderately handy could do in a garage in two or three days. Setting up to make suitable ammunition could take a day by itself, casting Minié bullets, compression-loading propellant, sealing the propellant against humidity and sparks, and priming it suitably. I am thinking it is perfect for a needle round, with the primer embedded in the nose! Make .58 slugs for a .577 rifled bore about six inches long, and use compression loads of 18-28 grains of FFF or FFFFG powder; or use electrical ignition and Simulex as a propellant! (Or a combination, pin fire ignition of a 212 primer but Simulex as propellent.)

[@ralphm6901]

@@davidgoodnow269 I'm neither a gunsmith nor a reloader, but... Would it be practical just to make the thing a little bulkier and use ready-made 9mm?? Either: 1) have a cover over the chain so that rounds stay in the cups. Have an ejection port in front of the trigger for spent brass to fall out; or 2) have a clip of some sort to hold the rounds in the cups, and an ejector of some kind to kick the brass out.

[@davidgoodnow269]

@@ralphm6901 That sounds like a good idea, until I look at complexity and cost. Extractors are hard to get right . . . and this would be eighty chances to get it wrong, on every rifle. An extractor is a $2 part, but that's an extra $158 to the rifle, in addition to everything else like inletting and the chain. And for what? A curiosity. Certainly not commercially viable, but you could certainly build one and sell it as a curio.

[@nymalous3428]

I love the quirky engineering that goes into things like this.

[@jimmieburleigh9549]

Would be very interesting to see a live firing and gel testing if ammo can be made.

[@savage22bolt32]

The most unusual firearm I've ever seen! Thanks Ian!

[@Florkl]

What a magnificent series of words with which to make a title.

[@omd6725]

Thanks Ian, that was real interesting. Having been a fan of firearms for many many years, beginning in my mid-teens until now at 60+ years old, I don't recall this gun from my old books. Yes a basically 6.5mm ball with powder charge comparable to about a .22 short cartridge would be quite a challenge for a barrel more than 6 inches.

[@HorstMichel-mh7gv]

One can easily imagine a kind of novelty rifle in .38 acp with 80 round. The reloading is annoying n' tediously. But you will got fun on the range.

[@davidschneider9145]

Since it’s built into the gun, doesn’t it also circumvent bans on high capacity magazines?

[@whelper4231]

It would be fun, both to shoot and in coming up with the mechanism! You are on the right track with a semi-rimmed cartridge like .38 acp, but that may be a little long to make a handy firearm. Perhaps .25 or .32 acp would be better choices. Then the matter of loading becomes a task.. Do you remove the chain to load cartridges from the rear of each chamber, or make some opening in the stock to allow loading and automatic ejecting of shells? Like you said, a bit of a pain, but if you could still have 60 to 75 rounds in a fairly well sealed gun ready to go... 🤔😁

[@whelper4231]

​@@davidschneider9145For an original gun, it would be counted as a relic and wouldn't be subject to restrictions. If someone were to make a modern version, I'm sure they would try to ban it in more restricted states. Doesn't California have AR15s with none removable magazines? Do they regulate the capacity of those? I don't live in a California, so I am unsure.

[@InfernosReaper]

I am honestly imagining how much more punch it would have if it used smokeless power

[@whelper4231]

@@InfernosReaper That's a good question. I have never seen anyone try to make modern rocketball ammunition. I have to assume it wouldn't work or else someone would have tried, but you know what they say about assuming... The closest thing I've heard of was the literal rocket rounds from the gyrojet guns, and that didn't go very well.

[@acratone8300]

As we learned from Ian's series on Winchester's lever guns, some of the early models (not branded Winchester) fired rocket balls too.

[@BillGriffin77]

PLEASE! Do a range video with one of these firearms!

[@gus.smedstad]

"I don't think we can use the full barrel length, seeing as our cartridge has roughly the power of an energetic spitball."

[@crazysilly2914]

it’d be good for crowd control and riot suppression though!

[@joshuahadams]

A competition between this and a someone particularly good with a blowgun could be interesting.

[@pjp_renaissance]

If you could cycle the chain in reverse while reloading it would be a lot more "functional" in battle, as it would allow you to load 3, 5, 10, whatever amount you wanted/could load and immediately return to firing it.

[@Solvernia]

I was thinking the same thing but at least this way you don't have to do 80 cycles for your first shot. If it had someway to toggle direction that'd be cool

[@pjp_renaissance]

@@Solvernia definitely, when he first showed the safety switch that's what i was anticipating it would be.

[@TheHenirik]

since you load the chain before it reaches the pin, you would 'only' need to cycle 5-10 time to reach the first one loaded, if you load more though you have a whole revolution from the last one loaded to reach the rest.

[@malkeus6487]

This is where Hollywood got the idea for guns that never need reloading.

[@davidjernigan8161]

So much for that "no one imagined large capacity magazines" thing.

[@Buffalen]

I didn’t expect a sequel

[@normang3668]

'I can't believe someone did this more than once.'

[@randallraszick6001]

Nobody expects the French Inquisition!

[@ianfinrir8724]

It's a French firearm. Did you really think that Ian wouldn't make a video on this?

[@johnnylego807]

I wanted to see this be used/demo’ed so bad!!! Such a cool video irregardless

[@carlettoburacco9235]

When I was a child I had a toy rifle that worked on exactly the same principle. You could load it with tiny plastic caps with a minimum charge (20 shots if I remember correctly) It could even "shoot" a rolled paper ball from the barrel. I'm not joking: when you opened the slide on top I smelled burnt powder (which my mother hated) Other times......

[@RedSntDK]

I was thinking of plastic cap, or even paper cap toys as well when I saw that 😄

[@neilfurby555]

I vaguely recall as a kid having a machine gun toy that took a roll of caps that could be fired as fast as you could turn a handle. It was expensive to run!

[@sacr3]

I could only imagine the vibration from shooting that thing combined with the cartridges that are hanging upside down, the amount of jamming that would occur way back inside the stock, sounds like a fun time of repeated disassembly

[@saluteadezio7893]

I knew that the gun is going to be goofy, but hadn't expected a fake barrel

[@yt.602]

Not really practical and I can see why commercially not so good, but what a great example of the creativity of firearms designers and engineers. Yet another great addition to Ian's video museum.

[@LaplacianFourier]

*Guycot: Fifteen minutes of loading can give your fifteen percent or more in shooting time.* 😂

[@spacewater7]

This would be a great Goat Gun for the Geico Gecko for sure.

[@tenlittleindians]

The chain feed could be easily adapted to most short pistol and rifle cartridges. Carrying and loading cartridges would be safer and faster and a crank operated speed loader could be made to speed up the process. Another mechanism in the stock could push out the empty cases and drop them out of a slot on the bottom. If the case ejector were towards the front pivot the empties could be ejected at the bottom just in front of the trigger. With modern cartridge ammo the barrels could be full length and a gas port could be used to make these semi and fully automatic.

[@johnnydjiurkopff]

The cartridge design adapted for use with smokeless powder would probably work pretty well as is. Only need like 3-4 grains of smokeless to match the velocity produced by a full 30 grains of black. This design just might have been ahead of it's time.

[@baronoflivonia.3512]

Now I have a vision of 80 1" .36 cap & ball barrels mounted to a bicycle as a 1855 sub gun circling round my skull. Thanks Ian.

[@jamesallred460]

The Sig Air MCX Virtus operates in a similar way. I bet that thing was fun for plinking.

[@salvadordollyparton666]

just before ian said it, i was also thinking of the saying, "load on sunday and fire all week"... but, load on sunday, and keep loading the rest of the week... it is one of the most interesting, if not effective, guns i've ever seen. DEFINITELY thinking outside the box.

[@Goc4ever]

Another great video about a lesser-known weapon generously provided to us by Ian.

[@BotsWeekendCovers]

Fascinating weapon!!!!! Thanks for sharing.

[@jackmcslay]

I find this an example of the importance of iterative design: had they made a simple breachloader prototype to try out the cartridge beforehand they would have known from the start the cartridge would be too underpowered to excuse having this many rounds in it.

[@sultanofsick]

I find it hard to believe the underpowered-ness of the cartridge would have been a surprise to them that they only found out after completing the design.

[@lithobreak3812]

They didn't invent these rounds, all of the earliest repeating guns like the Vulcans (early lever action guns) had them, it was known that they were underpowered, but at the time it was the best way to make a repeating gun, since there was no case that needed to be extracted.

[@mugglepower]

I remember watching your vid about the handgun version.

[@keegobricks9734]

I'm curious how the bullets/cartridges/whatever don't fall out when they're facing downward? With all that jostling from being moved one link at a time not to mention the gun firing, you'd think you'd end up with little bits rolling around inside the stock of the gun.

[@LouietheHog]

Yeah! What if you bumped it into something or dropped it? Would you just have multiple live rounds rattling around in the stock?

[@christopherpardell4418]

Normal cartridge guns require a long barrel the caliber of the gun because the impetus on the bullet comes from the expanding gasses in a semi-sealed chamber. The higher the chamber pressure for the longer period of time, the higher the speed of the exiting bullet. That is why longer barrel lengths equal higher muzzle velocity. ( assuming the expansion of the gasses from the powder is still at some level of overpressure as the bullet exits. ) A rocket powered bullet accelerates from the Thrust of the gasses escaping the round. It does not need to be in a sealed tube, it needs the gasses to be able to accelerate freely out the back of the round. Barrels can not fit tightly because the friction of the barrel is just another force for the thrust to overcome, as opposed to being the ‘seal’ that builds chamber pressure in a regualr bullet. The over-wide outer barrel in this gun serves 2 purposes, it allows the escaping gasses to expand freely and thus does not create back-pressure on the rocket exhaust, and it acts as a rough guide tube for the acceleration of the bullet to a stable trajectory. For a regular round you want the propellant to burn off as fast as possible, to build the pressure that pushes the bullet out. The bullet on exiting the barrel is going as fast as it ever will and it loses speed from then on. For a rocket powered round, what you want is a slower burning propellant that will continue to add velocity to the round for as long as possible., given its size and relative propellant load. Unlike a regular gun, something like a gyro jet round ends up going Faster the further it flies from the barrel, until its propellant runs out at which point it has attained its maximum speed. This creates the situation that with a true rocket propelled round, it actually hits with higher kinetic energy the further the target is, up to the range at which it runs out of fuel. The hard part with rocket rounds is accuracy. If they get pointed in a different direction as they burn, they will thrust way off target. The gyro jet stabilizes its projectiles by having several jets angled to impart a gyroscopic spin to the projectile. The makers of this gun likely were not so clever, and the long barrels may represent the literal length of rocket burn time for acceleration of the round, figuring that once it left the barrel with no more rocket exhaust it would keep going the direction the barrel confined it… but that still allows for a pretty wide trajectory variance. I doubt that power was the downfall of this design, but that it was exceedingly inaccurate.

[@alexistaylor969]

I used to have a cap gun rifle that had this exact design as a kid. You would load the caps the same way and everything and the chain would pull it.

[@User_Un_Friendly]

Ian, are you bringing this to the next Two Gun Match? What will be the pistol...😏 A Gyrojet? 🤣. Or a Volcanic? 😛

[@aidankelting5530]

THE SEQUAL IVE BEEN WAITING FOR !!!!

[@stevep7346]

Glock: "To disassemble, Unload and then pull the trigger, ya think you can handle that?" Guycot: "To load, fire the gun 80 times, but have the safety on. Do remember which position safe is, we will not hold your hand on this."

[@POTUSJimmyCarter]

"Upon receipt of numerous complaints, we have decided to label the positions. The top position is marked S, for safe, while the bottom position is marked S, for shoot."

[@anomalyp8584]

That safety is SO 1800's...Love it!

[@37thgungrunts]

As someone running a fallout rpg, obscure black powder is a sweet spot for me

[@eclipsegst9419]

which version are you running? I took a look at the 2d20 official, GURPS, and Vaults and Deathclaws. I'm thinking Vaults and Deathclaws looks the best for what i want to do, which is a sort of Van Buren type campaign. Set post F2 and pre NV, in the west and midwest. GURPS looks pretty cool as well, but it assumes you already know how to run GURPS, and i don't.

[@37thgungrunts]

@@eclipsegst9419 I'm running 2d20 because I use Fantasy Grounds. I've converted mine to be set shortly after fallout 2, in the Old World Blues HOI4 fan mod. If your players like fallout 4s gameplay it's perfect for it

[@johneden2033]

​@@eclipsegst9419It's worth it to learn GURPS. The original two PC games use GURPS for the game mechanics, so using that system "feels" just like the videogame. I definitely recommend.

[@Rizzbulla]

So badass. Needs to be updated to work with 22LR.

[@housekeys9768]

Rocket ball chain rifle is a magical name for a weapon

[@commoncriminal923]

Thought i just found another hidden 8 year old gem on the channel.

[@jeromethiel4323]

I've always thought that a combination of the rocket ball and gyrojet would be interesting. There are probably reasons it would not work, but if you COULD make it work, it would be caseless ammo, and that is an idea that i think is a winner.

[@davidgoodnow269]

You know, the A-10 has continuous linkless feed of 1,600 rounds of electrically-primed 30mm for its GAU-8A cannon, with every fired case returned to the canister magazine after firing.

[@lolokhan2000]

برای دوران خودش یکی از پیشرفته ترین سلاحهها بوده است واقعا لذت بردم برنامه شما را از ایران دنبال میکنم و واقعا کار شما بسیار عالیست ,سلامت باشید و موفق در کار خود

[@captainscarlett1]

Great to see a forgotten weapon on Forgotten Weapons rather than a state-of-the-art not old enough to be a forgotten weapon weapon.

[@BigHarryBalzac]

"That damned Yankee rifle that can be loaded on Sunday and fired all week." was the .44 Henry, not the.56-56 Spencer. Oopsie. When I saw the title of the video I was thinking about chain-loading or chain-firing, whatever the term was for a bunch of balls stacked in the bore with powder in between. But the "rocket ball" thing intrigued me just as much. The only "chain guns" I know anything about are the M242 Bushmaster and such, that came a century after this. So I really had to see what a chain rifle is. It's not very often I see something in the gun world so unlike anything I'm familiar with. Good job, Ian!

[@bloodofthefayth]

This explains more than one western i watched as a kid

[@bobbressi5414]

It is a very clever design. There are probably a number of single point failures that can happen but kudos to the outside the box thinking.

[@19Edurne]

I would rather say "inside the stock" thinking...

[@seiboldtadelbertsmiter3735]

I'd love to see what could be done with this design using more modern ammo like careless polymer kinda like the HK 11 used.

[@stevezio99]

This is so over complicated but wow what a cool design. Would love to see something like that built now but with modern design and ammo. Maybe some kind of quick change chain/ammo load feature just for the fun of it.

[@tommythechoochoo3502]

It occurred to me that having the barrel so much shorter then that external sleeve would likely mean that this weapon would have zero flash. A primitive version of a flash hider built directly into the mechanism

[@jimyeats]

Also very quiet potentially.

[@codyjarvis3426]

It still blows my mind on how things was made a long time ago.. we have all this Technology and advanced tools and they still can't make anything close to the quality they did many years ago . Nothing last and break.

[@jamesslick4790]

A Guycot is a Boycot when he is a grown-up. I'll see my self out...

[@michaelherweg7421]

Have confidence in your joke bruh

[@CameronMcCreary]

Nice pieces of French walnut. I would have loved to have gotten blanks of this wood when I was making the stocks for John Martz when, I was working for him in the 1970s, 1980s.

[@rong1924]

Wow that sounded so much cooler than it actually is.

[@davesaunders568]

Ian, I've just seen this. It's amazing 👏

[@MrSychnant]

very comprehensive video thankyou

[@zacharyrempel1526]

Its like a cap gun on steroids. This us really cool though, never knew these existed !! Always love learning about new, forgotten and the rarer guns out there.

[@justinbiller6683]

i remember watching the pistol verson years ago and i still think a 40 round pistol is remarkable even for today

[@KarstRats]

We regularly have 60 round drums for pistols lol. That arent on a chain like so. But yeah for the time that THESE were made and the revolver youre raking about. Whoever made that stuff back then was faaaaar beyond there time.

[@justinbiller6683]

No i remember this being a pistol not a relvolver the forgoten weapons video kzbin.info/www/bejne/iZjKmYqkj8x9mpI also standard capacity for most pistols is about 15 as in the mag u get with the gun is noramaly around there . yes we can get stendos but like a glock with a 32 in there or even a drum like your saying is a big bulky and sometimes awkward to use but like this thing is nice and a comfortable size that dosnent jut our or get snaged or anything compared to a big aa drum mag

[@KarstRats]

@@justinbiller6683 ahh okay thats sweet. Ive seen chain revolvers as well so like a 40 round revolver.

[@nathanweber1653]

I feel educated watching this show. Amazing 80-round underdog. I had no idea.

[@007JHS]

Reminds me very much of the more modern Anics (spelling) Blackbird CO2 powered air pistol... An intriguing design... Thanks Ian.

[@mememetal6631]

Ian missed an excellent joke there, a reference to TheChieftain's tracktensioning inhouse joke. "As we come to back of the gun - we can't leave out of course - tracktensioning. You take off the buttplate and there is a gear to adjust the tension."

[@Journeyman.71]

It's be interesting to see someone modernize the design, using .32 or .380 cartridges.

[@robbiemorrow3473]

I absolutely love this gun, & your content. What an Amazing piece of history!! TY4SHARING ❤

[@TheGemmaster22]

Never knew these exsisted, but always wanted to make something like it. Never found it before, never showed up while googling chain gun

[@rickrickard2788]

Looks like a tiger, hits like a Nerf Gun. This still was brilliant innovation, creation, and forward thinking. I can think of a few adjustments, that could actually turn this into an awesome weapon. Alas, I'mma poor man, lol.

[@joeybobbie1]

This was really interesting. I Collect Antique Firearms and never even heard of this one. For the Time it was produced, it was actually a Great Idea. I could see how someone could actually Modernize this into a working Firearm with a lot more Power. I would have a reciprocating Barrel with a Forearm to hold and guide it in place. It wouldn’t take much to widen the Body enough to fit a 9mm, or .45 acp Round. Probably best just for interest though, maybe have fun at the Range. Thanks for the Video. By the way, it looked like you could really load 4 Rounds at a Time instead of One.

[@sttonep242]

Special kind of evil not to mark the safety

[@GalGBox]

Thank you for the video! An interesting example, it seems to me that engineers invented more at that time. Of course, there were more successful designs and then, until you make a mistake, nothing will work out. And here it is, the eternal conflict between engineer and designer. I wonder what the accuracy was? And was it convenient to clean the barrel, because after 80 shots there is so much dirt...

[@joshhelms8413]

I bet Biden simply lost his Sh*t when these first came out (WHO NEEDS 80 ROUNDS?)

[@RafaleKez4]

They don't want you to know that he's old enough to have actually been around back then 😂

[@phlashtheband4939]

Very cool idea! I wish they had improved on it, and we had a modern version today.

[@GaveMeGrace1]

Wow! That’s uniquely cool-thank you.

[@bitfreakazoid]

Man I absolutely love this.

[@Barskor1]

Sig Sauer training air rifles and pistols use a chain system for the bullets all contained in a standard magazine so the concept can be or has been adapted to other uses.

[@wschnabel1987]

Reminds me of the links in my pellet rifles magazine, a sig sauer mcx .177

[@michaelhill6451]

You had me at rocket ball chain rifle.

[@chuckwhitson654]

That teeny cup for primer, powder, and bullet??? Underpowered is an understatement

[@AndyFromBeaverton]

An absolute engineering marvel. I doubt running with a loaded Guycoy is recommended.

[@oneangrycanadian6205]

That was ahead of its time back the. Really!!

[@raptorsean1464]

C O O L !!!! I am no gun collector, but I would love to have one of those.

[@SirFloofy001]

A combo of words i never expected to see outside a video game

[@aserta]

The catch seems unsafe, but in reality it's very safe. To load this rifle, you had to push the special cartridge into (for lack of better term) the cup. That's why that ramp is there, that's why it's so long (to load multiple rounds - not just one at a time). This would meant that the user would need to do two things, one have a tool (kinda like how you'd load a cap and ball and use a rod on leverless pistols) and two, most important, hold the rifle, under the ramp, to support that motion (cause you can't rest it on a table or your feet). This means your finger is automatically on the catch and thus this means that at all times, you'd hold that catch by design, that's why it's there and not at the bolt (see 8:35). This rifle is the product of a brilliant mind that got posed a question "i want to shoot as much as possible without being asked to reload, what can you give me?".

[@TheREBwater]

One of the most interesting guns I've seen here! Cool.

[@inout3513]

You should invest in an endoscope camera you can get them relatively cheep and they plug into your phone that way you could feed the end inside said weapon for a better view and you won't have to strip them half as much to see how they operate

[@AdmiralThumbs]

Fascinating! It would have been interesting to hear why they decided to give it a full length barrel shroud, instead of cutting it off at the end of the actual barrel. Was it for a longer sight radius for easier aiming? To manage recoil/sound, with more mass and a gas expansion area? To manage expectations, as a rifle stock with a stubby barrel might have made people think poorly of it? All of the above?

[@Mujaki]

"Load on Sunday, fire all week." This one is more, "Load on June, fire all summer."

[@TubeRadiosRule]

What surprises me is that they were messing with rocket ball ammo in the 1870's when metallic cartridges were really taking off. Smith and Wesson gave up on "rocket ball" repeating rifles and went to cartridge firing revolvers more than twenty years before these rifles were made.

[@peoplez129]

Let's keep in mind that this was also a time when even a random surface cut could take you down, so while these might not have been particularly amazing, getting hit with a bullet of any kind was something people wanted to avoid back then. I would see this as less useful for self defense, and more useful for scaring animals off, small game hunting, or target practice. I don't see it being advertised as something for heavy self defense, but it surely could make people think twice if they were on your land and had bad intentions. Just imagine you're transported back in time with even a modern gun, and then you encounter someone with one of these behind cover, shooting at you. You wouldn't quite feel impervious.

[@gamerelated3887]

as amazing as this is, I was disappointed that you didn't get to shoot it. As usual, Great video!

[@Laarye]

It looked like there was an 'A' on the safety switch at the top position.