From the Vault: The Dual-Barrel Gardner Gun

Today, we're bringing out the Big Guns in more ways than one! Brownells Gun Techs™ Keith, Steve AND Caleb are at Rock Island Auction Co. to walk us around the Gardner Repeating Gun, chambered in .45-70 Government. Sometimes called a "mechanical machine gun," the Gardner is the closest thing this side of a Gatling gun to a true machine gun. It's really two guns in one, with two separate barrels and actions that simply trade off firing until you stop turning the crank OR run out of ammo in the dual-feed magazine. Actually, that gravity-feed magazine is a giant clip. Largely constructed of brass, except for the firing mechanism and the barrels, the Gardner Gun is a masterpiece of late 19th century engineering and the Old School machinist's art. A smooth-as-glass cam mechanism cycles between firing the two barrels. Ejection is through the bottom, with an automatic ejector punching the spent shell well clear of the gun.
Designed in 1874 by William Gardner, a former captain in the Union Army, and manufactured by Pratt & Whitney, the Gardner Gun finally went into limited U.S. military service in the late 1890s. The Rock Island example is one of only 11 surviving Gardners (out of 21) built for War Department trials. By the time of the Spanish-American War, the Gardner's days were numbered because the Colt-Browning M1895 and Maxim machine guns had already arrived on the scene.