Paying Extra To Spray And Pray

(WARNING : I am not a lawyer.  I have no idea if any of the devices or products discussed below are legal where you live.  To find out, hire a real lawyer and ask.)

I think it was in the early 1980’s when I first heard of a conversion kit available for the Ruger 10/22, a semi-auto rifle chambered for the .22 Long Rifle cartridge.

ruger 10-22 semiauto rifle chambered for the 22 long rifle cartridge

All one had to do was take the stocks off of two of the rifles, attach the after market parts, and the result was an engine of destruction that was a sight to behold!

twin ruger 10-22 gatling

The kit turned your two rifles into a hand cranked Gatling gun.  Still legal in most places in the United States since the guns were nothing more than semi-auto, while turning the crank caused the triggers to be repeatedly massaged.

What did I think?  Considering the underpowered round used, I figured the .22 Gatling was just the thing if I ever had to defend a static position against hordes of rampaging squirrels.

flying squirrels rip my flesh

(Not me, obviously.  I mean, a comb over?  Get real!)

I wasn’t that impressed, although it would make a neat toy if I ever got rich enough to spend money on stuff that didn’t have a clear use.  But then I heard of even more gimmicks to get your rifle to mimic a machine gun.

I think most of you know the proper way to hold a rifle.  The stock is seated firmly on the shoulder, with the forward hand pressing the rifle back into the body to increase stability.  The trigger is squeezed by the index finger of the non-supporting hand.

standing rifle stance

Someone got the bright idea to avoid squeezing the trigger, and instead have the finger which usually does that job curl into a hook.  The supporting hand would then push the rifle forward, towards the target, until the trigger bumped into the finger and the rifle was fired.

trigger-finger

If this was done right, if the pressure on the trigger was just light enough, then the recoil from the fired cartridge would cause enough force to be taken off the trigger so it would reset.  But the supporting hand would still be moving the gun forward, so the pressure on the trigger would increase, and another round would be sent downrange.  The cycle repeats.

I know I am not explaining this very well.  Here is a video where some guys use common office rubber bands to help them rip off their magazines in an amazingly short period of time.  I hope that makes the whole process  more clear.

This process is known as “bump firing“, and I pretty much had the same thoughts about this method as I did about the Gatling 10/22.  Neat to do once or twice, but of very limited use in the real world.

Milo was kind enough to send me this link, which shows someone using a bump stock.  This is an aftermarket stock one can attach to a number of standard semi-auto rifles in order to bump fire them more easily.  It seems the days of using a rubber band one pilfered at work are long gone.

So how do these stocks work, and do they actually perform as advertised?  I can’t answer either question with any degree of authority, since I have never used one.  But this video is pretty good at showing what is going on, and they have a side-by-side test with an actual legal full auto rifle.  Worth a look.

 

13 thoughts on “Paying Extra To Spray And Pray

  1. My thought about the “Gatling 22” is, how much ammo does that rifle hold? An almost-automatic rifle would be pretty useless if you could only fire 20 rounds before running out.

    And it looks like reloading would take 10 minutes, which is worse than useless.

      • Had I known that there were such magazines I would have waited until I could purchase a 10/22. Instead I got a Remington Viper, which was at least very cheap (£90) in comparison.

  2. If you use the 25 round mags with the 10/22, you are in the same round count as many FA sub guns. ‘Course if the.22 is set up correctly, the mag empties in about 5 seconds, heh, heh, heh. The FA 10/22 is one of the most popular guns at our mg shoots…

    • ” The FA 10/22 is one of the most popular guns at our mg shoots.”

      They are fun guns no doubt, but I wonder if the popularity might have something to do with the low cost of the ammo.

  3. I remember those magazines.
    Men, True Men, For Men, Male, Real Male, For Men Only, etc.
    And they only had 3 covers. WW II Nazi’s/Jap’s menacing a half naked woman while the hero was held back; Wild animals menacing a half naked woman while the hero was fighting the rest of the pack; Leather clad bikers menacing a half naked woman while the hero was slugging it out with the rest of the gang.
    Hmmmm. I sense a pattern here. But to a “new” teenager, they were just great. Love to find some of theold ones.

  4. “Men, True Men, For Men, Male, Real Male, For Men Only, etc.”

    You can imagine the content of magazines with those titles if they were published today . . . -sigh-

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