The Minigun - how does it actually work?

[Malidictus]

Disclamer: I know nothing about real-world firearms and I've never had a real gun. ALL of my information comes from the Internet.

So I've been playing World of Guns: Gun Disassembly a lot. Recently, I unlocked the M134 Minigun for disassembly. Previously, I hadn't the foggiest idea how mingungs (or indeed guns) actually worked. What I found out when disassembling the Minigun is it is indeed entirely electrically driven - no gass or recoil operation. It appears to consist of a body where the barrels and bolts are in a cylinder, a bullet feeding mechanism where the ammo belt attaches in another cylinder on the left of the gun and an electric motor in a third cylinder on the left of the gun. The real weapon also has a battery on the back and double hand grips because it's intended to be mounted.

What we have in Payday 2 seems to be the same thing, but with a few modifications. The batery has been removed entirely and the gun's been rotated 90 degrees to the left, so both of the extra cylinders are now below the gun and the "hatch" is on top. A third, very large cylinder has been mounted on the bottom. That apparently holds the ammo since a belt leads from that to the feeding mechanism, the slot of which is now on the right facing out. The "ammo keg" also appears to house the battery inside it, since a wire can be seen leading out of it and to the electric motor, with the weapon's on/off switch next to it.

The large car-battery thing is completely gone from the back, as are the grips. Instead, a joystick has been mounted on a metal frame, presumably for the right hand. a railing has also been mounted on the front to grab onto and hold the gun up, furnished in GLHF foam for comfort. However, having looked at the gun with a critical eye, it seems like the left-hand railing is far too close to the right-hand joystick. I found pics of a few movie props with a similar design, but all of them have the left-hand grip much farther forward, providing better leverage to hold up this humongous thing. The way our hand grips are actually set, it seems like it would be very awkward to hold the gun.

Those are just my observations from playing a gun disassembly video game and running a quick Google image search, though. I could be completely wrong and way off-base. Does any of what I've said make sense to you guys? I'm trying to figure out how the Vulcan Minigun in Payday 2 specifically is intended to function and what's been done to it to make it man-portable. Any actually educated observations?

[PrivateKI]

Yes, the Minigun lacks a power source.

*Insert blatant video game realism argument here*

[Altruistic Muffin]

its a spinning barrel!!!!!!!! thats it

[Habits]

The magazines in almost every weapon in the game are completely empty and we can dodge a shotgun blast at point blank range while standing perfectly still. This game wasn't made with realism in mind.

[Valrynn the Dragoness]

Overkill uses airsoft guns as the inspiration for the in game weapons, so it's probably based off of an airsoft minigun...if that's a thing, anyways.

[KuatYards]

Mega Charizard Azarith の投稿を引用：

Overkill uses airsoft guns as the inspiration for the in game weapons, so it's probably based off of an airsoft minigun...if that's a thing, anyways.

Oh goodness yes it is a thing

http://www.airsoftgi.com/product_info.php?products_id=4514

>:)

[[ACES] Al Derpone]

How does it work? Poorly, badun tishe.

[Habits]

Considering how bad the minigun is, I wouldn't even call it working.

[Just & Nguyen]

you press it, it shoots...

[canis lupus familiaris]

KuatYards の投稿を引用：

Mega Charizard Azarith の投稿を引用：

Overkill uses airsoft guns as the inspiration for the in game weapons, so it's probably based off of an airsoft minigun...if that's a thing, anyways.

Oh goodness yes it is a thing

http://www.airsoftgi.com/product_info.php?products_id=4514

>:)

Echo One Is such a beautiful company

[qweqweqwe]

$3500 for an airsoft gun when you could buy a real gun with that money?!
Oh gods...

[Attractive Toast]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ff73iFNF2Lw

A pretty good video on miniguns in and out of games. Also points out some common flaws that games have with miniguns.

Also I didn't read your wall of text because I'm really lazy right now.

[JC]

well IRL you could^nt shoot a minigun without mounting it on a bipod,let alone that it needs an battery to work.it has a lot of recoil energy due to its high rate of fire+its using the old 7.62 caliber bullet which even increases its recoil

[Malidictus]

I think you guys misunderstood me. I'm not looking for realism at all :) I'm just curious how the Minigun is intended to work within the fictional setting of Payday 2, based on what we know about the real thing. Somebody mentioned that it doesn't have a power source, for instance. Well, that doesn't seem to be true. A power cable comes out of the "ammo keg" and goes to what's supposed to be the electric motor. Presumably, the battery is somehow miniaturised and hidden in the keg, or maybe only half the keg is ammo the other is battery or some such?

It's just that I couldn't figure out how this thing even relates to a real, actual minigun, so I was trying to guess at how one might have been modified to become the Payday 2 Minigun. Again - not a question of realism, but rather an idle speculation of fictional mechanics.

[Bran Mak Morn]

the TF2 minigun also has an ammo keg mounted udner the gun itself, i assume that was the inspiration for the mysterious keg solution. combined with what has been mentioned before (payday 2 guns being largely inspired by airsoft guns rather than real guns), that's how you arrived at the current construct.

also, how did you unlock the minigun in world of guns? i take it you actually spent real money for it or did you do thosoe annoying challenges (aka spammign your friend's list) to get a few credits?

[Kay]

J.C. Houston の投稿を引用：

well IRL you could^nt shoot a minigun without mounting it on a bipod,let alone that it needs an battery to work.it has a lot of recoil energy due to its high rate of fire+its using the old 7.62 caliber bullet which even increases its recoil

actually, at both twice the weight and (just over) twice the rate of fire of the buzzsaw, it's recoil should be very similar, since they both use very similar rounds and accerleration is force times mass.
This is not saying it is easy, firing an MG42 from the hip would be quite difficult I imagine.

Malidictus の投稿を引用：

I think you guys misunderstood me. I'm not looking for realism at all :) I'm just curious how the Minigun is intended to work within the fictional setting of Payday 2, based on what we know about the real thing. Somebody mentioned that it doesn't have a power source, for instance. Well, that doesn't seem to be true. A power cable comes out of the "ammo keg" and goes to what's supposed to be the electric motor. Presumably, the battery is somehow miniaturised and hidden in the keg, or maybe only half the keg is ammo the other is battery or some such?

It's just that I couldn't figure out how this thing even relates to a real, actual minigun, so I was trying to guess at how one might have been modified to become the Payday 2 Minigun. Again - not a question of realism, but rather an idle speculation of fictional mechanics.

Maybe it uses an aluminium-air battery? they have a better energy density than most secondary batteries and could keep it firing for quite a while

The foregrip being so close is probably so it doesn't look silly with the small barrel on it, but overkill decided not to have it move further out when the long barrel is attached.