clip-fed rifle

The ammunition clip for this rifle is gravity-powered. The rifle has fully automatic and semi-automatic capabilities. By pulling back the bolt and locking it in the trigger, it is semi-automatic. If you pull back the bolt and quickly release and repeat the cycle, it is fully automatic. The nice thing about this you don't have to re-load it for a very long time if you've made a big magazine, as I have. The magazine shown here holds 54 rounds.

This picture is a close-up of the back of the bolt. The neon green piece with the white rod is the trigger mechanism. The yellow connector with green rod sticking up is the bolt. If you pull the bolt back, the firing pin (gray rod) moves back from the chamber, allowing a round from the magazine to slip into the chamber. For semi-automatic, you pull the bolt as far back as it can go and release. For fully automatic, pull the bolt back so its front end is just behind the trigger mechanism, then carefully and slowly place it against the back of the blue rod of the trigger mechanism, which crosses the firing chamber. Release with the trigger.

I made the bipod for the rifle so I could play nine pins with it. I made nine little K'nex targets. I was even thinking about using nine soda cans so that when I hit one, even if I don't see where I hit it, I would know because it would give a very satisfying clang!

railroad

"I've been working on the railroad, all the live long day!"

I set this train up in my room and you can see the Gatling gun in the background. As you might expect, the train is a moving target rig I invented. The blue box on the train is the motor. The ram rod sticking out the front is to counterbalance the weight of the motor in the back so it doesn't flip off the track on a bend.