Guycot chain gun is a term that incorporates the Guycot chain pistol and the related Guycot chain rifle. These were a short-lived series of high-capacity repeating firearms manufactured by Gay & Guénot from 1878 to about 1879.
History[]
The Guycot chain gun was designed by Paulin Gay and Henri Guénot in 1878. While the Guycot weapons offered capacities several times greater than any other period firearm, the sacrifices to do so were great: using a very similar round to the Volcanic ball for its array of tiny chambers, the Guycot's ammunition was both short-ranged and exceptionally weak. This was particularly an issue for the rifle, which had to compete with trapdoor rifles chambered for powerful rounds such as .45-70 Government. In addition, much like the Volcanic repeaters, the pistol variants in particular were extremely large and heavy compared to period revolvers. The low power, complexity and lack of any perceived need for a soldier to carry so many shots in his weapon meant that military sales were a non-starter, and there was similar disinterest from civilian shooters. Production was discontinued relatively quickly, meaning surviving examples of Guycot weapons are extremely rare.[1]
Design Details[]
Both the pistol and rifle variants use essentially the same mechanism, the rifle simply incorporating a stock and barrel extension. The weapons use a looped chain situated in their receiver as their feeding mechanism, to which are mounted an array of chambers.
The weapon is double-action only and striker-fired, with the trigger also performing several additional operations. Pulling the trigger will initially index the chain to the next chamber via a cam, retract the firing pin, and also pull back the barrel (which is shrouded in a solid outer sheath attached to the weapon's frame) to form a gas-seal with the chamber. Pulling the trigger past this point will release the striker and fire the weapon.
A ball would be loaded into each chamber prior to firing, via a loading port on the top of the gun. This port had a sliding cover which also incorporated the weapon's rear sight. Loading would then proceed by engaging the safety, a lever with an internal hook which stopped the striker short of setting off the indexed round, inserting a round into the chamber exposed by the loading port, and then pulling the trigger to index the chain to expose another empty chamber. This proceeded until all chambers were full, at which point the loading port would be closed and the safety could be disengaged. This was a somewhat unsafe procedure as if the user forgot to engage the safety or it accidentally disengaged (relatively easy, as it was only held in place by friction) the weapon would fire: the fact that nine or so chambers would have to be loaded before the first one reached the firing position did not help matters.
Preloading the chain outside the gun was not a method of loading, as the chain can only be removed by disassembling the weapon.[2] Higher capacity versions of the weapon have their chain extending into the grip for the pistol[3] or the stock for the rifle.[4]
Ammunition[]
The weapons used the 6.5 Guycot round, said to be a similar design to the Volcanic ball.[1] In particular, it was of the same pseudo-caseless form where the propellant and primer were incorporated into the projectile, meaning that after firing nothing would be left behind in the chamber and no extraction system was necessary.
Variants[]
Pistol and rifle versions were produced.