Gatling gun injuries & most importantly evidence

[tarvae]

Hi, I've had a dig through the injuries to order tag and have a pretty good grip on the type of injuries I want but having have googled every variation I can think of around Gatling guns, ballistics, gun shot wounds, historic injuries I still can't make sense of the part about how someone would tell how the victim got injured. All I seem to get is

Comments

[stormwreath]

A grand total of twelve Gatling guns were used in the American Civil War, by the Union army around Petersburg in 1864. They were privately purchased: the US Army did not adopt the weapon officially until 1866.

The version in use then fired a .58 calibre bullet (that is, 0.58 of an inch / 14.7 mm in diameter). That was the same as the standard musket round used by just about every infantry soldier in the war - but completely unlike any bullet used in a modern weapon. Assuming the actual bullet was left in the wound, and not just the hole it left behind, a modern forensics expert would certainly think, "Who shot this guy with a black-powder musket?" He might, however, guess at two separate shooters for two wounds, rather than immediately assuming a Gatling gun.

The Gatling's rate of fire was theoretically 600 per minute, or 10 bullets per second. It was hand-cranked, however, and actual rate of fire in practice was probably less than half that. Also, the Gatling gun's magazine held 400 bullets, so it could fire for only 40 seconds at maximum rate before running out of ammunition. What would be more likely is that either the gunner would fire only a very short burst at your character, or he'd be traversing the gun back and forth to sweep it across the front of a large group of people - so it's reasonable to assume someone might only be hit by a couple of bullets assuming he's a fair distance from the gun.

[stormwreath]

Just to add:

it's fairly easy to keep this from being an out and out police investigation

I'm pretty sure that at a modern hospital, any patient coming in with any sort of gunshot wound will be the subject of a police investigation. The hospital staff will report it automatically. Especially in Britain, if your mention of MI6 mean that's where the fic is set. Your MI6 person probably could hush it up anyway, but it would be a major task for them, not just something they could casually wave away.

[tarvae]

Fortunately for my sanity, the person with the ID has a pretty good supply of BS to apply to the police if needed and as the world is not that close to the one we live in there is a much greater degree of leeway given to people from certain families. But you're right, it's not a matter of waving it off, they'll need to pull in favours and make calls and possibly answer for it later.

[tarvae]

Thanks, that is really helpful about the ball shot and realistic rate of fire compared to the theoretical one.

[nuranar]

Thanks for the factual info about the Gatling! Including specifics about their use.