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[–] 15 points 8 months ago (13 children)

TIL, that rotary machines guns spin to cool down.

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  • [–] 16 points 8 months ago (2 children)

    It's more that using multiple barrels keeps any one barrel from heating up too quickly, and it's easier to have multiple barrels than entire firing assemblies.

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  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago (1 child)

    Not only that but the barrel is rotating quite fast which encourages cooling.

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  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago

    Sure, but realistically air isn't a good enough heat conductor for this to help much. Fixed machine guns used to use water-cooling but that's been phased out and modern weapons simple replace the barrel when it gets too hot.

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  • [–] 6 points 8 months ago (8 children)

    Uh, what did you think the rotary barrels were for?

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  • [–] 11 points 8 months ago (5 children)

    ...more barrel = more bullet? 🥴

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  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago*

    I mean technically they spin to cool but also because they use the time it takes to rotate to unload and reload a round. Basically "1 fire, 1 move out of the way, 2 fire, 1 unload, 2 move, 3 fire, 1 load, 2 unload, 3 move, etc." multiple reasons

    As someone else put it. No dakka, just brrt. When you have 8 dakkas in sync, you get all the -kka happening while the next barrel is already Da-, so dakka dakka turns into dadadadadadddddddrrrrrrtt

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