I awakened after a dream where I engineered a clone of the Gardner Gun with flat aluminum plates for a frame, a drill press, and a tap and die set. It would probably work well in 22 – but I really don’t have any use for one. William Gardner designed it in the 1870’s as a simplified alternative to the Gatling – and I may be able to plan how to build a copy, but I surely can’t see a need for one. I’d probably use a commercial Ruger 10-22 magazine, but as you can see from the photo of the original, it has a crank, not a trigger. Remember, I spent a lot of my youth with single-shot rifles. I’m kind of frugal with ammunition.
Still, as the President continues to war against home-made guns, the idea of turning out a Gardner in the garage has a perverse appeal. And a glance at the photo shows the appeal of turning one out with flat metal and a tap and die set.
Still, it isn’t the only temptation in the bolt together frame option. The guy behind this article seems to have had a similar idea:
His article shows how, from a quarter inch steel plate, a little bit of round stock, a chunk of stainless steel tubing, you can wind up with a break-in-the-middle shotgun. This photos suggests someone, somewhere, is mass producing them.
Maybe it’s easier to write gun control legislation if you don’t have much mechanical aptitude?
Trego's Mountain Ear 