GUNS Magazine Hower .22 LR Gatling Gun

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The hand-built .22 LR Gatling gun built by farmer, gunsmith and machinist Kenneth Hower.

In 1861 Dr. Richard J. Gatling built his namesake invention, the Gatling Gun. The good doctor rationalized if he created a weapon with firepower equal to many soldiers, it would ultimately reduce the number of soldiers needed. This would decrease the size of armies and therefore reduce the number of deaths by combat and disease. Gatling felt his revolutionary weapon would show the futility of war — unfortunately his belief didn’t work out too well.

Yet the hand-crank proto-machine gun is still around. Kenneth Hower of Arkansas City, Kansas is a skilled machinist who likes to challenge himself by building different types of firearms for personal use and his latest project is the well-intentioned gun of Dr. Gatling.

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The business end of the Hower Gatling gun features ten 22.-caliber barrels similar
in configuration to the original Gatling design. Hower designed his own working
24-round drum magazine.

Design-Specs: Wrong!

Hower started out by purchasing blueprints for the Gatling gun. Once he started to machine and manufacture this very ambitious project, he quickly realized the expensive plans he bought were simply wrong. Not to be stifled, Ken used his mechanical intuition and plenty of internet research to draw up his own set of plans. While working the kinks out, Hower would fabricate a new part and when it did not work, he machined another based on the previous failure.

Being a full-time farmer who likes to hunt, Hower could only work on the Gatling gun project intermittently. During the lengthy process, Ken returned to Trinidad State College for follow-up gunsmithing lessons and to also show others what he had in mind. After three long years, the 10-barrel, 30-lb. Hower .22 LR Gatling gun was heading for the firing line.

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A closeup of the breach of the .22 LR Hower Gatling gun. All parts were hand-fabricated
from blueprints, which turned out wrong in many cases!

Magazine Woes

Part of the problem was the gun’s magazine. Ken liked the drum design over the easier-to-build “stick” model so he had to work out how a round magazine would actually feed .22 LR ammo. After much experimentation, he finally fabricated a working 24-round version.

Ken has told me if he builds another Gatling gun, it would be for the .38 Special cartridge. Building a .22 LR Gatling gun required smaller-than-normal parts that are difficult to manufacture due to the close tolerances involved. A .38 Special version would use larger, somewhat-easier to fabricate parts plus the cartridge has a crisp rim making the extraction of fired cases mechanically easier. One final bonus: Factory .38 special rounds are more expensive to purchase but can be reloaded many times, making the Gatling gun cheaper to shoot in the long run.

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The hand-built elevation and traverse mechanism allows aiming and closely echoes the original design.

A Fun Gun Runs

Without a doubt, the Hower Gatling gun is fascinating, cute, authentic in design and I found it impossible not to smile while cranking off a steady stream of .22 caliber bullets from the 12″ barrels. This is one very cool firearm and a blast to shoot!

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Hower .22 LR Gatling Gun

A frustrating labor of love!

Design-Specs: Wrong!

Magazine Woes

A Fun Gun Runs

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