Bira gun

Bira gun

Infobox Weapon
name=Bira gun


caption=
origin=flagcountry|Nepal
type= Machine gun
is_ranged=YES
service=Royal Nepalese Army
used_by=
wars=
designer=Gehendra Shamsher Jang Bahadur Rana
design_date=
manufacturer=
unit_cost=
production_date=1896-1897
number=
variants=
spec_label=
weight=
length=
part_length=
width=
height=
diameter=
crew=
cartridge=.577/450 Martini-Henry
caliber=.577/450
barrels=2
action=Reverse Gardner Action
rate=
velocity=
range=
max_range=
feed=
sights= The Bira gun was a .577/450 Martini-Henry calibre machine gun designed and manufactured in Nepal during the latter part of the 19th Century. It was a development of, and based upon, the American Gardner gun, it was double barreled, but fed through an overhead drum magazine similar to the later Lewis gun. The Bira gun was never deployed operationally.

Invented by Nepalese General Gehendra Shamsher Jang Bahadur Rana (1871-1905) and similar in some respects to the American Gardner (especially in the reciprocating bolts), the internal mechanism of the Bira Gun is actually quite different in a number of ways, especially as it is hand-crank fired- but the handle is rotated anti-clockwise, as this was found more reliable than the usual clockwise rotation of most other mechanical guns such as the Gatling gun and Nordenfeldt gun. Bira Guns were manufactured in 1896-97 and are literally hand-made, with few parts from one interchangeable with those on another. They were apparently never used in battle but are interesting artifacts, in that they were built at a time when fully-automatic machine guns, such as the Maxim, had been developed and were becoming increasingly common.

Image Gallery

* http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/4531/bira1oe4.jpg
* http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/8305/bira2ri0.jpg
* http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/3667/bira3em0.jpg
* http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/8553/bira4jt2.jpg
* http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/1459/bira5mj2.jpg
* http://img293.imageshack.us/img293/2779/bira6dr9.jpg
* http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/9378/bira7no4.jpg

External links

* http://www.nrapublications.org/tar/Nepal.asp
* http://www.cannonsuperstore.com/New_Folder9/DSC001071.jpg
* http://www.ima-usa.com/product_info.php/products_id/1853

ee also

*Nordenfelt gun
*Gardner gun
*Gatling gun
*Gast gun


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