Infojunky said:
you really do get more out of a rotary weapons with four barrels than you would by putting four standard machine guns of the same caliber together.
Gatling-style guns are notoriously finicky in early designs But the modern Minigun is very reliable.one advantage is they do not have reciprocating parts, the action is very smooth and as no jar or rattle involved as you do with a heavy bolt slamming back and forth. That also reduces stress on the weapon and improves reliability. a dud round doesn't stop the gun from functioning it simply cycles through the weapon and is ejected. and you can adjust rate of fire with the turn of a knob to change the motors RPM.
And if you look at the increase in sustained fire capability things are far more impressive giving it barrel a chance to cool down a bit between shots and the air flow created by the rotation does seriously increase the sustained fire ability of a rotary gun. a50 caliber minigun will put more rounds down range than as many M2 Machineguns as the minigun has barrels since te M@s have be managed a bit to keep from overheating.
of course this is all theoretical I haven had the pleasure of holding a shoot off between the types...