# The US Army 1200-barrel helicopter-mounted .22 shotgun

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-us-army-1200-barrel-helicopter-mounted-22-shotgun/712699>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [February 15, 2015, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-us-army-1200-barrel-helicopter-mounted-22-shotgun/712699 "2015-02-15T04:25:49Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\
**Post date:** [February 15, 2015, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-us-army-1200-barrel-helicopter-mounted-22-shotgun/712699/1 "2015-02-15T04:25:49Z")

</div>

Vietnam tested.

[This](https://medium.com/war-is-boring/the-u-s-army-tested-a-helicopter-shotgun-armed-with-1-200-barrels-ce1ca126537d) has just been let loose to float on the Internet.

Has anyone heard of it?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\
**Post date:** [February 15, 2015, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-us-army-1200-barrel-helicopter-mounted-22-shotgun/712699/2 "2015-02-15T04:28:04Z")

</div>

Sounds kind of like an early version of the [metal storm](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metal_Storm) to me. Not sure how practical it would be on a helicopter.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\
**Post date:** [February 16, 2015, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-us-army-1200-barrel-helicopter-mounted-22-shotgun/712699/3 "2015-02-16T16:25:34Z")

</div>

> [@XT](#):
>
> Sounds kind of like an early version of the [metal storm](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metal_Storm) to me. Not sure how practical it would be on a helicopter.

Metal Storm has fewer barrels, and each barrel is multi-shot.

This brilliant idea reminded me more of a claymore mine, only slightly safer to the people on the “safe” side of it.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Telperion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telperion/32/509_2.png) [@Telperion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telperion)\
**Post date:** [February 16, 2015, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-us-army-1200-barrel-helicopter-mounted-22-shotgun/712699/4 "2015-02-16T16:44:51Z")

</div>

> [@gnoitall](#):
>
> Metal Storm has fewer barrels, and each barrel is multi-shot.
> 
> This brilliant idea reminded me more of a claymore mine, only slightly safer to the people on the “safe” side of it.

It’s actually more like the bridge guns from the Civil War, so called because they would be placed at chokepoints and rigged to fire all barrels when the enemy charged their positions. Can’t really see how it would be much use on a helicopter though, considering that those don’t generally land on bridges and you’d have to be pretty lucky to get the enemy to attack in single file otherwise.