Grrl Power #329 – It’s only painless if you ignore the back pain
When I started writing this page I may have overestimated the weight of a minigun. I based it off what I remember hearing the prop from Predator weighing, which was something like 160 pounds. Thinking about it now that may have included the belt and the backpack, or heck it may have been someone’s estimation of the total weight including the ammo. I actually timed all the firing time in the movie once cause I’m a big nerd like that. The “Schwarzenegger’s Forest Clearing Service” scene was the bulk of it of course, but all told it was very nearly 60 seconds worth, and depending on the exact model of the minigun that comes out to somewhere between 2,000 and 6,000 rounds, and that adds up.
Turns out the GE M134 Minigun, which I think is what Blaine used, weighs 85 pounds (39 kg). (There’s a lighter variant but clearly this one is not that.) The prop for the movie was modified, for instance it had some kind of rifle grip on the bottom. It actually looked like a pump action shotgun but it was probably just a handhold. Anyway, Sydney could probably lift 85 lbs off the ground if she could get her legs and back into it, but picking it up when it’s already waist high mostly using her biceps would be… well, impossible according to this page. Also I can say the one on the table is modified and weighs whatever I want it to. :) If nothing else, six bayonets and the clamps to hold them on to the spinning barrels would probably add what, 10-ish pounds?
The previous page telegraphs this one a bit, and a few people in the comments called this outcome with comments like “Yeah, if she can lift it” which is why I wanted this page and the previous one to go up as a double page, but there’s only so much time in a week and I was still catching up from the previous double. Well one day I’ll have a bevy of unpaid interns doing backgrounds and making 3D models for me. :)
Here’s the link to the new comments highlighter for chrome, and the GitHub link which you can use to install on FireFox via Greasemonkey.
Hah, that’s a nice detail. Never occurred to me that Maxima would naturally be so used to her own perceptions of weight, speed, temperature, and force, that she’d be inclined to forget what they’re like for normal people. Nice use of Fridge Logic. ;)
Even knowing what was coming up, returning to this page, I still found myself bursting out laughing the instant I saw Halo’s super-keen face, with the “Minigun! Minigun! Minigun!” and “Bounce Bounce Bounce”.
A great cure for depression.
I’ve been re-reading because … actually I’m not sure why. Someone linked something to somewhere … in the middle of the fight, I think. Anyway!
Last page I was remembering the punch-line of this one and it still got a good chuckle as I finished reading it.
Also agreeing with NoriMori above, it’s definitely nice to see the realism of someone using their own experiences as a reference for “normal” and mis-applying them to people with completely different capabilities.
Hey thanks! I’m on a re-read too!
Also Yorp, I’ve noticed your replies on a lot of my comments, and I appreciate it!
Inspiring comments invite a reply. So the pleasure is mutual.
*wags tail companionably*
This is my …. 7th or so reread
Hey now Im on my 9th re-read and found my own comment :D
The US Army’s M-10 bayonet weighs just under a pound. https://www.onestopknifeshop.com/store/ontario-m10-us-army-bayonet.html
So, six pounds per bayonet, at least another half pound for mounting hardware, another few pounds for the carry frame, minus a pound for the missing flash hider…
Call it a hundred-pound gun.
Sydney can’t weigh more than 130 pounds, right?
Lifting three-quarters of your own weight is a hard challenge for competitive weightlifters!
Impossible for Sydney sounds exactly right.
Now, if she used her Lighthook, on the other hand… hmm, are we gonna have a call back to this moment later?
The thought it too terrifying!
“Lifting three-quarters of your own weight is a hard challenge for competitive weightlifters!”
Depends what lift you’re performing. I’m more familiar with powerlifting than weightlifting. I’m not competition level (not strong enough), but I’m still able to lift more than my own weight on each of the three lifts – bench press, squat and deadlift.
Weightlifting has two lifts, the clean and jerk and the snatch. Competitors are usually able to lift more than their own weight on those.
From other comments, it sounds like the weight of the weapon is not the problem, it’s the ammo. 2000 rounds looks like it would weigh more than the weapon, without any feed mechanism or batteries to feed the motor.
(checks) The ammo for the M134 masses 10 or 11 grams each. So 2,000 rounds is 20-22 kg, or 44-50 pounds.
That’s for the cartridges alone, without any allowance for the backpack to carry it, or feed mechanism from backpack to the gun.
So if it’s tuned for 2000 rounds per minute, then no it won’t mass more than the weapon. But close.
Battery mass would also be a problem. Particularly in the 1980s during filming.
I think I remember hearing that the weapon in the movie was tuned to fire more slowly than that though. Or maybe a combination of slower fire rate and underloading the cartridges. Since I don’t think anything human could actually stand up and control the thing.
Dillon makes a “pod” for aircraft and helicopters that’s more or less self-contained. Gun, battery (can also hook up to the craft’s electrical system), feed and ammo capacity for 3000 rounds. Weight is only about 350 pounds when loaded…
Gorrammit. Six pounds FOR THE bayonets.
Editor me is OCD.
This is funny. But it doesn’t take into account Lighthook.
It does. Sydney fixated on lifting the minigun. The thought of using it hyper-stimulated her, precluding all other distractions. This is one of the things which can happen with ADHD. Albeit that it is not explained above, so your comment is reasonable.
However the result is that Halo’s tunnel vision made her miss something, which would be obvious to her, at other times. In future Sydney may well rectify the omission and practice how to use the lighthook to lift the gun, whilst firing it with her other hand. I do not think that it is narrow enough to pull the trigger (assuming a normal sized finger guard), although it certainly would be dexterous enough to do so, with an oversized trigger guard.
I would not want to be in the same room as her, when practicing that though!
She has shown to be dexterous with the light hook almost as if it extends from the tip. We also know that it only works outside her shield. So a few wraps around the gun for support and then use tip to pull the trigger or do other finger related actions like the safety and mode select, all while she is bubbled up.
She could hold it with the lighthook and just pull the trigger.
How did she forget her lighthook!
* that point you realize every comment above yours is the exact same thing cause you were tunnel-visioning a comment*
He he.
Imagine if Sydney remembered to use the Lighthook to lift it up XD XD XD