Ager Gun
- Category
- Machine Gun
- Barrel
- 889 mm
- Weight, empty
- Not recorded
- Introduced
- 1861
About
What it is, and why it matters
The Ager Gun, nicknamed the 'Coffee Mill Gun' for its grinder-like loading hopper and officially the Union Repeating Gun, was a hand-cranked, single-barrel rapid-fire machine gun used in the American Civil War. Operators dropped reusable steel tubes, each holding a .58-caliber paper cartridge and percussion cap, into the gravity hopper, and turning the crank chambered, fired, and ejected them at up to about 120 rounds per minute. Personally championed by President Abraham Lincoln, it was an important predecessor to the Gatling gun but was condemned by Ordnance officers for overheating, jamming, and heavy ammunition consumption, so it saw only limited frontline use.
President Abraham Lincoln personally attended the field trials, judged the gun 'worth the attention of the Government,' and ordered ten himself, making it one of the first rapid-fire weapons bought for the U.S. military. A captured Ager gun was reportedly fired skyward near Reams' Station, Virginia in 1864 at an observation balloon, in what is sometimes described as the first anti-aircraft use of a machine gun.
Inventor Wilson Ager (also spelled Agar); some sources credit the underlying mechanism to William Palmer and/or Edward Nugent. Roughly 50-60 made (10 ordered by Lincoln, ~50 by Gen. McClellan). Confederate forces used a few captured examples. 'Ager' and 'Agar' are interchangeable spellings of the same gun.
Specification
Everything measured
IdentityWhat it is, who built it and when.
- Manufacturer
- American Arms Company
- Category
- Machine Gun
- Country
- United States
- Status
- Discontinued
- Produced
- 1861 to 1865
DimensionsAs issued, without a magazine or an optic.
- Barrel
- 889 mm
- Overall length
- 1422 mm
ActionHow it cycles, what trips it, and what feeds it.
- Action
- Muzzleloader
- Firing mechanism
- Percussion
- Magazine
- Internal
MaterialsEach swatch is the material itself, not a colour chosen to stand for it.
- Frame
- Steel
- Barrel
- Steel
BallisticsFrom the service cartridge, not a handload.
- Effective range
- 730 m
- Maximum range
- 910 m
- Rate of fire
- 120 rpm
Trajectory
What the round does downrange
Solved from the muzzle figures and the bullet. The dashed rule is the effective range on the record, and the crosses are the steps the solver returned.
No load solved for this record yetThe flight path is computed from a cartridge and a bullet. This record has no ammunition filed against its chambering, so there is nothing to solve.
Features
What it has
What the record lists as fitted, drawn from the catalogue.
- Hand cranked
Gravity hopper feed
Reusable steel cartridge tubes
Interchangeable barrel- Field carriage mounted
Standing
How it compares
Each figure against the firearms of the same type and cartridge that record it, or of the same type where that cartridge has too few. Positions are read to the nearest tenth.
| Measurement | This firearm | Median | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall lengthAmong 260 machine guns | 1422 mm | 1156 mm | Longer than about 90% |
| Barrel lengthAmong 257 machine guns | 889 mm | 605 mm | Longer than about 90% |
Answers
Questions about the Ager Gun
What caliber is the Ager Gun?
The Ager Gun is chambered in .58 Caliber.
How long is the Ager Gun?
The Ager Gun is 1422 mm (56.0 in) long overall, with a 889 mm (35.0 in) barrel.
Who makes the Ager Gun?
The Ager Gun is made by American Arms Company (United States). It was designed by Wilson Ager.
When was the Ager Gun introduced?
The Ager Gun was introduced in 1861 and discontinued in 1865.
How does the Ager Gun operate?
The Ager Gun uses a muzzleloader action, and its firing mechanism is percussion.
Compatibility
Which parts fit this firearm
Studio
Every part that mounts on this, resolved
Not a list the maker typed out: the answer comes from the mounts this firearm exposes and the interface each part needs, so it stays right when either one changes.
- Every part that mounts on any firearm in the catalogue
- Interface standards, platforms and fit overrides
- The same answers through the API and the MCP server
Requires a signed-in GunSpec account on the Studio plan. The answer is computed per part, so it is not part of the public record.
Provenance
What the record holds
Every figure above was taken from one of these pages. The confidence reflects how much of the record came from a page a claim can be checked against.
In service
- Union Army
- 1861
- Confederate States Army
- United States
Provenance
Confidence in this record
60%
Stockists
Where to buy
Offers link straight to the shop. GunSpec never takes the order.
No shop has listed this firearm yet
Stock and prices come from the shops themselves. If you sell this firearm, you can list it and it appears here.
List a firearmMCP
Ask an assistant about it
The same record, reached the way a person asks for it rather than the way a program does.
Ask GunSpec
Works with
Point an MCP client at GunSpec and it answers from the catalogue rather than from memory. A free key covers the read tools.
API
The call that returns this record
The same fields, in the same units, from the same endpoint the page reads.
curl --request GET \ --url 'https://api.gunspec.io/v1/firearms/ager-gun' \ --header 'X-API-Key: your_key'{ "id": "ager-gun", "name": "Ager Gun", "manufacturer": { "id": "american-arms-company", "name": "American Arms Company", "countryCode": "US", "foundedYear": null, "website": null, "logoUrl": null, "description": null, "status": null, "defunctYear": null, "stateOwned": null, "makesFirearms": null, "parentId": null, "predecessorId": null, "createdAt": "2026-06-21 23:00:46", "updatedAt": "2026-06-21 23:00:46", "version": "813d0c8eeb7579d2da159a715a69af7293e9b7568e83f8bc2731e076b08b35d1" }, "category": { "id": "machine-gun", "name": "Machine Gun", "description": "Fully automatic firearms for sustained fire" }, "country_of_origin": "US", "year_introduced": 1861, "barrel_length_mm": 889, "weight_empty_g": null, "action_type": "muzzleloader"}