What is/was the most unusual firearm you've ever shot?

Post by **Ysabel Kid** » Sat Sep 12, 2009 10:54 pm

A lot of levergunners seemed to like the topic of this recent post, "what's the most unusual cartridge you shoot?" (http://www.levergunscommunity.com/viewt ... =1&t=20450).

So, as a follow up question, what was the most unusual firearm you've ever had the opportunity to shoot? How was it?

Me? Boring fodder, relatively speaking. I would like to try a wheel-lock and a match-lock. I would love to get my pinfire working and give it a whirl. If I wasn't paying for the rounds, I've love to shoot a few thousand rounds through a Dillon M134!

Bullard4075 · Post by **Bullard4075** » Sat Sep 12, 2009 11:26 pm

50 cal Barrett. 36lb gun IIRC, shot like a 12ga. The concussion (if you can call it that) could be felt in the chest.

Post by **Old Savage** » Sat Sep 12, 2009 11:33 pm

81 MM mortar and original Springfield 45-70.

Old Time Hunter · Post by **Old Time Hunter** » Sat Sep 12, 2009 11:52 pm

Dreyse needle-gun. You have to close your eyes as you are pulling the trigger Because the blow -back is quite substantial. The cartridge is paper, the primer is in front of the powder nestled up against the back of the projectile and the firing pin(needle) has to puncture the paper, go thru the powder and hit the primer. The pressure blows back against the bolt, then back forward. As long as you hold 'er steady through all the fracous, it shoots ok. Just goes Ka....Boom.

Mokwaw · Post by **Mokwaw** » Sun Sep 13, 2009 12:07 am

It would have to be OI's Howda pistol. One ounce lead ball pushed by several grains of BP, looked very intimidating but not as bad as expected. Big clouds of smoke, couldn't see if I hit the target or not.

BigSky56 · Post by **BigSky56** » Sun Sep 13, 2009 12:16 am

Its a toss up between a quad 50 and a free mounted mini gun one being low tech the other high tech, those 4 Ma duces are sweet though. danny

geobru · Post by **geobru** » Sun Sep 13, 2009 12:59 am

50-110 Ballard single shot. Had a long range tang site that hit my forehead each time I shot it. It weighed around 14 or 15 pounds IIRC. It was a fun BP un to shoot.

CEMENTHEAD · Post by **CEMENTHEAD** » Sun Sep 13, 2009 2:17 am

600 Nitro in a beautiful engraved SxS...pretty sure it was Holland and Holland. I was 15 at the time. Talk about BRUTAL recoil !!!

My uncle coached me pretty well, I didn't get too beat up or drop it. Never forget that.

gamekeeper · Post by **gamekeeper** » Sun Sep 13, 2009 4:43 am

I once fired an antique F/L blunderbuss at a balloon rising from a trap, a bit like slow motion skeet.

I also met a guy at the range that let me fire his original Springfield .45/70.

Gobblerforge · Post by **Gobblerforge** » Sun Sep 13, 2009 5:22 am

Evans repeater. A marvel of design. Then there is the Hotchkis bolt action and a Spencer that was cool but very heavy.
Gobbler

Aussie Chris · Post by **Aussie Chris** » Sun Sep 13, 2009 6:13 am

.50cal BMG single shot LAR Grizzly bolt action.

jhrosier · Post by **jhrosier** » Sun Sep 13, 2009 6:30 am

I got to fire an MBA Gyrjet pistol many years ago.
It is a sort of mini rocket launcher that fires a 13 mm projectile that looks much like a 45ACP cartridge.
I was shooting on a 20' indoor range and the rocket was still burning when it hit the steel plate behind the target. The projectile made a big flash like incendary ammo.
Even way back then, the ammo was a couple hours pay per shot so the owner only donated one shot per person.

Jack

RIHMFIRE · Post by **RIHMFIRE** » Sun Sep 13, 2009 6:38 am

C Sharps 45-120 big, long, heavy and very accurate....

rjohns94 · Post by **rjohns94** » Sun Sep 13, 2009 8:00 am

not sure if I have fired any unusual firearms. When I think of unusual, I get the idea of unique or rare. As I grew up, I use to think the old marlin and winchester leverguns like the 71, 1895, 93, were unusual and rare. That was before the internet and I never saw many of them. Probably why I was drawn to a little shop in Va. Through that shop I got to shoot lots of neat firearms, all orignials: Win 73 super grade in 22 short, Spencers, sharps, Thompson .45 cal full auto with drum and stick mags, full auto BAR (one of my favorites), Water cooled belt fed machine guns, Valmets in full auto, beautiful LC Smiths, Parkers, Stens and Sterlings, and H&K's in full military versions as well as civilian versions. I guess I have been blessed in that way. Later in the military, got to play with all sorts but I guess the most unusual that I shot was as Weapons Officer on an SSBN when I shot a POSEIDON Ballistic Missle Ripple launch of 4 missles which traveled some 3000 miles through the Atlantic, or the many MK-48 Torpedos Launched from many Subs.

TedH · Post by **TedH** » Sun Sep 13, 2009 8:08 am

Pretty boring here I suppose. I fired an MP5 and a Thompson in the Law Enforcement Academy and my 470 Nitro Express is about as unusual as I get nowadays.

Pete44ru · Post by **Pete44ru** » Sun Sep 13, 2009 8:46 am

A ca. 1877-1891 S&W .320 Revolving Rifle.

.

kimwcook · Post by **kimwcook** » Sun Sep 13, 2009 8:51 am

A French Chauterrault bolt action rifle. I had to function fire it for work. Brought back from WWII by the victim. Not many gun cranks around me.

Swampman · Post by **Swampman** » Sun Sep 13, 2009 9:42 am

I guess an M-3 grease gun. It belonged to my buddy's dad. I was 12.

Malamute · Post by **Malamute** » Sun Sep 13, 2009 9:58 am

I shot a Ruger Hawkeye pistol once. It was unfired before I shot it.

Muzzle blast was hideous.

Thunder50 · Post by **Thunder50** » Sun Sep 13, 2009 10:08 am

Have to go with either the mini-gun, a replica gatling gun or a 37mm Hotchkiss mountain rifle

rangerider7 · Post by **rangerider7** » Sun Sep 13, 2009 10:20 am

I used to own a "whip-it" sawed off Remington model 11 auto 12 gauge shotgun. I cleaned up a few gallon milk containers with it. It was a hoot.

AJMD429 · Post by **AJMD429** » Sun Sep 13, 2009 10:26 am

Ysabel Kid wrote:I would love to get my pinfire working and give it a whirl.

Since ammo is an issue with those, has anyone come up with a brass cartridge adapter/insert that would allow some modern rimfire or centerfire to work in one.

Sixgun · Post by **Sixgun** » Sun Sep 13, 2009 11:23 am

I've shot lots of different guns that are civilian or law enforcement legal from original Revolutionary War guns up to the modern Colt M-4 full auto's. I'll have to say the ones that tickeled me the most were the original Civil War guns. 1849, 1851, and 1860 Colts, along with the "New Army" Remington cap and balls are a blast. 1861 Springfields and Spencers were fun in my limited shooting with them.

I've shot every Winchester ever made except a Henry (I know, its not really a Winchester) and a Gatling gun. These are on my "to do list" before I croak.

-------------Sixgun

Buffboy · Post by **Buffboy** » Sun Sep 13, 2009 11:52 am

I guess the most unusual for me was a Steyr AUG. Select fire, owned by a dealer in such while he was out prairie dog hunting with me.

Friend has owned a Barrett since they first came out, but I've never talked him into letting me shoot it, he's promised lots of times but it just never came together.

Not all that unusual, but a 50cal black powder cannon that my brother and I built in our machine shop. Actually we built two, both sold long ago. My brother whittled out a 2 incher that that is still out in the Black Hills for a friend of his but I was never around when it was shot.

Ray Newman · Post by **Ray Newman** » Sun Sep 13, 2009 12:29 pm

A black powder catridge 8 bore double rifle w/ hammers. Even though it weighed in excess of 20 lbs., it did let you know when it went off....

20cows · Post by **20cows** » Sun Sep 13, 2009 1:57 pm

Thompson full auto and German drilling (16ga with 8x57JR)

moosemike · Post by **moosemike** » Sun Sep 13, 2009 2:12 pm

Various flintlocks, Thompson, 45-70 Sharps.

Barcelona Rick · Post by **Barcelona Rick** » Sun Sep 13, 2009 3:07 pm

Ma Duce in the USN.....

jumbeaux

765x53 · Post by **765x53** » Sun Sep 13, 2009 3:18 pm

152mm Shillelagh gun/launcher firing Shillelagh guided missiles or combustible case heat rounds.

KirkD · Post by **KirkD** » Sun Sep 13, 2009 3:28 pm

Hmmmmmm. By 'unusual', I'll take it to mean 'pretty hard to find laying around on a regular bases', rather than 'downright sci-fi/bizarre/massively powerful' (mainly because I must confess to never having fired anything in the latter category). As far as firing something that you don't find laying around every day, it is a toss-up in my mind between two old sixguns. The first is an original US Army Schofield issued in 1876. It had a lot of holster wear, but was well maintained. It also had four very ancient notches carved into the base of one side of the butt that looked exactly as old as the wood they were carved in. Here's a photo of that old Schofield I once owned and shot .....

The other tie for the title is the gun that made me sell that old Schofield in order to get the cash to buy this one. It is an original S&W 2nd Model American chambered in 44 Russian, and shipped in the fall of 1873. It, too, has done time in the holster, judging from the worn finish on either side of the barrel, but its bore and chambers are pristine ..... a sign of two things ..... that it spent the early part of its shooting life in the arid American Southwest and that when it was shot, it was well cleaned afterward. Of the various old sixguns and modern 1911's I have owned and shot, this gun is the only one that I can shoot by instinct without aiming and it consistently puts the bullet right where you're looking as it is swinging up and out of the holster. I don't know if it is the shape of the grip, or that long 8" barrel, but this one doesn't miss when there is no time to aim. Maybe, when it slicks out of the holster and that muzzle whips up, it is remembering the days in the mid-1870's when it was young and the west was still wild. Here's a photo .....

Boreman · Post by **Boreman** » Sun Sep 13, 2009 3:33 pm

I bought a custom Mauser action bolt gun in 30-06 AI. It was the hardest recoiling rifle I ever owned. It bruised my sholder and my cheek no matter how I held it. I did not own it very long.

C. Cash · Post by **C. Cash** » Sun Sep 13, 2009 3:44 pm

I'm pretty boring in this department I guess. An Australian marked Martini Cadet is the most unusual civilian gun I've shot. All the usual military stuff(I was an M-60 gunner and shot SAW, M-2 50 cal., M-203 Grenade launcher, M-16A1...etc).

Griff · Post by **Griff** » Sun Sep 13, 2009 5:49 pm

Mike wins.

No contest... Anything I've ever shot, someone has also shot one... except, Mike!

brucew44guns · Post by **brucew44guns** » Sun Sep 13, 2009 6:32 pm

Last spring I shot 3 clips through my son-in-laws mint 1918 Browning A2 (Browning Automatic Rifle) He gave 25,000 bucks for that rifle, it fired 20 times in just a couple seconds, awesome.

rjohns94 · Post by **rjohns94** » Sun Sep 13, 2009 7:03 pm

WinM71 · Post by **WinM71** » Sun Sep 13, 2009 7:29 pm

Not really unusual, but I shot a .460 Weatherby Mark V about 35 years ago. Much less punishment than I expected. I had about a 150 yard shot somewhat downhill at a big pond. I was very surprised by how quickly the bullet seemed to get there, it seemed like an '06 speed-wise (though it isn't, of course).

Kansas Ed · Post by **Kansas Ed** » Sun Sep 13, 2009 9:12 pm

You know gents...what we shoot regularly, most normal people would have listed in a thread such as this.

Ed

Post by **Ysabel Kid** » Sun Sep 13, 2009 9:15 pm

AJMD429 wrote:
Ysabel Kid wrote:I would love to get my pinfire working and give it a whirl.
Since ammo is an issue with those, has anyone come up with a brass cartridge adapter/insert that would allow some modern rimfire or centerfire to work in one.

There was an article on making pinfire cartridges just recently in one of the gun magazines. I saved it. That would be the way to go, as ammunition itself - real period ammo - would be much too expensive to shoot!

C. Cash · Post by **C. Cash** » Sun Sep 13, 2009 9:30 pm

Griff's right...Mike wins!

Just to continually bore folks, this family rifle is a standard looking bolt action 22(Western Field by Mossberg). But, the model was made only one year....1937 and I have never seen another one. Though it looks run of the mill, probably the most "rare". It was passed down through the family, dispatching many hundreds of cans and bottles out near the Superstition Mountains in Arizona. It sits next to my Grandfather's Mod. of 1937 Winchester Single shot, and picture of my Dad, sibs and Grandparents the same year that they left Knox Co. Texas, in you guessed it, 1937.

Rangerider.....based on shooting short pistol barreled Thompson Center 410's, that Whippit must have been interesting.

GoatGuy · Post by **GoatGuy** » Sun Sep 13, 2009 10:03 pm

Shot a couple of rounds of "cow pasture" trap in San Antonio, TX with a rare, high priced Darne 12 gauge, loaned to me for the contest. Won some beer money that day too. Dang, that was a long time ago,... 1971!

Doc Hudson · Post by **Doc Hudson** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 2:45 am

My shooting has generally been prety much run of the mill stuff. i did get a chance to shoot an Ingram MAC 10 at the first CSA Rendezvous. And I had a chance to shoot a Schmisser Machine Pistol back in the early 1970's, I don't know which model it was.

The only other out of the ordinary deal was once getting to pull the lanyard on a 12-pdr Blakely Rifle. A pound of Fg powder and a heavy wad. It made a heckuva BOOM!!!

Borregos · Post by **Borregos** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 5:38 am

Thompson an full auto and Bren LMG on full auto

madman4570 · Post by **madman4570** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 7:29 am

I would have to say probably a 1969 AutoMag pistol (.44 AMP) same Model as what Clint Eastwood used in Sudden Impact.I liked it!

Post by **Old Savage** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 7:37 am

Have to say the M2 50 Cal was fun and the - was it M203 Grenade launcher. But the one to watch was the 106 recoil less rifle off a jeep shooting a barrel of gasoline.

OJ · Post by OJ » Mon Sep 14, 2009 11:22 am

The BATF, in all its wisdom, considered this .410 bore pistol with 12" barrel, single shot, and chambered only for 2 1/2" shell - to be as dangerous to society as the Thompson submachine gun and, despite having reclassified it as a "Curio & Relic" - consistently have refused to take if off the NFA list.

It was given to me in 1933 by a friend of my dad and, in 1934, had to be registered as an NFA weapon at a cost of $200 depression day dollars. I had to list a reason for owning such a terrible weapon - I said I was a "gun collector" - I was nearly 8 years old.

It was very dangerous to jack rabbits, prairie dogs, and an occasional unwary pheasant, though.

It is the most expensive gift I ever got.

MrMurphy · Post by **MrMurphy** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 1:02 pm

I've shot quite a few "not what you see every day" guns mostly in the military realm of things. MP5 (multiple variants), Uzi (suppressed and unsuppressed), Colt 635. Carried the M4, M249 and M240, M203 for years. Shot a friend's .50 Barrett, and thanks to my job, shot about a 200 round burst from a M134 minigun.

I'd say one of the more unusual guns (pair) I've held, though not shot was an original, never fired pair of horse pistols, Tower of London model issue from the 1600s. Perfect balance.

Ben_Rumson · Post by **Ben_Rumson** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 2:20 pm

Unusual for me... Westley Richards Double Rifle 400/? years ago. Now if question was most unusual weapon I've ever shot, then I'd have to say, Viet Cong Cross Bow back in the day...

JerryB · Post by **JerryB** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 6:26 pm

At Fort Ord in 1958 I fired a BAR, a Browning Light 30cal machinegun, 81mm mortar, 57 recoiless rifle and the 50cal. spotting rifle on the jeep mounted 106. I carried the base plate for that 81 all over the mountains at Hunter Ligget. I did own a nice old Springfield trapdoor 45-70, an 1886 45-70, and a Remington rollingblock in 7mm that was sweet to shoot.Oh well they were fun while I had them.

jeepnik · Post by **jeepnik** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 6:54 pm

Left handed Randal 1911A1, Service Model. Only made 400 or so. Shot it weekend before last. Probably shoot it next weekend, as well.

Molasses · Post by **Molasses** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 10:46 pm

Probably the most UNUSUAL was the spotting rifle on a SMAW: semiauto critter on the side of this overshoulder rocket launcher that popped off a screwball round consisting of a .22 Hornet blank (!) crimped into the bottom of a .308 case that had the base bored out for that purpose and was necked up to 9mm on the other end to take a tracer projectile so you could watch it through the optics on the thing. Sort of like a foo-foo .358 Winchester, I guess you could say. All of that to make something that blooped along with the same trajectory as the big boomer out of the tube. So it went like: make a range estimate, set the corresponding stadia on the target, "Pop", watch the tracer, adjust sight picture to correct for impact, repeat until one bounced off the target and then use thumblever to switch trigger mode while maintaining that last sight picture and "KABOOOM!". And that was just messing with the trainer version; us regular grunts didn't get to shoot a live SMAW projectile for real when I played with one. Got to see one and only one demonstrated on a sandbagged bunker that day and it was simply heartwarming to hear that second "KABOOOM!" on the heels of the first and watch stuff fly.