Strangest gun you have ever fired or handled

[Jo6pak]

OK, so there are threads for prettiest, worst, best, biggest you've ever fired. So, being a bit of a student of odd and arcane weapons, I thought I would start a thread for the strangest gun you have fired.

The operating system, modifications, calibers, handling characteristics, etc. are all up for grabs. I just ask that it be your actual first hand experience, not second hand stories or videos.

For me, it was a replica of an under-hammer percussion muzzleloader that a high school friend's father had. Not very strange as I think of it now, but for a 15 year old kid it was like an alien weapon. Another was the .22 revolver with about a 15 inch barrel that the same friends father built.

So let's hear them.

 

[Sierra280]

Not so much strange as funny; I once saw a carcano on the wall of a gun store that had its barrel bent 90degrees straight up with a sign underneath that read 'Italian anti-aircraft gun.' Made me chuckle.

 

[Crankgrinder]

I believe it was a top break of some unknown caliber. It was made with its barrel pointed directly back at the shooter.

 

[berettaprofessor]

Glock. Weird trigger.

 

[alex0535]

I'm pretty good with a blowgun, does that count?

 

[49willys]

A friend has an old 98 mauser that has a rifled 16 guage barrel on it.evidently it was used to play a then popular german shooting game where they shot at a wooden eagle that was mounted on a tall pole.thing has a very long barrel and is crazy heavy.

 

[SDC]

49willys, your friend has what's called a "vogelbuchse"; these were used in a German target game around the turn of the century where a group of shooters had to take turns shooting pieces off of a large wooden sculpture of an eagle, mounted on top of a tall pole. In order to score, they had to knock those pieces off in a specific order, so they wanted a large, heavy slug that was accurate at relatively close range.
For oddballs that I've handled, it covers a lot of territory; cane guns, knife guns, guns that were made entirely in prison, whaling guns, anti-tank rifles, etc. etc.

 

[Walter]

A magazine-fed full-auto 40mm grenade launcher on a tripod. It was a prototype brought to Vietnam in 1969 by the Marine Corps and issued to my platoon for trials. We carried it out one night on a squad ambush, but it was a disaster. The magazines (there were four of them, eight rounds each) rattled like a box of rocks, it took two people to carry the weapon (one for the gun, one for the tripod), and it was impossible to aim in the dark.

We did test-fire it a couple of times in broad daylight, and it was a formidable weapon. Just not really suitable for small unit or night-time operations.

 

[Bigdog57]

Semi auto pistols.... my Whitney Wolverine in .22LR. A somewhat unique 1950's action that would have been more successful had a then-young upstart named Bill Ruger not just brought out a cheaper pistol......

Revolvers..... my Nagant Russian revolver. Quaint and old-fashioned 'turn of the 19th/20th century' piece. Always a good conversation starter at the local range. A fun plinker and easy to reload for.

Ithaca 49 lever rifle.... a singleshot Martini-style action fashioned to resemble the old west lever rifles and fitted with a fake magazine tube.

Swiss Schmidt-Rubin K31 rifle - definitely an odd-ball action to most Americans. But very accurate, with milsurp or my handloads.

 

[wogpotter]

On the high end a Boys anti-tank rifle, on the low end a Czech Skorpion (real selective fire one) in 32 acp.

I loved the hideously ugly little Skorpion.

 

[Jim March]

Maurice the FrankenRuger. Hands-down winner .

http://thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=511297

 

[44 AMP]

Met a fellow who had a Contender barrel made to fire golf balls using blanks. Really odd looking, had a "cup" on the end to hold the golf ball, and the "barrel" took a couple of rt angle turns between the forend and the cup, to keep the top of the cup below the line of sight. He said it made a fair "iron" but not a good putter....Freaked out the caddies, too....

He also had barrels for his wildcats, based on the .25acp case, 2.5, 3, & 4mm "flea".

 

[9mmfan]

Nothing too exciting.

Rifle would probably be a .22-250 that was built on a Nazi marked Mauser action. A friend of mine brought it on a camping trip. His father won it in a Rotarion or Lion's Club raffle.

Handgun is likely one of those tiny side-break derringers in .22 short, though I own and have shot my Nagant revolver as well.

That's actually shooting. I've probably picked up something odd at a gun show, but no specific examples jump to mind.

 

[HiBC]

A non-gun friend inherited a shotgun and he asked me to help him check to see if it was loaded.Sure!I'd be happy to.

It was a Baker side by side.I think(not sure) some Belgium import guns were labeled Baker,but I think this was something different.

I pushed the top lever over and it would not break open.

I tried a little gentle bumping persuasion...nothing.Time to back up and study.

Looking it over...fine craftsmanship,excellent shape...but,wait,something does not look right.No hinge pin!

This shotgun broke to the side!!Looking from the top,the barrels swung counterclockwise.

No hinge,it was on a curved,dovetail track(memory ius fuzzy,have not seen it since the 70's)

 

[lamarw]

WWII era quad 50. It was on a gun truck used for our support in Nam. Amazing at the time. All 4 barrels were zeroed in on one point or close to it. You could actually cut down trees with it. I did so. LOL

I am sure the mini-guns and maybe others have now made it totally obsolete.

 

[MC 1911]

Strangest so far was a COP .357 4 barrel derringer. Actually it was kind of nice just brutal to shoot LOL!

 

[DavidAGO]

I did not shoot it, but it was an Enfield SMLE converted to a .410 single shot.

David

 

[Andy Blozinski]

MP-35. It's a bolt action sub-machinegun. You do not pull the bolt straight back to charge it for firing. It has a side handle and you rotate and charge it exactly like a bolt action rifle. Very accurate and easy to handle.

 

[carguychris]

Davis-Warner Infallible .32 pistol.

This gun seems like it was designed by someone who was experienced in building hand tools, and had been told how a semi-automatic pistol works and what one looks like, but had never actually seen or fired one.

I did not fire it. The friend who owned it knows quite a bit about them, and he advised that they ARE in fact quite fallible, and are known to violently disassemble themselves on firing.

 

[Sevens]

A friend brought a very cheap, odd, single shot .410 to a cookout this past summer. He'd gotten it from an uncle who had passed away recently. He wanted to ask a couple of us about it.

I must have spent a SOLID 20-25 minutes goofing with this odd piece. Can't remember anything that was stamped or written on it for the purpose of researching it.

What was most memorable was it's crazy and seemingly WILDY unsafe method of operation. It had a concealed, internal hammer. And unless there was something that I absolutely missed or could never figure out (possible, but unlikely), this shotgun:

--could only be cocked when locked close
--could not, in any way, be de-cocked (only trigger pull, hammer fall)
--could not be opened, unloaded, or otherwise taken apart when closed/cocked

In other words, best I could muster, if you loaded this thing with a single round of .410 and you closed it and cocked it... you were going to SHOOT it, or leave it forever loaded and cocked.

I was baffled that someone would put this in to production and market it.

It is possible that I missed something, but I didn't give this thing a "cursory glance", I mean I worked on it for quite some time.