What's the weirdest gun(s) you've ever actually held in your hands?

[effengee]

You can also name it the wildest, craziest or whatnot...

For me it was a black-powder potato gun an idiot friend of mine made a few years ago. The thing looked and shot like a blunderbuss on steroids...
Instant mashed taters anyone???

Recently though, I held a Winchester model 1911 shotgun.
Pretty weird action on it that intrigued the heck out of me.

So what's your weirdest gun story?

 

[DougW]

I think t would be a .380 rimmed double barrel pistol, external hammers, dual triggers, made for a left handed shooter. Pistol was built in the late 1800's and is in very nice shape. No idea on the specifics for the ammo though. Got a picture around here somewhere...........

 

[PTK]

British Lanchester, still had the 50rd magazine. Odd gun, like a wood-stocked STEN, but with a full barrel shroud. Prettiest brass magwell you've ever seen, too.

 

[eight433]

strangest i've owned is a 1895 Nagant revolver. quite a piece of engineering.

 

[ahpd1992]

Mine was a COP 357 4 barrelled derringer. I shot 4 38 special rounds and 4 357 magnum rounds out of it. Trigger pull was somewhere near 25 pounds. Cool looking, but brutal recoil and not all that practical.I ended up trading it for a Colt Detective Specialeven up. Definately a conversation piece though

 

[w_houle]

C-96 Mauser
On a lesser note I made a tennis ball cannon out of a section of bamboo and reinforced with lead solder

 

[Larry Ashcraft]

A Johnson Rifle. My dad picked one up in an estate a few years ago and had a heck of a time trying to sell it. I put about 100 rounds through it.

 

[Zundfolge]

Justin's Mateba Unica 6 ... probably the most accurate pistol I've ever shot, and definitely the weirdest.

 

[ArfinGreebly]

M1941 Johnson

I've held one, but not shot one.

Actually, "weird" isn't word I'd have used, but it is certainly off the beaten path.

 

[HankB]

At the SCI convention some years ago, I had a chance to hold a Holland & Holland .700 Nitro Express double rifle. It weighed about 20 lbs, and at the time cost about $5000/lb. (I bought one cartridge for my collection . . . and by my standards, that was expensive!)

Also had a chance to fire an American 180. A fully automatic .22 rimfire, it would empty a 177 round drum in about six seconds.

Had a chance to hold - but not fire - a Daisy V/L rifle. This little oddity shot bullets that had a propellent bonded to the back, which was then ignited, IIRC, by hot compressed air. Power was on a par with .22 rimfire. Maybe the first commercialized caseless cartridge firearm, it was a commercial failure, but an interesting little gun.

 

[Joe Demko]

Daisy caseless . 22, maybe.
Crossman tranquilizer gun, perhaps.
Lots of older stuff seems goofy by today's standards, but I owned an early Glock when they first hit the US and it seemed pretty wild at the time.

 

[Larry Ashcraft]

Dad picked up the Johnson before "Saving Private Ryan" so it was just another weird old surplus rifle. My brother took it to several gun shows before somebody finally paid $150 for it.

I've never seen anything fling brass quite like the Johnson. Thirty feet was about the norm.

 

[545days]

12 shot 6mm pin fire revolver with folding trigger. I call it my "assault revolver." It is missing the extractor, and has timing sloppy enough that I would never fire it, even if I could find 6mm pin fire cartridges.

 

[geologist]

A homemade set gun from Colombia. They use them to hunt small game. The local campesino I was with went ahead of me and disarmed it. Good thing.

 

[Shadan7]

A .45acp Kriss, which we tested as part of the "real world" guns last spring. Had a very odd dynamic to it - you could hold it out in front of you, one-handed, like an over-large 1911, and the mechanism just held steady. Weird.

Jim D.

 

[Tommygunn]

M1A1 Thompson. Only got to hold it, not shoot it (dang!).

 

[NukemJim]

A Derringer Style handgun someone brought into the range one night and let me fire it.

Top barrell was .357 Ouch!

Bottom barrell was 45.70 rifle cartirdge. #%*&%#@

I'm not certain who was stupider, the person who built, or the person like me who shot it!

NukemJim

 

[Hold My Own]

Shadan7
A .45acp Kriss, which we tested as part of the "real world" guns last spring. Had a very odd dynamic to it - you could hold it out in front of you, one-handed, like an over-large 1911, and the mechanism just held steady. Weird.

Jim D.

It has a mechanism where like the energy goes downward, so the recoil is almost non existent.

But the weirdest gun I've ever held was a WA2000. Some old bullpup sniper. I forget the exact story on it, but it was in the .300 Winchester caliber, not the 7.62x51. It was at this place called the German-American Marksmanship Club or something like that. It was pretty cool though.

 

[GunsAmerica Fan]

A Star double action revolver replica from the Civil War (I have a pair). The cylinder just sits in there. I shot it and it actually worked, but I can't imagine that it could last. I will post a picture in the twins thread when I get them out to take pictures of them.

 

[Elm Creek Smith]

Welrod Mk. 1 9x19mm suppressed bolt action pistol designed and manufactured during WW2. It had no markings. It could be used up to 25 meters, but the guy who let me handle and shoot it explained that the best way to use it was in contact with the target. "It's very quiet that way, old boy," is what he said.

ECS

 

[FIVETWOSEVEN]

mine was the daisy caseless rifle.

and the WA2000, less than 200 were made and it costs around $75,000.

 

[Isher]

A gun, growing up 50 years ago that was collectively called "the bicycle gun"

In the family.

If I recollect correctly it was .32 rimfire.

Single shot, break top action, about a 16" barrel.

No conventional stock or forearm.

No trigger guard, a nub of a wedge trigger, little tiny pistolgrip handle furnished

With horn grips and a cast (brass?) skeleton, and I mean skeleton

Stock, nickelplated, which fit into a dovetail in the bottom of the

Pistolgrip, and got locked in by a slotted machine screw.

I don't even remember the manufacturer.

My Dad still had some ammo around.

It was one of the first guns I shot.

isher

 

[Skillet]

i would like to see pictures of these weirdo guns. so we can see what you are talking about.

 

[hso]

Bushaster ARM pistol. Mine actually worked.

 

[Isher]

Skillet -

You got me curious........hadn't thought about that gun in a long time.

Turns out it is something called a Frank Wesson 1870 pocket rifle.

I found this pic online - they say it is a .22 cal with a 10" barrel, but otherwise it is the same gun.