Iconic Marine Sgt. R. Lee Ermey Reveals the One Firearm He’d Choose if He Could Have Only One

YouTube ^ | R Kee Ermey

[VA Voter]

Go to 2:27. He picks the WWII M1 as the greatest gun invented.

[archy]

This is a Garand with a BAR mag:

And a full-auto selective fire switch. Which makes it a T20, no longer an M1, at least to the purists. The improved [maybe!] T20E2 used its own magazine, not compatable with that of the BAR, though its mag would fit in a BAR.

Another problem with the BAR magazine is the flat zig-zag spring. Melvin Johnson considered the BAR magazine for his full-auto Johnson Light Machinegun, thought it unreliable, and went with a single-row feed 25-round magazine feeding from the left side of the gun instead. This also allowed *topping up* the Johnny Gun's magazine with 5-round M1903 chargers/ stripper clips, which the USMC was still using in their beloved '03 Springfields during Johnson's development work.

There was also a T27 full-auto version, which used the standard M1 Garand feed mechanism, including the 8-round clip. I reckon it ran empty right quickly....

And now I must get back to work on my own rework project: a BAR in .22 long rifle. No, I am not joking.

[archy]

However, if I were to choose the "one gun" if it came down to it, it would be a hand gun and what I consider the greatest hand gun ever:

The Smith and Wesson Model 10 38 Special Police Revolver

For most of the XX Century, most cops who carried one would have pretty well agreed with you. And the last time I had to fire a qualification course [August 2015] I did so with the 2"-barrelled 5-screw S&W M&P that my uncle Denny had carried as a US Secret Service agent. It had been a while since I had worked out with a sixgun, there were some rookies in the class, and I didn't want the whole lineup to be boring plastic Tupperware semiautos. I did okay for being out of practice with a wheelgun; 56 out of 60.

And in addition to the other nice features you mentioned, the sixgun is not dependent on the power of its ammunition to function, so you can run a very light no-flash load at night that's easy on your ears, or shot loads, or tracers, or very serious duty loads...or a mix, for those inclined to *go Dutch.*

The last couple of batches of .22LR I've gotten have been plagued with duds and no-primer misfires. I think my next .22 is going to be a revolver, maybe a S&W Model 17 K-frame...or maybe a 4-inch barreled M18 with the tapered barrel....if I can find one.

[archy]

Ditto. In addition, we always tried to have one of the 1940-50's era .45cal "grease guns" tucked in somewhere. As you probably know, they were very compact and designed for crowd control. The trick was to have something that could be traded with the armory. Never got into a hostile setting while in a tank, however, so no real life experience.

We carried two aboard our M60A1 in Germany, and two in our M48A3 in Vietnam, which was exactly what the little spring clips in the driver's and gunner's compartments were meant for. It was sort of handy to have an M79 grenade launcher at the commander's hatch where either the TC or the loader could get to it, and if we couldn't scrounge a second .50 to mount outside the turret on the external Chrysler mount, we'd throw an M60 up there. And every now and again, we could scrounge an extra or damaged grease gun, and we usually somehow forgot to turn them in.

The Brad Pitt tanker movie Fury has a short but instructive scene in which clerk-typist Norman, suddenly assigned as a tank's bow gunner is introduced to his new grease gun. Simple, and cheap. And it works.

[Centurion2000]

These look like Italian BM-59 rifles that take 7.62x51 and use 20 round magazines.