Posted on 10/10/2017 9:35:33 AM PDT by w1n1
These are the 5 odd ball guns that you didn't know existed. Here are some pistols and rifles that made the list but to hear the full historic explanation behind it you'll have to see the video. You'll find some are mind boggling as to why build one in the first place.
Interesting.
I have a green Walther P99.
That is the beginning and end of crazy in my life, and that’s pretty OK by me.
One of the most beautiful guns I ever owned was an early Astra 400. Ammo was hard to find and I eventually traded it off. Wish I had kept it as ammo is now not so hard to find.
Also owned a Steyr Hahn but did not have a stripper clip or ammo.
Also had an Astra 600 which for some reason I always liked it’s looks.
“Really odd guns”? You guys must be really new to firearms!
- The Webly-Fosbury “Automatic Revolver”?
- the Dardick magazine-fed revolver that fired “Trounds”.
- the US Benet-Mercier light machine gun.
- the Whitney Wolverine (try finding one without a crack in it)
- almost anything French
http://modernfirearms.net/handguns/hg/ch/type-77b-e.html
Here is an odd ball from the Chicoms. I have actually held one and nearly bought it but found magazines are scarce as a conservative in the US senate.
How about the Quackenbush .50 cal (.495 round ball) air rifle ?
Compressed air provided by a scuba tank. Four shots out of one fill.
They got the designation on the Steyr Hahn wrong. It’s the M1912: service pistol of the Austrian army. Brilliantly designed, very well made (true of nearly all Steyr arms), liked by users if accounts are accurate. After the Nazis took over Austria, they had many M1912s rechambered to 9x19 Parabellum.
A number of early autoloaders had internal magazines and were loaded through the open action by stripper clips (think Mauser C96). Metal fabrication and heat treatment were not as advanced then so detachable box magazines were less durable and less reliable. Internal magazines could made with larger, heavier parts; best of all, their feed lips remained inside the gun and were thus not as easily damaged.
H&R’s 755 was not the only only open-bolt 22. Winchester’s 55 was another: single shot. Just what the design rationale was is no longer clear. Some deem them safer.
Remington’s Model 8 rifle (introduced 1906, not 1907; made until 1930s, then the Model 81 {identical except for stock} took over until production ended in 1954) was the earliest semi-auto to become a sales success; also the first to fire deer-class cartridges (25, 30, 32, 35 Remington; 300 Savage). It was just about the only recoil-operated rifle ever made, and operated by long recoil like the Browning Auto 5, Remington 11, and Savage 720 series shotguns. Very few look as nicely appointed as the one in the photos - Remington has always been more of a utilitarian gunmaker.
That was my first thought.
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This gun had a paper cartrige with a primer attached to back of the bullet inside the cartrige. It used a needle like firing pin to punch through the paper and set off the primer. Kind of a halfway between muzzle loaders and modern cartrige guns.
Yeah, I was going to say that any list without the Dardick was incomplete.
Forgot about the Gyrojet. I really wanted one of them.
Back in ‘71 I had a chance to buy a Webley-Fosbury still in its original cosmoline for $75; I wanted to, but as an E-2 in AIT, just couldn’t afford it. Always regretted not doing whatever it took to get one.
Check out this month’s American Rifleman on some of the earliest auto loading pistols. Lots of weird stuff there.
When I saw the title of this thread, I knew I would see a Gyrojet in here.
The official pistol of Bruce Cheseborough Jr, Private Investigator.
Prussians killed many Austrians with those in 1866, A turning point of sorts in the 19thcentury.
Only for years later, in 1870 the French Army fielded a superior bolt action rifle (but lost anyway)
Sure wish you could’ve bought that Webly-Fosbury! Be worth a king’s ransom today..
Dang thing so ugly it’s wonderful and all the attention at the range would be on you.. Pow - whiz, clank, Pow - whiz, clank..
Crazy Brits!
Yeah, they were actually pretty cheap until the movie Zardoz came out. It is like the collectors weren’t interested until Sean Connery carried one.
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