Memorable guns you've shot

[Larryburford]

A German Lugar my friends uncle brought back from WWII, all numbers matching even the magazine, Mini Uzi, Thompson sub-machine gun.

 

[Xrayist]

A long list; Johnson 1941. First centerfire rifle I shot. The owner had me put 100 rounds through it so he could get the brass. Not a pleasent gun to shoot, especially for a 13 year old; 8 guage double rifle....it doubled on me. I think the charge was 250 gr. 2F black powder under a 1250(?} gr. lead bullet; 1928 Thompson. Able to put 300 rounds down range; 1918 BAR, 40 rounds; UZI; Full auto Springfield M1A; A couple of different MAC 10 in 45 ACP; Marlin 1895, 16 1/4" barrel, maximum Marlin 1895 loads from a loading manual....made it 3 shots and had to quit. Not a stranger to recoil, as I had at the time a .458 M70, Weatherby MkV .460 and .378, which I would rather have put a box of ammo through either of them instead of shooting that Marlin one more round; a really nice Colt Bisley 44-40; a 30 Carbine Blackhawk at night, that is fun!; and the one gun that I will NEVER forget, a Ruger No. 1S, 45-70 that had been rechambered to 45 3 1/4 inch Winchester. The owner was trying to achieve as close to 460 Weatherby ballistics as he could......I put one shot through it, wiped the tears of pain from my eyes, handed it back to him and wished him good luck. The Ruger No. 1 never really seemed to fit me well and recoil seemed worse than a bolt rifle of same caliber. My limit on comfortable shooting of a No. 1 is my 1S .338 Win. Mag. Sold my .375 and .458 No. 1's as I was starting to develop a flinch, especially after shooting the .458.

 

[Hankus]

M60 in the morning and an M249 SAW in the afternoon. The 60 was powerful and long range, but the SAW was just bad ass fast.
I'll take the M60, any day. Rambo was the man!

During my time in, I qualified Expert with every "small arm" then in the Army inventory: M1911, M9, M16A1, M16A2, CAR-15? (suppressed carbines our LRSD soldiers used in the MI battalions I was assigned to), M60, M249, M2 and my personal favorite, the MK19! I also did familiarization with a wide variety of ComBloc weapons, and got to participate in testing for the P90 and .45 ACP HK USP.

 

[MHtractorguy]

During my time in, I qualified Expert with every "small arm" then in the Army inventory: M1911, M9, M16A1, M16A2, CAR-15? (suppressed carbines our LRSD soldiers used in the MI battalions I was assigned to), M60, M249, M2 and my personal favorite, the MK19! I also did familiarization with a wide variety of ComBloc weapons, and got to participate in testing for the P90 and .45 ACP HK USP.

Did you ever get to shoot or see an M14? Or an M21, the scoped National Match M14?
I fam fired the M21. I still want one of those.

 

[Hankus]

Did you ever get to shoot or see an M14? Or an M21, the scoped National Match M14?
I fam fired the M21. I still want one of those.

Actually, I'm pretty sure I did familiarization with an M14 and some other outdated Western Bloc weapons we might run across… I just don't have detailed memories of those for some reason… I must be getting old.

 

[blume357]

Only two that stand out to me are the 454 Causal I shot the first time I attended the East Coast Ruger gathering and the time I emptied a 10 round magazine firing from the hip in a 50 cal. Barrett.

I carried and cleaned a M-14 for 9 months ... but that one did not have a firing pin in it. Twice I think they issued me one with a pin.... one time they only gave 'us' 6 blank rounds each and sent up out to practice jungle warfare ... when we questioned the limited ammo we were given the answer "to adapt".... came back with a lot more than we left with.... part of the training I had... which my wife hates what I called it.... we were being trained to jump out of helicopters and eat dead burnt babies...... I don't think you can get more politically incorrect than that. It is how I remember it, almost 50 years ago now.

 

[Brant]

My Pop's ruger 77 280 Remington. It's nothing special. It was the only real deer rifle he ever owned and it is still a good one. I have ownership of it now as he no longer hunts. One week we were sitting together on a pipeline hoping to take any mature deer for the meat. He had that rifle and I had my first contender, a 44 magnum handgun and I was hoping for a close shot to make my first handgun kill.

A big ol doe showed up waay out there and he handed my the rifle and explained the dope for that range. At the shot the deer dropped so fast I thought I had missed and she ran off. I did the same 2 more times that season from the same spot with the deer coming out on the same trail with the same outcome.

Ruger bearcat that belongs to my mother. That was my introduction to handguns and a similar model was the first handgun I ever purchased myself. I will always have one of those.

Ruger RedHawk 357 magnum that belonged to my Pop. I was a senior in high school and had taken to a property I was allowed to hunt and shoot on, just to try it out. On my way home I stopped at the local sonic for a burger. There was a guy there that was a college frat boy whom I had a previous altercation and he was with his frat pals. They blocked me in and the 4 of them were talking their noise and threatening me.
The gun was in the seat and I wasn't even thinking about it, I was just trying to figure out my next move. Not ashamed to say I was scared. One of them walked up to the passenger side door and tried to open it. It was locked but he saw that big ol hog leg laying there. With wide eyes he yelled '"the sob has a gun!" and they left in a hurry. I never had to touch it and up until then hadn't thought to. I learned the value of a gun that day. The cops showed up and I called my Pop but that's another story.

 

[Badger Matt]

The M42 Duster I was on used the same 40 mm Bofors cannons.
There were two cannons . The M42 fired 240 rounds a minute , if you could keep it fead.
That was the hardest part.
The rounds came in clips of 4.
Two guys stood behind the cannon , behind the tub . They each fead one cannon by dropping the clips in the magazine on top of the breach.
Two more guys on the ground handing clips up.

When the one I was shooting blew up , it was a double feed.
One round goes into the chamber and another one drops before the breach block could close.
When the breach block closed , it rammed the second round into the first. Both rounds went off and destroyed the left cannon.
Luckily , the rounds in the magazine didn't go. If they would have , it would have killed everyone on the track.
I did get a little dent in my helmet that day.
There was never a dull moment firing these.

My 40mm Bofors stories aren't quite that exciting. Here's my most memorable. We ran the guns with two men each. One passing the 4-round clips and the other feeding the gun. There was a 90-degree 1/2 tube that directed spent brass into a 50 gallon barrel strapped there.

We'd done a firepower demo in TX and a young A1C (me) was hungover after a bunch of fun at Billy Bob's in DFW. In the morning, I threw up upon seeing the gunship. No sympathy, our CMSgt was on board and insisted, rightly so, that I complete my checkride. I did so, successfully, and then threw up in the only place readily available…the drum full of hot brass. I had no friends on the plane that day for sure…and was invited to unload all the brass by myself. Good times

 

[rupert]

Shot a lot of different weapons over the years but the most memorable was a 460 weatherby magnum,