What is the most unique or special firearm you have ever seen?????????

[Wyo. Coyote Hunter]

  Since there was no general cat. for this question, I put it here...I could cover shotguns, pistols or rifles....In a lifetime of looking at firearms, there have been some dandys...Elmer Keith's .476 , his .44 mag.s, just the other day I saw a Holland and Holland shotgun for a quarter of a million in one of Cabela's Gun Librarys...They are always a hot spot for something special...this week in Billings, I saw one I have never laid eyes on or even dreamed anyone would want... It was a model 94 Winchester.......What made it special was someone had special ordered this rifle in take down...Now is the very unique part it was documented as a one of a kind sent to Alaska...it was in mint condition..with FIVE barrels and fore arms on each barrel..they said a two barrel rifle was not un common, but normally the forearm was switched between barrels...this one was in .25-35, .30-30, 32-40, 38-55, and I cannot remember the last one...I thought of this on the way home...it was a truely unique rifle ....what special weapons have you seen ??

[Wyo. Coyote Hunter]

  I did not mean to put all the sour faces. it was to be question marks....sorry.

[charles p]

Probably something in the display at Cody WY.

I've also seen an excellent collection of firearms in a truck stop - just don't remember where.

[joe 1951]

  Whites on I 81 in va.I forget the mile marker.

[bulletstuffer]

About 35 years ago I knew a nice 75+ year old man that had a side by side 12 gauge.  The grip on the stock was a carved rabbit head with glass eyes.  Wish I could have bought the gun as I have always had fond memories of the man   I can still see them standing together even with both being gone

Bulletstuffer

[Drilling Man]

  A friend has a Ferlach Vierling...  It's a S&S 16ga., with a centerfire 22 under the top rib, and a 8x57 under and between the shot bbls...  I weighed it, and it was just over 6-1/2 pounds, and shot very well.

  He also has one of John Pondoro Taylors double rifles...

  DM

[Graybeard]

There was a lot of years ago an old man who lived locally named Col. Farley Berman who was a truly rich rascal. He also had spent a career in the military and traveled all over the world. He was a firearms collector extraordinare and also a collector of all sorts of works of art and other items.

His home was like a museum and when important visitors came to the local fort or Army Depot he gladly gave tours of his firearms collection to the visitors. I got an invite to attend once with a group of such visitors and then while talking with him and his wife told him my wife would sure have loved to have seen their collection so they told me that next visit I must come again and bring her. I did just that.

He had what is likely the single largest and most impressive firearms collection on earth ever held in private hands. I could not begin to describe the unique and odd items in his collection many of which were one or two of a kind in the entire world.

He had one that the only other like it in the world is in the museum in London and others that no one else in the world had anything to match. His collection is now housed in the Farley Berman Museum in Anniston, AL for any and all to see. He donated his entire collection to the museum for free with the only stipulation being that the city must build a museum to house it.

Even tho they did what he asked his collection is so vast that even in a full size museum it can not all be on display at once. If you are ever in this part of the country you owe it to yourself to see this truly unique collection.

I think there were something like 200 firearms that didn't even look like firearms but rather like things like combs or a tooth paste tube or tube of lipstick. He even had one that shot around corners (for real).

He had Mussulini's personal silverware, the rifle that shot some super famous general that was such a big deal they stopped the entire battle for long enough for him to be given full honors before resuming it. To listen to the old man tell each of the tales of all these strange and unique firearms was a treat that can no longer be had but his collection can still be seen.

[Reverend Recoil]

I once handled a fine German drilling gun.  It had two 16ga SxS barrels with an 8x57R rifle barrel.  The most impressive feature was the folding rear sight.  The sight was operated up or down by sliding a tang button where you would expect to find the safety.

I have also seen a recoil-operated automatic revolver.

The most dangerous guns I have seen are the OSS Liberator and Stinger.

[Sourdough]

A Colt revolving shotgun, and several Winchester lever shotguns out in Tuscon Arizona, were unique and impressive.

But the one that impressed me the most was a Barrett semi-auto 50BMG.  Recoil was nothing, but the shock wave from the muzzle blast knocked your socks loose.

[SHOOTALL]

unique ? how about a grade 8 bolt machined to look like a mini mag lite that shoots a 9mm . They used the head part off a flash light which could be removed or shot thru. It was on display at the fair if i remember . Then there was the Ivory stocked mod 94 and the fully engraved Thompson , mags included with some of the best wood money could buy . Asking price over $200000.00 .

[Reverend Recoil]

I enjoy gun porn; professionaly taken photographs of London best guns such as Holland & Holland, Purdy, and Boss.  One of these days.........

[jedman]

 A guy I knew ( deceased now ) built a unique rifle.  It looked like a fine Kentucky rifle with a flintlock,ramrod ect. 
What it really was , a 22 rimfire semi auto rifle.  He took a Browning ATD rifle and built a look a like full stock muzzleloader around it.  To load it you lifted the butt plate up and underneath was the magazine for the 22's.
The barrel was completely concealed inside the octagon faux muzzleloader barrel and about the only thing that would ever give away that it might not be a muzzleloader was it had a small ejection port on the bottom of the stock ahead of the triggerguard.
This man was a real craftsman and made everything on the rifle himself, stock, patchbox, buttplate, lock ect. it was really a beautiful rifle.
I never heard where the rifle went to when he passed away , but someone out there has a real treasure.
  One other rifle that I seen and actually had my paws on was a 700 Nitro Exspress double rifle built by Holland & Holland. It was a special order gun and took more than 10 years to be built from the time it was ordered.  Jaquas Guns of Findlay , Ohio had it for quite a while before it sold, It came in a huge burl wood display case that looked like a very fine coffin with a glass top.
This has been over 10 years ago that they had it and the asking price back then was $ 270000.00
Yes thats right Two hundred seventy grand ! The 700 N.E. ammo was more than $ 100.00 a round at the time.    Jed

[woodchukhntr]

Gyrojet pistol.  I have a round or 2 around here somewhere.

[coop4u2c]

I was able to shoot a COP 4-barrel .357 mag. Neat little gun!!!

[Reverend Recoil]

I have read about several interesting prototypes.  One was a M1 Garand converted to 22LR for training purposes. Another was a Savage 99 leaver rifle converted to a machine gun by Bill Ruger. 

There was an interesting write up on the Home Gunsmithing Forum about a homemade 9mm sub-machinegun.  The chamber was reamed twice the length of the standard 9mm Lugar chamber.  The magazine was loaded with blank cartridges.  The firing would start with a blank behind an empty case in the chamber.  The firing of the rear blank would drive the forward cartridge case down the barrel.  The fired blank casing remained in the chamber.  When the bolt cycled, another blank is chambered behind the previously fired blank and the operation would continue.  Everything that was feed into this gun was shot down the barrel.  No extractor or ejector was needed.  Recoil was very low.  It was reported that the fired casings could penetrate a car's windshield at 50 ft.  I wish I had one.

[SHOOTALL]

Last night i read about Thompson Sub machine guns made in 30 carbine . Very few exist and are very expensive . One is on display at the Bufflow Bill mus. in wy.

[huntducks]

The strangest I have ever seen was a Single barrel set gun I think it was like a 6ga it was built into a box with only the barrel sticking out and had a system of wire and small pully's to fire it, thing was made in England don't remember by who but I had a chance to buy it $150 back in the 70's sure wish I would have.

Another was Bing Crosby SxS it sold at auction for $12,000 about 2 years after he died I got to fondel it for a few min. damn pertee gun. I think Clint Eastwood bought it but i'm not postive.

Last week I went to a preview of a auction here in SoCal just to see a Colt SAA in 45 cal that was Wyatt Earp last gun they also had a number of great old Henry's that I wanted to see along with some other SAA and Spencer's

[Graybeard]

For anyone interested here is a link to the Berman Museum.

http://www.bermanmuseum.org/

[8iowa]

The Tripplett and Scott carbine is the most unusual production firearm that I've ever seen. It fired the same rimfire cartridge as the Civil War Spencer, but had a unique "twisting wrist" action. a 90 degree twist would eject the spent case and then as the action is closed it picks up a new cartridge from the tube in the buttstock and inserts it in the chamber. This repeating carbine was delivered to Kentucky troops just as the war ended, thus the Tripplett and Scott did not see action.

One was offered for sale recently on Gun Broker and I thought some of you might enjoy seeing the pictures of this unique action, which to the best of my knowledge was never used again on any firearm.

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=149487206

[Empty Quiver]

Many yrs ago a school friend would get out this GIANT rifle and we would wonder about it. I'm a pretty big ol boy and at that time 6'4" and 240# I could not shoulder the thing for but a few seconds to aim it. They had two rounds for it, and we always talked about tying the thing to a tree and shooting it. A couple years ago I was watching some sort of Discovery Channel show and low and behold here is this rifle again. It was an anti tank rifle from WWI or extreamely early WWII. The story was that grandpa brought it back from the war.

[Gun Runner]

The best I have ever held was a 45/70Sharps  made by Frume brothers in Wy. I beleave. One local gun dealer that makes all the antique gun shows and is a respected apprazer(sp) brought it back from one of his trips. Engraved and custom wood. As I was holding it and drooling all over it and myself he said he got it cheap. 25K. I almost broke the forarm and stock when I clamped down on it trying to hand it back to him. He latter had picked up a 50 cal B/P target rifle an old gun smith had made in the late 1800's to shoot match with. Excellent wood, heavy bbl. engraved with L/R, up/down levels on it. He's a great friend and I hate him.  He knows I have this thing for Sharps Rifles (cant afford one) and I think he does it on purpose. 

Gun Runner

[kombi1976]

I had the opportunity to see a Silvers Martini trade rifle in 577/450. It had one of the first rubber buttpads ever invented and had a bone fore end tip. The sights were standard but flipped up to be a volley sight too. Unfortunately the owner sold it on as he claimed it couldn't shoot, not that he had any idea about paper patching and rarely casts projectiles, and I didn't get to pick it up.

[bigswede]

I only got to see pictures, but it was a Blaser double barreled bolt-action rifle.  Both barrels had magazines, I think they held 3 rounds per side of the receiver.  It had one bolt that operated both sides.  I don't remember the trigger configuration.  It was made for a middle eastern prince if I remember right and cost more than I make in 10 years.

Another neat one was a side by side 4 bore at my local cabelas.

[Swampman]

Stonewall Jackson's personal Lemat.  Jeb Stuart's carbine.

[Drilling Man]

I only got to see pictures, but it was a Blaser double barreled bolt-action rifle.  Both barrels had magazines, I think they held 3 rounds per side of the receiver.  It had one bolt that operated both sides.  I don't remember the trigger configuration.  It was made for a middle eastern prince if I remember right and cost more than I make in 10 years.

Another neat one was a side by side 4 bore at my local cabelas.

  The one i saw, wasn't a Blaser...  Anyway, the trigger sequence is, you pull the trigger twice and bolt the rifle.  Both empties come out, and both bbls get reloaded...  The guy that builds them has them forsale, and there are U-tubes showing it in action.

  DM

[Blackhawk44]

How about a a 5.5lb German double rifle, in .250-3000 at the local Bass Pro.  The Blaser system of interchangeable bolt heads, magazines and barrels fascinates me for a production rifle.  The doomed Dardick and its "trounds" would have always been out of place. 

[jro45]

My laminated American Safari 458 Lott. It is beatiful.

[Lost Oki]

Growing up in Oklahoma, my grandmother (fathers mother) lived in Claremore OK.  One of the local hotels was owned by gun appraiser, J.M. Davis I believe.  This hotel was full of guns from all over the world.  Like Graybeards museum in Alabama, when this gentlemen died he left his collection to the state if they would build a museum and not charge people to visit.  We used to run loose thru the hotel and every closet had guns.  I have stopped at the museum several times over the years and the one gun that still amazes me is a muzzleloader pistol from India with thousands of inlays...If you are ever in the Tulsa, Claremore area, you should not miss this one. 

[wsjones]

An 'arrow gun' that used compressed air to shot something like a crossbow bolt from a shoulder-fired rifle looking gun.  I cannot remember the manufacturer's name, but it was used by a friend who was working for USDA APHIS on a whitetail deer control project on one of the Georgia sea islands.

He also had something chamebered for 300 Whisper (damn me if I can remember it either but I still have a cartridge) and a Remington 700 with a Class 3 type military silencer, which I recall was his favorite.  J.B.?  Any chance you're out there anywhere and can provide more and firsthand info?  -WSJ

[ShadowMover]

I once saw a metal briefcase, about the size of a laptop computer, but about 3" thick, that contained a full auto, silenced "American 180" with a box magazine and a laser sight. The handle on the briefcase operated the trigger mechanism. The briefcase was said to contain all the empty 22LR cases. This was at a SOF convention over 15 years ago.  I didn't see the thing fired, but I have seen an American 180 fired, and all I can say is it's a real crowd pleaser. I couldn't afford one then and sure can't now.