Best-looking guns?

I am me and I have returned after a long absence. I have a small M-N collection: M-91 Finn, M-39 Finn, Russian M91-30 laminated stock, Russian M-44, Russian PU sniper, and an M91/59.

 

Ah, yes, I remember that. What a jerk.He ended getting banned from that forum.

 

Interesting I had the impression that the Parrots were not that well thought of. In particular because the sharp step formed a stress point. The 10lb'ers may not have had much of a problem with that but I know some of the larger ones did. Not sure about the 30 lb'ers. If I could own an ACW cannon the latter would be my choice. The tubes (modern ones) were even available at a reasonable price a couple decades ago when I was looking into it.

 

How about this?



A rare pellet & bolt crossbow combined with a wheel-lock gun, Central European, c. 1570–1600, kept at the Metropolitan Museum. It really works, and only two of this rare combination weapon exists. For more info take a look the book: A Deadly Art: European Crossbows, 1250-1850, pp. 84-85.

https://books.google.com/books/about/A_Deadly_Art_European_Crossbows_1250_185.html?id=zfhCAgAAQBAJ

 

Nasty surprise gun...

 

That's an Oleg Volk photo (an old friend of mine). Oleg came from the USSR, among the last of a large family that were slaughtered because they went to church on Saturday instead of Sunday. Oleg takes many of those commercial gun pix you see in adverts and magazines, but his private photography is devoted to firearms ownership as a civil liberty, the last stand against tyranny. The photo above is one of many envisioning what might have turned out differently had his extended family not been barred firearms ownership when the Germans invaded.

 

Fantastically interesting and thank you for sharing that information. I visited his site, www.olegvolk.net/

 

Just so we have a basis of comparison, I bring you the Sten, history's most unlovely gun. My memory may leave out a few details but as I recall it, when the British saw the stamped steel German MP40, they got mad as hell and decided to counter it with their own stamped steel gun. They gathered up every bully beef tin they could find and then put every village idiot in Britain to work hammering them into Stens just so they could shoot them at Germans while yelling "Nyah, Nyah, ya' Jerry bastard!"
The Sten shot OK, most of the time, if you held your mouth just right, but they began running short of British village idiots and had to import Irish village idiots to maintain production, though it was a near thing as the Irish loved their idiots and had previously only exported them to the US to keep Congress well stocked. Then they ran short of bully beef tins and were about to go under, until just in the nick of time along came the Americans with Spam tins. Production of the Sten peaked in late 1944 when they brought in French village idiots and escargot tins.

 

I'm still staying with the Grease Gun. USA! USA! USA!

 

That's why I said, "...not as well known as the Parrot Rifle;"

You are correct the Parrot was not nearly the gun the 3" Ordinance rifle was, however you'd be surprised how few today are aware of the latter's existence, but know what the Parrot gun was (though not it's shortcomings) probably due to it's unique shape. For those unfamiliar, it was a cast iron, therefore somewhat brittle gun with a wrought iron reinforcing band heat shrunk to the breech end of the tube. It was however, cheaper and easier to make than the wrought iron 3" Ordinance rifle.
I wrote: "it (3" Ordinance rifle) was safer, being made out of wrought iron vs cast iron, so tube fractures or bursting were virtually unknown." The problem with bursting Parrot's was apparently bad enough that Henry Hunt, Chief of Artillery, Army of the Potomac, tried to have them removed from service.

10lb. (2.9" Model 1861 or 3" Model 1863) Parrot at Gettysburg
​

 

Argh!
I forgot the Lanchester.
I know it's essentially a copy of an MP28, but... brass fittings!
Look at the brass.
An otherwise workaday weapon transformed into a stylish accoutrement for any palace guard of any authoritarian regime, anywhere.
Lanchester slung, and a C96 at the hip. Maybe duffel coats...



And, I mean, I know this might be a bit too stylish for some, a bit too good-looking, but a bayonet improves the aesthetics of almost everything.

 

I'll take two please, and will give one to Formerjughead as soon as he surfaces again (the pic w/bayonet sold me on it).

 

When we equip the palace, we shall seek out the rarest & most endangered wood available that can be used successfully in firearms, and have them stocked in that.
Lignum Vitae is surely ideal for keeping dissidents, rogue ambassadors, visiting poets etc. in line.

Hmm. Not rare, but I have a huge soft spot for proper two tone Laburnum.

 

I believe George Clagwell had a hand in that, after he retired from the tractor business.

 

It does have a slight whiff of his preferred style...

 

The guy that designed THAT thing MUST be related to the guy that came up with the Edsel.

 

Good man! The Lanchester is a great subgun. Fantastically over-engineered and over-complicated, yet with just the right amount of class, style and finesse. These are a real pleasure when fitted with their original 50rd magazines.

 

Since there has been talk around bad-ass artillery, I thought its a good idea to remind the mighty Schwerer Gustav, the largest piece of artillery ever used in combat. I know it actually looks like any other railway gun, but seeing how tiny humans are compared to it makes me believe that Gulliver's Travels wasn't so much of a fairy tale after all.

Nazis did many horrible things, but they sure deserve eternal damnation for only destroying it! If I was poet my first poem would be: Ode to the Shwerer Gustav.