Best-looking guns?

I read your post a couple of times and misread it both times. I thought you were saying the Ordinance rifles were less reliable than the Parrots. Sorry about that.

The name of the Parrot Riffle makes it easy to remember as well. Then there were Parrots of a whole lot of sizes some used on naval vessels so it was really a whole class of weapons. Parrot himself (If I remember correctly that was the name of the designer) said something to the effect that they weren't the best gun but he could make them fast and cheap.

 

No one has posted a picture of this? THIS is the best-looking handgun ever built.



That is, until you try working the toggle


As to rifles, all WWII rifles were ugly, IMHO.

 

M1 carbine ugly? Lee Enfield? You must dislike rifles altogether to make that statement....suuurreeeelyyy!

 

I'm glad a Model 08/Luger finally appeared, but I'm not sure it quite rings my aesthetics bell. Maybe with that weird snail magazine...

If I'm shopping for early automatic pistols, I actually like the 'so ugly it starts looking good' Heath-Robinson appearance of those Borchardts Forgotten Weapons have been banging on about recently.




Good call on M1 Carbines, CAC.
They add style to many contemporary photos of infantry in action.

 

Here's a pic of an M-1A1 carbine w/paratrooper folding stock. I have one at home. They look pretty cool too. And are sort of rare as well. There were about 150,000 of them made during the war by several different manufacturers. Inland, a division of General Motors made a good deal of them. Mine is an Inland model, and they are particularly rare. After the war, very few if any made it back to the US. And a lot of regular M-1 carbines were modified by owners and shops and fitted with the folding stock. The stocks used in the conversion might be authentic, but many if not most did not come from the factory together. Mine however is the real deal. Last December I took it to the big gun show in New Orleans to have it appraised and authenticated. All the big collectors and sellers there marveled and poured over it. They broke out books, magnifying glasses, took pix and forwarded them to experts, etc. When the consensus came back as legit, the offers began to pour in. The highest offer was $10,000.00 cash. One guy pulled me aside and whispered in my ear not to sell it, but keep it in the family and pass it down. He also said that any offer here at the time is a low-ball, and not to fall for easy money. I had no intention of selling it, but just to get it appraised. It was a pretty good feeling that day.



My dad bought it as a surplus item from the Louisiana State Police armory for $25.00 in the early 70s. There were several of them on the rack to be sold, along with hundreds of other rifles as well. Most were M-1 Garands. There were many assorted other rifles and handguns sold as well from the evidence locker that had been there for years after the cases they were involved with were adjudicated or unclaimed by those who forfeited them for whatever reason . Most were hunting rifles and handguns of every description and caliber. Dad bought this carbine, a Winchester 30-30 and a derringer, all for $25.00 a piece. I believe that there was a limit of three to be purchased at the time. He said that the armorer told him that they were making room for the influx of M-14s and M-16s that the Army promised them as they were scaling down in the waning days of the Vietnam War.

Dad said that he was also told that the Army also planned on giving a large number of surplus Huey helicopters to police departments around the county away as well, but when Bell Helicopter caught wind of it they pitched a bitch about it that was the end of that.

 

What no mp40 yet?

 

I kind of left it, assuming that himself would expound on it's qualities.
Faintly surprised he hasn't...

 

von, are missing a word or two in that first sentence?

 

Sorry; 'His beneficence, The Grofaz, admirer of the MP40 and payer of all the bills' himself would expound on it's qualities.

 

I would choose a Griffin and Howe small ring short action Mauser sporter in 7 X 57. Click on the image below for something similar. I would want slightly more figure in the grain, slightly simpler checkering. A schnabel forend, Bayern comb, and a G&H quick release scope mount holding a B. Nichael 6X scope.

A more beautiful rifle has never been made according tom my humble eye..

For a military choice a F&N FAL in rifle and a Colt 1851 Navy in pistol form.

Sorry to be absence of late , am awaiting cornea resurfacing and some retina work and have to use a magnifying glass to see this !!!

Gaines

 

Did you say FN FAL? This is mine own.

 

I find the FN and it's variants pretty hard to dispute aesthetically.
Function obviously over form on such a thing, but the form followed that function so pleasingly.
(Also iconic of a certain long period for the British Army, which helps...)

Think the French 75 (in most all of it's styles) should probably be in the big stuff offerings.
Not only a successful piece, but a pleasing sight as well:

 

My FAL is of the G1 variety, dating back to the Bundeswehr, circa 1955/56. The same rifle was being sold to the Canadian armed forces at this time, though they soon switched to the inch pattern British variant, the L1A1. In any variant they are a pleasing rifle to shoot in semi-auto mode, well balanced, accurate, and with surprisingly light recoil since the gas system allows the user to set it to 'just enough' with excess gas being bled off rather than slamming the bolt back with more force than required.

 

CAC, thanks for the like, obviously a man of good taste in guns !

Kieth, yep, that is the one ! I do not know what it is but it has "Battle rifle" all over it. Beautiful example. I started to buy one on many occasions but never pulled the trigger....pun intended. Have shot several, I could certainly feel it @ 5-6 and 140# but did not deter me.

Recently saw but cannot find a beautiful video about a new John Rigby 275, a modern Griffen & Howe and only near 7000 pounds sterling ! . Funny so many ammo makers offer 275 Rigby cartridges for big bucks when it is really a 7X57 Mauser !! Funny. I am sure it shoots better with the Rigby round ! I guess if you can pay 7000 quid for the rifle a couple of quid for a shot is a good deal..

Home - John Rigby & Co.

 

Professor, the .275 Rigby round (and rifle) is merely the 7x57 with a heavier (175 grain) bullet weight and the correct rifle twist to accommodate those heavier slugs. The Ruger #1 also uses the Rigby extended chamber and rifle twist, and to modern shooters (who don't grasp that) the #1 has a terrible reputation for accuracy, since everyone shoots the standard 139/140 grain slugs. However, both Federal and Sellier & Bellot offer the heavier Rigby round in 173 or 175 grains for such rifles - only they don't call it the Rigby, just 7x57. This is a lesson I learned with my own Ruger #1, finding it barely passable with standard rounds, but then (much later) finding it was a tack driver with the heavier 173 and 175 Federal and S&B slugs which in every way duplicate the old Rigby rounds.

For our British wankers, the Ruger #1 is a copy of the 1872 British/Scottish Farquarson rifle patented in 1872. It's a light and stylish falling block carbine made in a number of calibers, but most famously in .275 for stags and light African game. The Ruger variation is available in a number of calibers and has quite the cult following here in the states. This is the rifle I was carrying when I had that disagreement with the Kodiak bear. It's not a military rifle, but still a nice looking rifle.

 

You are a man after my own heart! My first rifle at the age of 12 (ish) was a surplus Johnson which was too heavy for a kid my age. I did manage to knock down a mentally challenged buck with that Johnson by using a handy tree to brace the rifle, In the following year, the old man relented and bought me a used Savage 99 in .308 Win which was more than satisfactory for a kid with its good balance and relatively light weight. The Savage proved to be a rifle I could shoot well offhand, standing on my hind legs. I don't know why the Savage 99 faded into obscurity since it was capable of doing most anything the growing bolt-rifle market was capable of. I blame those gun writers in the glossy mags who were all pushing the Winchester model 70, or Remington 700.

As for shotguns, the old man saddled me with cheap 20 gauge single shot, which was barely satisfactory for pheasants, and nearly useless for passing shots on ducks. I somehow (pizza delivery money, I suppose) managed to acquire a 12 gauge Browning Auto Five equipped with the infamous 50s era "corncob-of-death" muzzle break, which did cut down on recoil at the expense of permanent hearing loss for the shooter. I would have preferred a model 12, but this was when the pre and post 64 Winchesters were creating a stink. Pre-64 Winchesters were being held onto, and to buy a new one (post-64) was to expose yourself to sneers by your fellow hunters.

 

Back to Military arms, the Browning Hi (or High) Power, P-35, Grande Puissance, BHP, Inglis, or just the 'Browning', was/is popular everywhere. This was the preferred pistol of GB and all the commonwealth countries during (and after) the war, and also picked up by the Germans after the occupation of Belgium. Post war, it became the worldwide pistol of choice across the globe for both military and police. The design was copied by the Canadians (Inglis), Argentina, Brazil, Israel, Syria, Iraq, Czechoslovakia, Egypt - and probably others that don't come to mind. The design, ergonomics and reliability are just that good. And it's a damned handsome pistol, business-like, but with just enough taper and flair to hint at a bit of old world aesthetic.

It's my pistol of choice, and I own several. It should be noted that it was a collaboration between John Browning and Dieudonné Saive, who finished the design after Browning's death. Saive is also the genius who designed the FAL/L1A1, another groundbreaking mid-century arm.

The original pistol had a capacity of 13+1, but modern magazines update that to 15+1, so even in capacity, it competes well with newer pistol designs.

This one is my favorite which accompanies me on most days, and sleeps on my nightstand every night. The holster is by Andy Arratoonian, a fussy old British gentleman who makes the finest holsters in the world, one at a time. It takes a year or more to get one of Andy's holsters, but only the best would serve for my favorite BHP.

 

That is not the classic "French 75" as immortalized post Great War in the American cocktail. It is, as noted, the "Deport Quick-fire Gun of 1909". Joseph Albert Deport, the original designer of the Canon de 75 Modele 1897. Deport resigned from Puteaux in 1894 before the design was finalized. It was Etienne Sainte-Claire Deville and Emile Rimailho who developed the final production version of the French 75.