Best-looking guns?

My favorite WW1 weapon. Must feel you're firing light artillery, rather than just a small arm.

 

The Lewis does look kick-ar$e...weild it like an M60 without the belt trouble...Twins look even better!

 

Two separate mentions of the Lanchester.
Brass and bayonet lugs on an SMG - winning!

Completely agree on the Lewis.
Not just aesthetically right, but has all those associations from the trenches to home guard via aerial use. Pleasing camera variants of it too.

Wish I'd had the cash for an entire crate of rusty magazines I once saw for sale.
Sheet of thick glass - second best,* coffee table ever.

*Tirpitz skirt armour at Duxford #1, obviously.

 

When I see a Lewis gun, I think of the movie "High Road to China" with Tom Selleck as the American ex-pat former fighter pilot ace turned mercenary type. The storyline was a bit much, but the scene when he's shot down, he takes the Lewis gun off his plane and dashes over to a ditch and shoots up Chinese Warlord troops. He had one of those million round drums you know. Still, pretty good scene, and watchable movie.

Just thought I'd add that. Now I'm going to have to get that movie on Netflix.

 

I think of Biggles...

 

That Lewis gun is missing its front sight.

 

It has it's front sight. In versions where the shroud is removed, the front sight is more prominent.

#18

 

Look at the photo again, compared to your drawing. The magazine in the photo is much higher and would make the front sight unusable. Something wrong there.

 

The flush 47-round magazine would pose no problems.


The 97-round mag in the first photo is often seen in aircraft-mounted guns and use a raised front sight. I'm basing that on online pictures.

 

Just how pretty are the sights on a Lewis gun? Really?
Don't tell me we're running out of fine looking firearms...

Went for a sandwich at Dover castle last week.
Rather surprised to find Queen Elizabeth's Pocket Pistol now sat in the cafe:




Still a handsome piece.
Maybe a tad long at 24' for the average living room, but not looking bad for nearly 500 years old.

(Didn't take a picture in current location. I'm an idiot. Getty did though: http://c8.alamy.com/comp/DT25FM/queen-elizabeths-pocket-pistol-DT25FM.jpg )

 

Ah, then a case of the wrong magazine on the particular gun.

 

I have been accumulating some favorite firearms for some fiction I am writing. I have always been a great fan of the BAR, both aesthetically and in other ways. Here is a rare version, the Colt R75A. This was a commercial weapon made under contract for the Dutch government during the war, but the NEI fell so less than 1,000 were finally delivered. In many ways it resembles the later FN Type D, with a quick change barrel and other similar features. Weight was 21 pounds or so, caliber was .30-06.

Coltr75a by Terry D posted Aug 5, 2017 at 1:30 PM

BAR R75A Right by Terry D posted Aug 5, 2017 at 1:30 PM

BAR R75A Left by Terry D posted Aug 5, 2017 at 1:30 PM

66-201-A_Rifle,_Cal_30,_US,_Colt,_R75A_(8230008213) by Terry D posted Aug 5, 2017 at 1:30 PM

 

I love the BAR! I know it's not as good as the Bren or this light machine gun or that other light machine gun, but it has a certain look that says "Browning." I'd like to shoot a BAR just because I'd really be stylin' and that's a good enough reason to plunk down a couple hundred for ammo. I'd like to shoot a Bren or any other light machine gun also, but it's just general curiosity rather than admiration for the look of the thing. Everything Browning designed has at least some aesthetic quality to it without sacrificing practicality; form AND function (except maybe the M2, but a gun that big and dangerous shouldn't be pretty). Look at the 1911 or Hi Power (or any of his several smaller .380 and .32 blowback pistols) then look at the corresponding Glock or other modern pistol of the same caliber. All those guns work just fine, but I don't see myself lovingly polishing and admiring a Glock like I do with my old Browning pistols.

I've 'hefted' a BAR and loved the general feel of the thing. The BAR, even with the weight, comes up to your shoulder and aligns with your eye like a fine hunting rifle. It's heavy, but perfectly balanced for all that weight. I don't know what you call that fitted quality, but a good rifle has it and a bad one doesn't. I suspect you could throw that big rifle up to your shoulder and be looking right down the sights at the guy you want to shoot without any adjustment at all.

 

^
It doesn't feel like 16 pounds when you heft it. It points a lot easier than the Garand, which weighs half as much.

 

SNUBBIES PART I

The Smith & Wesson Safety Automatic series has to rate as one of the most successful pocket pistols ever designed. The "Lemon Squeezer" first appeared in the 1880s and smokeless versions were being made right up the beginning of World War II. Many were chambered for the .38 S&W cartridge which was a fairly powerful round for its era, and in 1900 you could certainly do a lot worse for a compact self-defense gun. Sure, as a hinge-frame design it seemed old fashioned, but I like the late19th century aesthetics. Here is a .38 Safety Automatic Hammerless 5th Model made late in the run in the 1930s for smokeless cartridges. This one has a two inch barrel and a lovely dark blue finish.

 

That is a beautiful old revolver. Here is my old Rossi model 68, .38 special. Made around 1993 and in very good condition and still shoots great and with Pachmayr grips. Someone told me, somewhere along the line, that these were made on the Smith & Wesson tooling but I cannot verify.

 

SNUBBIES PART II

The Colt Pocket Positive was just what it said, a pocket version of the Colt Police Positive revolver. The latter took its name from an internal hammer block safety, which Colt called a "positive lock;'" it was a very successful weapon, made for 40 years and widely used as a police patrolman's gun in .38 S&W and .32 S&W Long calibers. The Police Positive spawned a series of other revolvers, including the Police Positive Special (which had a lengthened cylinder and stronger frame to handle the .38 Special cartridge) and of course the very famous Detective Special, which was the Positive Special with a 2" barrel. The Pocket Positive was less well known than the other members of the Positive family. It was made in only one caliber, .32 S&W Long, and the low regard in which .32s are held now may partly explain why the Pocket Positive is less remembered. It was made from 1927 to 1940, when wartime priorities obliged Colt to drop it from production. Most were made with 2 1/2" barrels, an unusual length, and most surviving examples seem to have the old Colt rubber grips. Apparently it was a fine little gun with a very smooth double action. Despite its small size and weight it chambered six rounds rather than five and was easier to reload than the competing S&W .32 Hand Ejector. Nobody nowadays thinks much of the .32 S&W Long cartridge, but it had a reputation as an accurate round. Midcentury shooters could load their Pocket Positives with wadcutters or flat-headed .32 Colt New Police rounds, and with these they might have a fighting chance at close ranges. This may come as a surprise to some, but even after the New York Police Department adopted the .38 Special as standard the NYPD insisted that female officers stick to the .32 S&W Long. If I had been a policewoman in New York in 1940, I would have carried a Pocket Positive with a load of wadcutters. Mary Shanley, one of the best female detectives in the history of the force, apparently toted a Pocket Positive. So, too, did Harry Palmer in The Ipcress File, and anything that's good enough for Sir Mike is good enough for me.

 

My wife carries a Colt Police Positive. She wanted a .38 Special revolver and didn't like any of the modern versions, but a neighbor had this old Colt and she just loved it! The serial numbers indicate it was built in 1913, but it's as tight as any new revolver and far more stylish. It shoots as well as any revolver and better than most because the double action pull is very slick.

 

Maybe not the best looking guns but several writers swear the old smith and wesson "triple locks" were among the smoothest, finely fitted, and finished handguns in history. Nearly all hand made and fitted by gnarled old hands working hours on the bench, mostly with a file.