Most Influential Gun In History

Citizen_Erased

The sten gun was more than that was it not. Was it not about that in Pounds. Doesnt matter, but your getting a bit more gun for your 2 dollars.

But no comic strip though

sidneyreilly

Hi all.
This is certainly not the most influentiall gun of al time but certainly interesting, the Girandoni. It was an air gun issued to Austrian sharp-shooters around the 1780's. It fired (I think) a 16 bore solid ball from a 12 round magazine and required someting like several hundred strokes of a hand-pump to charge it up to fire 50 or so shots. Seems Napoleon didn't like it all because it was relativly quiet and ordered anyone captured with one to be executed! :eek:

Rovi

Lewis and Clark reputedly carried an airgun, the details of which are debated to this day.
Lots of info here.

Many expedition journal entries mention Lewis's “air gun,” usually as part of a demonstration that “astonished the nativs.” The air gun is a legendary property of the adventure, in no way lessened by being something of a mystery. The air gun proved very useful, impressing Indians with its apparently magical powers -- it was almost silent, and it made no smoke.

These things sure are pretty different to what we now know as 'airguns'

Hmmmmmmmm............................... .50 calibre 20 shot repeater airgun. Wonder how Sparks would get on if he turned up at an airgun match with one of these???

.

Sparks

Actually Rovi, if you could get one of those in a calibre less than 8mm and with a stock that conformed to the measurements in the ISSF rulebook, you could use them in an ISSF match... the 300m match that is, not the 10m

sidneyreilly

I remember a large bore victorian air gun being auctioned by Adams on the green about five years ago. It went for £350 or so. Probably should have grabbed it

demonloop

AK47 - revolutionary, even today.
Glock 17 - its plastic for God's sake, thats worth a prize surely!

Longslide45

]AK47 - revolutionary, even today.
Glock 17 - its plastic for God's sake, thats worth a prize surely![/QUOTE]

The Glock is actually one third plastic.There is still plenty of steel in it.But yes ,it was desinged by a person who had NO shooting experiance or knowledge of guns whatsover.So that must merit somthing.

Von Manstein

Irishglockfan wrote:

If we are going to cannons.Well,how about the French quickfire breech loading cannon of ww1.first hydraullically dampned recoil system,which allowed it a rate of fire of 10 rounds per minute.
Or the Paris gun of ww1.German built it was able to lob quater ton shells 80 to 90 miles plus, into Paris from the German front lines.Only to be suceeded in WW2 by the THOR railway mortar.This threw TWO and a half Tonne shells somthing like 4miles and demolished the more impregable than the Maginot line Russian fortress of Sevastopol to rubble within a week.Apprently it is/was the most powerful active service non nuke weapon on the planet.no one seems to know what happened to it.

The WW1 gun was nicknamed 'big Bertha' as it was designed by Krupp of Essen. Theres a great book out called "The Arms of Krupp". Check it out! Has a pic of the gun firing on the cover.

As for thor, the Russians got one of its brother guns 'adam' you can see it today along with the only surviving example of the Pnz 7 at the Kubinka Tank Institut, Moscow. I remember another gun called Anzio Annie - this was captured by the Americans intact at Anzio and is in the Aberdeen Proving grounds, Washington.

Heres the site with 'Adam'

http://www.tankmuseum.ru/

You can see a pic of it on the main page. This museum is beyond doubt the best military museum in the world for land forces I hope to pay it a vist some day !