What's the most unique long gun you've shot?

416 CheyTac, ugly as snot but fun at a mile+

My Springfield 1922 MKII is a hoot to shoot at 100 yds with irons.

@WildRose, my FIL has a 45/90 in a Winchester package that is nice, been loading him up with Trail Boss to good effect on VA whitetail’s

Cheers,

Craig6

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A friend just came up with a Marlin 1889 lever in 44-40.
It was an Augusta, GA police rifle. He says it’s in nice shape. I haven’t seen it.

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Tell him to have it inspected and make sure it’s safe for modern ammo before firing it. Some of the originals were BP only.

Nice find either way.

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Yep you’re right. He’ll probably sell it as quick as possible without noting much more than dollar value.

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Too bad, it’s a real piece of history.

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He told me he’s putting $2500 on it.

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Zero frame Parker hammer gun in 16ga. I usually just put the old ones in the safe as collectibles, but this one must have been built for me in another life. I had the barrels checked by two different gunsmiths that I trust and they both recommended 2.5 inch black powder loads. I did the barn yard test with a long string to double check that the smiths had not missed anything… and then I took it dove hunting. The hammers are actually a excellent guide for lead and I quickly found out it shot a little high. After a few birds I put it away and have never shot it again, just had to get it out of my system.

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The most unique long gun I have fired was an original sporterized 1870s Springfield trapdoor rifle chambered in 45-70. It looked very much like the reproduction model in the photo below.

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Well there you go reminding me of the doubles!

The most unique double I’ve shot was probably a 2.5" only french double with a sliding breech. Truly a work of art but an extremely impractical gun.

They are/were made by a company in France named Darne. I had a client with a couple of them and I got to shoot them on hunts a few times.

image

The African double rifles and Paradox guns I’ve gotten to shoot were truly rare and unique and a privilege to even lay hands on as I know some of them were valued at well in excess of a 100k, one of them that has a famous and well documented history was probably more in the range of 500k.

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That’s a beautiful repo.

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It is! Wish I had the money for one, lol. I got lucky at one of the Texas Frontier reenactments I was a volunteer at and got to fire an original at a life-size steel cut-out of a buffalo. Nailed it in the head at ~500 yards, lol. They let me put a couple rounds through it for free, though they were charging all the patrons at $5/round.

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Heck of a deal. I’ve owned several ML’s and currently have an inline .50 I shoot with a 110gr of :Buckhorn .209 pushing a 350gr .45 cal sabot.

Shot modern 45/70 for about 3 decades in Marlin lever guns, but sold the last of them to fund a fully custom .375 Ruger built on a Model 70 long African magnum action.

I’ve been fortunate enough to shoot some pretty exotic repro’s too like the “Quigly” gun but while I’ve handled some of the museum pieces I’ve never gotten to shoot any of the originals other than the African Doubles and one original BP rifled ML from the early 1800’s that a friend in the RSA owns. It was one of the first built in S. Africa by his great, great, great grandfather.

The African magnums can be a real “eye opening experience” and even if you’re pretty tough you won’t blow through many rounds at the range with the NE cartridges.

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A 20 mm anti aircraft gun mounted on a Vietnam War armoured 5 ton truck, aka Gun Truck. The target was an old bus. Cut in half. Lengthwise.

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I remember my experience (in my younger dumber days) with a cut down very short, stock cut to pistol grip, rabbit ears double 12 gauge. Good amount of skin lost off my right hand. The whole thing couldn’t have been much over a foot long.

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Most unique? Dieseling my .177 pellets.
Crazy fun.

Er… I think that needs a story…

A little later.

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OK. Dieseling pellets.
First of all my disclaimer. This may not be safe in all situations, and the pellets ricochet much harder and farther. This is not really good for your pellet rifle.
On the other hand there is the attraction of shooting a supersonic break barrel air rifle.
Today we have off the shelf, inexpensive pellet rifles that advertise 1200 fps and more. I won’t use any other type air rifle like a PCP or other type high performance or larger bores. I stick to .177 or .22 break barrel that already boasts 1100 or more fps. My .177 Benjamine claims 1200 fps and works most of the time.
I use household or 3 in 1 oil. It’s flammable. Not any type fuel. Any flammable like vaporub and I believe petroleum jelly will work. I’m careful not to get the oil or other product smeared around. I cock the rifle, seat the pellet well in the chamber, and put just a tiny drop of oil or dab of other product in the backside hollow of the pellet. I don’t overfill the tiny space. I wipe off any excess, close the breach and it’s ready to fire. When fired, as the piston compresses the air behind the pellet, it causes such high compression that the oil is ignited just like in a diesel engine. Dieseling. This greatly increases the chamber pressure and fires the pellet at an increased speed. You can usually hear the pellet “crack” through the air a little if you make supersonic. I experiment shooting targets I can hear and comparing the sound. I also get a little more penetration considering the light penetration a standard pellet gives.
It’s not good for the seals or piston. But it’s really good for my face. It makes it smile.
“Again, don’t try this at home. I’m what you call a professional.”
I know you’re going to so be extra careful. Maybe it will work. Has to be a solid fast rifle to start with.

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Sorry that was so long.

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@Bugleboy apparently it works on my face too… got the ridiculous grin just reading that. :grin: :laughing:
My favorite fire starter is a fire piston… physics is FUN :grin:
Thank you for sharing that :clap: