I’ve used (but not fired) a Rapier missile launcher. Do I get bonus points for only being 9 at the time?
Did you hit it?
That Rapier thing looks awesome! I want one!
And you were nine at the time? How the hell does a nine-year-old get access to one of those? I never had such a cool childhood! I simmer with envy!
My dad helped developing them. He took me to work one day and they had one standing around (no missiles, but hooked to a video so you could try the thing out). That and a .22 rifle are the only things I’ve ever used.
A replica civil war musket is next on my growing list of things that go bang. That’s in a couple of weeks.
A 16 gauge, bolt-action shotgun that was at least 50 years old.
Not that exotic, you say? Well, do you know anyone ELSE who owns one?
I thought so.
Lizard, was it a Mossberg or a Marlin? Or was it some other brand? I am curious because the “goose gun” bolt action shotguns usually came in 12 gauge and with a long barrel - on the order of 32" or more. Is the muzzle threaded for choke tubes? If this shotgun is in pretty good shape, it may be worth a dollar or two - you may have a collector’s item there.
An acquaintance of mine owns an M-16. Last year I shot it. I inserted a full 30-round magazine and held in the trigger until it emptied. Much fun.
Myself, I own a metric FAL (7.62 x 51). I love it.
I havn’t seen anyone else mention so I guess it qualifies as an exotic:
Barret Light .50 Sniper rifle.
Shoots the same round as the M2 .50 machine gun. I was just out at the range for some target practice one day when this dude showed up with the thing and let me shoot a couple rounds out of it. Fun gun, impressive boom and suprisingly light recoil.
Under similar circumstances I’ve also shot:
AR-15
unknown calibur blackpowder muzzel loading musket
AK-47 knockoff semi-auto.
The most exotic ones are I own would be my completely vintage Lee-Enfield No 4 Mk1rifle (I like to think it saw service in WWII but who knows, it does have British Army markings) and my Chilean Mauser.
The Mauser is in the 98K family, made by Waffenfabrik Steyr (in Austria) for the Chilean army between 1912-14. It’s stamped with Chili’s offical crest on the reciever. Mine was originally of the 7mm LR variety but was rebarreled in '61 to fire NATO 7.62 (.308 Win) rounds. I have no idea how many were modified in this manner. Not exactly exotic I think but an antique and a bit unusual for sure.
I also have a Chinese made copy of the Russian SKS 7.62x39 semi auto, with a 30rd “bannana” magazine and the bayonet.
Otherwise my firearms expereince is limited to more pedestrians specimens:
Browning Hi-Power 9mm
Taurus .44 Mag
Winchester .30-30 lever action
Marlin .22 semi auto (bday present when I was 10, still my favorite)
S&W .357 mag
British L1A1Semi-auto rifle (.308 Win)
and others owned by friends or more random folks from the shooting range.
Oh and of course my spud gun - hand crafted from black ABS tubing, used propane for fuel, rigged with a BBQ sparker as a trigger so it could be shoulder fired. Gave it away when I moved down to Houston, should build another one this summer
Katana that was surrendered to my Grandfather in WW2. (not really “used” per se)
WW2 surplus Enfield .303 British Infantry rifle.
.45 Webley revolver manufactured in 1876.
It it was a valuable collectors item, I never would’ve been able to buy it! 
No, it’s an old J.C. Higgins sold by Sears. It doesn’t even have a serial number. (!) I picked it up at a gun shop in Oregon for $75 the day before I left for Ohio. I figured it would make a decent deer gun, since you can only use shotguns here.
It is in such great shape that I wonder if anyone has ever used it for anything. According to the link, it could not possibly be less than 41 years old, but it looks almost right-off-the-shelf. I like it, both because it was cheap and in great shape and because, as you mentioned, it is really unique.
Who actuallys buys the Goose Gun, anyway? Do people actually use it anywhere for shooting geese?
Lizard: yessir, the “goose gun” is alive and well all over the U.S. In some parts of the country, goose hunting is done from a fixed blind and shooting is at high flying geese. Since geese are remarkably sturdy and at high altitudes, a stout load and a long barrel is needed to cleanly take them. That is why I am so surprised to learn that you have a bolt action shotgun in 16 gauge. And although your bolt action is marked “J.C. Higgins” and marketed by Sears, it could very well be a Mossberg or Marlin firearm. The J.C. Higgins trademark was given to several different guns made under contract for Sears, Roebuck & Co. by several different makers. If you can find the model number on the shotgun, I can use a cross-reference to tell you who made it. This would be especially helpful if you ever need to have it repaired. I am rather surprised that there isn’t a serial number on it. Perhaps it is on the receiver under some of the wood? Or on the bottom of the receiver next to where the barrel is attached? Have you had trouble finding buckshot or slugs for it? There have been some great advances in shotgun slugs in the last few years, but most of that ammo has been offered in 12 gauge and 20 gauge. As we discussed earlier, it would be nice if there are threads in the muzzle so you could screw in different choke tubes - there is even a rifled tube… at least the rifled tubes are available for 12 ga. and 20 ga. If there is no provision for choke tubes, you might want to have the choke restriction checked before you shoot slugs in it.
Rhein-Metall M-256 120mm anti-tank smoothbore cannon (M1-A1 Abrams MBT). It’ll rock yourr world, man.
Lessee…
I fired a crossbow that I was able to make in less than a day. Oddly enough it worked, an well.
I’ve also got a knife that straps onto the underside of your arm that you can fling out and slide back in at will. It for hunting vampires btw…
Given what you said, I doubt this gun was ever intended for goose hunting. The barrel is a little long (26 inches) but it is a modified choke, with no provision for choke tubes (to answer your other question). And the design is a little different from the Goose Gun in that it has a tubular magazine that loads through a conventional loading gate under the receiver, very similar to most pump-action guns. The only Goose Gun I’ve ever seen had a clip.
Personally, I think this gun was intended as a cheap, “do-everything” gun for rural people who don’t have a lot of money. This demographic forms a large part of the Sears customer base, or did then. Hence a middling gauge and a middling choke.
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It is a model 538.18, thanks for the offer. Although given how simple the mechanism is, how new it looked when I bought it, and how little I paid for it, I’d be surprised if I ever needed/wanted to fix it during my lifetime.
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Buckshot, yes. Everything else, not really. They sell #6 shotshells in 16-gauge at my local Wal-Mart, and I can pick up slugs at just about any gunstore around here. The only ones I’ve seen were the conventional rifled lead kind, though! It’s possible ammo supply is much better here since only shotguns are used on medium-to-big game in much of the Midwest.
Lizard: could it be that the model number was 583.18? If so, you have a Harrington & Richardson Model 120. I also found a High Standard Model 514 that fits your description. I am surprised that you are able to find 16 gauge slugs - that’s good news. If you know someone with a shotshell reloader, you can probably have some buckshot loads made up for you; the reloader may ask you to buy the required dies for 16 gauge, but that will be a minor cost. When you say, “the conventional rifled lead kind” of slug, I assume you are talking about the RWS Brenneke loading or something similar. Just keep in mind that the “rifling” feature of this slug does absolutely nothing in terms of rotating the projectile or improving accuracy. As a matter of fact, if you can ask around and find some of the newer saboted slugs in 16 gauge, I would suggest you give them a try. I grew up in Kansas, where we considered our state to be in the Midwest, and we shot centerfire rifles at all kinds of game. I can never recall sighting any animal that I would call “big game” back in the Jayhawker state, but maybe the deer are monsters in Ohio…
Nope. I’m talking about the slug variously known as the “Foster” or “forester.” Scroll to the bottom of that link, and it’s the one pictured on the right. These are far more common than anything made by RWS, and can be fired from full-choked guns (I have done so on many occasions). It has always been my understanding the purpose of the rifling was to allow the projectile to squeeze through whatever choke there may be.
I used to be puzzled why so many otherwise-knowledgable gun people seemed to think slugs can’t fired through a full choke, since I did so with regularity as a kid. Then I learned that saboted slugs can’t be fired through full chokes. I guess some people had never clued into the difference between those old-time chunks of lead and that new-fangled German stuff.
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Well, I once had an Oregon resident tell me I was from “the East Coast,” so I guess anything is possible! Ever since I read Rifles for Watie I’ve considered Kansas to be “West.” My own rule of thumb, as far as hunting goes, is that if you’re allowed to use rifles on anything bigger than groundhogs (and if YOUR “groundhog” is the same animal as MY “groundhog”) then you are also from the Midwest. 
But it’s not like it matters.
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Nah, not really. We kill them off too quick, what with our high population density and all. But Ohio does have black bears in some of its more remote, southeastern regions.
Match guns at ten paces. Made out of clothes pins (the spring type). You took the clothes pin apart and reassembled it so that it would shoot a kitchen match about ten feet and light it as it “fired”. I don’t remember how it was done. That was about 45 years ago. We had fights with 'em. I never got injured, but did get a few holes burned in my shirts.
Cool… you should figure out how you made those match guns. Sounds like an awesome pyro trick!
Jelly shoe. Kicked my twin brother in the crotch with it when we were ten.
The most exotic weapon I’ve ever used is my body.
'Course, most of my victims surrender without much of a fight…