At least it’s a straw hat. Mmmmmm. Dietary fiber. And I’d prefer Tater Tots? or onion rings please.
Still I won’t concede that easily. Are they so big they have to be fired from a bench or can they be truly fired like a handgun? IMHO a long gun with a bipod and no shoulder stock is not a handgun. Sere they just engineering exercises or meant to be used?
I suppose they were meant to be used. The Maadi-Griffin I am familiar with did, indeed, have a bipod on it. The muzzle brake looked a lot like the ones attached to the muzzle of the main gun on WWII tanks - bystanders on the flanks of the shooter suffered more than the shooter did. I happen to agree with your view about the shoulder stock and bipod, but I’ll bet there are a lot of owners of Savage Strikers, Remington XP-100s, T/C Contenders, etc., who would disgree with us.
Yes, but all those smaller weapons can easily be shot offhand. An XP-100 **is[/B} just a single shot version of the Mowhawk rifle with a shorter barrel and rearranged trigger but it absolutely can be used as a handgun. If I took a full size rifle action and built a .458 win mag “handgun” it would be disingenuous becuase it would be impractical and probably dangerous to shoot as a handgun.
Definitions have to go beyond the cut and dried legal definitions of the NFA/GCA laws. When I was shooting ARA benchrest I got an education as what constituted a rifle. There were basically no equipment rules other than the following: .22LR ammunition and it could not be bolted to the shooting bench. Several shooters have “rail guns” which are essentially turret mounted weapons with micrometer aiming devices. There was no pretense at being a shoulder weapon, no buttstock, in fact no stock of any kind. The 2" diameter barrels were mounted in massive steel blocks on the rest. Just the opposite of normal guns where the reciever would be mounted and the barrel would float. The shooter could position himself to aim through a 36-40x scope without physically touching the 40lb contraption until squeezing the trigger which typically broke at about once ounce of pressure. These were “rifles.”
The fun part was I could regularly beat a lot of those guys with an off the shelf, low end Anschütz rifle shooting from a a simple rest, an iron tripod with leather sandbags. 
Do they still make the AutoMag? I believe it was a .44 bullet on a cut-down .308 NATO cartridge.
Didn’t Dirty Harry carry that in at least one movie?
The automag has been gone for yeard. Yes the case was made from .308 brass but don’t take that to mean anything. It has case volume in line with other magnum cartridges.
FWIW you’re mixing two catridge names. There’s 7.62mm NATO and its civilian sibling .308 Winchester. They are virtually the same but NATO has difference headspace tolerances IIRC and it can sometimes be unsafe to fire civilain .308 ammo in a 7.62mm weapon.
“Sudden Impact,” wasn’t it?
So maybe this isn’t the ideal gun for home protection? 
I’m going to see if there’s a place (firing range) where I can rent one for just a few shots. The last pistol I fired was a .22, back in 1969 or so. I figure this thing’s only about 2.5 .22s. 
Peace,
mangeorge
I think you’re right on the movie. There is a gratuisout scene where he’s plinking out in the boonies with this hand cannon and anothe cop comes up behind him.
Mangeorge… hmm, start thinking in terms of cube of that factor, increase the velocity and you’ll be in the ballpark.
mangeorge: you may have to wait a while to shoot the .500 S&W Magnum - it is brand new and most ranges won’t have it for rent right away. If you do find a range that is renting it, please let us know your impressions when you shoot it! As far as home protection goes, think shotgun. Mossberg markets a .410 that is ideal for someone who doesn’t get a chance to shoot handguns very much. If you live in an apartment or in a neighborhood where the houses are close together, the shotgun is a good choice because of concerns about overpenetration of missed shots. You might be surprised about how effective birdshot can be at short ranges. A shotgun is a good tool for home protection for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is the sound of “thoonk-thoonk” in the darkness…
Affirmative on the movie, Sudden Impact.