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Most of you , especially the veterans, will put me to shame on this. However, this is directed primarily to the civilians amongst us.
I've never fired a military-issue rifle, as I was never in the armed forces. I've personally fired a 12-guage shotgun, a 30-cal Winchester rifle, and a 44-Magnum pistol, all at stationary targets.
I don't deer hunt, and I liked them all, but handling the rifle felt the most comfortable. All of this was just to satisfy my curiousity.
I've never handled a semi-auto or automatic rifle, but here are my wishes-- to fire a BAR, an M1 Garand Rifle, Thompson SMG, and a 30-cal MMG. In other words, all that WWII Marine weaponry that I've never personally handled, but intensively studied. Someday I hope to fulfill these wishes.

With all my fascination with WWII weapons, I personally have no desire to own a firearm.

What weapons have you other civilians actually fired?

Wow..KG...I can almost dito that post,...I shot my great uncles old octagon barrled 30-30.....22's..9mm..and a pistle or two....but none of the mil weapons, I don't shoot the deer , I feed them...love to watch them.....I go to the gun shows...and some they have on display...I love...but can't afford,...let alone the ammo..
I guess....I'll just stick to the comp games...rainbow 6 and such...
take care,
Huffy

I've not fired any military semi-auto or fully automatic stuff, but as a rural-type Canadian, I've fired a heckofaolotov hunting rifles ... including old .303 service rifles ... and lotsa shotguns ... and a couple of pistols (.38 and such).

I must admit that I like shooting cans much more than Deer ...

Nearly every service rifle in our game has been in my hands at one time, and had a few hundreds rounds fired. A partial list (my memory isn't what it used to be): .30 Springfield & the "Enfield" .30 US service rifle from WWI, M1 & M1 carbine, M-14, three .303 Brit rifles (the WWI model, the standard WWII rifle, and the "jungle carbine"), a 7.7 Jap, the Russian Mosin-Nagant & Tokarev semi-auto, 6.5 Italian (the one I don't believe killed Kennedy - it not only couldn't hit the side of a barn but would blow powder & bits of brass back in my face - the worst rifle I ever owned, a real piece of s***), M-16, AK-47 (probably my favorite), the Mauser 98K; and some service pistols - Luger, P-38, and .45 auto. The only auto weapon I've fired was the .30 M1 carbine with the auto selector.

Since I live in a country where military-grade weapons are all but banned for civilians, my experience is limited to

* Chinese version of the AK-74 (in semi-automatic. Very very easy to handle, but kicks)
* Mauser K96, very similiar to the K98k.
* 12-gauge shotgun (pump-action)
* some .22

Wish list (a boy can dream, can't he?)

* M1 Garand
* Thompson
* Stg-44
* AG90 B (below, top)


And - of course - the MG 42 [:'(]

When I was an army cadet in the '80's we still had Lee-Enfield No. 4s and Bren LMGs. Both are superb weapons; extremely rugged and accurate. I was disappointed when we finally upgraded to SA80s[:(]

I have very limited experiences with weapons myself.

No hand guns.

Fired a 12 gauge once. Big boom big kick, killed a piece of the ground big time

Fired a Mini 14 once, interesting weapon, easy to handle I guess.

Fired a 22 rifle, no kick of course, round hardly able to do anything unless used in a specifically dangerous fashion (a 22 will kill someone if you try).

Fired the FNC1A1 while in the service. I liked my rifle.

Grew up in a home though where guns (any guns, any purpose) were not welcome.
Tends to be a response parents get when father is robbed at gunpoint twice while at work (worked for the CN).
And no, save the dumb concept that having a gun might have ensured his safety. It would just have given them a reason to shoot him instead of club him.

Basically I grew up without access to guns toys or otherwise.

Several Maxim variants, including twin AAMG..MG34 & 42, Lahti, DT, Madsen, Bren lmgs (plus couple more modern ones). Suomi, Ppsh, MP-38, SturmGewehr..bunch of others. Never actually kept a list but rough estimate would be 50 or so full auto weapons and a load of rifles/pistols/revolvers.
Being a founding member of a military history association (plenty of weapons collector friends) tends to help in getting irons to shoot with [:D]. Myself being a black powder guy I just have my cannons (4 pieces under construction right now) so I just have only few 'modern' weapons.

Voriax

ps. Gotta brag a bit. Our club had its annual rifle shooting competition last Saturday. I won the Musket and percussion muzzleloader series, was second in 'military rifle' (mostly Finnish M-39's) and 6th in 1891 Mosin-Nagant. [8D].

Alas, I was too young for Vietnam and too old for Desert Shield or Storm. I own a S&W 357 Magnum and a 12 shotgun, neither of which has been fired in years. It's just not like it used to be where you could go out in the woods or some quarry and shot off a bunch rounds and not have to worry. I inherited some stuff from my Dad when he passed on, although I'm hesitant on giving an details. [;)] I will say that one of the pieces is some French rifle from WW1. It doesn't have magazine though, so I couldn't fire it even if I wanted too. In fact I'm not really sure just what it is. 15 years ago or so I did take it to a local gun shop to find out what it is, and he most likely told me and I just forgot. [:)]

But I do have one funny little story to tell. My brother enlisted in the Marines in 1966. He came home on leave one weekend and managed to smuggle out his M-14 training rifle. I was all of about 9-10 years old and he wanted to take me to a local quarry to shoot the thing. All I remember is him firing off one round, and I was off and running, in the opposite direction! [:D] I remember him laughing at me when he realized what had happened. I never did shoot the rifle. But with the echo from the quarry it sounded like a 21 gun salute!

Would anyone know of any decent website or book that might detail some restoring process for older guns. Like finishes? Part of the outside of the barrel of shotgun is a little rusty. Any info would be appreciated. Thanks.

What this thread needs is some Ammo Sgt. Probably would be easier for her to list the weapons she HASNT fired. Me myself did a short stint as a eleven bang bang so I got to play with the usual matel toy package i.e M16a2, saw,60.at-4 etc.. My favorite was the saw or m249

Galil AR, Galil SAR, M-14 (only on semi-auto) and MG-3 , my personal favourite

d'oh .. forgot Colt 1911


Anyway, the Galil series has a design very very similar to ak-47 and ak74, with only minor differences, mainly to enhance handling and ergonomics. Overall a nice rugged piece of equipment, although after i had fired the m-14 and mg-3 i always fet that the 5,56 was a wee bit weak [:(]

I have fired a M-16/A2, M203, Beretta 9mm, Law Rocket, Grenade Launcher (sorry I can't remember the military designation) and the M60 machine gun.

Rich

ORIGINAL: Major_Johnson

It's just not like it used to be where you could go out in the woods or some quarry and shot off a bunch rounds and not have to worry.

This is one of the reasons I love Arizona so much. You CAN just go off into the desert and blast away. No problems. There's even a guy around here who has a quad .50 that he takes out to the desert and rips off a couple hundred $s worth of rounds in a few seconds. Clearly, a very wealthy man.

I've got a Browning 20 ga. O/U (sweet gun), a Benelli Nova 12 ga. pump, a Ruger 10/22 rifle and a Brit Enfield .303. I've fired lots of pistols, several hunting rifles and a bunch of other shotguns (quail hunting and bird dog training). I used to shoot alot of black powder stuff and not nearly as well as Voriax, obviously.

What has amazed me is how loud and powerful an on WWII army .45 pistol is. Those things really kick and make your ears ring! [X(] Did/do soldiers wear ear protection in action? I suspect not. Those that have seen real action must all be deaf.

ORIGINAL: rbrunsman

ORIGINAL: Major_Johnson

It's just not like it used to be where you could go out in the woods or some quarry and shot off a bunch rounds and not have to worry.

This is one of the reasons I love Arizona so much. You CAN just go off into the desert and blast away. No problems. There's even a guy around here who has a quad .50 that he takes out to the desert and rips off a couple hundred $s worth of rounds in a few seconds. Clearly, a very wealthy man.

I've got a Browning 20 ga. O/U (sweet gun), a Benelli Nova 12 ga. pump, a Ruger 10/22 rifle and a Brit Enfield .303. I've fired lots of pistols, several hunting rifles and a bunch of other shotguns (quail hunting and bird dog training). I used to shoot alot of black powder stuff and not nearly as well as Voriax, obviously.

What has amazed me is how loud and powerful an on WWII army .45 pistol is. Those things really kick and make your ears ring! [X(] Did/do soldiers wear ear protection in action? I suspect not. Those that have seen real action must all be deaf.

afaik most of the ww2 vets suffer from ear damage, resulting in inabilty to hear high and ultrahigh frequencies..

.22 rifle and revolver, .308, 30-06 & 7.62x59 hunting rifles, 12 gauge shotguns, many models of 9mm pistols,
9mm Suomi M/31 SMG http://www.saunalahti.fi/~ejuhola/7.62/suomi.html ,
Valmet 7.62x39 AR http://world.guns.ru/assault/as43-e.htm ,
Valmet KVKK 62 http://world.guns.ru/machine/mg31-e.htm ,
AK-47 http://world.guns.ru/assault/as01-e.htm ,
NSV-12.7 http://world.guns.ru/machine/mg02-e.htm both from tripod and turretmounted from Sisu XA-180 http://members.surfeu.fi/stefan.allen/XA-180.html .

Thats all I can remember quickly.

Have the head space of the bolt checked on that Carcano 6.5. That could be your problem.

ORIGINAL: Voriax
ps. Gotta brag a bit. Our club had its annual rifle shooting competition last Saturday. I won the Musket and percussion muzzleloader series, was second in 'military rifle' (mostly Finnish M-39's) and 6th in 1891 Mosin-Nagant. [8D].

Voriax, congrats on your 2 wins and the second place finish. I'll bet the 6th place in Mosin-Nagant wasn't too shabby either. [;)]

Just a few, but no fully automatic weapons. Things like 1891 Moisin Naggant, M39, KAR 98, M1 Garand, M1 Carbine, Carcano carbine (short inaccurate and useless, dont even make a good club), varrious other Mauser rifles in varrious calibers, Mini 14, Bushmaster AR-15, Remington 30-06 BDL (Quarter size groups at 200 yards), a very strange M-14 with a pistol grip stock (I think it was a full auto version but was converted to single shot. There is a slot in the stock for the selector switch), SKS rifle(Yugoslav), SKS carbine (Short Chinese), Ruger 10-22 22cal rifle, Savage .17 bolt action, Remington 870 pump shotgun in 12 gauge 3in mag., Remington 1100 Semi-auto shotgun in 12 gauge 2 3/4in, Wichester .22 Mag lever-action, Winchester 30-30 lever-Action.

Pistols,
Springfield 1911A1 .45, Springfield Ultra Compact .45, Taurus .44 mag, S&W .357 mag, S&W .38 special, Glock .45, PPK in .380 (9mm kurtz),
Makorov in .380 (I got it in .380 because I was affraid that the Russin ammo for it would dry up.), Browning High Power 9mm. Then there is the bunch of .22cal pistols from Ruger, Browning, High Standard, Berreta, all semi-autos and another from Ruger that was a revolver.

DONE[:D]

As an aircrewman I had to qualify with/in twin 50 cal turrets (deck/upper) and twin 20 mm cannons in the nose and tail turrets, I much prefered the 50's, purred like a kitten, 20's had a tendecy to jam and required a very light touch but they'd chop up anything they hit. Also fired 45 cal pistol and 38 cal (sidearm) and a cute AR15? 22cal survival weapon.

OK, a perspective from the UK:

None. Absolutely zero. Can't say I'm bothered by that, actually - I don't know anyone who owns a firearm. Well, maybe one guy might own a shotgun.

See, things are different in a country/culture where firearms use is so exceptional as it is hereabouts. Now, in some areas (bad parts of Manchester, for example) that's not the case, but in most of the country it still is, and oh how I hope it stays that way.

Steve.