So, what's the biggest gun you guys have fired?

[goodwoodrw]

I'll show my age, a 3.5in rocket launcher, albeit an inert round, but got to squeeze the trigger, early 70s.

[TulliusDetritus]

ORIGINAL: crsutton

ORIGINAL: TulliusDetritus

A 12 gauge shotgun, when I was 14 or 15. Me and my cousin used to kill little birds with it [:(]

One day, my cousin killed an incredibly beautiful bird (a woodpecker, if I remember correctly). I realised that was very mean: "we killed such a beautiful creature".

I haven't touched a gun since that day. I still feel very sad when I remember that bird (I didn't kill it, right, but I know I would have done it) [:)]

Funny you say this. I shot a pileated woodpecker when I was fourteen. Thought it was a crow. (crow hunting was legal back then). I never shot another thing after that.

Crows are very intelligent [:D] They were our prefered "victims", but somehow these intelligent animals knew we were there and *poof* gone [8D]

[BigBadWolf]

M-84 (Ex-Yugoslav modification of T-72) 125 mm main gun once. Bone shattering experience.
М53/59 SPAA dual 30 mm guns. That thing rocks.

[crsutton]

My Remco "Johnny Reb Cannon" The greatest Christmas present I ever got.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QR6WP69VcUg

[bradfordkay]

ORIGINAL: crsutton

My Remco "Johnny Reb Cannon" The greatest Christmas present I ever got.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QR6WP69VcUg

Life sized ones are even more fun! [:'(]

[LST Express]

We pulled into the Vicksburg battlefield parking lot a few years back just as they were firing one of those things. It shook the car and startled the hell out of us! It was pretty cool!

[JWE]

ORIGINAL: TulliusDetritus
A 12 gauge shotgun, when I was 14 or 15. Me and my cousin used to kill little birds with it [:(]

One day, my cousin killed an incredibly beautiful bird (a woodpecker, if I remember correctly). I realised that was very mean: "we killed such a beautiful creature".

I haven't touched a gun since that day. I still feel very sad when I remember that bird (I didn't kill it, right, but I know I would have done it) [:)]

Kinda Off Topic. I remember my first, graphically. Hunting rabbits with my Dad in the grove, when I was 11. It was traumatic to say the least. Ever since then, I have been positively Wiccan about hunting: only shoot what you can eat; never shoot unless you can kill (never, ever, shoot to bleed out); and to always cry and give respect to the magnificent animal you just killed. Both the Christian God and the Wiccan Goddess say this is ok, so long as needs must, and honor is given.

Kinda On Topic. Shot a 155mm gun at school. Trained on some bigger ones, but never got to get them to go boom. I'm mostly a 105mm kinda person.

[The Gnome]

I lit off a bottle rocket once when I was a kid. So I've got that going for me.

[Durbik]

5,45mm round - ak-74. No biggie.

[Bearcat2]

As a tank gunner; 152mm, 105mm and 120mm.
But the most fun was hip firing an M-60 MG-stupid stupid stupid-but FUN

[Mynok]

.44 mag rifle. I was about six. Knocked me on my butt. The gun stayed rooted to my shoulder though.

Frankly, if you aren't holding it to your shoulder or in your hands, you aren't shooting it. You're just setting it off.

[jomni]

The one between my goins.

[Kadrin]

.500 Smith and Wessen Revolver for pistols, and the Boys Anti-Tank Rifle are the biggest I've fired. That anti-tank rifle was damn fun to shoot, the revolver was just painful.

[V22 Osprey]

A 36 inch Howitzer, I was able to personally load and fire it myself from my back yard. Took out my friend's house half across the city of Corona, but atleast they weren't inside when fired it.[:'(]




[:D][:D][:D]

[morganbj]

ORIGINAL: Termite2

As a tank gunner; 152mm, 105mm and 120mm.
But the most fun was hip firing an M-60 MG-stupid stupid stupid-but FUN

Good grief! I forgot about the 152mm. We had 'em in the early 70's before the Army came to its senses. Yeah, I fired that a few hundred times, too. When the damn thing misfired, which it did a lot, we had to push the round out of the tube with the cleaning rod since the round had no brass cannister to extract it with. So, the thing's in the chamber, having been "fired," and we're outside inserting a 12' rod in the tube. Great fun.

Only got to fire the missle once, though. Those things were pretty expensive, as I recall. We used to call the Sheridans BEWMs, for Broken Electric War Machines (a play on a popular toy being sold then). What a piece of crap it was. It even came with its own toilet paper.

[tocaff]

8 gauge shotgun that nearly tore my shoulder off!  Never thought much of a 12 gauge after that.

[Nikademus]

never fired a weapon but i did almost burn my house down as a kid.

[:)]

[John Lansford]

One of my old employees was with the 82nd Airborne in Desert Storm, and was a TOW gunner.  The whole time on their race across the desert, he never got to fire the thing, right up to when the Iraqis stopped fighting.  Then they had to police an area and clean up all the unexploded ordinance; when they were finished he asked his commander to fire the TOW, since he hadn't had the chance.  He put the round right into the bunker they had put the old ammo; he said the explosion was magnificent...

[Bearcat2]

ORIGINAL: bjmorgan

ORIGINAL: Termite2

As a tank gunner; 152mm, 105mm and 120mm.
But the most fun was hip firing an M-60 MG-stupid stupid stupid-but FUN

Good grief! I forgot about the 152mm. We had 'em in the early 70's before the Army came to its senses. Yeah, I fired that a few hundred times, too. When the damn thing misfired, which it did a lot, we had to push the round out of the tube with the cleaning rod since the round had no brass cannister to extract it with. So, the thing's in the chamber, having been "fired," and we're outside inserting a 12' rod in the tube. Great fun.

Only got to fire the missle once, though. Those things were pretty expensive, as I recall. We used to call the Sheridans BEWMs, for Broken Electric War Machines (a play on a popular toy being sold then). What a piece of crap it was. It even came with its own toilet paper.

It was a great weapon[;)] I liked how the propellant would fall out on the turret floor and when you moved your boots over them, you get little sparks
What's not to like about the Sheridan; I watched one burn, the armor burning made a nice fire. We like to get the new guys to load, that way; it was great fun to watch them when the gun would go out of battery on firing; not so much fun for the gunner when the "cherry" juice would spray him when that happened. The M60A2 was a little better; at least the armour didn't burn and the gun would stay in battery most of the time.
I didn't get to fire it; but was near[me and everyone else in a 5 mile radius] when they set off a nuclear simulator, would like to set one of those off in my backyard, that would get homeland security's attention in a hurry.[:D]

[morganbj]

ORIGINAL: Termite2

ORIGINAL: bjmorgan

ORIGINAL: Termite2

As a tank gunner; 152mm, 105mm and 120mm.
But the most fun was hip firing an M-60 MG-stupid stupid stupid-but FUN

Good grief! I forgot about the 152mm. We had 'em in the early 70's before the Army came to its senses. Yeah, I fired that a few hundred times, too. When the damn thing misfired, which it did a lot, we had to push the round out of the tube with the cleaning rod since the round had no brass cannister to extract it with. So, the thing's in the chamber, having been "fired," and we're outside inserting a 12' rod in the tube. Great fun.

Only got to fire the missle once, though. Those things were pretty expensive, as I recall. We used to call the Sheridans BEWMs, for Broken Electric War Machines (a play on a popular toy being sold then). What a piece of crap it was. It even came with its own toilet paper.

It was a great weapon[;)] I liked how the propellant would fall out on the turret floor and when you moved your boots over them, you get little sparks
What's not to like about the Sheridan; I watched one burn, the armor burning made a nice fire. We like to get the new guys to load, that way; it was great fun to watch them when the gun would go out of battery on firing; not so much fun for the gunner when the "cherry" juice would spray him when that happened. The M60A2 was a little better; at least the armour didn't burn and the gun would stay in battery most of the time.
I didn't get to fire it; but was near[me and everyone else in a 5 mile radius] when they set off a nuclear simulator, would like to set one of those off in my backyard, that would get homeland security's attention in a hurry.[:D]

Saw one catch fire and blow up on a Reforger exercise in 1973, I think it was. One guy never found, one died on the chopper to Nuremburg. One guy made it half-way to San Antonio. All because some jerk was trying to fix the heater while smoking a cigarette. The thing was sans ammo. I can't imagine what would have happened had we not downloded the basic load before the exercise.

Your post brings back many crummy memories. Thank goodness they dumped those pieces of crap.

The M60A2 was a little better, I guess, but it was still a waste of a good tank gun platform. The A1 was MUCH better in taking out other tanks. Glad they ditched that one, too. (And the turret design on the A2 was bizzare. Some guy smoking the funny green stuff thought that one up.)

Enough. Let's get back to seeing the other answers.