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Everybody has deep opinions about the virtues of Yamato's 18.1" compared to the Iowa's 16", and so on, but I wonder how many of us actually fired anything bigger than a peashooter?

I stand on a 0.45" myself. Far cry from them big guns :^)

155mm is the bigest I have ever personally loaded, aimed and fired.
Gregg

M-110 203mm Howitzer, sad to think that my tube ended up as a bomb. Can't say I loaded it by myself though [:)]

I've never loaded anything bigger than a shotgun, but I have "fired" stuff. The largest projectiles I disposed of were 14" (about 30 or so) found in and around the parking lot of the coastal defense battery at the Sandy Hook National Seashore in New Jersey.

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) [:)]

I actually fired 6 shots with the 5"/38 cal...that is to say I was the Pointer for the gun (elevation control). I was also Trainer (azimuth control) for 6 shots. And I was Director/Spotter Officer for 6 shots too. Range was about 8000 yards at the start of the firing run, the target was a weather balloon...it's harder than one would think to hit anything.

.50 Cal MG on a tripod. After a full day of firing the M16, it was quite a different experience. You feel the power with each round, and it doesn't take long before it starts to cross your mind that you NEVER want to be anywhere near the receiving end of those slugs.

40 mm bofors. Do missiles count? Or ASW mortars?

Just an 81mm mortar. I have called in fire from 105's and Cobras.

M1A1 120mm main gun
.50 Cal TC's mount
7.62 coax and loaders mount..

ORIGINAL: sprior

40 mm bofors. Do missiles count? Or ASW mortars?

How about BPDMS? (beepadeemus)

I have fired a Subroc (well, I pushed the button-there are many people involved with firing one of these). I own a .400 Jeffrey's Nitro Express (in the process of being sold right now) and have fired a .470 Jeffrey's Nitro Express and a 12 gauge. The 470 had the biggest kick. IIRC the 400 was Jim Corbett's favorite weapon. Accurate with open sights to 400 yards.

12lb Napoleon Gun-Howitzer.

I hit a MARTA bus with a wad of tinfoil from it in the parking lot at Kennessaw Mtn Battlefield Nat'l Park. [:D]

Well...um...it was...ok no other way to put this but it was big so my wife says and it created my daughter.
[X(]

ORIGINAL: Gregg

155mm is the bigest I have ever personally loaded, aimed and fired.
Gregg

In my case a 155mm howitzer ... nada gun ...

I was in a 203mm unit ... but did not fire it myself ...

81 mm Brandt-Hotchkiss.

16" 50 cal, USS Iowa, as a wet-behind-the-ears midshipman on a Shake-Down cruise, summer '84. Well, OK, I wasn't actually permitted to fire a live round, but it was so cool just being there when they were.

Later I was to bravely use a 50 cal to defend my ship against a rogue 55 gal drum trying to infiltrate our borders.

300 Winchester Magnum. It's a bit too big for Sitka Blacktail, but it's the rifle my brother wanted to get me. I can get 9 rounds on the firing range before my shoulder goes numb.

Bren .303 LMG. Lots of fun.

Tullius's experience is similar to that expressed by Harper Lee in "To Kill a Mockingbird."  The father, Atticus Finch, gives his son a gun and tells him not to shoot a mockingbird as it would be a sin since mockers just provide beautiful music.
 
All the rest of you guys that have fired 50 caliber guns and artillery etc. are giving me an inferiority complex.  My biggest gun was my 30'06.  But I stopped hunting about 20 years ago because I just didn't enjoy it.