Once upon a time, I owned a Thompson/Center Contender with an SSK Custom barrel in .45-70 rifle caliber. That was a handful, and when it went off, stuff downrange moved.

I also owned a short-barreled version of the North American Arms mini-revolver, in .22 Magnum caliber. It was quite a handful for such a tiny weapon, and unless you wanted the hammer spur buried in the web of your hand after firing, you had to hold on to that thing with the same grip you'd use to strangle a rabid weasel.

But the wildest hanggun I ever shot or owned was a Pachmayr Dominator conversion kit in .308 Winchester rifle caliber. It bolted on to any 1911A1 pistol frame, converting it to a bolt-action single-shot hunting pistol. If you are one of the many folks who think the 1911 isn't a particularly comfortable gun to shoot in its original caliber/configuration, then the Dominator would not be a good choice for you. After a few shots, the grip safety would start my hand bleeding at the web, and I'd have to stop and stick a bandage on it. In low light, the flash was spectacular, and the boom would draw folks from the far end of any firing line to see what the fuss was about. My favorite load was tracers, fired at 100/200 yard steel targets. Lotsa fun!

This one is not mine, just a couple of photos of one I found online:

wow, i've never seen anything like that before, thats insane, what kind of accuracy did it have?

Originally Posted by DJ Niner

Once upon a time, I owned a Thompson/Center Contender with an SSK Custom barrel in .45-70 rifle caliber. That was a handful, and when it went off, stuff downrange moved.

I also owned a short-barreled version of the North American Arms mini-revolver, in .22 Magnum caliber. It was quite a handful for such a tiny weapon, and unless you wanted the hammer spur buried in the web of your hand after firing, you had to hold on to that thing with the same grip you'd use to strangle a rabid weasel...

That's some funny stuff. This has the potential to be an awesome thread...

I think the wildest handgun I've ever shot was a .45 Mac10 full auto. My .44 Navy bp revolver was a hoot also.

Originally Posted by Gunners_Mate

wow, i've never seen anything like that before, thats insane, what kind of accuracy did it have?

Well, mine had a 4x long-eye-relief handgun scope on it instead of iron sights like the one pictured above. I could usually get at least one group of three shots under 2 inches at 100 yards (from a rest) before I started flinching/jerking the trigger (this was before I was a well-practiced handgunner). After the flinching started, all bets were off. I'd usually move to closer, action-oriented targets like water-filled 1 liter pop bottles at 25 yards, using 110 grain JHP loads. No evidence of the exact bullet impact point would be left after the shot.

Originally Posted by GatorDude

. . . But, the wild and crazy guns that defy common sense often are the most memorable to shoot. . . .

Mine is my Ruger Super Redhawk Alaskan in .454 Casull. As you probably know, it's one "rather large" snubby with its 2 1/2 inch barrel. It's just a factory gun, except mine is somewhat unique with its ported barrel, and a front Trijicon night sight ( for when grizzlies attack you in your tent ? ).

Actually, it's a bit of overkill for hiking protection here in the north-central AZ mountains.

It's not that the gun is so wild. It's the affect on water-filled gallon milk jugs. That's "near crazy".

But, for really wild and crazy, I used it on some GASOLINE filled milk jugs.
Now, that IS really wild and crazy. Do you know how much energy is stored in a gallon of gasoline ?

Smith .460 with a 4" barrel. Shot it at night and I'll try to dig up the picture but it shows the flash basically engulfing my entire hand and lowing about 3 feet out of the muzzle. 6 shots with that thing was enough for me. OUCH!

Mine was a S&W500 short barrel- ported that was brought to the range by a RSO who works at a local gun shop.

Holy crap!

It was like shooting artillery rounds. Shot 3 rnds & my hands were so numb the rest of the night I couldn't hit anything with my pistols.

But the fire shoot'n 3 ft out the front of the barrel when we dimmed the light was awe inspiring!

I shoot a friends S&W 500 4 weeks ago and it's probably the largest hand gun I've shot.

Now if you count military guns -

I've shot a 155 mm and several artillery pieces - man you talk about loud

Also a 50 cal jeep mounted machine gun .. lots of fun.

I was shooting at the range near my house about 30 years ago, and this tiny little Japanese-American guy came in with a whole bunch of gun cases. Inside them, he had all kinds of neat toys. These are some of them I remember:

S&W 29
Wildey 44 Automag
A couple of .44 mag old western style Colt type revolvers- huge guns.

Thompson .45 ACP "Tommy Gun"
UZI 9mm
A WW II 9mm Nazi submachine gun, can't remember the name of it.

These were all full auto, and he said anyone wants to shoot them, could if they had or bought ammo for it. I spent about $100, all I had, to shoot the full auto guns. A friend came in and he gave me some money for .44 mag ammo to shoot the automag. What a fun day that was!