1 You are a cutie.

2 Don't tell Feinstein

3 Paging Michael Moore... Paging Michael Moore...

4 I didn't know they came that BIG!... and LONG! (ItÂ’s big enough to do an elephant! Not that anyone would want toÂ… poor things) Where can I get one?

5 Yolanda: look here http://www.ohioordnanceworks.com/lahti/l.htm. Way back in the day, I read "God is My Copilot" by Col. Robert Scott, an account of flying with Chenault and the American Volunteer Group in China. One episode related was the recovery of a pilot who'd gone down in a rather remote area. The pilot reported that the locals firearms where of a larger bore than the .50 calibre guns on his plane. Not terribly surprising, tho. A 10 gauge shotgun has a .775" bore.

6 10-gauge! My shoulder would never recover, I'm afraid. 12 is plenty.

7 Yes, the biggest surprise to me was that you can actually buy one, for the low low price of only $8500 plus a case of Bud. Now THEre's a DEAL! I suppose something like this could come in *real handy* when you get charged by a wild pig!

8 I'd like to see this kid pull that gun out of his britches! Clowns in a VW, indeed!

9 In the useless information category, the largest shotgun I heard of still in manufacture is the Soviet KS-23, with a 23-mm bore making it approx. 6-gauge. It's a military weapon, sometimes carried by SPETsNAZ forces and can fire a number of projectiles including tear gas cannisters, rubber bullets, buckshot, and anti-vehicular rounds. It can also be used as a grenade launcher. Oddly enough, the weapon has a pistol grip, instead of a stock. I heard a story where a visitor, allowed to fire the weapon, knocked out some front teeth with his first shot. After persuading(taunting) him to try again, he broke his jaw with the second. I think that's a step forward for the Ruskies--accepting responsibility for your own actions! The punishment is built into the weapon! In the past, there were 2, 2.5, 3 and 4 gauge shotguns, called punt guns because they were mounted to boats called, oddly enough, punts. You can still find some of these around--and the shells... We're talking rough 2" diameter bores here.

10 I saw a video a short while back that featured a fully automatic 12 ga gun (5 rds/sec) that could fire, among other things, small grenade rounds. Just...damn!

11 Thanks for the link Darth! I wish I had $8500 to blow, but alas... Student loans take priority. "The pilot reported that the locals firearms where of a larger bore than the .50 calibre guns on his plane" Yeah but, please correct me if I'm wrong (i don't know much about guns)... couldn't a flintlock have a larger bore than a .50 calibre gun? I'm positive that pilot's guns were more acurate and reliable than those of the locals. As you said... Not terribly surprising.

12 Good heavens. I can't say from personal observation whether that would Finnish off a tank, but it sure would Finnish off a quail.

13 Be vewy, vewy quiet. I'm hunting tewwowists!

14 I hope that quail isn't supposed to be dinner.