This is just a short list of the weird ideas that people have come up with involving guns. It is certainly not exhaustive.....
The Taurus View was a simple double action revolver, somewhere during its development (or perhaps the reason for its existence?) someone came up with the brilliant plan to make the side plate of transparent Lexan. Beyond the peep-show side plate, the gun is made of titanium and other lightweight alloys, it's purpose was clear (pardon the pun). Either way the gun did not survive very long as sales were dismal.
One such invention of this era was the Dardick. The pistol and subsequent carbine adapter were designed around a unique, triangle shaped plastic cartridge (or cartridge adapters) called a "tround". The idea was to make a high capacity, self loading revolver.
It was described by one reviewer as being "as versatile as a six armed monkey".
The guns were no doubt unique looking, resembling Marvin the Martian's Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator, and being equally as complex, they just didn't click with buyers. In less than two years the Dardick was gone.
This one looks like something Maxwell Smart would carry....and would have fail miserably in his palm. Either way, no one would guess you were packing. Rumor is that these were designed for assassinations, not sure if anyone ever got their ticket punched with one.
Once upon a time the duck or goose on your table was hunted by a commercial hunter. These commercial hunters figured they could make more money if they could shoot more than one bird at a time, so the Punt Gun was invented. It is basically a shotgun on steroids, using a cartridge several times the size of our standard 12 gauge.
Laws against commercial hunting put and end to the reign of the Punt Gun....I think I would like to build one...you know for fun...
Many of the guns in this post were designed to look like something other than a firearm. This one disguised as a radio (I assume anyway, based on the antenna) , could be quickly metamorphosed into a submachine gun. I don't know if any of these ever made it past the prototype stage.
Another one
Magpul revived the idea, their prototype kinda looks like a flashlight....
This has got to be one of the most ridiculous ideas ever....A small camera is connected to the ejector rod of your revolver and when you pull the trigger the spinning of the ejector rod would cause the camera to snap a picture, basically giving the jury a picture of what the criminal was doing when you shot him.....This may help the shooter in the eyes of the jury or put him behind bars.....I wouldn't want to take the chance of having photographic evidence telling a different story....
Ok I take back my previous statement about the camera gun being the stupidest idea ever....we have a new contender. A billy club with a hole drilled in it and mounted to a revolver.....I am bewildered as to how the inventor thought this would work, do you remove the billy club from the revolver when you are out of bullets or wish to employ non-lethal force, or do you use the revolver as a handle for the billy club?
Here is a modern take on the idea.....but these are no longer single shot weapons...so it is a solution in search of a problem...or maybe just for nostalgia?
Ok I take back my previous statement about the camera gun being the stupidest idea ever....we have a new contender. A billy club with a hole drilled in it and mounted to a revolver.....I am bewildered as to how the inventor thought this would work, do you remove the billy club from the revolver when you are out of bullets or wish to employ non-lethal force, or do you use the revolver as a handle for the billy club?
Another idea that was before its time was the Gyrojet weapons system. It used a tiny rocket powered bullet, that was completely inaccurate. In addition to being as precise as an Irishman on St. Paddy's Day, it took a while to get the rocket up to speed, so the bad guy had plenty of time to look for cover.
With today's technology, it may not be long before we have hand held guided missile small arms.
Before the invention of batteries, portable sources of light had to be powered by flame, here is someone's attempt to put a light on a gun....probably about as precise as the Gyrojet
These combo-weapons are a crack up....I guess when you only have one shot, you need a plan B
Here is a modern take on the idea.....but these are no longer single shot weapons...so it is a solution in search of a problem...or maybe just for nostalgia?
Could you imagine the sale pitch this guy had? "....and you simply steer your machine gun bike/motorcycle towards the enemy and aim while hide behind this small metal plate"
Sources:
https://forums.gunsandammo.com/discussion/40054/nagant-revolver-axe-combo
https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/punt-gun-1910-1920/
https://www.nrablog.com/articles/2016/9/a-brief-history-of-the-peculiar-dardick-revolver-and-tround/
https://www.americanrifleman.org/articles/2014/4/21/firearm-ideas-that-failed/
https://gatdaily.com/weird-gun-wednesday-steyr-mannlicher-m1894/
