Most weapons, from .45 automatics to 155-mm howitzers, are described in terms of calibre - the diameter of their projectile. These are the biggest of the big. Some are impractical showpieces built to satisfy the outsize egos of dictators such as Adolph Hitler and Saddam Hussein. Others are pure demonstrations of extreme gun-smithing. All of them pack a punch.
1. Largest Muzzle-Loading Cannon
Source: YouTube
The Tsar Cannon was cast in bronze in 1586 and weighs 40 tons. Its 35-inch bore and could fire about 1800 pounds of stone grapeshot, earning it the nickname the Russian Shotgun. It was never fired in anger and seems to have been intended mainly for display. Regent Boris Godunov, who ruled Russia in the late 1580s and 90s, described it as a way of overawing the local population and terrifying visiting ambassadors.
Napoleon wanted to take the Tsar Cannon back to France when he captured Moscow in 1812, but left without it. The big gun is now a popular tourist attraction outside the Kremlin arsenal.
2. Largest Gun Used in Action
In 1936, Adolph Hitler asked artillery-maker Gustav Krupp whether he could build an artillery piece to defeat the new French Maginot Line. Krupp's suggestion: a giant cannon with an 80-cm (31-inch) calibre. Hitler ordered two.
Named Gustav and Dora, after Krupp and his wife, each 1350-ton cannon required its own train to move it and took three days to assemble. They could fire concrete-piercing shells weighing seven tons - as much as a bus – over 25 miles. The huge cannons arrived too late for the war against France, but Gustav devastated Sevastopol in the then-USSR during the siege, firing up to 14 rounds a day. Both guns were broken up at the end of WWII.
3. Largest Gun on a Battleship
Japanese monster battleships Yamato and Musashi were fitted with nine 18.1-inch guns apiece, making them the most powerful artillery afloat. But though these guns had an effective range of some 26 miles, they were of little use in real combat. By the time they launched at the start of World War II, aircraft carriers had begun to eclipse battleships.
The Yamato once did get close enough to engage U.S. warships at the battle of Leyte Gulf, but submarine and aircraft attacks forced its retreat. Bombs and torpedoes sunk both ships.
4. Largest Shotgun
The gauge of a shotgun goes down as the calibre goes up. For instance, the standard 12 gauge is equal to a 0.72-inch calibre, but is a small fry compared to the giant 2-gauge punt guns used in the 19th century. These formidable weapons were used for commercial hunting, bringing down whole flocks of wildfowl with a single blast. They were later taken up by sportsmen.
Too heavy to be lifted, the punt gun was fired from a rest in a one-man boat. The barrel was equivalent to 1.3-inch calibre and could fire a load equal to about 40 standard 12-gauge shells. Punt gunning proved so effective at killing flocks of birds that many states outlawed it by 1860.
5. Largest Handgun
The .600 Nitro Express cartridge was originally developed for hunting elephants but was generally considered to be excessively powerful. But, needless to say, someone had to build a handgun capable of firing it.
Austrian company Pfeifer Waffen handmade this 13-pound revolver especially for a Swiss client, and it will make you one too - for about $17,000. The bullets are about six times the size of a standard 9-mm round, but the weight of the gun makes the recoil manageable.
6. Largest Weapon on a Jeep
The prize for packing the most punch onto a mobile platform goes to the celebrated Davy Crockett recoilless spigot gun, the smallest nuclear weapon ever deployed. The gun, developed in the 1950s for a potential war against the Soviet Union, had a small-calibre piston (4 or 6 inches) inserted into the barrel and attached to an 11-inch warhead.
The Davy Crockett had a range of 2-1/2 miles, with a yield equal to about 18 tons of high explosives. Contrary to myth, the crew were indeed outside the danger zone.
7. Largest Calibre Rifle
When the biggest existing calibre is not big enough, you have to make your own. That's what J.D. Jones, president of SSK Industries, did, creating a record-breaking .950-calibre cartridge with bullets weighing about 8 ounces apiece.
This sort of round requires a monster rifle to fire it, and only three have been made. The guns weigh 80 pounds or more depending on the options, so they are fired only from a rest or bipod. At $40 a shot, firing a .950 JDJ is an expensive hobby, but will draw a crowd.
8. Largest Weapon in Saddam Hussein's Dreams
Stuck with a third-rate air force and ineffective Scud missiles, Saddam Hussein selected an alternative way of bombarding his enemies at long range: a giant cannon. The largest version, known as Big Babylon, was designed to have a barrel 39 inches in diameter and be more than 500 feet long. It would have weighed 200 tons and theoretically could hit anywhere on the planet - or launch projectiles into orbit. But Saddam would never get it; gun components made in Spain and Switzerland were confiscated before they could be delivered and the largest-ever artillery piece was never completed.
9. Smallest Largest Pistol
Some large-calibre weapons are designed for practicality, such as the pocket pistols Henry Deringer pioneered from 1825 onward. Having two barrels rather than a revolver action meant a compact weapon could fire a full-size cartridge.
Since then, the challenge has been to make such weapons as small as possible. Heizer Defense claims that its titanium-frame Double Tap pistol is the smallest and lightest to fire .45 Automatic Colt Pistol ammunition. At just 14 ounces and 5.5 inches long, it is a true pocket pistol.
10. Largest Calibre Handheld Weapon
Calibre is a key factor with shoulder-mounted antitank weapons, because a bigger diameter translates into greater penetration by the warhead. The largest currently around is the Eryx shoulder-launched missile by European company MBDA, with a 135-mm (5.3-inch) warhead.
Eryx is a guided missile with a range of over 600 yards. MBDA claims it's effective against bunkers and other fortifications, and even low-flying helicopters. The warhead will punch through about 7 feet of concrete or more than 35 inches of steel plate, making it deadly against the heaviest tanks.
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