5 of the Worst Guns Ever | History in the Dark
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 31 ก.ค. 2024
- Guns have been through a lot of development over the last few centuries. As instruments of war, they're one of the most basic in the modern day. But over their history, they've had a lot of missteps. Let's talk about five of them!
0:00 - Intro
1:11 - Ross Rifle
4:55 - Chauchat
8:00 - Villar Perosa aircraft submachine gun
9:45 - Mars Automatic Pistol
11:49 - Puckle Gun
"The Ross rifle is a straight-pull bolt action rifle chambered in .303 British that was produced in Canada from 1903 until 1918. The Ross Mk.II (or "model 1905") rifle was highly successful in target shooting before World War I, but the close chamber tolerances, lack of primary extraction and length made the Mk.III (or "1910") Ross rifle unsuitable for the conditions of trench warfare, exacerbated by the often poor quality ammunition issued."
"The Chauchat ("show-sha", French pronunciation: [ʃoʃa]) was the standard light machine gun or "machine rifle" of the French Army during World War I (1914-18). Its official designation was "Fusil Mitrailleur Modele 1915 CSRG" ("Machine Rifle Model 1915 CSRG"). Beginning in June 1916, it was placed into regular service with French infantry, where the troops called it the FM Chauchat, after Colonel Louis Chauchat, the main contributor to its design. The Chauchat in 8mm Lebel was also extensively used in 1917-18 by the American Expeditionary Forces (A.E.F.), where it was officially designated as the "Automatic Rifle, Model 1915 (Chauchat)". A total of 262,000 Chauchats were manufactured between December 1915 and November 1918, including 244,000 chambered for the 8mm Lebel service cartridge, making it the most widely manufactured automatic weapon of World War I. The armies of eight other nations-Belgium, Finland, Greece, Italy, Poland, Romania, Russia, and Serbia-also used the Chauchat machine rifle in fairly large numbers during and after World War I."
"The Pistola Mitragliatrice Villar Perosa M1915, official named FIAT Mod. 1915, was an Italian portable automatic weapon developed during World War I by the Officine di Villar Perosa. Originally designed to be used by the second crew member/observer of military airplanes, it was later issued to ground troops. Between May and November 1916 a section was assigned to each infantry battalion of the Italian army and from May 1917 the number of sections was increased to 3 per battalion."
"The Mars Automatic Pistol, also sometimes known as the Webley-Mars, was a semi-automatic pistol developed in 1900 by the Englishman Hugh Gabbet-Fairfax and distributed by the Mars Automatic Pistol Syndicate Ltd. of Birmingham. It was manufactured first by Webley & Scott and later by small gunmakers in Birmingham and London. Manufacture ceased in 1907."
"The Puckle gun (also known as the defence gun) was a primitive crew-served, manually-operated flintlock revolver patented in 1718 by James Puckle (1667-1724), a British inventor, lawyer and writer. It was one of the earliest weapons to be referred to as a "machine gun", being called such in a 1722 shipping manifest, though its operation does not match the modern use of the term. It was never used during any combat operation or war. Production was highly limited and may have been as few as two guns."
🔫 Further reading 🔫
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ross_rifle
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chauchat
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villar_...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Au...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puckle_gun
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Darkness will not pin this comment
Guess what? He pinned it. XD
now make it say something messed up
Congratulations, you played yourself
@@randompersonwhocomments3645 If anyone's played themself, it's me
gUESS He dId!
Another factor that hurt the Chauchat's historical reputation was that they were the first light machinegun issued to American soldiers after our entry into the war. This resulted in a horrible first impression and almost an international incident between America and France, not helped by already strained relations between the American commander, John Pershing, and the French and by extension overall commander of the Western Front, Ferdinand Foch. The US Army had tried to source the much more successful British Lewis Gun but was told that they could not be manufactured in sufficient numbers in time. One quite I recall from a doughboy described the Chauchat thusly: "Well, it wasn't worth a tinker's dam. But you could take the parts off it and make a still."
i know who you are talking about and your right he did look like a doughboy
The reason Chauchats were used over Lewis Guns is still somewhat controversial. The head of the Ordnance Board didn’t like the inventor of the Lewis Gun and didn’t want his gun to be used for the Army. On top of that, Pershing saw the Lewis Gun better as an aircraft MG than an infantry LMG, so that definitely didn’t do the guns any favors and to keep up with the standardization of arms with the French, the Chauchat was chosen over the Lewis. This was also compounded by the development of the Browning Automatic Rifle, the BAR. The idea was that the US would use the cheaper and easier to produce Chauchat until BAR production was fully met. Despite the designation, the BAR was adopted in 1917 and production issues were solved by mid-1918. There was even one unit that trained on the BAR on the homefront and shipped with them overseas, only to have them taken away and replaced with Chauchats. The idea was to hold off supplying the guns to guys to prevent the Germans from getting captured examples until the Spring 1919 Offensive. This was going to be when the Allies would field a bunch of experimental gear, including the Pederson Device and the first field prototypes of the Thompson submachine gun.
The Chauchat was actually a passable, if flawed, design in French service. The disasters were the Chauchat LMGs re-chambered for the US 30-06 cartridge, instead of the 8mm Lebel used in the original design. To put it bluntly, the conversion was rushed and the production rushed further, still (being France, in WWI). Forgotten Weapons has a video where Ian dumps mag after mag of 8mm Lebel through a Chauchat, without a single malfunction (although, each mag only has 18 cartridges)
@@richardbell7678 Ian did one with a .30-06 Chauchat as well. And that one ran with zero malfunctions as well.
the Puckle gun was a smoothbore, accuracy is kind of so so whatever shape your round is, and square ammo for non Christians were later replaced by Dumdum rounds and Hollowpoints, in fact the Hague treaty which banned their use in 1925 was not ratified by the US
R. Lee. Ermey said of the Chauchat: "This thing sure is a piece of chat!".
The Ross rifle, being Canadian, always fired two rounds at a time. The second one apologized for the first one.
I absolutely love learning about bad/unusual guns, I really hope this gets many sequels!
Suprised the legendarily awful Liberator pistol isn't #1 nor is the Zip Gun, I guess they're being saved for a future video lol
The liberator is so bad I don't think there is a record of anyone scoring a kill with it and most of them where tossed into the ocean after the war.
The Liberator wasn't 'bad', it was designed for a particular purpose and it was capable of it. It wasn't issued in large numbers because the risk of someone being caught with one was considered to be too great, plus the aircraft needed to drop them behind enemy lines were needed for troop resupply, which was considered more important.
The liberator was designed for one purpose only. to be airdrop behind enemy lines so someone could kill a German officer (usually point blank) and steal their weapon.
About the Ross Rifle… it was used by the deadliest and most effective sniper of WW1, Francis Pegamagabow, who killed around 378 enemies and he is also one of the most if not THE MOST DECORATED NATIVE SOLDIER IN CANADIAN HISTORY! Also…
MOVE BETWEEN THE LINES, A SOLDIER BREAKING THE CONFINE!
CO: "Why were you not at your post?!"
Pegahmagabow: "I was scouting the German trenches, Sir."
CO: "ALONE?! Do you honestly expect me to believe that?!"
Pegahmagabow: (emptying German helmet full of German uniform buttons, rank insignia, and medals) "Yes." (starts laying out several German belts) "Though I can't wait to see Gerry try climbing over their trenches with their trousers around their ankles..."
Don't insult the puckle gun, I love that thing. It's so hilarious, an 18th century machine gun
I know you're going for more of a military gun theme here, but still, I would be remiss if I did not mention the infamous Zip-22. Awkward and unconventional design, you had to PUT YOUR FINGERS IN FRONT OF THE BARREL to load and cock it, and if you were lucky, you might be able to get it to fire once every four trigger pulls or so. It also bankrupted the company that made it.
Ross rifle bolts exploding back were due to guys assembling the bolt improperly after cleaning it. However, it should be noted that Canadian soldiers were told NOT to disassemble the bolt of the gun to that point.
Also, Villar Perosas towards the end of the war were being cut in half to be used as individual guns.
Lastly, I can forgive the Chauchat for one reason, it’s the first truly successful automatic rifle to be fielded during the war. More CSRG Chauchats were produced than Lewis Guns, but that’s because they were incredibly cheap and fast to make. It’s the Sten gun of WWI. The holes on the side of the magazine were actually necessary for the gun to work. The Chauchat was converted to fire other rounds and they made fully enclosed magazines, and the gun didn’t function any better.
It was really only the US 30-06 version that had problems, the French version worked fine
@@andreww2098 the French did experiment with enclosed mags on the 8mm Lebel version as well, and they didn’t work. If you watch Mark on Anvil Gunsmithing, he restored some Chauchat magazines and explained this better than I could.
@@edm240b9 the magazine was only one of the problems with the US version of the Chauchat, they did a rushed and poor calibre conversion, it needed adjustments to the more powerful round it had been rechambered in that were never made
@@andreww2098 the mags on the French CSRG as well are very fragile as well. While better than the .30-06, it doesn’t take much for them to jam either. The problem is is that those open slots are necessary due to the shape of the 8mm Lebel round.
That said, the magazines were the biggest downside to the gun. From a mechanical perspective, they work perfectly find. Are there better guns? Absolutely. But they did work and did get them out faster than any other automatic weapon in WWI.
The Chauchat in American service was modified to fire a higher powered American round witch magnified its flaws
Oh boy I can't wait to see what he brings out for part 2. Zip 22? Cobray Terminator? M60? Einstoss Flammenwerfer? The Nambu Type 94 'Surrdender Gun?' Place your bets, folks! Place your bets!
The M60? that's still in use today.
It's heavy as fuck but it seems to be deccent as a vehicle weapon or stationary defense
Looks like in the thumbnail the Chauchat Machine Rifle, Ross Rifle MkIII, Villers Perosa Aircraft Machine Gun, Type 94 Nambu Semi Automatic Pistol and the Puckle Gun.
The Puckle Gun feels to me an early version of a Gatling Gun.
Eh?
@@johnnunn8688Both of them were crank operated guns, the only difference was the ammunition they used.
Firearms, like anything, have had a lot of successes and failures. From failures, (sometimes) the issues were addressed and later versions became wonderful. Others were just cast aside outright.
On the subject of the Ross rifle, there are also accounts of soldiers having to put the rifle in a butt down, muzzle up position and kick, literally KICK with their boot, the straight pull bolt to try and get it to function. You can see where I'm going with that right? Most Ross rifles were replaced with the British Lee-Enfields.
The Chauchat is a weapon that even I, as a firearms enthusiast, would not touch with a ten-foot pole. This weapon has been used as a joke weapon in various games like Fallout 1 and 2 (the originals before Bethesda), even the late, great R. Lee Ermey could only get a PRISTINE Chauchat to fire three rounds before it jammed and malfunctioned. About the only game that let the Chauchat work well was Battlefield 1.
The Ross: So bad Canada decided it was better to fight with war crimes than this weapon.
The Chauchat: Don't call it bad, or Ian McCollum will come looking for you, probably with a Mars as a backup pistol.
That was only a light war crime, in the war, if we Canadian got into an enemy trench: WE WOULD KILL EVERYONE NO MATTER IF THEY WERE WOUNDED OR NOT!
and if he REALLY wants to burn cash, he would end you with a FAMAS
Also, the Ross may have been bad… BUT JESUS CHRIST did Francis Pegamagabow did some work with it.
Bro i loved the train videos. And im so excited about the guns, planes etc. Is that a new thing? All your videos have been train related, now all this! Its great. I feel like your cadence and subject matter is very soothing for autism. No joke its great
Daaang the mars pistol is here that is ... Well deserved but dang it is cool, great content as always
I saw the Chauchat in the thumbnail and was ready to comment "SHUT YOUR MOUTH TRAIN NERD!" but, you do make good points for looking down on these weapons. EDIT TO ADD: Still, wouldn't call the Chauchat worst ever. Ross was a civilian rifle that Canada brought into service 'cause Britain wouldn't let the Canukistan make the SMLE. But yeah, its bolt assembly was fubar.
Dude, the USFA Zip-22. USFA were well know for their Colt replicas, but for some bizarre reason, they sold all of their machines and tooling to build an unbelievably crap plastic .22 calibre pistol. The complete failure of this gun bankrupted the company as they had spent so much creating the Zip, that they couldn't buy back the old machines to make Colt's again.
Go watch Forgotten Weapons video on it in case you don't know enough about it.
The Zip gun jams every shot and the charging handle is right next to the freaking barrel lmao.
Definitely takes the cake for the top three worst pistols with the liberator and Kolibri.
May I suggest a video on the Belgian Quadraplex locomotive, No. 2096 of Belgian State Railways? It was essentially two duplex locomotives bolted back-to-back, and it was insane! The madlads actually made a quadraplex engine in a way that worked!
The Chauchat was so "handmade" that parts from one weapon often didn't fit a different weapon made by a different smith.
Mannlicher Steyr made an APPALLING gun for the Austro-hungarian army during WW1, but I can't remember what it was called. A handful served with the Germans including a certain corporal who remarked to a comrade "I left Austria to avoid using this thing, and now I find it's following me!"
Nice, "It's Always Sunny", reference - worth a TU all on its own.
To be fair, I don’t think many guns could handle all the mud in the trench warfare of World War 1.
Japanese pistols used during World War II were arguably more dangerous for their users than they were to the enemy
Honestly, I was hoping Darkness would mention Francis Pegamegabow. A First Nations soldier serving as a sniper in the Canadian Army. Became something of a war hero and mad lad when he served. Also he used the Ross rifle during the war.
And was literally the deadliest and most effective sniper in WW1
CO: "Why were you not at your post?!"
Pegahmagabow: "I was scouting the German trenches, Sir."
CO: "ALONE?! Do you honestly expect me to believe that?!"
Pegahmagabow: (emptying German helmet full of German uniform buttons, rank insignia, and medals) "Yes." (starts laying out several German belts) "Though I can't wait to see Gerry try climbing over their trenches with their trousers around their ankles..."
That Chew-chat mag, is weird! Why have a half moon mag, containing 20 rounds, when a box mag, will hold 20?
Because of the rimmed and highly tapered shape of the 8mm lebel round it fired. You need a banana shaped magazine, just as the later brengun that fired the rimmed and tapered .303 round. The Americans actually briefly used a 30-06 version of the chauchat, that did use a straight magazine. (Firing a lot less tapered round) Sadly, that gun was even worse than the original chauchat...
So in other words this is basically the 5 worst guns in a nutshell:
Ross gun: I will NOT Shoot Peasant Bullets! I am a civilised gun and dirty bullets in dirty trenches are bad for my barrel!
Chauchat & VIAT model 15: We suffer dreadfully and no one cares
Webly mars: *Feel my ultimate Power!!!* (Backfires into the shooters face)
Puckle Gun: (surrounded by anti-gun activists) ha-ha I’m in danger
You need to look at the Japanese weapons of WW-2 they make some of these looks good, The Villa was meant to be MOUNTED of the early aircraft of the Italian air force
The Ross might have been bad in trench conditions, but it was an EXCELLENT sniper rifle for the time
I was expecting the original SA80 to make the list, again a weapon that did not like dust, and due to tolerance issues had a reputation for bits falling off it, including the magazine. The current SA80 is now acceptable, but that is because the UK paid the Germans to replace all its principal components as part of a remanufacturing exercise.
The problem was even worse. Remember, the SA80 was made during _Thatcher's_ administration, who went out of their way to basically screw everyone that wasn't bowing at their feet over.
For example, the factory that was producing the SA80s? That factory was going to be shut down after all the guns were produced... remember the tale of a factory worker throwing their sabo (a wooden shoe) into the machinery and giving us the word sabotage?
The Ross sounds like it was a sporting rifle made to close tolerances that could not deal with the conditions of the Western Front in WW1.
Keep it simple.
The Villar Perosa would have made a reasonable trench-broom if the cyclic rate was lower or if there was a 100rd drum mag option. The ammunition consumption is ferocious & i'm assuming that even if you captured some 9x19 Parabellum from the Germans it would have been too powerful.
You put a chauchet and not Breda mod.30 a gun often considered as worst lmg.
Breda had open mag that couldn't be detached, barrel moved constantly while your sights were mounted on frame with bipod so it often was innacurate, it had interesting lubing mechanism that in theory would lube the parts while in practice made it jam as dust loved to get to it. It was also heavy, had low fire rate, used carcano bullets fed with stripper clips also it was used in the dessert where it was basically unuaable
I guess i can say.... the Chauchat was a Piece of S@#$.
I regret nothing!
"anti aircraft submachine gun" is a concept that should never existed, that 's like hunting a bear with .22! you're not going to shot down planes with a Thompson unless your name is Noodle from the gorrillaz lol
Total war game has the Puckle gun firing like a machine gun. But it is hard to use to any effect.
No way the Zip22 isn’t in the video
The zip22 did manage to get one kill: the company that made it.
I came for the train videos, I stayed for the gun videos
Chauchat also suffered from the inability to build one of of many. The parts were individually fitted to a single rifle, so almost no parts were interchangeable. Between two fo the SAME GUN!!! The French everybody....
Most of this list is just everybody's favourite guns in battlefield 1
I thought Villar perosa was mounted on back of the aircraft? Far as i know, In dogfights there is so little time to damage enemy planes so thay use high rpm guns is what im aware of.
Yeah, it was originally mounted on aircraft.
What about the M14 (the early version of the MK14), Vietnam era M16, L85A1 (L85A2 had to make major design changes), Colt Model 1900 (precursor to the famous 1911), DS-39, Tarn, Rogak P18, Breda Modello 30, Zip 22, and Duck's Foot Pistol (can fire in directions other than STRAIGHT AHEAD)?
To be fair to the duck's foot pistol, it was specifically designed to produce a wide spread of shot so this was not a flaw.
If this video gets enough likes, we might get a part 2 with the ZIP 22 being #1 because it literally killed a company with how shit it is.
So this is something you didn't mention about the Chauchat (pin if you dare):
When the American expeditionaries came to Europe to hit the Western Front, their command staff didn't want to deploy the M1918 BAR select-fire rifle for fear of the Germans copying the designs if they found one on the field, and they'd rejected the Lewis Gun due to a personal drama with its creator. So they made American machine gunners use a version of the Chauchat rechambered for .30-06 Springfield rounds fed via a box magazine. The problem? The factories didn't measure the conversion from metric to imperial properly, which led to such bad feeding and reliability problems on top of what the Chauchat already had that most gunners just used rifles instead.
In other words, people died because they were FORCED to use a gun that struggled to work when better options could've been given to them.
Finally my type of territory!
Interestingly, Chauchats were also tested in .30-06 and has straight magazines. I dont want to spoil any other details so I have to leave it here.
Battlefield 1 has entered the chat
what about the last ditch guns the Japanese and Germans were making near the end of WWII? These guns were made as cheaply and fast as possible in a desperate attempt to win the war.
Stuff like a disposable flamethrower and a gun that's basically a gun barrel on a cut wooden plank
As much as I hate guns, this was super funny to watch and listen to lol
Breda Modelo 30 Light Machine Gun. Just a suggestion.
No Cobray Terminator? The thing doesn't even fire half the time...
And if it does you cant get the shells out
From the gun jesus videos on the ross they were created because britain didnt have enough lee enfields to ship canada any.
you should do top 5 biggest guns
Most of the biggest guns were on the battleships of yesteryear.
Those include Yamato's and Musashi's 18-inch guns, 16"/50 caliber Mark 7 guns on Iowa family, 16"/45 caliber Mark 6 on North Carolina and South Dakota class, BL 15"/42 Calibre Mark 1 on HMS Vanguard, 15" SK C/34 naval gun on Bismark and Tirpitz, and 45 modele 1935 15" gun on Richelieu battleships. Heck, the Super Yamatos were going to have 20" guns.
You'd have to specify the biggest non-naval guns. Although you'd have to deal with the inclusion of the Gustav and the V-3 cannon.
Not my video, obviously, but here is a link to a 3D rendering of the Mars pistol that reveals all of its complexity:
th-cam.com/video/8KTAUbyUCj0/w-d-xo.html
I find it quite weird, that you start a video about 5 worst firearms, with images of two excellent weapons; the SMLE and the BREN?
USFA ZiP.22?
I’d like to help you out with more of these videos on this topic if you want to. PM me for some more details.
Hey history of the dark can I make a reaction video of your cpr 694 video please
I've heard Chauchat pronounced "sh-ow-sh-eh-t"
No-mans land of horrible opinions here.......I think British Rail is a well run company and their r&d department is top notch!
All things considered, the Villar Perosa did lead the way to the Beretta M1918 submachine gun. Yes the Perosa was ineffective to say the least, but it did bring about the correct answer or concept on weapons that would shape the future to what it is today. The Chauchat was garbage in its own rights, but it did bring about the BAR and Browning M1917 machine gun. I would have to argue that without these worthless weapons, we would not have some WW1 classics
What about the early Springfield Arms the30-06s the gun would explode and soldier's faces World War I era
Oh, you mean before Springfield would literally copy the Mauser system wholesale and fit it to their rifles?
Hey don’t hurt my French bois chauchat
Advance Wars Days of Ruin.
Bicycle of Duty.🤣
bruh, they are almost all from the ww1 era
What is the worst gun ever and why is it the Chauchat?
Nah. Chauchat can at least kill a man. The 2.7mm Kolibri is probably the worst gun ever. Because I don’t think it can even do that.
@@edm240b9 In some cases troops might prefer to injure their opponents as opposed to killing them. With some military forces a person being injured would mean that 3-4 others are out of the main combat to protect the injured combatant, while a person being killed only takes out the deceased.
@@KnightRanger38 this was a tactic mainly done by snipers or marksman to draw more enemy troops out into the open. A machine gunner would be more focused on pinning the groups of soldiers trying to get to the wounded man down behind cover. From there, the other elements of the unit would flank around and take out the element taking cover.
This was a problem with the Japanese military however. They found out that when they do this, there are times when the men get out of there unscathed and the wounded man ends up returning to combat. It’s better to just kill them off when you have them in your sights than pressing your greed to try to kill more soldiers. Let artillery do most of that damage.
Hey, the chauchat may have been a miserable gun, but made a fine still.
No Breda 30?
I'm pretty sure that has yet to make its debut
Wait until Brandon Herrera sees this
I came here looking for this
There was nothing racist about the Puckle. Religion isn't a race.
The puckle was made during a time when Islamic piracy existed and the ottomans never played nice
Well,have they EVER played nice?
@@SPUPRR Once Napoleon trashed them in his conquest of Egypt and then after that when modern European nation states started forming and telling their navies to "gain experience" via kill every islamic pirate on sight.
Type 14 is way worse than the Webly. The Puckle gun is indeed Racist that Tokugawa and the Unit 731 of Imperial Japan would use, Tokugawa did murdered Christians.
Only Chauchat lovers can comment here.
C&Rsenal fans assemble...
I remember when someone tried to bring up the Puckle gun, in terms of guns that could fire faster than a musket, which were pretty much the standard issue weapon at the time that the 2nd Ammendment was made, in an attempt at a gotcha moment on why the 2nd ammendment was arguably out-dated, and wasn't made with any foresight on how formidable and advanced they could become in the future.
Clearly, they didn't know squat about its functionalities, when they brought it up, as that was a commonly over-used talkng point by 2nd ammendment fanatics, in regards to tightening gun reguations.
So if you id' ed yourself as a Buddhist no one would shoot at you with a puckel gun,
How about if you're an atheist,
A practicing wiccan,
Quaker...
OK, I'll stop now and leave 😒 😑 😤
Atheist - dead. Wiccan - very dead. Quaker - Hail friend and pass.