Given that firearms need to be versatile in order to meet a vast array of different sport and hunting needs, it is perhaps natural that a wide variety of different models are manufactured specially designed to meet these very different requirements, with dedicated gun storage solutions to keep them safe.
One of the most interesting examples of this is the Pigeon Gun, a long-barreled shotgun designed specifically for live pigeon shoots of the type that have been banned in dozens of countries for over a century. Because of this, the guns themselves have become very rare collector’s items.
However, whilst pigeon guns are amongst the rarest and most unusual shotguns out there, there are also several rifle models that have become rare and desirable, either due to high quality, historical significance or sheer strangeness.
Sharps Coffee Mill Carbine
One of the most famous urban legends in the history of firearms, the carbine with a grinder in the stock is exceptionally rare and yet so desirable that bootlegs have been made of it, because of a story that is somewhat more dubious.
The gun was designed by Lieutenant Colonel Walter King of the 4th Missouri State Militia as a modification of a Model 1859 Sharps single-shot carbine, with less than 100 models made between 1864 and 1865.
There was a belief, revived by a New York Times article, that the grinder was specifically designed to grind coffee beans to the point that it has become known as the “Coffee Mill Carbine”, however, this is unlikely to be the case.
Besides the fact that it was terrible at grinding coffee when tested by the NRA Firearms Museum, it is believed to have been used either to grind wheat, corn or black powder for gunpowder.
In any case, it was seen as too heavy and useless an addition.
Ljutic Space Gun
Trap shooting is a popular sport hunting discipline which requires a particular type of shotgun to perform well at, but one of the most desired and expensive trap guns ever made was made in less than a day to impress a friend who just happens to be a representative for Remington.
In 1955, Al Ljutic, owner of Ljutic Industries, received an invite to go trap shooting the next day from AA Reil, who was a field rep for the Remington Arms company, back when it was one of the biggest rifle makers in North America as opposed to going bankrupt in 2020.
Lacking a trap gun but wanting to impress, he designed and built one in a single day, which ended up becoming the Space Gun.
It was a surprisingly impressive and strange weapon, with the unusual feature that it would only fire once the trigger was released, allowing for more accurate shots and less recoil.
Only 200 were ever made, which is the biggest reason why they command incredibly high prices on the collector’s market, besides also being a genuine one-of-a-kind weapon that nobody has tried to replicate since. Even other dedicated trap guns tend to resemble conventional shotguns.