If you could own 1 WWII rifle/gun, which would it be?

[Chogy]

That's because it takes a while to load one, and you only get one shot! I've done it, and my fastest time was 15 seconds . . . . .

I'll take a Sturmgewehr 44, the mother of all assault rifles; expensive to shoot in 7.92x33, but worth it . . . . . .

The Sturms are actually reasonably common, but the price of ownership (and hassle) goes up because they are select fire. And yes, the ammo is costly as hell. Pretty much all that remains is East German surplus. If you wanted to fire any decent amount, you'd best be set up to modify your own brass.

I agree, though, the history there makes it super-desirable. A decent bring-back 44 is going to cost $12K+ in the US.

What I find interesting is that you can vaguely see H & K lines in the rifle. I have little doubt the 44 influenced the folks at H & K with their G3 and MP-5 series.

[leib10]

It most certainly did. Check out the Stg. 44's successor, the Stg. 45 (Wikipedia probably has a nice history). It morphed into the Spanish CETME, and then in turn to the G3 and MP5.