Your idea of the most disappointing firearm..

My personal disappointment was with Dan Wesson revolvers in general. Others love them, I just never saw the appeal. After I realized that the cylinder could be spun out of full lockup without much effort, I totally lost interest. I had a nearly new Model 15 that I gladly traded for a 66-7. I kept a fixed sight Model 14 just because it looks cool, but I'll never trust it for anything serious.


+1 for the AMT Hardballer. I've got 3 of them, and only one works right. The other two are jam o matics.

Also add the AMT Backup, but the one I have, an older .380 seems to work fine.

AMT made some great looking guns, but a lot of them just don't seem to work right unless you have work done on them.
 
Ruger mini 14 gets my vote for lousy. It amazes me how many guys will end up with $1200-$1400 into one so it will shoot along side a $750 AR. The mags for the Ruger mini SUCK and are expensive especially compared to those for an AR. For some reason, cutting about a half of an inch off the barrel of the mini seems to get them to group. Just not worth it to me. Just so you know, I've only tried 5 of the clunkers. None of them performed even marginally. They are the AMC Pacer of guns.
 
S&W 4566, lucky if it would hit a 4X8 sheet of plywood at 25 yards...not just me, others shot it with the same results, traded it = some $$$,at a gun show for a 686 4"...best deal I ever made..

Almost indentical experience, except mine was a 4566TSW and I sold it and bought a S&W 1911...best deal I ever made.

michael thornton, I love my Mini-14 too!
 
Cheap Winchester and Remington auto .22s. Nylons, 190s and the like. Putrid accuracy and horrible triggers. New 597s aren't any better from the one my buddy had, it was a bull barrel model and he took it back and got his purchase price for payment on a Ruger 10/22 bull barrel, which didn't shoot much better.
 
Last edited:
I absolutely had to have the Taurus 945 SS in 45acp as soon as it came out (about 20 yrs ago). Paid $450 I think. Dogdoo is more functional. Traded it even for a 4" 66-5 HB which I still have. Guns are a "live and learn" kinda item. Joe
 
I've never owned a Kimber, but one friend of mine who I go shooting with regularly has a couple kimber 1911's and every time we go to the range, he has issues with them. FTE, FTL, one time one of them ejected the spent cartridge, a LIVE ROUND, and then jammed as it attempted to chamber another round. That was a first. Meanwhile my revolvers and mid 70's Colt 1911 work fine. The last couple times we went, the Kimbers stayed at home and he used his SIG's.
 
Not a lot of love for the Mini :)

I had a mini 30, its the ONLY gun I ever got rid of. I traded it to a dealer of another rifle.

It was a total ***, at 100 yards off a rest it was all over the target. Then to make matters worse it would fall apart. The op rod would pop out of the bolt tang. This would force you to field strip the gun. Then fight the bolt past the op rod since they were out of place.

Its gone and I dont miss it.

My old 10/22 is a very good gun. My 44 deerstalker carbine is fun and hasnt failed me yet.


Some folks think the Mini is better than an AR...
 
I WOULD HAVE TO SAY THE GLOCK MODEL 23. I CARRY ONE FOR WORK AND IT REMINDS ME OF THE WOODEN GUN WILL FARRELL WAS GIVEN IN THE MOVIE "THE OTHER GUYS". IT IS A OLDER GEN 1 AND PROBABLY HAS THE "NEW YORK" TRIGGER( 10 LBS.). SECOND WOULD BE THE NEW SMITH MODEL 40 CLASSIC. I CARRIED AN OLDER MODEL 40 IN THE 80'S AS BACKUP WEAPON. THE NEW CLASSIC IS STIFF AND THE TRIGGER IS HORRIBLE. SOLD IT WITHIN A MONTH. ACTUALLY TRADED IT ON A WINCHESTER LEVER ACTION 22 MAG. WITH CASH.
 
I WOULD HAVE TO SAY THE GLOCK MODEL 23. I CARRY ONE FOR WORK AND IT REMINDS ME OF THE WOODEN GUN WILL FARRELL WAS GIVEN IN THE MOVIE "THE OTHER GUYS". IT IS A OLDER GEN 1 AND PROBABLY HAS THE "NEW YORK" TRIGGER( 10 LBS.). SECOND WOULD BE THE NEW SMITH MODEL 40 CLASSIC. I CARRIED AN OLDER MODEL 40 IN THE 80'S AS BACKUP WEAPON. THE NEW CLASSIC IS STIFF AND THE TRIGGER IS HORRIBLE. SOLD IT WITHIN A MONTH. ACTUALLY TRADED IT ON A WINCHESTER LEVER ACTION 22 MAG. WITH CASH.

Come on now, Glock 23 isnt that bad. It's my primary carry weapon. It's a gen 3, they improved a lot since first introduced. Never liked the glocks trigger, but it's a tough little gun and very concealable.
 
I picked up a Glock 23 and H&K USP Compact 40 at the same time. Although I don't like the 23, I happen to shoot it very well. The H&K, although completely reliable, would never shoot where I was aiming. Nobody could hit with it.
 
Far and away, the most disappointing gun I ever bought was the Mini-14.

Supposedly copied and improved on a very mature product design, but they must have done everything wrong.

I traded mine for a used, cheap saddle, I got the best end of the deal.(still have the saddle)
 
I bought the first Walther P22 I saw, a 4 digit serial number gun. Nobody else I knew had one at the time. Well as all of you probably know turns out the first ones had a lot of issues. Jamomatic, no matter what ammunition I tried, and the barrel kept loosening up, and it would not stay tight. There are 2 screws that lock the barrel in place, the threads were stripped in 1 of the holes. And the God-awful trigger. And...:confused:
I hear they have brought QC up a long ways, but nothing would convince me to try another. Even if mine didn't have the problems it did, there are much better quality .22 pistols out there than the P22.
 
Mauser 98K. They can be shot out and suffer bedding problems like any other milsurp. :eek: Even worse, I have acquaintances who have found the same can be true of the Garand. GASP!!

Of modern guns my Howa 1500 is a disappointment in some ways. It shoots NATO surplus in bigger patterns (note, not groups) than a FAL. It does better with heavier rounds. For some reason the original Hogue stock seems to bring recoil worse than my milsurps in 7.62 NATO. I'll never understand that. It now lives in a Knoxx stock but I have yet to shoot it in that configuration.
 
I am confused by the mini-14 comments. I'm guessing it must have been the older versions. I've had no issues with my new versions. They are not as accurate as my AR's etc, but I have no issues shooting acceptable SD groups out of it. They are light little all day carry guns, great if SHTF for that role, they are not AR's and never were sold as precision battle rifles.

But, everybody is entitled to their opinion.

I'm going with the Kimber opinion as well, not that accurate or dependable...IMO...as well as several PD's who tried them.
 
For me it was the Colt Combat Elite I purchased back in the early '80's when I first got involved in USPSA. I was naive enough to think it would be just what I needed to be competitive as a novice to the sport.

Out of the box it wouldn't feed even hardball and on those rare occassions it did, it would send the empties directly back at the center of my forehead. (I developed an interesting flinch where I would duck my head to deflect the hot brass with the brim of my cap.) It shot nowhere near where it looked, had a miserable trigger, and the slide cycled with the smoothness of driving over a set of railroad tracks.

At the first match I participated in, when told to "load and make ready" the slide stop fell out as I cycled the pistol to load! Not quite the auspicious start I had in mind.

I put more money into that gun than it was worth...not to customize it...just to get it to function properly and shoot with some measure of accuracy. I truely believed that pistol set my shooting "career" back a full year or two. I finally sold it off at a loss and for many years after, never trusted a four-lettered 1911.

Roe
 
Desert Eagle .44 Mag. Did not function with anything but full power jacketed bullets. Grip was way too big, pistol is way too heavy. Lousy trigger. It is single action, but they intentionally gave it a very long travel in an attempt to make it feel like a double action. A very impractical gun. It was impressively accurate though.
 
My biggest disappointments were both Kimber of Oregon Classics. One in .22LR and one in 22 Hornet. Bought both at the same time which was a considerable investment for me. I'm a gunsmith and tried everything I knew in bedding, barrel hand-lapping, careful reloading of the .22 Hornet, ammo selection for the .22LR, barrel seasoning and break-in. Nothing could get either of these rifles to shoot off the benchrest better than 2 moa. I knew that I could rebarrel them, but didn't see why I should have to rebarrel expensive rifles. I sold both at gunshows. ......... Big Cholla
 

Latest posts

Back
Top