What is the worst gun you ever owned ?

[Golddollar]

I can only think of two guns that gave me any problems, and one of them got fixed under warranty. The first was a vintage Yugoslavian Mauser rifle that I couldn't hit anything with. I think the barrel was shot out and I sold it to a gun shop. The other was a Smith & Wesson Model 624 .44 Special revolver that I bought brand new. As I was cycling the gun, I noticed that at certain parts of the cylinder it took more effort to cock the gun. I concluded that at certain points the cylinder was dragging on the forcing cone. Since the gun was still under warranty, I sent it back to Smith & Wesson for service. When it came back, I got the impression that not only did they deal with the cylinder dragging, but they also went over the whole gun and smoothed it out. I still have that gun.

 

[bananaman]

A few close, but the worst was a nickel 29-2 4". Was a beauty though {only skin deep} Would function fine dry firing but live firing it kept binding. Took it to the gunsmith 3 times. Never became any better! {bye bye}
The other honorable mentions are: Auto Ordnance 1911, and Charter Arms .40 Pitbull. Neither is with me. Bob

 

[lawandorder]

Agree with Dave above. Quest for a good reliable secondary. The AMT Backup, so well named so not reliable at all.
The second worst in the quest for a secondary, a C.O.P .357 Magnum 4 barrel Derringer. Built like a tank, weighed as much as one, could have concealed a Colt's Dragoon almost as easy.
J frames there on out through today?

 

[Smoke]

In general, the worst guns I ever owned were Llamas. I had a Llama "1911" in .45 ACP. A friend of mine was looking at it one day and he was able to pull the trigger with the safety engaged. The gun wasn't loaded but the metal was so cheap and so weak that he broke the safety catch. The next time I fired the gun The safety lever fell out and the slide flew off the gun.

I had a Llama 9 mm that I had to jerk the magazines out of. It turned out that somebody had put some kind of shims in the magazine well. When I bought it it came with one magazine. When I tried to purchase additional magazines for it there was only one distributor that I can find in the United States and they wanted $97 a piece for 9 mm llama magazine.

I ended up selling all my llamas to a pawn shop and never looked back.

 

[mckenney99]

I've had 2 that were the absolute worst.
The first semi-auto pistol I ever purchased was intended for off duty carry. It was a Sterling Arms Model 400 MK II SS in 380, (a Walther PPK-s clone). No matter what ammo I tried, the gun could not go through a single magazine without a failure to feed. It wouldn't even feed ball ammo.
The second was a Colt Officers ACP SS 45. When Colt came out with the Stainless version of the Officers ACP I thought it would be the ideal off-duty carry gun. Sadly I traded in a perfectly good Star PD to get the Colt Officers because the proprietary recoil assemblies on the Star PD were getting really scarce. The Colt was an extremely finicky feeder using the factory magazines and at the time there weren't any aftermarket magazines to experiment with to see if they would help with feeding. I tried as many types, styles and weights of bullets as I could get and it just wasn't reliable. The gun also was horribly inaccurate. I believe you could stand inside a barn and point at any of the walls and it wouldn't have been able to hit any of them, it was just horrible.

 

[Sistema1927]

It was a cheap pot metal .22 single shot that I gave a buddy $5 for. It was sorta kinda a copy of the little Colt single shot derringer. Absolutely terrible trigger, almost non-existent sights. I don't know where it was made, but certainly not the US.

I shot it once, after carrying it for several months, and it fell apart. It went into the trash can.

 

[brutus54]

Had a .22 Colt Diamondback that the cylinder was so rough, looked like it was only drilled with a dull drill and never reamed. It could not keep all 6 rounds on a target. Traded it for a 14" TC Contender and never looked back.

 

[Goony]

My answer may surprise you. About 35 years ago I was carrying an S&W 39-2 as my duty sidearm. The latest and greatest at the time was supposed to be the Glock, so I ponied up for a 17 with which I intended to replace the supposedly obsolescent 39-2, and headed for my department's range for a familiarization session. Well the first problem was the rear sight was installed a bit cattywampus. It took two returns to the service center to get that fixed satisfactorily. The second difficulty with it was no matter how the ejector was adjusted, it flung the fired cases right back into my forehead. Finally, the slot on the plastic magazines started peening, so that they were backing out just a bit and as a result it was beginning to have a fail to feed issue. I gave up on it and went back to my 39-2, which I carried for the rest of my career. That pistol today resides in my bedstand as I'd still stake my life on its working every time the trigger is pulled.

A terrible gun I almost owned (and in retrospect am glad I didn't buy the one offered me) - the Rogak P18. A Steyr GB copy with all sorts of engineering shortcuts coupled with slipshod workmanship. Maybe the worst hi-cap 9mm of all time. See: Rogak P18 – A Cautionary Tale of Manufacturing

 

[gfors]

Plastic-stocked Remington 742, in .308. Jammed every shot or every other shot. Bought it at a pawn shop. Sold it to a LGS (with full dsclosure). Didn't lose a penny.

 

[oldrookey617]

That was my first gun. Either mine was really good or yours was really bad. Mine shot fine out to 50 yards. Don't think I ever fired it on paper beyond that distance.

It sits in the back of the safe. I should get it out and bust a few caps.

Ithica .22 Single Shot.. Think that was my first gun, not sure if it was a model 49. Think I was around 13 years old, was my squirrel gun, I would hit quarters on the side of a tree at 20 yards with that thing, after we set the Iran sights, that's when I had good eyes, I don't remember what happened with that darn thing.. wished I steal had 3 guns that I had around 50 years ago..

 

[jmace57]

Either the Phoenix .22 which started rusting about 10 seconds after I took it out of the box...

OR

I had a post-War P-38 that had something funky going on where the first time I fired it, it threw the extractor and spring into the ether. Replaced the parts, and after 1 shot, happened again.

 

[quikdraw67]

Auto Ordnance M1 Tommy Gun carbine (semi auto copy of M1A1 sub-machine gun w/16" barrel)

Jammomatic garbage, not cheap either. Would not fire more than 4 rounds before jamming. Front and rear sights came loose. Sent back twice, 3rd time I demanded a new gun. The new one was made by Kahr. Still a total piece of junk.

I will not buy an Auto Ordnance or Kahr gun. And their headquarters and big gun shop are in the neighboring county.

Junk, junk, junk.

 

[THE PILGRIM]

Has to be - that Pot Metal Imported 22 Revolver I bought at a Pawnshop - Gun Store in Roswell, NM.
I was going out several times a week Jack hunting.
I took it back, took a hit, and traded for a Ruger.

 

[Dvus]

AMT Automag II. I have seen several that worked great, but this one, should have went back in the smelter. IF you could get the magazine loaded without drawing blood, it would jam every other shot. And once you finally emptied the mag, it was a group around 24 inches at 10 yards.

The worst though, was a beautiful little Taurus stainless .22 revolver that, if you were lucky, would put 2 out of 6 shots on a full size silhouette target paper (not necessarily the target) at 10 yards.

Last was a little .22 rifle from the Philippines that was made to resemble an M16. Had the 3 prong flash hider, the wood stock was painted black, it had a plastic block that would insert into the magwell and contained a 10 round magazine. The block was cut to resemble a 20 rd. Vietnam style mag. It also had an aluminum carry handle that mounted to the tip-off scope grooves on the receiver. It shot great and was a lot of fun until the bolt face mushroomed from hitting the back of the barrel. I turned down and refaced the bolt, shortened the firing pin accordingly and made a new extractor. This would work for about a hundred rounds and then do it all over again. After 3 times doing this, I disassembled it, burned it, bent the barrel and threw it in the scrap pile.

 

[22hipower]

Had a .22 Colt Diamondback that the cylinder was so rough, looked like it was only drilled with a dull drill and never reamed. It could not keep all 6 rounds on a target. Traded it for a 14" TC Contender and never looked back.

And mine was also a .22 Colt Diamondback. Wanted one forever, finally bought one. Terrible trigger, terrible accuracy. Had supposedly competent smiths work on it twice, the DA was a little better but still terrible. . . .and the accuracy never improved. Finally sold it when they got to be worth $1400 or so.

Jeff
SWCA #1457

 

[OutAtTheEdge]

Tough Choice, But...

Gotta go with a Smith Model 61 Escort. I bought it sight unseen for $100 about 20 years ago, just because I was at the peak of my S&W collecting phase, and it was available. Overall condition is very good...cosmetically. However, that gun has never fired 2 consecutive rounds without a misfire or jam. Ever. I've had it apart a dozen times, replaced every part that might be a suspect, and nothing has ever made a difference. It sits in my safe at this moment, just because I won't sell it to someone who might think they're getting a shooter.


By the way, I'm new here. I was pretty active on another (now defunct) S&W forum way back when, but haven't been active in years. So, hello everyone, I'll try not to be too big a pain in the butt.

 

[hittman77]

AMT Backup in .45ACP

 

[huntsman22]

savage b-mag. fail to feed, then fail to fire, then fail to eject. they never could get it to do all three.....

 

[JohnRippert]

The first gun I ever bought. Well, Dad bought it for me using my money since I was about 13 or 14. A Winchester Model 190 that turned out to be a jammomatic. I hated that thing. A little research online these days shows that it may have had a loose barrel nut. No such info available in the mid '70s when I bought it. Traded it in on a old Stevens clip fed bolt action .22 that was a much better rifle for me.

 

[.357magger]

An FEG "Hungarian HiPower" that wouldn't go more than 10 rounds without a FTF, no matter the magazine or extractor exchange. I bought, then sold, that one when I was young and stoopid.

And a Taurus Model 85 snubby that wouldn't provide reliable primer strikes...EVER. I bought (and sold) that one when I was old and stoopid.