What is the worst gun you ever owned ?

I can think of 2 that stand out - a .25acp Raven that was given to my mom and then eventually to me. I think I ended up just selling it to Cabelas for ~$50 because I didn’t even want private selling that thing on my conscience.

The other one was such a cool gun and I wanted to love it so badly - a Stoeger .22lr Luger. I never got it to fire a magazine without jamming. Part of me wishes I had kept it as a cool paperweight but I traded it for a 22A.
 
brendonjames65 said:
Probably a French military surplus MAS-49/56 that was rechambered from 7.5x54mm French to 7.62x51mm (308). It slam fired on me when I chambered a round, of course it was pointed in a safe direction but quite disconcerting!

I later read about many issues with these conversions. It was fine and reliable in the original 7.5 mm French round. Don’t get one converted to 308!
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Soft civvy primers versus a semi-auto with a floating firing pin without a return spring. A titanium firing pin or adding a FP return spring fixed that issue. The SKS was prone to the same issue, as were certain variants of the FN-49.
 
Gunhohulk said:
I have a Jennings J-22 that jams every other round and I have never hit anything that I’ve aimed at with it. But it was my grandpa’s so I’m keeping it.
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My Jennings was actually pretty far from the worst. The takedown plunger is a wear item and replacing a worn one can improve reliability a fair bit... as in about a 8% jam rate as opposed to 25%.

The Phoenix Arms HP-25 was whole other level of awful even than the Jennings. I went through three sears and three recoil springs in under 300 rounds, the metal in the slide was so soft it had distorted substantially. It's all I can do to not laugh, cry, or heckle when I see one at a gun show with a price higher than the $150 I paid for a new one BITD.
 
arjay said:
An Excam single action six shooter in 22. and I still have it in a shoebox full of junk lol. I bought it before I shaved regularly because it was cheap. It’s not very accurate lol
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I must have owned its cousin, a Kimel Industries .22 single action, loosely based on the Colt Frontier Scout. It was literally one where if you were inside of a barn and fired it, you may NOT hit the wall it was pointed at. :(

I think I saw part of it in a box in my shop a year or two ago.
 
Pox on Fusion

Fusion Commander. Didn't run worth a damn.
 
brendonjames65 said:
Probably a French military surplus MAS-49/56 that was rechambered from 7.5x54mm French to 7.62x51mm (308). It slam fired on me when I chambered a round, of course it was pointed in a safe direction but quite disconcerting!

I later read about many issues with these conversions. It was fine and reliable in the original 7.5 mm French round. Don’t get one converted to 308!
Click to expand...

Odd. Generally French mil-surps are in decent shape. Un-fired and only dropped once...;)
 
When started deer hunting I got a REM #8/ 35 cal because in early 60s they were dirt cheap. What I really wanted was a REM 742 like was the rage at the time. So busted my butt and got me a shiny new 742c/ 3006
First brand new rifle I bought. Big disappointment, if ARs are assault rifles REM 742s and following series are insult rifles. Worst piece of junk that I saved up to get. I went through lots of cheap guns I took on trade but never bought any. I was one that would rather have a good used gun than
a tinny new one.
 
Its a tie for worst between an Excam .25ACP that I owned back in the 70's. I could throw a rock with better accuracy.
Remington R51 from about 10 or 15 years ago. Went back to Remington and they never fixed or returned the gun. They did refund my money after about 6 months.
 
A used Safari Arms 1911. Cool pistol but all kinds of issues cropped up the more that I messed with it. A cracked barrel bushing, peened firing pin, linkage and barrel issues too but i had a box of parts to play with.
 
Taurus 22 Revolver (their copy of the J frame kit gun). Damn thing would work just fine when no ammo was loaded. Put in ammo, it locked up and cylinder would not rotate. Taurus failed to get it fixed on their “lifetime warranty.”
 
Star Firestar 40 brings back memories! I loved that gun, but they must have made those out of lead, right?

My worst gun ever was a Springfield Armory 1911. It was bought new in like 2002. I always really wanted a 1911. It was a new super cool loaded model! Too bad it shot like 6” low right at 15 yds. It had a bad case of hammer follow. It would feed for ****. It also had the brutal ILS trigger.I sent it back to Springfield twice I think. After that, it fed about 95% of the time. It had almost no sear engagement….measured. It still shot low-left. I finally bought/rented several other 1911’s that all shot POA. Yep, something was machined off location.

Then I decided I was going to learn gunsmithing. I fixed most issues, but finally the MIM ejector broke. It sits as a pile of parts. I’d bring it to a gun but back, but I refuse. I’d sell it as a project gun, but I worry I’d be ripping someone off.

I may just cut it up, but that is a waste of time! 😢 I’m pissed. 😡 Counting my Gunsmithing attempts, I’ll bet I have $1500 into it.
 
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Had to think for a minute. Century imported Polish underfolder AK. Put together from multiple guns, would not chamber a live round. I fixed it before I traded it. Second worse also from Century. A MKE AP5M that came packed in sand with sights that were welded on crooked.
 
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Gunhohulk said:
I have a Jennings J-22 that jams every other round and I have never hit anything that I’ve aimed at with it. But it was my grandpa’s so I’m keeping it.
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These varied wildly in quality. I had one that jammed constantly. I had another that fed great.

I rented a piece of property that had a 100 yard range. A Marine I served with came by and we went out shooting. He took my good Jennings and he hit a gallon milk jug 5 shots out of 5 at 100 yards, offhand. He did shoot on our Navy/Marine ROTC pistol team.
 
cruiserdan said:
Odd. Generally French mil-surps are in decent shape. Un-fired and only dropped once...;)
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Haha. Perhaps at their disaster at Dien Bien Phu where these rifles were actually used! Had the distributor kept it in the original chambered 7.5 French I’m sure they are quite reliable since the MAS-49/56 was the French issued rifle for their military in the 50’s but the conversions to 308 (not sure who did the gunsmithing re chambering) are dangerous pieces of junk.
 
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That would be my Romanian Milsurp Tokarev TT-33C.

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I ordered one online with the original intention of making it into a Birthday Gift for my brother, but it was a complete mess... The seller described it as "meticulously refinished and reconditioned by the factory" but when it arrived it clearly hadn't even been cleaned, let alone refinished/reconditioned. It was scratched and dented on the outside, dirty and rusted on the inside. The first time I took it down for cleaning the safety lever fell out of the frame and the magazine was so horribly rusted that I had to struggle to get it apart for cleaning because the baseplate was stuck in place. Fortunately, Old_Cop offered to send me a spare magazine he had sitting around with no use for.

Ultimately, I ended up keeping it because it was in such horrible shape that I couldn't see giving it to my brother, nor could I see selling it.
 
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Definitely the Polish P64 in 9x18 Makarov; nasty recoil, horrible sights and the heaviest double action trigger I've ever experienced. The pistol was also unreliable and would sometimes drop the magazine between shots. I sold it; good riddance.
 
brendonjames65 said:
Had the distributor kept it in the original chambered 7.5 French I’m sure they are quite reliable since the MAS-49/56 was the French issued rifle for their military in the 50’s but the conversions to 308 (not sure who did the gunsmithing re chambering) are dangerous pieces of junk.
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The Century converted guns were tricky. There was another company that did a much nicer job with changes to the extractor, gas system and firing pin. The slam fires were often associated with a very pointed firing pin. Just rounding it off was usually enough to stop the slam fires.

My MAS49/56 in 7.5x54 is pretty accurate despite the 12 lb trigger. There is a cheap fix for that I should implement.
 
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