What turned out to be the worst gun you've ever owned ???

[Gene L]

One post above mentioned the AMT Hardballer. I had one that was iffy, I think. It didn't last long.

But the worst AMT I ever owned was the "Backup." A 380 that jammed once each magazine, sometimes more than once. I've never seen a positive review of this Not That Small pistol. It was early SS.

 

[Buford57]

Can't believe I missed this the first time around.

Hard to choose between a Sterling .22 auto, a RG-14 .22 and a S&W 469, all for different reasons.

I inherited the Sterling, along with 2 bricks of CCI Minimag HPs from my F-I-L. I soon learned that those were the only rounds it would feed reliably. I already had a deep hideout I liked and sold it, with an ammo warning.

The RG I bought for $5 as a tacklebox gun. It failed to fire on 2 random chambers per cylinder. When it was stolen I debated driving 20 miles to get it back, but did and later sold it to Jesse Jackson when he offered to buy it "back" for $100. It looked like something he would carry and must have had sentimental value.

The 469 was one of the beautiful Ashland specials: satin nickel with blued controls. It fed flawlessly with anything. I just could not hit anything reliably at more than arms length. I managed to qualify with it, but decided 8 shots out of my 39 had a better chance of ending a fight than 12 out of the 469. The officer I sold it to had an AD while showing it off a week later, penetrating a file cabinet and barely missing a pregnant records clerk. I think it was cursed.

 

[shooboy]

I just love these stories. I love S&W's also, but believe it or not my only carry gun right now is my Taurus 709 Slim 9mm ! Always goes bang, trigger safety and flip safety, second strike capability if you have a hard primer, and eats everything I feed it. Plus at 3/4" thick I can just slip it in my shorts pocket. I might carry my Sig Pro 2022 9mm again at some point, who knows. I'd like to carry my Dan Wesson 45 1911 Commander Bobtail but it's a little heavy. It is an absolute tack driver though and I got it or a trade on a model airplane. The guy got it from had $2200 into it, beautiful gun....Shoo

 

[Skeet 028]

I've had a few...way back I got an import Arminius 22 DA revolver. mag cylinder and adjustable sights . Accurate too BUT put the mag cylinder in and the first round I shot the barrel landed about 20 ft away. I replaced the barrel pin(many times) and it would maybe last one cylinder and off again. After a month or so of trying to get it fixed I was driving to work over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge ir was about 0530...stopped at the top and chucked it over the bridge in the shipping channel..and I had a Taurus PT 92? and I shot tighter patterns with cylinder choked shotguns. Sold it to a friend with the pattern info...He told meit was my fault..yeah right. He wasted 5 boxes of ammo on it and sold it to someone else. Of course it really didn't seem to matter with him..he IS a great rifle shot...numb from the neck up...put a semi auto handgun in his mitts....oh my... the target stand is in dire straits...even with my superbly accurate Wilson Combat 45 or one of the S&W 41s I happen to have...his nickname is Goob

 

[wraco]

When I was quite young, in the early 1970's, I bought a collection of firearms, older Winchester shotguns and rifles, and in the group was a H&R Defender 5 shot break in 38 S&W. This thing was the worst excuse for a revolver I ever saw; loose, stripped thread, out of time. Was able to sell it as a parts gun and good riddance to it.

 

[Ruger 13]

Probably the worst revolver was a Ruger Match Champion........I had to have one when they first came out. They were supposed to have a slicked up action with a tuned trigger. Mine had a 30 pound DA trigger pull and the barrel wasn't screwed in all the way! Sent it down the road for what I had in it 8 days later! Good riddance.

 

[quikdraw67]

The biggest piece of absolute garbage that a I ever owned was an Auto Ordnance Tommy Gun M1 type. Rear sights were screwed in instead of riveted. Would get loose no matter how much Loctite was used. Ditto the front sight.
Would jam constantly. This was a West Hurley gun, right before A/O got bought out by Kahr.

It went back 3 times for service. After the 3rd time back with no improvement, I DEMANDED a new one.

I got it. A Kahr manufactured one

Just as big a piece of **** as the 1st one.

Traded for a Bushmaster AR, took a bath on it but was like " Good riddance "

I will never buy another Auto Ordnance or Kahr product ever.

And their office and showroom are about 1/2 an hour away from my house.

 

[lihpster]

Worst I've ever owned is an Ithaca single shot .22 that I believe has missed the earth on a couple of occasions. Worst I ever bought was a Rossi .22 pump that "just needs a magazine tube". Got it cheap. Needed more. Had been dry fired and peened the breech and bent the pin. Massaged the metal to resemble a breech face and replaced the pin with a Winchester I modified. Couple of other parts missing. Stock refinish and some cold blue work. Parts and time I'm in it for more than a new one. Take it to the range and it's a shotgun. 8" groups at 50 yards. Looked OK though so I gave it to a buddy to give to his nephew who was just learning to shoot. I wasn't gonna get my money out of it and this seemed like the only way I'd feel any good about it.

 

[pawncop]

A Whitney Wolverine, 22 caliber, one of the original. Turned out the frame was cracked in two places, I could only get about five (5) rounds to cycle before it jammed.

At I can say I owned one, knew it was not a commercial success, and I know why now.

 

[kaaskop49]

Probably the worst revolver was a Ruger Match Champion........I had to have one when they first came out. They were supposed to have a slicked up action with a tuned trigger. Mine had a 30 pound DA trigger pull and the barrel wasn't screwed in all the way! Sent it down the road for what I had in it 8 days later! Good riddance.

Just found this thread: awful lotta angry folks here! Maybe this poster bought the Ruger MC I returned to my LGS after 1 (!) week. Figured it would be even better than the Wiley Clapp model I still adore. Wrong. Felt foreign in this wheelgun guy's hands and would not shoot. Adios muchacho.

Kaaskop49
Shield #5103

 

[Ugly Hombre]

I got crippled up and could not even tear a paper towel could not even pick up a J frame- my hands were shot poisoned by a MD prescribed RX drug.

I got a Browning 1911 .22 so I would have something I could use with my stove in paws, really wanted to like it, sad it never would lock the magazine back on the last shot, it was expensive- very disappointed paid good money for it and wanted it to work!

I did not send it back to Browning due to all the recent gun threads on packages being stolen. With my ugly luck- for sure it would disappear

Stuck it in the safe where it resides....

 

[kaaskop49]

Worst I've ever owned is an Ithaca single shot .22 that I believe has missed the earth on a couple of occasions. Worst I ever bought was a Rossi .22 pump that "just needs a magazine tube". Got it cheap. Needed more. Had been dry fired and peened the breech and bent the pin. Massaged the metal to resemble a breech face and replaced the pin with a Winchester I modified. Couple of other parts missing. Stock refinish and some cold blue work. Parts and time I'm in it for more than a new one. Take it to the range and it's a shotgun. 8" groups at 50 yards.

Reminds me of the Savage 24-C Camper takedown, .22LR/20ga. Never got around to firing the shogun bbl, but the .22 bbl only shot .22 Short rounds barely acceptably at 50 ft. Sold it for $25, IIRC, and used its takedown case with another gun. The case was fantastic...

Kaaskop49
Shield #5103

 

[garddogg56]

For me it is the Glock 19,never liked the grip angle.Never shot it well and didn't enjoy having the spent shell back in my face.what forced me to make it the only gun I ever got rid of was the rust on inner works of the slide.

 

[kaaskop49]

For me it is the Glock 19,never liked the grip angle.Never shot it well and didn't enjoy having the spent shell back in my face.what forced me to make it the only gun I ever got rid of was the rust on inner works of the slide.

...And I thought this case-in-face only happened to me. I wouldn't mind, but these are considered to be "world-beater" guns (the 19, especially) carried by many LE agencies!

Kaaskop49
Shield #5103

 

[Rpg]

The worst gun I ever owned was a Mossberg 500 12ga pump.

Bits and pieces regularly broke and fell off. I gave it away but warned the recipient that it wasn't a very good gun. He was happy to get it, but quickly discovered it was worth what he'd paid: nothing!

The worst gun I've ever shot are the NAA mini revolvers. Hopelessly slow, impossible to shoot two shots in 30 seconds and hopeless at hitting anything beyond contact distance.

 

[bulletslap]

My worst is a Winchester Model 70 in 243 WSSM, one of the last built in the old Winchester Factory before production moved to South Carolina. No matter what factory or handloaded ammo I use 2 out of 5 rounds keyhole, with a group of 8 to 10 inches at a 100 yards. After exhausting all options I sent it off to Shilen and had it rebarreled, it still keyholes and groups on a washtub.

It is however very effective on coyotes, if you manage to connect.

 

[Loyaljeeper]

I had a CW45 that was a ****. The chamber was too tight and the takedown lever would back out.

I had an older 357 Ruger GP100 that spit lead, had a 13lbs trigger, and would bind while shooting.

 

[teletech]

I owned both the Jennings and the Phoenix and would say they both a waste of steel, but I'm not sure there was any real steel in them besides the barrels.
I bought the Jennings first, don't think I ever had a string of 20 shots without a failure of some sort but I will say that it never broke and was tolerably accurate, so you had one guaranteed shot and then 0-6 more shots, depending on how it felt.
I thought I'd step up and bought the slightly more expensive Phoenix. I had three of the sears snap and two recoil springs give up their tension so you had to push the slide forward to get the action in battery. Now the company did send me replacement parts for free but without being able to trust it for even a single shot it wasn't much use.
I also had one of those Llama .22s that looked like a baby 1911. Super cute gun that was garbage. Sig Mosquito, pretty cute and it was cheap so I thought "sure the reviews are bad, but with most SIG products as the bar, how bad could it be?" followed shortly by "Oh, that bad..." and quick sale.
Funny thing about arms is I think even the awful ones sold for about what I paid for them. I'd be tempted to say that the prize would have to go to one that hurt me or cost me a lot of money and I was about to say that never happened, but then I remembered... LRB M21.
Yes, the great hammer-forged true-to-spec M-14 pattern legend. That's the one, and mine was awful! I mean a 6" gun at 100yds worth of awful. Changing parts up to and including the barrel could not make this rifle shoot. Hard to give up on it and even harder to have a cheap Polytech be far more reliable and accurate. That's a hard pill to swallow right there.

Did the Phoenix .22 come from the previous Jennings .22 family tree ? I bought a Phoenix .22 about 3 years ago with the short barrel and the long target barrel with two mags for I think less than $100. I shot a few hundred rounds through it at one time and my buddy and I had a blast with it, fun little gun and we had zero failures. I pulled it out to use it after it sat for a year and the mags would no longer lock in place. Sent it in for service even though I wasn't the original owner, got it back in a few weeks working good as ever and they threw in two free mags too ! Great experience with an inexpensive gun. Anyone else have one ???

 

[biku324]

Star PD 45 ACP. It looked great, but didn't feed, eject, fire, or group reliably. Dog vomit was more useful.

 

[AJ]

Star PD 45 ACP. It looked great, but didn't feed, eject, fire, or group reliably. Dog vomit was more useful.

That surprises me, a friend of mine carried one in Calif. He was the Chief of Detectives and the SWAT Team Commander for a beach community police department. He swore by his, not at it.