Just for fun: worst gun you ever owned?

[CountryGent]

Phoenix .22 - 'nuff said!

Agreed. I had the .25 ACP (6.35㎜) version for about a minute back in the late 1990s. What a complete and utter pile of crap that thing was.

 

[kmk1012]

Rossi 357 lever action. Every once in a while you get a bang when working the lever closed. My brother put a nice hole in his trailer the first time, I didn't believe him and tried to replicate it (outside of course). Sure enough, if you closed the lever just right it would set a round off

 

[CountryGent]

Rossi 357 lever action. Every once in a while you get a bang when working the lever closed. My brother put a nice hole in his trailer the first time, I didn't believe him and tried to replicate it (outside of course). Sure enough, if you closed the lever just right it would set a round off

Yiiiiiiiiiikes! I remember seriously looking at acquiring one of those some time back. Glad I didn't.

 

[RVTECH]

With regard to the Rossi there are some that get them slicked up and they have no complaints - and then there are those like the aforementioned - or worse.

 

[gmerkt]

I've owned hundreds of guns in the past 50 plus years. To those who say, "I never buy bad guns" bully for you, but there is such a thing as hidden defect. Firearms are of a nature that no matter how smart or experienced you think you are, you still are subject to being snookered.

That said, I've owned some stinkers. And likely a few of them were "preventable," that is, I wasn't on my toes when I made the purchase. Nobody's perfect, but I stand on my statement about hidden defect. It's on this basis that I am choosing two similar pistols as "worst guns" that I was gotten the better of when I bought them. Unwittingly. Both were .38 Super. About 20 years or more ago, I wanted a .38 Super but didn't want to pay quality .38 super price. I bought two in a row that were complete piles o' doo doo.

(1) Second hand Auto Ordnance 1911. I never could get this pistol to function properly. It would jam frequently. After much examination and experimentation, I discovered that the slide was made wrong. In making the slide, they'd taken too much material away from the left hand side breech area so the cartridge case head would cant to the left and get out from under the extractor hook. Some auto pistols don't even need an extractor, they will blow the case out but this one wouldn't. It usually jammed it.

This thing also came with a barrel that had a weird, kinda chemical water spotted/etched bore. It wouldn't clean out. Since i'd bought it used, there was really no recourse. So I decided to order a new .38 Super barrel from Numrich. It came in the mail, I examined it, this barrel had the same chemical etching in the bore! I should've known, Numrich and Auto Ordnance are owned by the same people but what was the chance that all their .38 Super barrels were like this, including being used in complete, finished guns? I sent the second bbl. back.

You know those table vultures at gun shows who ask everyone who passes by with a bag, "Whatcha got to sell?" They pimp constantly trying to get deals so they can restock their table, you know, flip guns. Well, that's getting more difficult to do now with the laws we have. But back when I had this dud .38 Super, all that was fair game. There was this particularly annoying table holder I used to see at the WAC shows. Lots of people wanted .38 Supers so they were easy to flip. I chose this one guy to peddle my dud to.

2) Next was the Shooter's Arms Manufacturing (S.A.M.) 1911. This one was made in the Philippines, I think an early effort of 1911 clones. Yes, it was new in the box when I bought it. It cost $250. There were so many things wrong with it I don't know if I can remember them all. For one thing, the point of impact was way, way off from point of aim. Even at very close range, way off. It would jam very often. I didn't get to shoot it all that much before the slide release/take down lever would fall out, then the gun would fall apart. It was a bad 'un. Yes, it was under warranty as a new gun, but the manufacturer was in Florida, I didn't want to go to the expense and trouble of shipping it. By that time, I knew I didn't like it enough to try to get it repaired. This one, I took to a pawn shop to unload. That day, they weren't buying anything. As I turned to leave the shop, two young men followed me out of the store. Out on the street, they stopped me and asked if they could see the gun. They were over from Wenatchee on a gun-buying mission. No, they weren't from over the border. Just two, young white guys. They asked if I would sell them the gun since the store wouldn't buy it. I said, "You sure you want to buy it?" They said yes and paid me what I'd wanted for it from the pawn shop. That was a couple of decades ago, legal at the time but I surely wouldn't do the same thing today. Legal yes, moral, not likely. I still feel a little guilty about selling it to those two guys, but I wouldn't have about selling it to the pawn shop. Which would've turned around and sold it to some other unsuspecting customer.

That's how it can be with used guns. A friend of mine claims that the main function of gun shows is to provide a venue for sellers to dump all their dud guns. Exaggeration, yes; strong element of truth, also yes.

Now I have a couple of Colts in .38 Super, later ones made after Colt finally figured out how to make the barrels right. One is a 1911, the other is a Commander, I like them both, and have never had any issues with them.

 

[Pandaz3]

I gave a dud Phoenix 22 to a guy that wanted to try gunsmithing. Would have been good for a buy back program. I have some I don't like, I traded some program shotguns still in their respective boxes as the three I have are three more than I need. I had to add cash, but got a new G-20. The wife traded a S&W SD9 VE with cash for a new G-17. I gave my son a few that he wanted, so did I, but he likes shooters, and what the heck. I have all the rest. Good and bad.

 

[01Toro]

Llama .45 officer , when it did extract it would throw the casings right into your face. I got a casing stuck between my safety glasses and the side of my head!!! Burned like hell!!! Then the roll pin that held the extractor fell out and the extractor and spring shot off the slide into the dirt and rocks. It didn't wanna feed either. That was my first auto loader, had revolvers before that.
Llama,,, when you just don't know any better....

 

[Jonnyuma]

...of the bunch... I have to say my Bersa Thunder .380 is the biggest POS I've ever owned. A bit particular about what it likes to be fed and the construction itself is such that it destroys itself a little more with every shot... requiring a little sanding and polishing every 100-150rds or so just to minimize the amount of damage being done. That's just a stop-gap though.

Right out of the box required some ramp work to get "anything" to shoot out of it semi-reliably. Every mag needs a little work... be it the retainers or spring.

For a very limited budget pistol you're going to shoot 50rnds through then throw it in the glove/tool/fishing box as a last resort backup to your backup... where anything better than a pencil is desireable... it's highly likely at least the one in the pipe will go "pop". Getting though a whole mag when you really need it? It's a coin toss.

That being said, as an introductory semi for the kids to plink with or pack on their hip around camp for familiariy (that you don't care if it gets banged, broke or lost)... perfect.

That's unfortunate...

...to me the thunderer was a lot more reliable with hollow points. I have had four Bersa and never had a problem with any of them. If I was into 380 I would have one now

This more closely mimics my experience w the Bersa Thunder 380. At $250-$300 they're on the cusp of being a "bargan-priced" piece but still cost enough to expect some degree of quality. I never used the warranty or dealt w customer service so I can't comment on those aspects.... but I have been thinking about picking up another one. They do fit nicely in a tackle box.

 

[2A-Jay]

Llama .45 officer , when it did extract it would throw the casings right into your face. I got a casing stuck between my safety glasses and the side of my head!!! Burned like hell!!! Then the roll pin that held the extractor fell out and the extractor and spring shot off the slide into the dirt and rocks. It didn't wanna feed either. That was my first auto loader, had revolvers before that.
Llama,,, when you just don't know any better....

Llama 45acp Police. did not like the plastic grips and the mac
Mag would fall out after about 3 shots. Good thing it was stolen from the trunk of my car in the late '70s.

 

[Dirty Cary]

RM380 very long and gritty trigger, was going to replace my tcp with it
but shot 2 magazines through it and put it back in the box.

 

[CLT65]

A friend once had an AMT Backup .45 that I tried to help him troubleshoot. That thing was a worthless piece of scrap.

 

[Pandaz3]

RM380 very long and gritty trigger, was going to replace my tcp with it
but shot 2 magazines through it and put it back in the box.

I agree except mine has a fairly smooth trigger after dryfiring it a thousand times or so. It is one of the easiest racking pistols, reasonably accurate considering the long pull, eats a large variety of ammo. Good for people with a medical weakness of some sort. It is one that I have been 'Luke Cool' on, but I still own it.
They are near $200 now and worth it to some. I have just over 100 rounds thru mine after testing at least a magazine of ten ammo brands and then some more of some of them, I just never warmed up to it enough to take it back to the range.
It does seem reliable.

 

[Hun Shooter]

Century C93 HK93 clone

 

[ilikegunspdx]

Worst gun would be a tossup between a Beretta Bobcat 22 and an Erma 22 Luger Clone. That Bobcat was a hateful, hateful gun. The Erma was a horrible gun but at least it looked neat.

 

[xtratoy]

Yiiiiiiiiiikes! I remember seriously looking at acquiring one of those some time back. Glad I didn't.

Mine has never exhibited that type of malfunction. First time i have ever heard anything bad about the Rossi lever guns. I will be doublely cautious next time I have mine out

 

[that guy]

+1 on the bad kitty!
The Beretta 21A Bobcat I had would not go through a whole mag reliably, especially with bulk ammo.

 

[GWS]

A Spanish FR-8 in .308
Front sight was way too short and the trigger pull was measured in kilotons.

 

[cHaOsReX]

Glock 30 - I was not thinking when I bought a subcompact .45. A few mags with standard pressure 230 grain rounds and my hand would be buzzing. Not so terrible with 185 grain.

Sig P938 - definitely love/hate. Loved carrying it, loved the size and weight. Nice trigger, nice manual of arms, looked great, shot well and was fun to shoot. I dreaded field stripping that thing because it was so difficult to get that flipping recoil spring back in place. Always took me 10 minutes, wearing my finger tips out trying to compress that bastard down without letting it slinky all over the place.

I guess at this point I've owned 30 or so guns and my luck has been pretty good.

 

[glockr]

S&W 4006. Beautiful pistol, very well made, but the difference between the DA and SA trigger pulls was something I couldn't get used to. Bought a Glock 22 and a Norinco 1911 and never looked back.

 

[parsons_12b]

I bought my wife a S&W sigma 380, it was one of those you had to pinch the sides of the mag to release it. My wife shot two rounds through it and sat it on the bench and said to thro it in the garbage.