Least favorite gun

[orygun]

What the heck were those goofy spiral fed 22s called? Calico?

Wait! Maybe I should look it up?

Yup! Calico. A friend had the pistol and the carbine. Neither one of them would ever feed any reasonable portion of the ammo in the mag without having to futz around with it.
Biggest POS I ever shot.

 

[orygun]

2) original wide body ParaOrdinance 45 decades ago.


There were others. These stand out even today, years after the fact.

Really? What didn't you like about it?

 

[orygun]

Many years ago, I wrote an essay for RUSI, and one of the editors offered me the chance to go to the MoD Pattern Room Collection range day and shoot a few odd items. Apart from the fact that I was already an established visitor there, thanks to my long-time friendhoodness with the curator, the late and greatly-missed Herby Woodend, I had not actually had the chance to shoot anything.

Apart from the being able to say I'd done it, and VERY few people have, the experience was both hand and mind-numbing. What was it that I shot?

This - the Gabbet Fairfax Mars semi-automatic pistol.

View attachment 380245

Yes, it WAS as awful as it looks, and friends, I had three shots, just to make sure that I hadn't somehow been tricked the first time.

See Ian of Forgotten Weapons -

He says it all.

tac

That certainly is an interesting pistol.

Thanks for sharing!

 

[thorborg]

I missed the Berretta fray since I just perused the thread.
I'm sure some would have rather it stayed dead, but cant resist adding my 2 cents worth.
I bought a Beretta tomcat (32) for my wife. While it is not really packable since it is solid steel with lots of beef making anything but Kevlar reinforced pockets, sag, it is the perfect tool for my wife. She has tiny hands with beyond slender wrist. She never has been able to rack slides, grip most, or hang on to the powerful.
(KEEP IT CLEAN BOYS)
The problem has been exacerbated since she has passed seven decades of life making even light revolvers unwieldy.
For her, it fits the "better than nothing" bill perfectly as her bedside guardian while I'm off playing in the great outdoors.
Heavy enough to mitigate nearly all recoil, operates without racking the slide and is ready, willing and able at all times.
For those who feel it has no place in this world; come kick down our door, Grandma is willing to school you on its operation and merit.

 

[orygun]

The worst that comes to mind was an AMT .380 Backup from the early 80's. It had a trigger that often made people think the safety was on.

I bought one, a Backup 45 when they came out. No sights, just a trough on top. DAO trigger like described above. Solid steel block that felt like it weighed 5 pounds. Unable to hit pop cans at 10 feet.

My brother-in-law inherited a Smith & Wesson Chief's Special semi-auto in 9mm from his dad. We took it out to the range one day. It had the longest trigger pull I've ever experienced. I pulled the trigger a couple of times and it didn't fire. I figured out you had to pull that trigger until it hit the back of the trigger guard before it would go off.

Just like the Kahr. See below.

Ruger SP101 - only when loaded with full power .357 magnum loads. Love the gun otherwise, but full tilt .357's are a punishment. I usually limit it to one cylinder worth, that's enough.

SW 649 with 158gr Magnums was the most painful handgun I ever shot. Even compared to my 500.

Each 1911 is different. A lot of them "rattle" if shaken from side to side. Doesn't mean much actually. They still shoot. Not particularly super accurate, but good enough.

I had a Colt that would rattle. Big deal. The gun didn't know it wasn't supposed to be super accurate. No bullseye was safe.

Why would they move to New York?

Because the original company, run by gun guys failed due to financial reasons. Later restarted by one of the gun guys and a businessman, then taken over by the businessman and integrated into an existing manufacturing facility.

I don't see too many bad reviews on Kahr's pistols. I would own one. The trigger is perfect for my lady. It would be a nice upgrade to her lcp.

I had a little one. I described it's trigger pull as two weeks long. I eventually would have gotten used to it, but went a different direction because of the trigger. It seemed to be a fantastic little gun besides that.

AMT Automag II. Got it from an acquaintance knowing it had problems. It was basically a single-shot with a grip full of spare ammo.

Had one in 6". Threw a fireball out the muzzle that would rival a 357! I believe in the Owners Manual it said the gun didn't work with CCI ammo and it was right. Unfortunately CCI was easy to find and Winchester or Federal, not so much. When I fed it the right ammo, it flat rocked! Ended up selling it because it was eating me out of house and home! That 22 Mag ammo wasn't cheap.

 

[41mag]

Really? What didn't you like about it?

nobodyNOBODY of any degree of skill/experience/training profession 'smiths included, was able to make that sucker actually work thru a full magazine. Even single feed into the chamber by hand might encounter failure to fire; there were feeding issues on any of the 9 magazines it came with; there were failures to extract randomly regardless of ammo used. This was early wide body model. My own highly skilled smith of decades experience finally gave up on it after months of returning it to his shop. Soured me on the entire marque. YMMV.

 

[Heyjoe]

No one is running for cover. The Beretta model 21A bobcat is the dumbest gun ever made. Amazingly these sell for $300 on gun broker. They are also listed as "semi-automatic" by some sellers but are not. You can have it for $250 if you pay the FFL.

Hi oya, if you have time, would you explain how this pistol in question is not a semi-auto?
Do you own one or have you ever held one?
Color me confused here

 

[Heyjoe]

This video shows a semi-auto being a semi-auto.

@Oya

 

[KKG]

I think Oya seems to have a Beretta that doesn't work the way it was designed. There can be a number of reasons for this but every one of them I've seen has worked, some better than others and some needed a bit of work and patience - like figuring out what Ammunition it REQUIRED!

The Beretta isn't the first automatic Pistol to require a little or a lot of patience. I started working on automatic Pistols lots of years ago and I've had a great deal of success so it's hard for me to understand the comments. Now it sounds like he wants to Sell that Gun for Pretty much Top Dollar(in my opinion $250.00 is Top) even though he says it's broken. I'm not sure I would even Want to do business with him. I'm willing to pay the price for a "Parts Gun"($50.00) because that's what he said it is.

Am I wrong???

 

[orygun]

nobodyNOBODY of any degree of skill/experience/training profession 'smiths included, was able to make that sucker actually work thru a full magazine. Even single feed into the chamber by hand might encounter failure to fire; there were feeding issues on any of the 9 magazines it came with; there were failures to extract randomly regardless of ammo used. This was early wide body model. My own highly skilled smith of decades experience finally gave up on it after months of returning it to his shop. Soured me on the entire marque. YMMV.

Wow! That certainly would have done me in, too.
I had a Kimber rifle that caused similar feelings.
Just glad my Para story isn't like yours!

 

[KKG]

In my experience with the ParaOrdnance guns they're very much like Any New product on the Gun Market. Some of them had problems while others didn't. Some of the problems were more in the way of PROBLEMS than others. The whole automatic pistol mechanics can be plagued with problems. Overall I thought they were good Pistols.

 

[orygun]

In my experience with the ParaOrdnance guns they're very much like Any New product on the Gun Market. Overall I thought they were good Pistols.

I wouldn't mind having mine back.

 

[Boboclown]

I had a Colt that would rattle. Big deal. The gun didn't know it wasn't supposed to be super accurate. No bullseye was safe.

Some people, seems more common here in the states, associate rattling with inaccuracy. Looseness doesn't mean inaccuracy though.

 

[DeanMk]

In my experience with the ParaOrdnance guns they're very much like Any New product on the Gun Market. Some of them had problems while others didn't. Some of the problems were more in the way of PROBLEMS than others. The whole automatic pistol mechanics can be plagued with problems. Overall I thought they were good Pistols.

Weren't those feeding problems on the Para's traced to an over-anxious magazine spring?
If that Para has its original magazine, try a newer version....maybe they've already looked into that?
...and speaking of magazines...
That "$50 Beretta" - Has the owner tried bending the lips on the magazine?
Will probably fix it.....just sayin'.


Dean

 

[KKG]

Dean; The experience I was referring to dates from the '80s and the original P-14 and some of them had a number of issues, including the magazines. Each of the Guns had a little something wrong with them OR they were just fine right out of the box. Kind of like the AMT Guns.

 

[41mag]

from the '80s and the original P-14 and some of them had a number of issues, including the magazines. Each of the Guns had a little something wrong with them

mine was one of those that had EVERYTHING wrong; good idea, led to bigger/better things for the 1911 fringe. Taught me to be more selective in how I waste my time & $$$. The Bastids.

 

[DeanMk]

Dean; The experience I was referring to dates from the '80s and the original P-14 and some of them had a number of issues, including the magazines. Each of the Guns had a little something wrong with them OR they were just fine right out of the box. Kind of like the AMT Guns.

Gotcha.
Yeah, that must've been it. I thought I read something distinctly about the magazines, but you guys seem to have a better grasp on this than I do.
Odd, seeing how its based on the 1911. No pun intended, but that's a pretty bullet-proof design.
...I guess it shows the pitfalls of redesigning a single stack gun into a double stack one.


Dean

 

[OldTengu]

Ruger lc380. Bought it, put 3 mags through, sold it.

 

[KKG]

...I guess it shows the pitfalls of redesigning a single stack gun into a double stack one.Dean

The same idea holds true when you start "Chopping and Channeling" the basic Browning design. You can't just take a little off here and there and expect Everything to run from the getgo.

 

[Alexx1401]

I bought one, a Backup 45 when they came out. No sights, just a trough on top. DAO trigger like described above. Solid steel block that felt like it weighed 5 pounds. Unable to hit pop cans at 10 feet.

Strange as it may sound that one (the DOA) was actually their idea of improvements. The originals were striker fired S/A. They were a hit at first for a couple things. They were stainless, and back then that was still a "new thing", and they were small for that day. Problems were that damn trigger. It was literally so hard that the first time I shot mine I thougtht something was wrong. Found out it was normal. Others would often stop before first shot went off thinking the damn safety was on. I have to guess they (AMT) thought people might carry them round in chamber and were worried about A/D's? The other was back then a LOT of people had not yet learned that the stainless steel alloys guns were being made out of were not the same as their table ware. Soon you started to see these with rust all over them from being carried close to the body. Soon there as a LOT of them showing up used. Icing on the cake was the way they had to be taken down. You had to use a dowel of some kind to put through the mag well and drive the bolt and firing pin assembly out, then pound it back in. The entire idea was a flop. It's why it's so seldom you still see one of these any more. I guess to the inventor it seemed like a good idea at the time