Most unpleasant firearm you ever shot?

[The Heretic]

My dad had some off brand (IIRC) single shot 12 ga with a long barrel and a cheap plastic stock from the 50s that had a pattern that was intended to look like wood but fooled no one - it was very light and the butt plate was plastic too so no help there. I shot it with some waterfowl shotshells and was horrible - but I've shot worse.

My Shockwave with pistol brace is ok with 2.75 buckshot but just about gives you a concussion with 3" magnum buckshot. Still, I can tolerate it. My other stock Shockwave with the birds head/raptor grip is a bit worse with 3", definitely not fun, but not horrible.

 

[ABarrett]

There is a great company in Roberta GA that makes 2 and 1/2 inch shells for old shotguns and gunners not wanting abusive recoil - "Polywad"

Buyer's Guide | Polywad Manufacturing, LLC

Polywad manufactures unique, high performance shotgun shells for upland bird hunting and clay target enthusiasts.

polywad.com

 

[Free_Patriot]

Ruger Redhawk 44 Magnum. The classic "cowboy" handle makes it look oh so good, but also makes it difficult to handle and control. A more modern handle like the GP100 or Super Redhawk and it would be ideal even if it didn't have that traditional look.

It also concentrated the recoil against the web of my thumb instead of distributing it, so every time I shot one of my bear loads it would cut me slightly and draw blood if I used the factory wood grips. It was still hard to part with later on.

Same here. I bought a Ruger Redhawk .44 mag as grizz protection when living in Wyoming. Heavy, poor sights, bad feel even with Pachmayr grips. Wouldn't own another one.

 

[Ura-Ki]

Worst was a Real German G-3, with close to a full pound of steel bolt slamming back every time you pulled the trigger, sure made the 7.62X51 feel more like a .300 Win Mag! Hard to run the charging handle, poor ergos, and heavy for what it was, and still couldn't track your target through a shot string! Decided I'm not that much German to require owning one, so down the road it went!

 

[CountryGent]

10 gauge, felt like my neck broke.... never want to shoot one again

I found that it really matters what you fire the 10-gauge from. The Ithaca was heavy and gas operated; recoil was more like a long push that a fast kick. Really heavy doubles weren't bad, but I couldn't see shooting all day.

The single shot: forget it! Straight up painful.

 

[bugeye]

I was at the indoor range in Lebanon about ten years ago, and the guy next to me asked to trade handguns for a few shots. I agreed, and he handed me a huge cowboy revolver in 44 mag. He told me to hold it well as he loaded his own cartridges and he loaded them hot. I grabbed hard and fired, and I've been seeing the repeats of the fireworks show that hit my goggles while burning off my nose hair, ever since. Needless to say I only took one shot. I was happy to get my 'pussy' S&W 'target 22 back!

 

[rscinsc]

S&W 329PD with buffalo bore full load ammo
Sold after being shot 6 times

 

[41mag]

S&W 37 airweight even with standard OEM grips in 38 special was just dumb painful to my hand.

AMT Backup in 45 acp was verging on painful; its inaccuracy was magnified by the Schwartzenegger 1000# variable trigger pull.

The early 70s wildcat '357/45 load (a prelude I'm sure to the 357 Sig) in 1911 my gunsmith sold to me somehow took a double-charge with no damage other than my sore thumb & need for clean shorts. Yes it was unpleasant but not all that painful & certainly no real damage to anything. Amazingly.

I won't be putting any rounds thru buddy's 460 S&W 4" like he did for 4 rounds before giving it up, but his 8" version wasn't too bad.

Decades past I shot a variety of the old Thompson Contender heavy caliber barrels, none with real pleasure but no actual pain of any duration. And my IHMSA XP100 in full length 308 was a pleasure, as it had custom molded grip that fit my hand perfectly.

There was a nasty-recoiling 20g SxS Ithaca coach gun
that had no reason to mistreat anyone, yet it too hit the trail after just unsatisfactory performance.

 

[3MTA3]

Same here. I bought a Ruger Redhawk .44 mag as grizz protection when living in Wyoming. Heavy, poor sights, bad feel even with Pachmayr grips. Wouldn't own another one.

I didn't mind the weight - I bought it specifically for it's strength as I was loading at the absolute limit for 44 Mag. Trigger was excellent, and the sights OK for me. It just didn't fit my hand well, though for others it was just fine. B ottom line is really, really make sure a pistol fits your hand well before you buy.

 

[The Heretic]

S&W 329PD with buffalo bore full load ammo
Sold after being shot 6 times

I've shot the equivalent; Barnes 300 grain bear loads (produced back in the 80s - bought them in Alaska). Not fun. Downright painful. One drew blood (my thumb). Even with light 44 special loads it is not fun to shoot.

Still, that Grendel P10 was worse.

 

[CountryGent]

Still, that Grendel P10 was worse.

Out of curiosity, and pardon the tangent, was that the last handgun ever designed that fed from stripper clips? The feed mechanism was common during the First World War and the Interwar period, but seemed to disappear after the Big One. Anyone just curious.

 

[The Heretic]

Out of curiosity, and pardon the tangent, was that the last handgun ever designed that fed from stripper clips? The feed mechanism was common during the First World War and the Interwar period, but seemed to disappear after the Big One. Anyone just curious.

They do come with a stripper clip IIRC.

I can't speak as to whether they are the last handgun to do so.

IMO it was a cheap piece of fecal matter. I gave mine away. I felt I could not sell it as I felt I would be cheating the buyer at any price.

 

[JKOLL]

I had one particularly nasty CZ-52 7.62 X 25 that would leave a blood blister on the fingertip of the trigger finger. Happened to everyone that shot it after one round. And wouldn't hit the Broad side of a barn. We finally figured out How to tame these with springs, redesigned firing pins by Harrington and trigger shoes. Now it's one of my favorite types, and with a decent barrel, shoots accurately too. Good example of gilding the lilly...only took a few years to figure out how to do it.

 

[billdeserthills]

I have an American Derringer .410/45lc that takes 3" .410 rounds--I loaded a couple of Wolf .410 2 3/4 magnum rounds and fired one. My bud fired the other one & he really hates that gun now--at least it doesn't cut your finger like my 12ga sawed off used to

 

[XoXSciFiGuy]

A couple of memorable junkers come to mind:

A friend of mine had just bought himself a BRAND NEW Phoenix Arms 22 auto. One of the little cheap suckers. We were out camping and he wants to target shoot. (As if you will actually HIT anything with that) He fires his first magazine out of it, reloads it, and says, "Go ahead, try it out!"

(Yawn) "Sure, okay..." I take this piece of garbage and pop three shots out of it.

The slide cracks and breaks LOL. I unload it and hand it back to him. "Wow, man. I'm sorry. Didn't mean to break it..." It was an inaccurate POS anyway. I didn't tell him this, but he was WAY better off without it. We spent the rest of his 22 ammo on my Belgian Browning. It never missed a beat. Wish I still had that thing.

The other time was my fault. I bought a single-shot 12 gauge out of a pawn shop for $40. (This was about 30 years ago) An old New England I believe. The first time I tried lowering down the hammer to bring it back to half-cock...and I did it VERY gently...the damn thing discharged anyway. Good thing it was pointed in a safe direction. I took it back to the pawn shop and got my money returned, and told them they should just destroy it.

 

[Free_Patriot]

Reminds me of when my former roommates and I went out shooting in the early 80's. He had a Taurus semi-auto that he'd gotten from his Dad after he'd passed. He'd never shot it.

He loaded up the mag, took aim, and there was a flurry of sound with the first pull of the trigger. I was shooting my .38 so not paying a lot of attention. He then went to shoot another round and got no response. He started checking and realized that the mag was EMPTY, not quite figuring out what had happened.

That first pull of the trigger emptied the entire mag, FULL AUTO. We were all stunned and laughing up a storm, joking how the people down the way had packed up and left after we started shooting....

 

[ilikegunspdx]

Eventually most encounter one; vicious recoil, poor ergonomics, badly thought out design, something gonzo for the sake of being so, etc. that results in a truly unpleasant shooting firearm.

Which was yours and why?

Beretta bobcat in 22lr. Nasty POS that when it actually fires shoots the case back into ur face (it is built with no extractor). Impossible to shoot accurately. Noisy. If it gets the slightest bit dirty it becomes a Jam-o-matic. Vague, very heavy trigger. Hammer is tiny and hard to get a grip on and is ridiculously hard to pull back. Extremely tiny surface to grip slide and way too hard to rack slide. Crappy, hard, and cheap-feeling bakelite-type grips that melt with any kind of gun cleaner. Nasty and harsh to shoot. Just a horrible, horrible gun.

Just horrible.

 

[DeanMk]

Eventually most encounter one; vicious recoil, poor ergonomics, badly thought out design, something gonzo for the sake of being so, etc. that results in a truly unpleasant shooting firearm.

Which was yours and why?

My ol' 20 gauge H&R.
Stock was made a bit short, so when I threw it up to take a shot, it would just touch my shoulder.
When I pulled the trigger...OUCH...
A box of shells was like gettin' hit 25 times by Mike Tyson!
Eventually, I procured a Limbsaver pad and it fixed everything.
One of my favourite guns to shoot, now.

Dean

 

[jordanvraptor]

I had a Mauser 98K. One day of shooting convinced me to stick with poodle shooters...

 

[billdeserthills]

A couple of memorable junkers come to mind:

A friend of mine had just bought himself a BRAND NEW Phoenix Arms 22 auto. One of the little cheap suckers. We were out camping and he wants to target shoot. (As if you will actually HIT anything with that) He fires his first magazine out of it, reloads it, and says, "Go ahead, try it out!"

(Yawn) "Sure, okay..." I take this piece of garbage and pop three shots out of it.

The slide cracks and breaks LOL. I unload it and hand it back to him. "Wow, man. I'm sorry. Didn't mean to break it..." It was an inaccurate POS anyway. I didn't tell him this, but he was WAY better off without it. We spent the rest of his 22 ammo on my Belgian Browning. It never missed a beat. Wish I still had that thing.

The other time was my fault. I bought a single-shot 12 gauge out of a pawn shop for $40. (This was about 30 years ago) An old New England I believe. The first time I tried lowering down the hammer to bring it back to half-cock...and I did it VERY gently...the damn thing discharged anyway. Good thing it was pointed in a safe direction. I took it back to the pawn shop and got my money returned, and told them they should just destroy it.

Phoenix Arms has a lifetime warranty, like many other cheap & cra ppy guns