Whats The Biggest Piece Of Junk Handgun, Youve Ever Bought ?

[Woodsman1]

I got this Idea from another forum. Whats the worst handgun youve ever bought ? Feel free to name the brand, the model, and the problems you had with it !

[PowPow]

I bought a 38 derringer that would never fire the lower barrel. Don't know the brand.
Not enough leverage on the hammer, I guess.
Of course it wasn't very pleasant when it fired the upper barrel.
Had a half-cock safety and the gun store clerk warned me to make sure it was half-cocked when I loaded it and closed it or it would go off with the firing pin sticking out. Advice I heeded every time.
Didn't know enough or care enough about it to try to fix. It was only $30.

[james]

Had an off brand .25 auto that would shoot if you could pull the trigger hard enough.  Must have taken ten pounds, (at least) to set it off.  I couldn't hit the broad side of the barn if I was in it.

[SHOOTALL]

this is hard , had a raven 25 auto, had a tarurs revolver , had a S&W 1937 mod it was worn out , a 1911 assy from GI parts , all gone now !
one Blackhawk came rusty , ejector rod, spring,housing and screw was missing aling with 2 other frame screws. Stocks were bad and it had pitts in the bbl and little black on the grip frame. I got it to try my hand at taking it apart repairing it . I enjoyed putting it back in order , plans are in the works to polish and blue. It shot really well , I found a 9mm cyl at a gun show and fitted it to it with help. The 9mm shoots poor though. So all junk ain't bad junk 

[Dixie Dude]

I bought a 44 mag stainless Virginia Dragoon.  It was imported by Century Arms or Interarms, don't remember which.  It shot 5 cylinders on would group, but one was always 4" to the right and 2" down, every time.  I marked that cylinder so I wouldn't use in, but even a Sharpie wore off.  I sold it and bought a Ruger. 

[Woodsman1]

Ok ill admit it. I was stupid more than once, when I was much younger and bought my first few guns. I bought a Raven 25, it was a total poc. Sold it to my brother that was dummer than me, so I thought ! I then turned right around and bought a Jennings J 22. It was just as bad. Yeh I know, but I was young ! Im not going to embaress myself any more than that, for now !

[guzzijohn]

Llama 1911 in .38 Super.
GuzziJohn

[mcwoodduck]

Ok ill admit it. I was stupid more than once, when I was much younger and bought my first few guns. I bought a Raven 25, it was a total poc. Sold it to my brother that was dummer than me, so I thought ! I then turned right around and bought a Jennings J 22. It was just as bad. Yeh I know, but I was young ! Im not going to embaress myself any more than that, for now !

I bouoght 10 of the Ravens in one shot.
They were $35 out the door and there was a gun buy back in VA they were giving $50 a gun.
Bought them, went to the buy back and handed them in, handed over my license with it made $150 profit we truned into a keg party.
Later the buy back was deemed Illegal and a state trooper showed up at my door with those same ravens.  Went back to the shop sold them back at $15 or 20 a gun and went grocery shopping for the month and had another keg party.
The ravens so far seem to be some of my best investments.

[Casull]

I bouoght 10 of the Ravens in one shot.
They were $35 out the door and there was a gun buy back in VA they were giving $50 a gun.
Bought them, went to the buy back and handed them in, handed over my license with it made $150 profit we truned into a keg party.
Later the buy back was deemed Illegal and a state trooper showed up at my door with those same ravens.  Went back to the shop sold them back at $15 or 20 a gun and went grocery shopping for the month and had another keg party.
The ravens so far seem to be some of my best investments.

 
Now that put a smile on my face.

[hillbill]

i purchased a very nice looking AMT 22 auto. stainless, bull barrel, target sights, outstanding finish,  etc. it looked just like a ruger 22 auto.it was very and i mean very accurate but would misfire about 2 rounds out of every clip.worked on it several times and even swapped a bolt and most parts out of a perfectly functioning ruger into it with the same results.swapped it off for a colt new frontier which i later sold at a large profit.

[Lloyd Smale]

the first 1911 i ever bought was a comander sized springfield that was a total pos. It wouldnt even run ball reliably. ive probably had worse guns but none i paid that much for.

[huntswithdogs]

I bought a used RG in 38spl back in the early 80s. More then one failure to fire(never the same cylinder). I figured that I was more accurate throwing rocks, so I sold it.

HWD

[RevJim]

 A Rohm .38, seized up every cylinder full. A worn out Colt Pocket .380, a Mod 29 that would NOT stay in time. Another ROHM .22 snubbie, it works, but you can't hit anything past 3ft with it. A Taurus .22 revolver and a .22 magnum revolver- seized up, stuck cases, poor triggers. An AMT .45 Longslide, seized up, SS kept galling. A Firestorm .45 that was a jamomatic. Every Walther PPK I tried had to have bookoo bucks put into it to get them to run right, then I'd end up getting slide cuts in my beefy hand web, so design wasn't right for me, ha. I spook easily, if any rifle/shotgun/handgun is not 99% reliable, I try fix them, if they don't settle down, they are gone. I always allow 1% for ol Murphy's part.

[JJ Kelly]

Kahr P-380 after 1000 rds the same problems happened even
after going to the factory to be fixed. For every magazine fired
there were 3 to 4 failed to fire because of their design where the
striker block, striker spacer hit and slow down the force of the
stiker. There were also failed to eject and failed to feed malfuctions
that occurred with every magazine. I did like the size of gun and I
did like the fact it was striker fired but the gun don't work. I lost
a lot of money over that mistake.

[Drilling Man]

  Ruger semi auto 22 pistol!
 
  I've had 3 of them, all jammed, but the first one was a total jam-0-matic POS!
 
  They are like most Rugers, you buy them and then throw money at them until you get them where they SHOULD have been when new!
 
  DM

[guzzijohn]

Quote from Drilling Man:
"I've had 3 of them, all jammed, but the first one was a total jam-0-matic POS!"


I am surprised to hear that. I have had a MK I and a MK II, both with the 5.5 BBL. Once in a great while (maybe every 500-1,000 shots) I will get a stove pipe for some reason. Great pistols for the money. Accurate!
GuzziJohn

[Casull]

They are like most Rugers, you buy them and then throw money at them until you get them where they SHOULD have been when new!

 
 
I've yet to see that happen with a Ruger (I've owned four, rimfire and centerfire).  Actually, I've never really heard of it either, with the exception of your post.

[Lloyd Smale]

me either. Ive owned probably a dozen of them through the years and all have been exceptionaly reliable. Something i cant say for some of the higher dollar guns out there.

They are like most Rugers, you buy them and then throw money at them until you get them where they SHOULD have been when new!

 
 
I've yet to see that happen with a Ruger (I've owned four, rimfire and centerfire).  Actually, I've never really heard of it either, with the exception of your post.

[mcwoodduck]

They are like most Rugers, you buy them and then throw money at them until you get them where they SHOULD have been when new!

 
 
I've yet to see that happen with a Ruger (I've owned four, rimfire and centerfire).  Actually, I've never really heard of it either, with the exception of your post.

Me either.
I do know that they like some ammo better than others, not brands but bullet designs and they like standard or better.  Had a friend that cursed his and found out he was trying to shoot CB longs in it I game him to try in another gun.
The other problem Rugers have is reassembly.  They are a little finicky about being put back together wrong.  Also check the ejector. You bend them when cleaning or reassembling and they jam. 
The only guns I had heard of having ot buy and send ot a smith were the 1970-1990's Colt 1911's

[Bigeasy]

About 1998 I purchased a plastic frame Taurus 9mm semi-auto, compact, forget the exact model.  1st time at the range, shooting factory 124 grain ball, on about round 7 or 8, the gun blew a case head.  Cracked the frame, destroyed the magazine, cut my hand.  Inspected the previous fired casings, and noted the were all badly bulged at the case web.  Took a chance, and fired one Winchester factory 147 grain out of it.  That casing was also badly bulged.
 
My opinion is that it was unlocking early while pressure was still high.  Getting Taurus to fix it was an exercise in frustration.  After much effort, and about 5 months, got it back with a new frame.  Fired 3 rounds of factory Federal out of it, and inspected the cases.  All were bulged to the point I was surprised they didn't blow.  I was so frustrated with Taurus, and didn't want to stick someone else with an unsafe gun, so I dumped it in Lake Ontario next time I went fishing.
 
Larry

[Drilling Man]

  Well let's see...
 
  That "worst" jam-0-matic i bought mentioned above, was in the 70's, it was the first Ruger i ever bought...  Two others i bought over the years were better but both jammed a lot.  Guess i could have thrown some money at them, but got rid of them instead!
 
  Several of the first NEW Ruger 77's i've owned had VERY rough bbls., and were VERY hard to get accurate.  Of course a NEW bbl. (or rebore) was the fix, along with bedding.  Throwing money at them fixed them.
 
  I can't even count how many Rugers i bedded for customers over the years, all trying to get them to shoot better!  At least THEY were the ones throwing the money at ME!  lol
 
  One Ruger 77 had an extractor failure from NEW...
 
  A single six i had broke the fireing pin in less that 4K rounds, so i threw some $$ at it and got it going.
 
  I've had numerous 10/22's, NONE shot "out of the box" as well as my Marlin 60 or my Rem. 552, but a trip to Rim Fire Central will show you how to throw money at one, to get it accurate!
 
  I've owned several number ones, all needed the forearm bedded/floated to shoot...  That's more money i had to throw at them!
 
  Do you want to hear about the Ruger shotgun misfires???  Ruger gave up on shotguns for that reason!  Too many problems!  I LONG ago got rid of all my Ruger shotgun problems!  That way i didn't have to throw money at them!
 
  How about those parts breaking, jam-0-matic 10/22 mags???  Takes some money thrown at them to fix them!  At least it did my  brothers!  Ruger thought so too, and like their shotguns, they took them off the market!
 
  I could go on and on, but you sghould have gotten the picture by now...  lol
 
  DM

[Brett]

I've been very fortunate.  The closest thing I ever had to a lemon was a 9 shot, .22 cal. Taurus revolver that actually shot very well but it's breach to cylinder gap was so darn tight that after a dozen or so cylinders full of any dirty ammo it would seize up and have to be cleaned before I could resume shooting.  Aside from that I really liked the gun but eventually traded it off towards a MKII that I liked a lot better.

As a side note my wife qualified for her CCW with one of the top scores in our class using that little 4" Taurus revolver. 

[rockbilly]

Did I mention Kinber?
 
I had to that were trash, jam, jam, stove pipe, I don't recall ever getting a full mag through either one without a problem feeding.  That said, I now have another one that seems to work fine.  I bought the gun used, like new in the box, I've put about 200 rounds through it and all seems to be going well at this point.
 
Other than that,  I had a problem with was a Smith model 17, it was hard to open and close the cylinder.  A trip back to Smith and she now works like new.

[irold]

Drilling Man , sounds like you've really had some bad luck with your Rugers......me , just the opposite , I like my Rugers...
 
Getting to the question ...had a Taurus 911 , looked nice , all SS , never jammed.....just couldn't hit nothing with it.....anything beyond 5 yards was safe....could've been me , doubt it though.
 
regards , irold

[Drilling Man]

Drilling Man , sounds like you've really had some bad luck with your Rugers......me , just the opposite , I like my Rugers...
 
Getting to the question ...had a Taurus 911 , looked nice , all SS , never jammed.....just couldn't hit nothing with it.....anything beyond 5 yards was safe....could've been , doubt it though.
 
regards , irold

  I guess i'm NOT alone with Ruger problems:  http://www.gboreloaded.com/forums/index.php?topic=256648.msg1099513424;topicseen#new
 
  DM

[SHOOTALL]

Ruger has had some issures , I think at certian times they had bad runs and at other times the had corrected the issues and put out really good guns. They have given me good service when a gun was returned for repair.

[NickSS]

I would have to say it was an AMT Hardballer 45 autoi.  It looked real good but suffered from two problems one was that it was inaccurate and the other was that even lubed the pistol gauled the slideway on the frame.  I sold the gun at about 1/3 what I paid for it and had to go to three gun shops before I found one that would buy it as they all thought they were trash.  Of course this was one of the very first AMT guns out the door but I never bought another from them.  I have had three revolvers with tight cylinder to frame fits that caused binding. The first was a S&W model 66.  I bought  it used and took it back to where I bought it and they fixed it with a flat file by removing a few thousanths from the back of the barrel.  The other two guns were a SS Ruger security six and a taurus SS 94 22 RF.  I fixed both of them the same way a couple of cuts with a file and no more problems.  I still have the security six and the Taurus 94 and have litterallly thousands of rounds through both with perfect satisfaction.

[Bitterroot Bob]

I bought an RG23 (John Hinckley Special) at a yard sale. I carried it in my hip pocket when mushroom hunting until I noticed that the barrel had loosened up in the frame. I actually killed two mice with it (before I was married, natch!), so I guess I got my $35 out of it.
When a cheap gun won't rust, that should be a sign!
 
Bitterroot
 

[Flash]

I bought a Wyoming Arms 10mm that i thought was going to be a nice answer to the expensive 1911's.
The rear sight was the best thing on the gun. I had it about six months.

[Needles]

I had a Tec 22 once. It never felt right, and I couldn't hit anything more than 15 ft away. I didn't keep it long...