What is the worst rifle you have ever owned?

[AfricaHunting.com]

What about these…

Guns confiscated from poachers in Coutadas 11 and 12, Mozambique (picture posted by AH member JRP III)

 

[Rob404]

I think my two Commie Block rifles are the biggest turds in my collection. A Russian Moisin Nagant and a Yugo SKS . the Nagant kicks like a horse but for 99.00 who cares the SKS had a real Horse Crap trigger and the GS who did the scope mount F it up and it shot 20 yards of angle at 50 yds. I had to mount some Burris Zee rings on it to get it on paper .I planned on using it for Dogs in the Dakotas because the surplus ammo was cheap..Guys rap Savages but with some minor tweaking you can make them into great shooter,at least mine are

 

[Diamondhitch]

Rem 700 Titanium. 4" groups at 100yds. Couldn't do better than that. Traded it to a gun nut as a project and he brought it down to 1.5" after putting enough work in to replace it lol.

 

[bluey]

I think my two Commie Block rifles are the biggest turds in my collection. A Russian Moisin Nagant and a Yugo SKS . the Nagant kicks like a horse but for 99.00 who cares the SKS had a real Horse Crap trigger and the GS who did the scope mount F it up and it shot 20 yards of angle at 50 yds. I had to mount some Burris Zee rings on it to get it on paper .I planned on using it for Dogs in the Dakotas because the surplus ammo was cheap..Guys rap Savages but with some minor tweaking you can make them into great shooter,at least mine areView attachment 30770

is that thing, a semi auto rob or the real thing ?
its definitely a ugly duckling !!

 

[Rob404]

is that thing, a semi auto rob or the real thing ?
its definitely a ugly duckling !!

Only a Semi Bluey but It has the Bayonet and a Grenade Launcher,Heres a tear down Pic surprisingly a EZ tear down

 

[Steve Steyr]

FN49 Egyptian in 8x57. I had owned an FN49 Venezuelan 7x57 and it was great. Like an idiot, I sold it. Later bought the miserable FN49 8x57. I ended up with the front sight nearly out of the dove tail to the left and still it shot 3 feet left at 300 yards. I tried all kinds of ammo, the barrel looked straight, it had a shiny bore and it functioned flawlessly but still it shot left.
At 100 yards my FN49 7x57 shot 3-4" groups with consistency. The FN49 8x57 was lucky to shoot 8" groups. I gave up and sold it to a military collector.

 

[Steve Steyr]

Next worst was a Ruger Mini 14 in .223. It was one of those specialty rifles with XX fancy Circassian walnut and all the studly tacticool doodads. It looked like a million bucks.
BUT....
The thing weighed 9 pounds without scope and had the balance of a sledge hammer. Pulling the trigger was like pulling a fork through pea gravel. But the lack of accuracy was its greatest flaw by far. I tried five or six types of factory ammo and finally settled on Fiocchi with 35 gr Hornady's as the best. - 7.4" and this was with my tried and true Leupold VXII 4-12.
Found a guy at a gun show who fell in love with it. There was no way I could disguise my scorn for the rifle but he had to have it anyway. Traded me a new S&S 638 with a Crimson Trace and a wad of cash. Never again will I have a Mimi 14.

 

[enysse]

I could never understand everyone's love affair with the Ruger Mini 14. I thought it was way overpriced for what you got.

 

[Royal27]

Good thread....

For me my worst rifle has also turned out to be one of my best rifles.

My Win Model 70 in .30/06 that I got when I was a teenager. It slung bullets all over the place and I had ZERO confidence in it and ended up questioning my own ability to even shoot a rifle. It was always ending up out of site and I just thought that was normal for a gun. I didn't know any better.

Fast forward many years, and two scopes and I finally took it to a gunsmith. I was going to get it glassed bedded. Guy looked at it, told me wood was touching the barrel where it shouldn't be and that he thought that was the problem. A little trimming and boom, problem solved. Oh, and a secondary problem was that the old Weaver rings I had were crap. They were the old clamp style that only bolt on one side. They put torque on the scope. What I thought were scope issues were ring issues. I figured this out when I couldn't get a brand new scope to adjust properly.

Long story short, after correcting these two issues that rifle went from 3-4 inch groups to sub MOA and has stayed on site for the last three years. The only issue I've had was when I let the eyepiece on the scope get loose and thought I had the same issue all over again. Once I figureed that out (with help from AH while I was at the range none the less!) it was a five second fix.

 

[lcq]

I had a Parker Hale 7mm rm. Kicked worse than a 3 1/2" magnum. Accurate for the first shot then the walking started. Sold it for $350 with a leupy vxIII I hated it so much

 

[dory]

I could never understand everyone's love affair with the Ruger Mini 14. I thought it was way overpriced for what you got.

Ive had one for years , love it , shot a couple of hundred dear off my fishing boat with it , never missed a beat .

 

[dory]

Savage 99e 243 leaver action with rotary mag .
Utter crap .
Purchased it when i was 17 and hunting deer for a living .
We were ling rough in those days in the New Zealand bush .
The rotary mag never worked it wouldnt feed the trigger took 2 fingers to pull after 2 days .
the stock changed shape every wet day .
Cost me a lot of deer at $1 dollar a pound in those days .
should have sued Savage !

 

[colorado]

Bought a Ruger M77 in 1979 in 270 Win, wouldn't shoot better than 2" group at 100 yards. Traded it in on a Rem 700 BDL in 270 the same year, that gun has shot nickel sized 3 shot groups at 100 yards ever since then. The Ruger seemed like a nicely made rifle, maybe I just got a lemon.

 

[enysse]

Savage 99e 243 leaver action with rotary mag .
Utter crap .
Purchased it when i was 17 and hunting deer for a living .
We were ling rough in those days in the New Zealand bush .
The rotary mag never worked it wouldnt feed the trigger took 2 fingers to pull after 2 days .
the stock changed shape every wet day .
Cost me a lot of deer at $1 dollar a pound in those days .
should have sued Savage !

I can remember when Savage 99's became collectors items and prices sky rocketed. Again I honestly can't understand the fascination, they were good gun back in the day, but not for the prices they are going for now. It has to with sentimental value.

 

[Ridge Top Ranch]

The worst rifle I have ever had was a TC Muzzleloader in.54 cal. The gun would not shoot lest than 6" groups no matter what powder/bullet combos I used. It was in stainless steel with "molded" stock. Stock lug holding barrel broke 3 times. Gave it to a friend to try who shoots all the time and he could not get it to group.

Traded it in for Remington bolt action muzzleloader in .54 caliber. Shot two best whitetail bucks to date with it, 168 4/8 and 160 7/8 net B&C. One was at 217 yards.

 

[Velo Dog]

The worst rifle I have ever had was a TC Muzzleloader in.54 cal. The gun would not shoot lest than 6" groups no matter what powder/bullet combos I used. It was in stainless steel with "molded" stock. Stock lug holding barrel broke 3 times. Gave it to a friend to try who shoots all the time and he could not get it to group.

Traded it in for Remington bolt action muzzleloader in .54 caliber. Shot two best whitetail bucks to date with it, 168 4/8 and 160 7/8 net B&C. One was at 217 yards.

If Almighty God had meant for us to put injection molded stocks on muzzle loaders, he would have made trees out of plastic.

 

[Ruark]

I had a Marlin XS7 .243 that started out being the worst, and ended up being the best. I wanted a reliable, cost effective, all purpose centerfire to use out here on our ranch, and this was perfect, especially with the synthetic stock. Out of the box, it shot 3 to 5 inch groups @ 100 yds. with the Federal 85 gr. BTHP. I was really disappointed.

They make these guns with pillar bedding - just a little place where the barrel rests on a little bridge in the stock.

It turned out that besides the pillar, the barrel was also touching the stock in a couple of other places. I got out the Dremel and removed that pillar, then sanded out the groove until the barrel was completely free floated.

Presto: it started shooting inside of a dime, all day. It's a perfect rig for everything from marauding foxes to deer and hogs.

 

[slad68]

300 H&H Sako

 

[Foxi]

Remington Woodmaster
One jam after the other.
Equal which ammunition I used.
Bury these dung on the deep sea

 

[matt85]

my worst rifle so far was easily my Montana Rifle Company DGR in 505 Gibbs. I have had some rough poor functioning guns in my life but never anything this bad. I actually sent it back for repairs before I even shot it (a first for me).

1. the bolt would get stuck on the forward motion if you didn't close it at just the right angle.
2. the rear sight actually fell off the first time I picked the gun up.
3. the magazine would not hold cartridges! if bumped, nudged, or breathed on too heavily it would spit out the first and sometimes even the second cartridge.

it would be good for a single shot because if you opened the bolt quickly after the first shot it would dump the other two cartridges on the ground. assuming it only dumped one of the cartridges, the bolt would jam up on the forward stroke. this rifle is still back with MRC for an unknown amount of time since they wont tell me if/when it will ever be fixed or replaced.

I should have just paid someone $2000 to punch me in the pills.

-matt