What is the worst rifle you have ever owned?

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

The worst rifle I ever owned was an unknown brand of 22 that I paid 5 bucks for back in 75.
It was accurate enough but had the bad habit of blowing the head off cases now and then.
I used that thing every weekend for 12 months putting 500 rounds thru it each weekend, off hand at targets at ranges from 10 to 100 yards and even had mates throw cans in the air for me to shoot.
Even tho it had it's issues I still managed to have fun and improved my shooting no end. Back then a brick of 500 rounds was only $5.
C ant even remember what happened to that rifle but probably just gave it away.
Bob

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

The worst gun I ever owned was a Model 110 Savage 30-06. Kicked like a brown mule! Viscious, sold it, but took years to get over the flinch. POS Brian

@vCard
My Stevens 200/savage 110 in 35 Whelen kicks like a kittens caress with 250 grainers at 2,700fps even without a muzzle brake.
Bob

 

[MS 9x56]

I can honestly state I stay away from any caliber with magnum in the name for exactly that reason. None of the 35 caliber rifles I use from 35 Remington up to 35 Whelan have ever bruised my shoulder. I have never had cause to try a "magnum" caliber as my 35's reach as far as I care to shoot. If it is too far, use your hunting skills to sneak closer. Good hunting.

 

[tn4lee]

My most marginal rifle was my first, bought it when I was 15 years of age, for deer hunting in MN. It was the 740 Woodsmaster in .30-06. I believe it was only sold for one year and replaced by the 742 model. The rifle worked fine as long as I used "iron" sights. It's major fault was that if one had a scope mounted and disassembled the rifle for a thorough cleaning (gas operated semi-auto) one had to rebore sight the scope before shooting game. (Actually, that wasn't necessary if you didn't want to kill anything.) After posing as a gun vault protector for 25 years I cleaned it and took it one a deer hunt in WI. Not knowing the requirement to rebore sight the scope. I didn't come close to hitting anything I shot at with the scope. Did some research and found out why Remington replaced it with the 742 model.

 

[dougfinn]

A sporterized .303 Lee Enfield. Poor stock design coupled with the brass butt plate guaranteed a bruised shoulder. Not very accurate either. Sold it with no regrets.

 

[bruce moulds]

my first foray into the 7 mag was a ruger77 with the tang safety.
would not under any circumstances group on a foolscap page at 100 yds.
also after a while the stock split from the forend to back behind the receiver ring.
could only morally sell it for parts,
close second was a sako finnbear 30/06.
again would no group on a foolscap page at 100.
rebarreled it with a hart barrel and it shot extremely well, but one day on a mountain the trigger fell out of its hanger.
3rd worse was another ruger77, this time in 338mag.
the chamber was so oversized that a seating die served well as a fls die.
the case in front of the belt was the same diameter as the belt after firing, so headspace had to be on the shoulder.
interestingly that 338 would not give velocities as good as a 338/06, even with max loads.
it did however shoot about 2 moa.
in no case would the oz agents or their dealerships admit any fault or liability.
i was seen as an enemy, even though i had in faith spent money on their product.
i was told that the 30/06 is not an accurate cartridge.
with the new barrel it won a number of 200 yd scheutzen matches against schultz and larson target rifles and such.in those days at least, all a gun had to do was go bang to pass the selling test.
bruce.

 

[tn4lee]

Worst rifle I ever had was a Globe Firearms .303 British. It would only fire when it wanted to or if you "slapped it up side of the head".
I saw it at a gunsmiths shop and though "hey something different" (can't believe I traded a .303 Jungle Carbine for it.....still kicking myself)
Successive trips to the range started to yield interesting stubbornness to want to co-operate with me (an uncanny resemblance to marriage!!!).
I tried to fire it one day and she said no......wait for it.....bang. I was using factory ammo not cheap military stuff. So I though sticky firing mechanism. Cleaned it up. Came back to the range a week later. Squeeze....."click"....SOB was my first thought. Waited the 30 seconds or so before I cleared the action. Here's the fun part....went to pull the bolt back by the bolt handle and ...BANG the gun goes off. Much more non printable words as the bolt slammed my hand into my nose. After the stars and tears were cleared up it was back to the drawing board. Checked firing pin spring, trigger sear, etc and the usual culprits. Went back to the range a bit more apprehensive this time. Loaded a round (thank goodness it didn't fire), squeeze the trigger...."click"...hmmm. I was a bit smarter this time and hit the side of the gun and ...BANG.....BBBBBANG. The mag had five rounds in it. They was all gone!
I thought this is going back to the place I bought it from......but we had to try one more mag. I was brave and put 10 in the mag. Loaded up carefully pushed the bolt forward. No bang. Good I thought. Squeezed the trigger....BBBBBBBBBBang. The other people that were shooting beside me wanted to know why I was shooting a machine gun, and weren't thrilled about being peppered with brass casings. It went back to the store the next day. I guess that's what you get when you buy a $250 semi auto.

i'm sorry but I can't stop laughing long enough to catch my breath.

 

[IvW]

Remington M700 classic in 375 H&H......

 

[slam8031]

My worst rifle was more related to me than the rifle! I had a 7mm rem mag in a browning semi auto configuration. It was a decent shooter and good trigger. The problem—I’m left handed and the browning was not…one evening late in the day I leaned in to the rifle to get a better view of the whitetail doe and squeezed the trigger. The spent shell ejected just below my right eye and the temperature and proximity to my eye were enough on my cheek to know I didn’t need that rifle any more. Now I buy left handed bolt guns!
a close second is the 300win mag savage I have for my son. The ejector mechanism has failed (spring replaced). It doesn’t shoot great groups even with different selection of bullets. We shall see if it follows the same path as the browning…

 

[rookhawk]

Remington 700.

Worst gun I've ever worked on was the Browning A-bolt. Specifically, the plastic trigger group is an aberration for the pricepoint.

 

[Graham Hunter]

Remington M700 classic in 375 H&H......

For what reason?

 

[IvW]

For what reason?

Well let me make an assumption here that either you have never used this specific model or you cannot fault them cause you like Remington M700.

I would ask the same reason to anybody suggesting buying one in 375 H&H or bigger for dg...

Lets see what I did not like on mine....we start at the back and work forward.....

Far too light for the caliber......
LOP=13'5"
Very straight stock high better for scope use, I used mine open sights...
Real kak safety.....
Bent bolt handle....
Flat(top and bottom) bolt knob....
Checkered bolt handle top and bottom.....
Trigger pull 6.5lbs, cannot be adjusted other than by a competent smith.....
Pushfeed action.....
Tiny extractor....
3 rnd mag capacity....
Comes standard WITHOUT open sights, need to orser those if you want.....
Rear sight designed by Forrest Gump....
Front sling stud positioned to specifically nail your left front index finger....
Front sight designed by the same engineer....
Very difficult and akward to recharge the magazine....
Thank goodness we ran out of gun to keep commenting....

I have seen broken extractors, feeding issues as a result of difficulty in recharging the magazine...etc.

Piece of crap as a DG rifle.....

So now the M700 DG fans can chime in.

 

[dailordasailor]

Keltec 9mm pocket pistol. My first pistol purchase ever and patterned like a shot gun at 5 yds.
Remington 787 in 300wm. Kicked like a mule and couldnt get accurate groups even on a lead slead.

Both had one thing in common, made cheap and i bought when was on a tight budget. I learned my lesson and basically gave both away and dont buy the "cheapest" guns any more. I do have a few hipoints but knew what i was buying and they go bang every time at the range.

 

[NE 7x57]

Worst for accuracy was a Ruger Mini 14. It was one of the very early ones back in the late 70s early 80s. It would put the first round on target and as the barrel heated up it would shoot a pattern rather than a group. I liked the way it handled, it was reliable but I couldn't put up with 4 inch or more groups.

I also have no love for the Remington 870. Tried to like them but failed.

 

[IdaRam]

Well let me make an assumption here that either you have never used this specific model or you cannot fault them cause you like Remington M700.

I would ask the same reason to anybody suggesting buying one in 375 H&H or bigger for dg...

Lets see what I did not like on mine....we start at the back and work forward.....

Far too light for the caliber......
LOP=13'5"
Very straight stock high better for scope use, I used mine open sights...
Real kak safety.....
Bent bolt handle....
Flat(top and bottom) bolt knob....
Checkered bolt handle top and bottom.....
Trigger pull 6.5lbs, cannot be adjusted other than by a competent smith.....
Pushfeed action.....
Tiny extractor....
3 rnd mag capacity....
Comes standard WITHOUT open sights, need to orser those if you want.....
Rear sight designed by Forrest Gump....
Front sling stud positioned to specifically nail your left front index finger....
Front sight designed by the same engineer....
Very difficult and akward to recharge the magazine....
Thank goodness we ran out of gun to keep commenting....

I have seen broken extractors, feeding issues as a result of difficulty in recharging the magazine...etc.

Piece of crap as a DG rifle.....

So now the M700 DG fans can chime in.

I could not agree more. Years ago I bought a used Remington 700 Custom Shop .416 Rem Mag at a gun show. Only reason I bought it was because the guy only wanted $900 and it had a Leupold 2.5 - 8x scope on it and an HS precision stock. Figured how far wrong could I go? Wouldn’t shoot for crap. Bore scope showed a cross-ways groove in the rifling a couple inches from the muzzle. Looked like the gundrilling/reaming process caught a chip and left a nice, copper pealing groove in the lands.
I ended up rebarreling it to 7mm STW and in the process found the face of the receiver and the threads were so far out of square I wasn’t sure they could be trued up.
And this is a custom shop rifle…

 

[Vintageguy]

Winchester 94 30-30 angle eject. Total garbage and I’m a Winchester guy. Reliable feed and function but I could outshoot it with any pistol I had.

 

[Woodcarver]

First pistol, a Longine 32ACP. Never knew if it was going to go bang when a fresh mag was inserted. Often had to cycle through 3 or more rounds, sometimes all 7 and then start over. Once a round went off, the rest of that mag would all fire. Then start over. It could take awhile to shoot a box of ammo, lol.
Also had a Western Field 22 semi that would only feed the first 5-8 rounds out of the tube before it jammed.
Like most of the posters in this thread, I happily traded both of these off. Both went to a hawk-shop for a Colt SAA in 22mag, straight up trade, no cash. Still have the Colt.
I've also bought several "problem" rifles for peanuts from guys that told me they wouldn't group, wouldn't feed, or some other "issue". With 1 or 2 exceptions, once they were cleaned, scope bases and/or rings properly tightened, a couple scopes with loose innards replaced, they all became decent shooters. Surprising (not really) how many just needed a pressure point removed or squared to the barrel. Synthetic stocks are really bad for this I have found. Several are still in the safe, most provided the financing for another "gotta have" peashooter.

 

[Mekaniks]

Winchester 94 30-30 angle eject. Total garbage and I’m a Winchester guy. Reliable feed and function but I could outshoot it with any pistol I had.

Thats a bummer. I have one thats an 03'-04' production that is a tack driver with Winchester 170g silver tips.

 

[tgt_usa]

What is the worst rifle you have ever owned? By that I mean a rifle that is full of issues, shoots patterns, etc. OK, I am going to post mine.


The worst rifle I have ever owned was a Marlin 336 CS in .35 Rem. It was a nice rifle and it had a williams peep sight. So me & my dad took it to the range and it consistently shot 5-7 inch groups at 50 yards with Remington 200 grain core-lokts. My dad looked it over and couldn't really find anything wrong with it exept that 2 screws on the cartridge tube were way to tight (which can affect accurace with lever guns). So he fixed that problem and it still shot 5-7 inch groups at 50 yards. So we sold it to a guy. We told the guy what was wrong with it but he still gave us 325 $.


So, what rifle was the worst you ever owned?

A Russian Mosin-Nagant '91/30. My M-N m44 is a great little rifle: light, hard-hitting ( by .30 standards ), handy, accurate. Before qualifying and receiving my M1 Garand, the M-N m44 was my [ As Issued ] Service Rifle Match equipment. Still took it along as a back-up; sometimes lending it to an unequip'd noob. So a '91/30 ought to be even more accurate; very inexpensive; great to sporterize ... right?

Wrong.

An on- line vendor has a package: rifle - tapped for mounting a 'scope; monte carlo stock; sling; cleaning kit. All-in-one! Perfect! ... right?

Wrong.

Couldn't wait to shoot the '91. Took the '91 and the '44 to the range. With the irons the '91 was shooting 10min groups ... huh?!? A few rds through the '44: ~2 1/2 mins. '91 again, 8 - 10min. Pulled the bolt out of the '91 ... pulled a bore-snake through. Yeah, the bore is not as nice as that in the '44 ... but not that ba ... what?!? Asked the range armorer to use his bore scope: no rifling at all near the muzzle. Still, you'd think that would only be like making the barrel a little shorter; no big effect on accuracy. Maybe the missing rifling is unrelated ... but that rifle doesn't group ... it patterns.
j -_;

 

[HuntingGold]

I believe earlier I posted about a Kimber rifle I hate... But I now have a new one. I absolutely love my Remington 700s. I bought a discounted 700 SPS a year ago and it has been atrocious. Extreme feeding problems.
The good news is that it appears to a decent shooter.... Albeit you must feed one in at a time. Grrr. I believe this will be remedied soon but in the meantime; stay clear of the SPS model manufactured just before the bankruptcy.