The worse rifle you ever owned

I had 2.

An Erma EM1 (M1 Carbine copy in 22lr). It was a pig. Would not reliably cycle or feed two rounds in a row, the quality of the construction was, at best, crap, and it was as accurate as a politicians promise.

The second one was actually a pistol. A Star FR Sport .22 lr semi auto. It was accurate, but someone had messed with the trigger and disconnector, so it had a mind of its own when it was loaded. It would go off if you sneezed near it, when you closed the action on a newly inserted mag, or just for the hell of it. More often than not it would empty a whole mag when you pulled the trigger. Fun, but dangerous and highly illegal back in the UK.

Dave
 
Worse gun was a Savage Stevens 311 SxS 12g shotgun that had plain wood and pretty case hardened receiver and locked up within less than a box of shells. Took it back to the Canadian Tire Store where I bought it and had a hell of argument before they accepted it as a return and gave me back my money ... frankly that was pretty good service for them and I should have been more grateful at the time in retrospect.

BUT the good news was I was so pissed I immediately took my friends advice - bit the bullet and spent more than I could afford on a brand new Remington 1100 28inch VR Mod choke. It was (and is) the sweetest and most dependable shooting semi auto I have EVER used. Still have it .. and the original box it came in. Remington certainly made great guns then for sure...
 
lakefield Mossberg MK1 single shot .22, it's been in the family since it was bought new for $5.00 back in 1975 from CT. It had a 20 lb trigger, the bolt was not heat treated, the cocking piece was not heat treated, the stock was built for a midget and furthermore the birch / beech was bastard grained, the trigger guard cracked (plastic), the only thing i liked about it was that it was accurate enough to kill pidgeons with. I since did an impromptu trigger job, this worked after a fashion and the trigger is down to about 6 lbs or so, but the safety notch does not work anymore lolz. I won't be selling that one anytime soon. :D
 
Fingersmuldoon said:
I had 2.

An Erma EM1 (M1 Carbine copy in 22lr). It was a pig. Would not reliably cycle or feed two rounds in a row, the quality of the construction was, at best, crap, and it was as accurate as a politicians promise.

The second one was actually a pistol. A Star FR Sport .22 lr semi auto. It was accurate, but someone had messed with the trigger and disconnector, so it had a mind of its own when it was loaded. It would go off if you sneezed near it, when you closed the action on a newly inserted mag, or just for the hell of it. More often than not it would empty a whole mag when you pulled the trigger. Fun, but dangerous and highly illegal back in the UK.

Dave
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I had a friend who owned a cheap semi auto .22 with 'disconnector problems' lolz. :D
 
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I've just gone through this thread and the "winners" with the most votes are:
Ruger Mini 14
Remington 742
Norinco SKS
Seems to be a trend here.
The name Remington appears the most, followed by Ruger.
I have more Remingtons than anything else and love the 10/22 I've owned for 25 years so I'm not trying to bash these brands.
 
Never really had a horrible gun, but my norc sks used to shoot back hot powder in my face from the rear of the reciever. Sold it as this was discomforting and made me flinch a bit causing poor groupings. Maybe this was just a problem with my specific one.
The 10/22 is fine out of the box for what it is(not match grade), but those butler creek mags are pure shiat, mine only feed properly with blazers or stingers.
MY 597 just fvcking jams every second shot with either factory 10rnd mag or 30rnd. I dont know why as it is always clean? I have tried every type of
.22 ammo on the planet. Nothing helps. I checked the hold down screws and they seem tight as well...I give up with this monsterous pos. If any wants to buy her, shes up for grabs.lol
 
Ah yes....the old lakefield semi .22....had good luck with mine, when it would jam I would just open the action and spray WD40 in it...it would then work for a bit..repeat etc

The other was an old Sears .12ga which the action bar snaped in mid pump...little welding and it was fixed.

I love my 700 sendero special .270. Shoots easily, cosistantly under 1 inch at 100 , have shot just a c@#t hair over three inches at 400m with it also, (from a bench w/bipod) with factory ammo, no mods, good hunter....so to the guy who said all 700s are crap...try mine out.

I was surprised to see lots of unhappy 10/22 owners and LeeEnfield owners...I have and still own several and never had issues with any....luck I guess.
 
I find it odd that a model 700 and a ruger 10/22, the most used platforms for customizing, were being bashed in this thread. These almost sounded more like scope issues to me??? 3ft groups? Honestly!? I can throw better than that and I can't throw.
 
Amen on the scope theory.I thought my Ruger m77 7mmrm went south on me couldn't hit the broadside of a barn from the inside.Put a new scope on.. calmed down..shoting nickels at a 100yds..
Leroy
 
Well I have only owned 7 or 8 and been pretty lucky but just to contribute I'll throw in my current Savage Edge .223. Accuracy is acceptable, but the trigger pull was heavy enough that I would catch myself wondering if I left the safety on (I cut the trigger sping which has made it bearable). And I'm having feeding troubles where the tip of the bullet is jamming and deforming usually only if I push the bolt too slowly and the cartridge jumps from the mag without pressure behind it.
 
Well I guess I'll add in now.

A Marlin 980S.

Biggest piece of #### my dad has ever owned. The trigger is as bad as his SKS, the extractor broke once, and the magazine release fell apart. Once there was a problem that ever time you cocked the gun it would fire! Later we found out that the safety and trigger system was coming apart, so we managed to fix that. All this happened under one year and to this date that pos is still in for repairs (for the magazine problem stated early).

With that being said the gun is deadly accurate and I really like magazines that the gun uses. However those positives sure as hell don't outway the negatives.
 
plinker 777 said:
To the Lee Enfield nay-sayers....The OP asked for first hand accounts of WHY this is the worst rifle you've ever owned......Could you educate us as to why this rifle was your pick? I've always thought the back bone of the British army for some 100yrs would be a very reliable platform?!
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Reliable so/so but a 2nd or 3rd place to a Mauser design any day.
 
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My 10/22 jammed all the time when I first got. I really hated the gun but after I did a trigger job on it and noticed that the bolt was binding on the hammer it only jams about half as much, and I can shoot the nuts off a squirrel at 50yrd all day long. Oh and the cz858 gremlins I have replaced parts and it keeps coming back which is horrible because I love the gun so much it makes all of my sks wielding friends very jealous well when it works that is.
 
Glenfield model 60, constantly broke hammers, and a 22lr Calico, jammed every 6-7 rounds with all ammo. Only good thing about the Calico is that it was genuinely cool!
 
Worst ever is a cooey semi auto 22. Jammed more than it shot. BBQ paint instead of bluing. Followed close by a Rem700 and classic Win70.
 
Lee Enfield 303, I had a couple, out to lunch headspacing makes most of them a reloading nightmare and now with no source of surplus ammo available there is no good reason to own one.
 
Silverback said:
Lee Enfield 303, I had a couple, out to lunch headspacing makes most of them a reloading nightmare and now with no source of surplus ammo available there is no good reason to own one.
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I wonder if it's a good idea to get a smith to set back my # 1 MK III barrel and rechamber. Then I would have to mess around with the bedding to allow for the rear sight, expenses, etc. :rolleyes:
 
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