What is the worst shooting rifle you ever owned....

The henry mini-bolt I bought for my daughter. It would do about 16" at 25yds with american eagle. I could get it down to about 6-8" with federal gold medals. Henry arms shipped me a new barrel and now it shoots great.

The one that ticked me most though was a remmy 750 carbine in .308. It was an $800 semi-auto single shot. He took it back to the dealer and got a refund. They ended up sending it to a gunsmith and when they got it back they wanted to "resell" it to him. He said he would buy it if it worked, and since he didn't have time due to work he asked me to go with the guy and check it out. We get to the range and sure enough, it was still a single shot. The dealer politely suggested a browning.
 
Barracuda said:
Marlin 1895 45-70 . It would not cycle rounds at all even factory ones, which effectivly made it a single shat . it was work even to get it to chamber singles and it shot patterns not groups. Completly unreliable!!!
When i sold this rifle(almost give away price) I was very very clear that the rifle was a problem rifle that was a Gunsmith special.
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Mine was the same way when I bought it. I spent a half hour or so with a half round file; adjusted the timing when the next round came out of the magazine. Works flawlessly now.
 
As might be expected, so far this thread has pointed out that most makes have lemons.

The absolute worst rifle I ever owned was a 7400 Remington Jam-o-matic in 30-06.
When you did get it to fire, it grouped well. Just that repeat firings happened so seldom I damned near pitched it in a beaver pond. It's out there somewhere, beware!
 
1938 Carcano 6.35mm $85 at a garage sale

You have to be a powerlifter to chamber a round. When you pull the trigger it fires. Apparently. The bullet is gone but there is no hole in a paper target at 50 yards. No matter where I point it. Anywhere on the paper.

Close second Winchester 1917 that was used for blank firing by the American Legion post and never cleaned for about sixty years. Gave it a thorough cleaning, took it to the range, and sparks shot out at my face when I pulled the trigger. Tagged that one "Dangerous, do not fire".
 
powmia56 said:
1938 Carcano 6.35mm $85 at a garage sale

You have to be a powerlifter to chamber a round. When you pull the trigger it fires. Apparently. The bullet is gone but there is no hole in a paper target at 50 yards. No matter where I point it. Anywhere on the paper.
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Makes the grassy knoll theory more plausible doesn't it? :D
 
bdft said:
You mean like this?

Martinigroup1.jpg


Wore out Martini-Enfield. :)
That's a 5 shot group at 50 yards BTW.
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I can see by the lower left flyer that your forward hand relaxed too much on that shot, otherwise it would be with the rest of the group - sideways and higher up!:D:D:D

Cat
 
Worst gun I've ever owned was a Winchester 1300 pump shotgun. The vent rib came loose, the action was screwed, the rails would pop out of the grooves everytime it fired.

Absolut POS, spent more time with the smith than it did with me.
 
Mine was a Savage 99C in .308. I couldn't hit the broad side of a barn. But back then I was just shooting factory ammo out of it. Maybe had I given a chance with reloads, it would have behaved differently.
 
It is un-fair to judge and categorize a brand after some worn out,
never cleaned, bubba'd POS:redface:


I owned many lemons in my life.
But my worse experience in out-of-the-box rifles
comes from a particular 10/22.
It was shooting groups larger than a 11" x 16" paper at 25yds.
After replacing the bolt, the trigger group and whatnot with proven ones, it was shooting about the same.
I started to cut the barrel on a late progressively 1" at a time
and the eccentricity of the bore was 1/4" or so in the worse spot
(about 6" in front of the chamber).
The outside of the barrel was reasonably concentric though.

My second worse experience in brand new rifles comes from a
Rem 700 Police in 223 with 10 rnds mag.
I never knew what was wrong, because I sold it immediately.
 
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SVT-40 reworked by Globeco in Montreal into a .303 British.
First shot always 6" high, 4" right. next one within 1" of bul...unless it slam fired, then the remaining shots in the magazine sorta marched up the bank, each about 2" higher than the one in front of it.

I could have converted the firing pin to a 2 piece and put in a spring, etc, but it was simpler to just "lose the firing pin, pein the front of the breech block closed and donate to a buddy for use when he teaches the Firearms Safety Course!
 
Worst Shootin' Rifle?

Overall, I've had good luck with rifles. I did have a Swede Mauser that I 'sporterized' before I know better than to bubba a "full wood" that would only do about 1 1/2" - 2" at 100 yards.

But I did have a nice looking Browning BLR in .308 Win with the flush mag that I had real trouble sighting in once. I put a Leupold M8 4x scope on it in Weaver mounts. Did not bore sight it. Finally had to move the target back to 25 yards just to get on paper. Used up almost 2 boxes of reloads before I got it printing at 100 yards. Probably not the rifle, just the user...lol...

Like I said, I've been lucky with rifles.... ;) :D
 
The worst one that I tried to get to shoot good was a Rem. model 7 in .308. It was one of the earlier ones with 18.5 inch barrel. It shot terrible for a recent production rifle. I've probably got some that shoot worse groups, but they're from around the turn of the century, old Winny levers, and I don't expect them to shoot moa, or close.
 
Another vote for Mini-14 Ranch Rifle. I had no confidence in it using factory ammo (4-6" groups @ 100 yards). It shot a little better with handloads but wasn't worth the effort. Reliable as all hell...just not accurate.
 
gandalfe said:
My worst gun was a AR7 survival gun.I do a lot of bushwacking and hiking so I figured it would give me some, piece of mind, to have a gun that could, get me some, camp stew, if I was lost or injured.It shot about, 6 inch groups, at 25 yards, and jammed, almost, every second shot.I was very, happy to sell, that piece of garbage.I now take a slingshot that has, served me well, ever since.
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Are, you, William Shatner?? :)
 
martinbns said:
Worst gun I've ever owned was a Winchester 1300 pump shotgun. The vent rib came loose, the action was screwed, the rails would pop out of the grooves everytime it fired.

Absolut POS, spent more time with the smith than it did with me.
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I can attest to the uselessnes of that particlur jack handle, undoubtably THE worst pump shotgun I have ever laid eyes on!
What was it , four different and very competent gunsmiths
went at that thing?:eek:
Totally possesed , it was......
Cat
 
The worst gun I ever owned was a .50 CVA wolf magnum muzzleloader. A real piece of sh**. The gun was shooting 6-8 " groups at 100 yards. Cheap bluing. The first time I cleaned the gun (it was NIB) I sprayed gun degreaser on the receiver. All the bluing on the receiver went off!!!! It looked weird with a black barrel and a grey receiver. After a couple of shooting sessions , rust started to appear in the barrel and in the trigger group. It was not only a piece of sh**, it was a rusty piece of sh**

I sold it for 165$ , with a cheap hawke scope. A guy came with his wife to buy the gun. The guy didn't stop telling her how much this gun looked good and how much better than her muzzleloader it was! :D:runaway::runaway:
 
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