Guns you love with quirks you hate

H

Havoc1967

New member
Just curious about guns out there that are generally good guns but with an annoying quirk that makes you not trust them for carry.

I have 2 that fit that category. I primarily pocket carry, and it is a j frame 99% of the time. However I sometimes do carry an auto loader so have a nice collection of various pocket pistols. Two of best in my opinion have “quirks” (or design flaws) that annoy me.
One is the Beretta Pico which I have wanted for a very long time. Despite its odd appearance it shoots great and has proved to be very, very reliable. However, the Pico has a documented problem with firing pins. Depending on the model (as they upgraded it at one point) the firing pins are prone to break with dry fire use. Now I don’t dry fire. But it does make me nervous to have such a fragile firing pin that dry fire will kill it. That just makes no sense to me. In my opinion modern firearms should be able to be dry fired with risking hard to the weapon. So unfortunately that is always in the back of my mind and makes it hard for me to trust a weapon that seems so awesome in every other way.
The other is the Remington rm380. Been looking for one for a long time as I am a huge fan of pocket pistols with hammers and a heavier trigger. Shooting it is great and thus far it has been very reliable. However that locking pin falls out very easily when tilted to the side and has locked up the gun on more than one occasion when I was quickly racking the slide. According to the manual they added a note about applying grease to the pin when reassembling which supposedly will prevent that from happening. So I did that, and it does seem to move a little bit less. I’m no firearms engineer but it seems to me that this particular issue should have been addressed and remedied.

Both of these pistols are fantastic otherwise, but these particular flaws prevent me from trusting them completely. I won’t get rid of these pistols but I don’t think I would ever carry either due to my concerns.

Am I Just being OCD? Certainly wouldn’t be the first time.
 
I have both of those and yeah, you're being OCD.

One pistol with a somewhat strange quirk is my Mauser 1914 made in 1928. The safety is two separate and distinct motions. To 'Safe' the pistol you swipe a lever located on the left side behind the trigger down; but then it locks in the down position. To switch to 'Fire' mode you press a button right behind the lever. It works, is simple, just weird.

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Life with a Glock is boring and plastic. I will take my Beretta, CZ, or my wheel guns and be very happy.
 
Any fixed sight pistol or revolver with a too short front sight, causing POI to be higher than POA. If they can’t make them right then make them tall, it’s an easier fix.
 
1911

I love 1911's and most all the variants, excluding the 2011 family and perhaps the .380's. I even carry them, and managed to take a whitetail with one in 10mm.......with iron sights, last fall.

But they are quirky. Even some Colts....at least in my experience. My first one was a junk GI Colt reweld and I was to young and ignorant to catch it. The next was a genuine Commander. I spent a fortune on factory ammo and magazines and a trip to a local 'smith with a reputation as a good 1911 man......the Commander never did run reliably. My import guns, a Tisas and a Rock Island, run pretty good....after tweaking the slide release lever and plunger/plunger tube springs, replacing GI sights, experimenting with magazines and ammo types, and replacing a firing pin retaining plate and a recoil spring guide that broke.

Every 1911 guy I know has a box or two of spare parts, boxes of magazines that run, are suspect, or don't run. Most have one or two bullet types they shoot exclusively, the other patterns cause feeding problems. You get the idea.

But I still love'em.
 
Havoc, I don’t think you have OCD.

Defense/carry guns shouldn’t have quirks. You shouldn’t have to worry about them. At all. Keep the quirky ones if you like, but get something else to carry.

Glock 42 or 43, SIG P365. Use a pocket holster that covers and truly protects the trigger guard (there are many out there) and you are good to go.
 
Beretta 92/96 with the slide safety/decock. Fine pistols, not a huge fan of wings on the slide.

Yeah that's really the only one I can think of. There are plenty of quirky pistols, but I don't usually have an affinity for them. The Beretta is the exception.

As to 1911s... I don't find them "quirky" per se, and I reject the notion that most 1911 guys have random boxes of parts and magazines and can only use 1 or 2 types of ammo. I've had Springfields, RIAs, and a Colt (70 series) that all ran quite well. I have run into a mag or two that has given me problems, but I have had a factory Glock mag that has as well. The early Beretta 92 mags were problematic at times. All of my 1911s generally feed all ball well, and most hollow points if you stay away from the old Speer flying ashtrays. No friend, I've had a few 1911s and they aren't as quirky as they're made out to be. Fail to maintain them, run trash ammo, use known bag magazines, or expect them to run perfectly in a sandstorm... many 1911 examples won't run quite as well in those scenarios as a Glock, sure. Some of the looser ones will. And, ccw or range duty doesn't impart the same stressors on a handgun as duty carry in wartime.
 
HiPower, with that idiotic mag disconnect. It simultaneously wrecks the trigger pull and keeps the mag from dropping free.
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You can thank some Frenchmen (now long dead) for that. Browning didn't put that in his prototypes. But, Browning died, and the pistol design was finished by the FN design team, and while that was going on, the French requested a magazine disconnect as a requirement for their purchase, FN put one in, and then, the French didn't buy any.

If you want a really good Hi Power without the flaws, get a Springfield SA-35, all the good stuff, none of the bad.
 
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