Worst rifle or shotgun youve ever owned......

Mossberg 702 Plinkster.

Everything I've ever heard about them, was a positive thing. I must've gotten a dud. Because I would stove-pipe that piece about 3 times per magazine. I bought it off of a friend who said it jammed alot. I figured, I'd just clean it up and have a neat little shooter. Paid 75 bucks for it with a brick of shells, and shot the brick of shells and got sick of it and sold it for 50 bucks. I had cussed, kicked, and shouted at it enough.
 
H&R 30-06. Insane amount of kick for a cartridge that really isn't that hot compared to many catridges. Ejector spring was too weak, about every 3rd round I'd have to tap out with a cleaning rod.
 
Marlin 336. 3030. Beautiful rifle. Lovely walnut, lovely blue job. Was iffy this side of 20 yards but usable for home defense against fat blokes. It had no respect for space-time continuum and after 20 yards bullets landed in a different dimension.

Scratched every piece of brass I put in the same room as it.

-SS-
 
The worst rifle I've ever owned is a Brno ZOM451 straight pull bolt action 22. It looked nice, but Brno was going out of business when they made these and it was tossed out of the factory without bothering to fit the parts properly. It took HOURS of sanding, stoning and polishing to get the bolt to work with just one hand, then it wouldn't feed and wasn't particularly accurate. Thankfully, it wasn't expensive.

The worst gun I've ever been associated with was a friend's Charter AR-7. What a cast pot metal POS. Never could get it to work right. If you are thinking of using one as a "survival gun", stick the muzzle in your mouth and hope it goes off, because you are DOOMED. And because it floats you can't even use it as an anchor.
 
Worst rifle

Rossi 1992 lever action 44 mag. I reload my own ammo and no matter what I fed it, groups were some of the worst I have ever seen. Action was rough, finish was rough. It shot 10" high at 50 yds and ended up changing both front and rear sight. Rossi even admitted they put the wrong sight on the front and sent me a new one. Still did not shoot well.
 
The worst shotgun I ever owned was a brand new Winchester model 1400 20 ga...Straight from the box the shotgun would eject live shells from the magazine tube when cycling,when you're shooting from a boat and watching your live rounds being ejected in the water???? That's a real POS! :mad: exchanged it for a Rem 1100 problem solved

Worst rifle a Westpoint 785T made by Savage purchased new in the mid seventies,the rifle was nothing but a jam-o-matic with groups looking like a shotgun patterns :confused:....Still have that POS!!! LOL :D
 
Worst Rifle

I've had pretty good luck with the rifles I've owned. The worst was a 1948 Romanian SKS. It shot about 5" groups at 50 yards. Went bang everytime, only stove-piped 2x, but it just wasn't accurate enough to keep my interest. Sold it right around the time prices started to jump from the Obama scare for $50 more than I bought it for. He offered the price, and I told him everything I knew about it, good and bad.
 
I traded a case pocket knife for a marlin model 60 once. It shot a halfway decent group at 10 yards, unfortunatly, that group was 2 feet left of point of aim. I kinda miss that case xx.
 
Easily the worst was a Marlin lever rifle in .44 mag. Action wouldn't function. Went back to factory twice for repairs that were not done right. Would not even keep shots on a 30"X30" paper target at 25 yards from the bench.
 
Win, Mdl. 70 30-06 4" group with the best handloads.It now sports a Benchmark 27" 338-06 AI barrel which shoots lights out..5 M.O.A will never own another 30-06 after discovering a .338-06,what the 06 should have been from the beginning.
 
I can happily say that of the three rifles I own, all are great, and one I had never laid eyes on until it showed up at my door via FEDEX. Even with my rifle made in '43, a 'bad range day' means I ran out of ammo

I would rather be lucky than smart, any day of the week
 
Worst rifle I ever owned was a Henry lever action .22. I was just appalled at the overall quality of the gun- or lack of it. The reveiver was badly painted pot metal. The barrel was just awful, full of burrs. It shot 3ft above the target at 50yds, with the sight set to the lowest setting. Sent it back to Henry and they replaced the barrel. Never even shot it when I got it back. Sold it immediately.

I've had good luck with shotguns, but I've only owned a few. Sold all but the High Standard.
 
My worst rifle was a H&R 1871 Buffalo Classic. I got it for a cheap price due to the forestock and butstock not being matched correctly as far as grain and color or at least that is what the counter salesman told me. I turned out that the front site dovetail was off center and as hard as I tried it would not site in. after the third range attempt the rear williams site fell off and the adjustment screw stripped out. I took the thing to my gunsmith who gave me the bad news and offered to send it back to the factory to be repaired. Long story short, I told him to cut the barrel down from 32" to 25" removing the front site issue, trade out the POS rear site with a Leupold 1.5-4x scope which turned it into a very usable rifle
 
As for Shotguns the worst I've ever owned was by far a Remington 870 Express Super Magnum. The gun just had one problem after another. Right out of the box it wouldn't cycle 2 3/4" shells. The pump would stick every few shots and you'd have a heck of a time getting it open. Then with 3" and 3.5" shells it also jammed way more often than it should, only it didn't have the pump stick, it just had random type jams. Sometimes it would stovepipe, several times it would try to feed 2 shells at once, sometimes it wouldn't pull the fired shell out of the chamber and would try to chamber another one. All in all, it probably jammed at least 1 or 2 times out of every 20 times and that's on the low side with Buckshot, and it jammed about 1 or 2 times out of every 5 with 2 3/4" shells. I missed several deer due to jams with it. That's what finally made me get fed up with it.

I also had a gunsmith polish the chamber, and it did fix the issue with 2 3/4" shells sticking, but it still had the random jams fairly often., Way too often for my liking. Not to mention it was cheap horribly finished wood, and a cheap finish on the rest of the gun. The thing didn't patter near as tight as I'd like. I just really don't have anything positive I can say about the 870 express models. For the $350 it costs, it was horrible, as while $350 isn't a ton, it's not cheap either, and should buy you a gun that works.


As for rifles, I've never really had a bad rifle. Everyone of the ones I've had has been pretty good. I did have a Browning BAR 30-06 that wasn't very accurate and shot 3-6" groups with most all of the ammo I tried. I finally found Federal Fusions and it reduced my group size to 2" or so at 100 yards. It's the only ammo I found that would shoot under a 3" group in this thing including the handloads I tried, but it seems to do well with that ammo so I just stuck with it. This wasn't my favorite rifle because of the lack of accuracy, but it still was a good rifle, as it was very reliable and plenty accurate for a deer rifle which is what it was intended to be.
 
Worst Rifle: Was probably a Stevens .22 it shot ok, but was a JAMO-MATIC.

Worst Shotgun: Was a Franchi I-12 it shot great when it didn't jam, it just wouldnt cycle the next round half the time. What really made it bad was I love the way the gun felt and it just shouldered great, but it just wouldn't cycle.
 
I had 3 different mini 14s. All of them jammed regularly with high capacity magazines and were inaccurate. I keep reading that the newer ones are more accurate and it makes me want to try again.
 
^Both of those Mini problems are normal.^ Most won't function properly except with Ruger mags. And the barrel is pencil thin and really tracks after just a few shots. I don't know about the new ones, haven't messed with one.
 
Without a doubt, a Remington 1100 Special Field. Nice, light shotgun with the straight English stock. I drooled over that thing, wanted it as bad as a sophomore wants a cheerleader. Finally saved the money and bought it. Couldn't hit chit with it. I've been shotgunning all my life and simply could not connect with a flying target, either clay or feathers. I shot that gun for two seasons, cursing like a shipwrecked sailor the whole time. I finally took it to a pawn shop and swapped it even for a beater Rem 870. That 870 has been with me for almost 20 years and we're old friends.
 
Mine was a universal brand 30 carbine it jammed every 3 rounds or so, sometimes i would make it through a whole string without problems then it would start again.
Click to expand...

Should have polished the feed ramp.
 
I haven't had a bad rifle. Some better than others, but none were bad. The only bad shotgun I had was a Remington 1100 and it wasn't bad for a long time. I was hosting a lot of bird hunts back in the early 80's, and I shot that gun countless times. I guess I just wore it out. First the pivot that prevents double feeding wore (soft metal, per the gunsmith) and then the guide rails in the receiver fell out. I was able to replace the guide rails by using a hammer and screwdriver and peening the metal to hold them back in the sides of the receiver, but that only lasted for a while. Then one day while quail hunting, I was going for a double (the gun was a great shooter) and hit the first one and the gun spit parts into the Texas dust. That was it. Double feeding was, by then, almost acceptable, but spitting parts was just too much. I gathered up the parts and went back to the ranch house. Next week I got a recoil operated Browning A5 with Briley chokes. And the big happy surprise is that recoil operated shotguns hardly need any cleaning at all. No more gas shotguns for me.
 
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