MBA Gyrojet Pistol and Rifle (courtesy americanrifleman.org)

americanrifleman.org is an NRA publication. So they can’t go naming the Remington R51, Taurus carbine or Chiappa Rhino as Firearm Ideas That Failed. Instead they point the fickle finger of fate at the Model 1917 Browning Automatic Rifle (“one can only speculate on why its inventor chose to give his rifle the capability of both semi-automatic and manual operation”), the MBA Gyrojet Pistol and Rifle (“rather than firing ammunition of conventional design, it used a rocket”) and the Daisy/Heddon V/L Rifle (“piston-driven air rifle designed to handle caseless ammunition”). Setting aside these evolutionary dead ends, what gun or guns failed you? What guns or guns didn’t work, broke or simply proved to be not your cup of tea – in a big way?

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233 COMMENTS

  1. I watched a friend’s brand new Remington 870 break its extractor on the 3rd or 4th shell ever.

    I’ve been lucky to not get lemons. I’ve parted ways with a Ruger LCP though just because I really preferred the LCR in its carry role.

  2. Wasn’t so much in a big way, just at a bad time:

    Taurus PT1911AR, broken extractor tooth on round 38 of 50 at my Handgun Carry Permit qualification.

    The range officer, a GLOCK brand GLOCK™ fanboy, laughed at me for the remaining eleven rounds as I inserted the magazine, racked a round, ejected the magazine, fired, locked the slide back, held the pistol up, wiggled it, inserted the magazine, dropped the slide, and repeated.

    He laughed until he had to give me a perfect score for not throwing a single round of 50.

    • Just for some perspective, the guy with the Glock brand Glock suffered a fail when I qualified, had to borrow the instructor’s gun to finish the course. A Charles Daly 1911 suffered a similar fate as I recall. So the Glock fanboys needn’t laugh too hard 😉

    • My Taurus 1911 disintegrated its ambidextrous safety after 8 rounds in my first tactical pistol class. I was fortunate that I has a Glock 17 even though I had to pony up got 2 boxes of 9mm…

  3. Para USA Black Ops 14.45: another fine Freedom Group product.After having five Failures toFeed in 50 rounds, the following problems were identified.

    Pistol was riding the link.
    Barrel was not polished and was roughly machined.
    Extractor was not tensioned at all out of the box.
    There were burrs on the breechface.
    Magazine catch was defective.

    I can’t speak to anyone else , but if I have to choose between a baseball bat and a Freedom Group product as the S is hitting the fan, I’m going with the Louisville Slugger.

  4. Wait – what’s wrong with the Chiappa Rhino? I’ve been planning on getting one – is it bad?

      • I think that’s a matter of taste. I find the “cowboy action” revolvers ugly. The design of the Chiappa is form follows function with a bit of Italian design thrown in. I handled a few this weekend at the gun show and liked them a lot…not least because of the bottom barrel design and what this does for low bore axis and recoil control (a common issue on big bore wheel guns).

        If they made one in 44mag to match my newly acquired (at the gun show) Taylors/Chiappa Alaskan Takedown, I’d own one.

        • +1

          A .44 mag Rhino paired with a .44 Mag lever action rifle. One set of reloading dies and a whole world of reloading possibilities.

          I’ve heard some argue for the .45 colt as a superior combo- but I’ve also heard that the brass on a .44 mag lasts longer- even with the hotter loads.

        • Chiappa did build a .44 Magnum…the Mateba, a true automatic revolver. It was the predecessor of the Rhino, and pioneered the concept of firing from the 6 o’clock chamber

        • I didn’t know their mateba was in .44 mag but then I wasn’t impressed with the idea of the mateba. A rehashing of the old Webley Fosbery http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webley-Fosbery_Automatic_Revolver
          from 1900.

          When I looked for the Rhino in .44 mag it wasn’t being made. Really the lower bore axis in a powerful revolver round is what intrigues me. Particularly if I’m looking at making hotter rounds and running a lever gun wheel gun combo.

    • They have a few for rental at my local shop/range. The guys there say they constantly need to be sent out for repairs.

    • Early models had a bad rap (like any new handgun) for reliability and the trigger. I believe Chiappa has addressed them. Now if they would just get the price down….

    • Paboo, I HAD to have a Chiappa White Rhino snubby because it was so fascinating, so hubby gave me one. The trigger pull was so hard that I had a problem pulling the trigger after the fourth shot and I can’t cock the false hammer at all and my hubby barely can cock it. We sent it back to Chiappa and they sent it back untouched because they said it was as it should be.

      If I would have known that the trigger would be so hard for me and that I couldn’t cock the false hammer at all, I’d have forgone getting one. I tried one with a long barrel at the gun store and I don’t recall it being hard to pull the trigger, or not being able to cock the false hammer like that.

      Other than that, the way it’s designed, with the barrel below, firing from the bottom of the cylinder, it really does tame the recoil because the weight of the top bar and the fact that the recoil drives the revolver back into your hand rather than flipping the barrel up at the muzzle really makes a difference, especially in a snubby.

      I simply don’t have a lot of strength in my old, small hands. 🙁 I’d say it’s a man’s gun, or maybe a strong young woman’s gun, but it surely is butt ugly.

      I will continue trying to fire that puppy until enough bullets have been shot to see if the action gets any better/polished. Dry-firing it at home might help and it should help me to build up some strength and muscle in my hands and forearms, maybe, so if nothing else, it may end up being a very expensive exercise machine.

    • I think the other responders didn’t get your joke. Or was it?

      As reported by posters I’ve read on the TTAG and elsewhere on-line the Chiappa Rhino has had all sorts of problems since its introduction that apparently still aren’t fixed. I’ve seen serious problems first hand in three Rhinos brought to our local range. And Chiappa customer service is universally reported to be bad and very slow. Just Google “Chiappa Rhino” + “problem(s)” or “failure.”

      You can’t believe the “boosterism” from gun magazines on the Rhino (or on any gun). They do this with lots of guns for various reasons, even those that have obvious problems and are awful. They need the advertising revenue after all. Only believe the on-line reviews not associated with gun magazines, where they have purchased the gun in the normal stream, not received one from the company. Even some of those “review guns” sent out by Chiappa have had serious problems.

      The lower-barrel concept has a lot of merit, but the Rhino mechanism is complicted, and their engineering and tolerancing is awful, causing way too much part vairation. Only about 50% of the Rhinos actually work for a while, because of this. And then there’s the problem of the cylinder gap flame coming out of the bottom of the cylinder, rather than on the top like in conventional revolvers. Than can injure your supporting hand in a stressful situation if the thumb isn’t tucked in. Not a trivial safety problem.

      It will take another company like Ruger or S&W to work this concept out in several years. The Rhino might be O.K. if Chiappa had its engineering, manufacturing, and customer service in order. But they don’t. I have yet to see a Rhino at the range, a gun store, or a gun show that didn’t have at least one qwirky, intolerable problem. Some people say that theirs work, but if there is that much variation, I wouldn’t take a chance on getting a bad one and not being able to get Chiappa to fix it – as many people have reported.

  5. Sig Sauer Mosquito. Every magazine was guaranteed to have multiple failure to ejects and/or failure to feeds. I tried every type of ammo I could, and even the recommended CCI generated the same results. I was told that the spring needed to be broken in, so I painfully put several hundred rounds through it with failure after failure. I finally sold it at a loss, and felt bad for the buyer, even though they insisted they wanted it after I’d described my issues.

    • It’s designed to work with CCI Mini Mags. Friend says his had a crappy barrel with almost no rifling halfway down the barrel….

    • Yup.
      Sig Mosquito.
      Owned 2. Friends have half a dozen more.
      Not one will cycle a full mag.
      I have a friends who has given me carte blanch to do whatever I can to make it work.
      Going to start working on it this weekend.

    • My Mosquito ran fairly consistently on CCI Mini Mags. Other brands, not so much. Sold it and bought a Ruger Mark III 22/45, which will pretty much eat anything.

      • I almost bought a Mosquito, but I’m very glad I went with a 22/45 instead. It and my Ruger SR22 are voracious ammo hogs – they’ll eat anything you put in front of ’em. Life is too short for finicky guns.

        • My .22/45 will not function with Winchester Xpert ammo. The slide only comes back far enough to partially cock the hammer. It does not go back far enough to pickup a round from the magazine. The empty case is not ejected and goes right back in the chamber. This happens on about 7 rounds out of 10 in the magazine.

    • I have no cycling issues with my Mosquito when using MiniMags. But it is still my least favorite pistol. The grip is waaay too thick, particularly for small hands, so it is out as a trainer, separate and apart from its confusing array of every safety device known to man–mad disconnect, manual safety, DA/SA trigger (that I can’t pull in DA mode–must be one of those NY triggers) and a decocker. And it is major league inaccurate. I will sell it when I can afford its replacement with a target .22 pistol–which I haven’t selected yet.

    • Love/hate Mosquito. CCI runs pretty reliable. Federal’s, about 90%. Suppresses well.

      Had to send it in twice. My firing pin block was causing light primer strikes. Last time my firing pin broke in half. Front sight fell off. Each time cost me $75 in postage.

      I demanded they fix my firing pin and give me an extra firing pin and extractor so I can maintain it myself.

      Currently there’s a crack in the front of the slide.

      In Sig’s defense, I have put about 15k rounds through before last December.

  6. Remington model 522 viper. My dad bought it for me when I was about 11 and all that thing wanted to do was stove pipe. Didn’t matter what ammo I threw at it from golden bullets to stingers.

    • my buddy’s xdm45 is a champ… i own an xd9. also pretty flawless. the only issues ive ever had was with under powered reloads. 2 failures out of 1000+ is not a bad score, considering i knew the reloads were iffy.

      • What did you have go wrong with an XDm?
        (Legitimate question)

        I’ve got a 9mm XDm compact with just over 600 rounds through it with no malfunctions…
        save one from the brother’s wife getting a single failure to feed from limp wristing it (a tap on the back of the slide, and it’s back in the game)

        And he’s got the same gun in .40 with about 1,000 rounds and not a single problem at all.

  8. Rem 1187. Hated it. One of those experiences where I sold it, did not get too much for it, but good riddance.

  10. They did highlight the Electronix Remington 700 as a failure. 3 years on the shelves, expensive to shoot, and no more accurate even though the lock time was significantly faster.

    I did not hear the Rhino go to the trash heap. OTher than its butt ugly looks and more complicated lock, I don’t believe it has been a failure.

    The R51 has yet to be judged completely by history.

    My nomination for failing firearm is a S&W 22A. HP 22LR would catch in the mags, anything other than High Velocity LR would fail to eject properly. Had to have a several hundred rounds of HV ammo through it before she became functional enough to hunt and shoot with.

    • Don’t have that issue with my 22A. It eats everything Std velocity and up. The grip, however, requires gorilla hands.

    • interesting because TTAG’s review of the 9mm indicated the polar opposite. Wonder what’s going on there….I know the 45 is unique and doesn’t accept parts from the smaller calibers.

      • Whether or not you get good accuracy out of a Sig P250 is a function of how well you can shoot pistol that has DAO trigger. The P250 is inherently very accurate; but most people (myself Included) don’t shoot DAO guns very well. I have watched TTAG writer Chris Dumm shoot “one ragged hole” groups at 10 yards with his Sig P250, whereas I was shooting 5-6 inch groups with the same pistol at the same distance.

    • Want to shiver now? I once saw a California reserve sheriff carrying a 9mm Jennings on his hip as his side arm.

  14. My comment is one of Gun Salvation (TM) – a Beretta Neos U22 pistol.

    When I bought it (due its inexpensive pricetag, I think I paid 240), I knew right off the bat from the review that it was a diamond in the rough if you were willing to work with it. My first range trip confirmed it – trigger like a wet sponge, front sight that was as wide as the notch on the rear, and more stovepipes than Abe Lincoln.

    Months later, and the following work performed – polished just about every feed surface on the thing. Deburred the chamber, and chamfered the chamber entrance. The chamfering was based on a tip from an old-timer at my range, and it cut the mis-feeds down to nearly zero.

    Oh, that trigger. I found a guide online and now the trigger is crisp, a little bit of creep, but certainly night and day compared to what it used to be.

    The front sight? an old AR sight post happened to fit perfectly. I filed it down to a crisp point and now I love the thing.

    The gun that DIDN’T make it? The Walther P1. What a crapper.

  15. I’ve never purchased a complete lemon of a firearm. I’ve seen several that are crap, certainly, but never bought them. Most of the polymer pistols now on the market will be utterly forgettable and disposable as far as I’m concerned, so lemons among their numerous designs barely attract my attention.

    The most spectacular lemon of a firearm in US history I could name would probably be the Winchester model 1911 semi-auto shotgun, popularly known as the “Widowmaker.”

  16. S&W Walther PPK/S. Would jam at least twice a range trip and tear up my hand with slide bite. Stiffest safety I’ve ever seen on a pistol. Overall buyers remorse to the max.

  17. Taurus, I will never own another one.

    Jams, stove pipes, light primer strikes, only liked +P ammo, and who can afford to shoot that all the time.

    Fantastic guns for running malfunction drills though, that was my attempt at optimism, how’d I do?

    • Tauri seem to be hit and miss. My daughter finally shot the one I bought her a couple of years ago, and had no issues. a friend has had one for a decade and shoots it regularly without issues. Others like you seem to have no end of trouble.

      • From your experience, it sounds like Tauruses just need to age properly, like a fine wine…

      • Well, how much are the Taurus’ you’re referring to actually shot?

        To give you a point of reference, I own densely wooded property where I’ve set up a place to shoot. So, I can go shooting on a whim, without range fees and the other typical range burdens.

        So, it’s not uncommon for me hit the primer on hundreds of rounds in a week, on various guns.

        Not to imply this is the case, but people that are usually taunting some Taurus as working “fine” are referring to the 50 rounds they put through it last month.

        While I’m talking about the gun not making it through the 500 rounds I put through it this week.

  18. RG .45 Colt revolver. My first firearm purchase and a disaster. Taught me a lesson about getting what you pay for. Hammer would not remain locked back when cocked, pot metal internals. Only firearm I ever turned in to the police as I would have felt awful even giving it to someone.

    • RG is an excellent counter-point I bring up whenever someone says “Well, XYZ is made in Germany, so it must be high quality…”

      Yes, even the Germans are capable of producing crap. RG is a prime example.

      • It was very accurate– you couldn’t flinch since half the time it would fire from just thinking about it (slightest pressure at times would dislodge the hammer when it was- ok let’s say cocked for lack of a better term- even a sudden breeze could make the hammer fall).

      • My younger son bought a .22 short RG pocket revolver at a pawnshop for $25. The loading gate won’t stay closed, and you can twist the front sight back and forth on the barrel. But for $25 he couldn’t resist, he still has it as far as I know. Thinks it’s cute, like a pooch that’s so ugly it’s adorable.

  19. I only have holster fails, and I have a lot of them. In the past year, I think I’ve tried and rejected over a dozen holsters, including the Alienware version, which everybody in the world likes except me.

  20. Taurus Pt 24/7 .40 Cal

    First pistol I ever bought and couldn’t get rid of it fast enough. Crappy overall and liked to get so hot on the slide after only a few rounds fired that I used to burn my trigger finger. Even the polymer frame seemed to get hot. The construction was just bad overall.

      • Even if you ignore the horrible trigger and how unpleasant it is to shoot, mine was very finicky with ammo. That was enough for me, even as a BUG. But do a search on P3AT KB and you’ll see a number of them have blown up. The pics aren’t pretty. And I’m not talking only with +P ammo (even though SAAMI does not recognize +P .380 ACP loads). The Kel-Tec manual says it can shoot +P, but people have had them blow up using Wolf. MagSafe says do not use their rounds in P3ATs because a number have blown up. I walked into my LGS one day and a customer had brought back his P3AT. It was laying on the counter in broken, twisted pieces. I don’t know what he was shooting. I’ve read people who say they’ve never had problems, even when using Buffalo Bore, but I’m not going to carry it, especially when there are so many better guns to choose from. I was tempted by the mouse gun when I first saw it. Mistake.

    • +1 I could only ever get mine to run on WWB … until they changed the bullet from round nose to semi-wadcutter. However, I found later that it does feed PPU’s round nose loading. Besides feeding issues it was a pain to shoot. I could give it the excuse that all the tiny guns are like that, except they aren’t

      A TCP took its place as my business-casual carry piece. It’s the same size and weight but it feeds everything, is accurate out to about 25 yards and is pleasant to shoot.

  23. Can someone explain the criticism leveled at the BAR? I know it’s heavy and had a small magazine for a squad weapon, but it is also reliable, accurate, and powerful. I understood it to be a game-changer in the Great Wars. No?

    • It was.

      The critical comments come from people with no sense of history, ie, young twerps. “The BAR was too heavy, the BAR wasn’t belt fed, the BAR wasn’t this, that or some other thing.”

      In defense of the BAR, Browning came up with that design at a time when the US military was just barely getting their craniums out of their rectums on the subject of full-auto weapons. The Germans in WWI embraced the belt-fed machine gun like no other army, and mowed down 10’s of thousand of men in at a time when the Allies would charge their lines in 19th century style. The US went into WWI with a big deficit in machine guns and full-auto weapons, even tho many of the best machine gun designers were American. Always remember that Hiram P. Maxim was an American citizen… who shopped his (in)famous machine gun to the Krauts after receiving little to no interest here in the US.

      Browning was told, by of all people, the French, what the US Army needed, John Moses got cracking and in six short months, the BAR was the result. The BAR appeared too late to be of much use in WWI, but the design was aimed at being the same thing as the short-barreled pump shotgun: A way to wade into a trench system and start cleaning house – fast. If we’d had the Tommy gun in WWI, things would have been very different.

      The BAR was selected for full-auto and single-round fire because the US Army/War Dep’t would never have approved it without the single-round capability. Period. That was the internal politics of the Army at the time. A weapon carried by an individual soldier on the battlefield was NOT supposed to be able to use up so much ammunition. One might as well ask “What the hell was the point of the magazine cut-off on the 1903 Springfield bolt action rifle?” Same deal. The Army bureaucrats said that soldiers should have the magazine cut off and single-load their rounds until or unless things got real hot and heavy, and why then they could turn on the five-round magazine of the 1903.

      This is the sort of thing that makes me laugh at people who worship at the altar of “mil-spec.” The military is perfectly capable of some serious stupidity and enshrining it in a specification.

      • +1 – Awesome explanation.

        I just wanted to add that this is discussed in detail in “American Rifle: A Biography” by Alexander Rose, which is a fantastic read on the subject of military rifles.

      • Thank you, sir. I appreciate that explanation.

        Your point about it not being the latest, greatest in mil-tech cracks me up. There’s a common mindset in our community that if it’s not the latest, greatest, most bad-ass and highest tech piece of kit then it must be total garbage. It’s as if things can’t stand on their own merits and simply be good because they’re good.

        Thanks again.

        • I call this the fallacy of the shiny object. Just because something is new does not make it better.

        • Sometimes, and in some places, yes. That’s because they need their weapons to function as frequently as possible, in situations where you’re neither able to clean the weapon, nor able to afford the time to clean the weapon.

          If you want to see what happens under very tight allowances in things like headspace and bolt fits, take a benchrest rifle, sprinkle a little bit of dust into it, and notice how it is barely able to function, if at all. You can’t afford that in field conditions.

          The M-16 has tight allowances in some areas – eg, the fit of the bolt head into the barrel extension. The specification on the tenon on the barrel where the barrel extension goes on is called out to tenths of a thousandth of an inch.

          Some of the stuff specified in “mil-spec” specifications is, however, absurd and gamed to favor one vendor over another. ie, these specification points have nothing to do with functionality or durability, they’re in the spec because one defense contractor can do that issue and the others cannot without spending a bunch of money to gain the capability. IOW, a barrier to entry. Colt was famous for this on the M-16.

      • DG? I took them at their word, figured the putz writing that had no clue as to the difference between Browning Model 1917 and Model 1918. That is the “caliber” of information that comes out of NRA employees.

    • Guy,

      The two criticisms I think you could fairly make of the BAR by 1941 were the magazine and the barrel. The magazine was on the small side and, mounted underneath, was slower to change; the barrel was fixed and so limited the sustained rate of fire to what wouldn’t burn it out. Compare to the Bren gun, with a top-mounted 30-round magazine and a quick-change barrel, and the BAR comes up a little short. (And the Bren definitely had a three-position S/R/A selector when I carried one in 1989; built 1944, rechambered for 7.62mm, still solid, if it made sense for the Bren why was it a bad idea on the BAR?)

      But then the BAR was a game-changer and a trailblazer, fifteen years ahead of the ZB33 that the Bren was based on, and it’s no surprise that having transformed the machine gun (previous examples of lighter MGs included the Lewis gun, which wasn’t bad, and the US .30-06 version of Chauchat, of which less said the better – now *there* was a weapon deserving an ‘epic fail’) the BAR would be much examined, imitated and where possible improved by competitors. That weapons with some improvements in the detail came along afterwards, doesn’t make the BAR a bad weapon in any way.

      • Thanks for this, as well. I don’t agree with the complaints, but I hear you. I think larger magazines would have led to barrels burning up more often, necessitating a redesign with quick-change barrels. Larger mags or belt-feeding would have also limited the mobility/capacity of the troops carrying them, and would have required a lot more ammo on the line.

        Whenever someone looks at a well-executed design and says something like, ‘It only has a 20 round mag and shouldn’t be used for sustained fire,’ what I hear is, ‘I don’t understand the practical application for this item!’

  24. Out of the all the guns I have ever owned, or shot for that matter (even in the military), I have not had one (or shot one) that was a lemon.

    • +1. I never had a problem with the M16A2. While I am not interested in having my own AR platform right now if I did I would go old school and do an A2 set up.

  26. Taurus PT145 Pro, the barrel would rattle around about 1/16th of an inch while in battery. The gun was not capable of even pie sized groups at 30′ from a rest. Sold it at a loss with full disclosure.

    I do seem to be the only person to own a 100% reliable AMT Backup .45 and Beretta Bobcat .22lr however.

    • Shot a Bobcat once. Liked it–except that it seemed that one round out of every other mag was a flyer–for all four of us who were shooting it. Couldn’t understand it at all.

    • No, Your Majesty, I too have a Beretta .22lr that operates flawlessly. It lives in my right front pocket and fires nice, tight groups out to 20 feet. Even under stress.

  27. dude, you’re so wrong about the chiappa rhino! It’s super accurate, relatively light for it’s size, beautiful and the cylinder has flat sides so it’s easier to carry than a regular revolver. It also comes with a very nice leather holster in the box. How is that a fail?

    I do admit that the trigger mechanism is overly complicated.

  28. Sig P938… Not because of any operational issues, but just because I failed to consider the issues of a very large-handed person handling (and attempting to shoot) a very small gun. Just wasn’t for me, so now an XD(s) 9mm has taken it’s place.

    My P229? Several thousand rounds in the last year, maybe cleaned it 5 times. 0 malfunctions.

    • My P229 9mm was totally unsatisfactory, I bought 2 boxes of ammo with it, and while they loaded fine into the mag, when I slid one through the breech into the barrel, I somehow found it on the bench! Trying again, watching closely this time, I saw it slide right through the barrel! Them is really sloppy tolerances! For those as iggorunt as I was at the time, there was no 9mm P229, it was .40 only. The dealer was not happy when he had to figure out how to cancel all the paperwork and start over as a .40 S&W. I laughed for weeks.

  29. Ruger Mini 14. I was hoping for some accuracy, but then I realized that the A Team weren’t bad shots, it was the Mini 14s they were using. I sold it. Only thing it had was sentimental value. Mine was particularly bad. 8 MOA scoped on a bipod.

    • Sadly not atypical for the Mini-14.

      Done properly, the Mini-14 is an outstanding idea. Sadly, the execution is very lacking in results.

      • The sad thing is that I traded it on a Century WASR 10-63. The 10/63 does 2-3 MOA on average, is just as reliable, and it has cheaper ammo.

    • Mine will run 3″ @ 100 consistently but I have unfortunately found that NOT to be typical. I’d still rather have it trudging through the underbrush and mud than my AR though because I can clean it in 5 minutes and KNOW it will go bang even when it’s FILTHY.

      Time for some design tweaks Ruger!

  30. Special Weapons 760. It was a fortunate event when it would fire more than one cartridge in a row without double-feeding, failing to fire, or failing to eject. Would have been a fun gun if it worked, though.

  31. Thought my Sig 1911 TacOps was a lemon because of the inconsistent feeding and lock back behavior. All of the factory mags (Check-Mate) would occasionally not lock back on the last round. Bought 4 Chip McCormick 8rd mags, last round failure to feed on all of them. If I dropped the mag and pushed it in, the last round would feed. Wilson Combat 10rd mag, failure to lock back, Wilson Combat 8 rd mag, failure to lock back and sometimes failure to feed on last round.

    I was pretty frustrated at this point, it shot so well but was frustrating me every time. I bought a third party slide stop and all of my problems went away. I went through the dozen or so mags I had 3 times to make sure.

  32. The really interesting part of reading this thread are the comments about, “getting rid of the bad gun.”

    Which is to say, selling the POS to some other poor ba$tard. Too funny.

    • What would you do? Burn it? Keep it and never use that money for something better? The poor basterd should do his homework and know what he is getting into.

  33. Should have NDd a 10/22 in my closet playing with the mag in the gun. Luckily the round didn’t strip off the mag and I got lucky. Very lucky. I now don’t do anything with a gun with the action back enough to chamber a round with a mag in the gun. Ever. Keep bullets out of the chamber and generally you don’t fire guns.

  34. My Kahr CM9 was a failure for me. I tried real hard to like it, it was perfect for conceal carry. But it was a pain in the rear to break in, finicky about ammo, rounds would nose dive and jam too often. It was less than two months old when it completely broke on me. I was at the range shooting away and it stopped cycling. Turns out the trigger bar broke. Kahr was great about fixing it, but I had lost faith and sold it as soon as it was returned to me.

    • My Kahr PM9 was my fail. It never worked properly. Many different ejection and firing failures. I loved that it was so small, bit it didn’t work worth a shit. Traded it for a Glock 26 at the time after Kahr failed to fix it. I have heard that their firearms have improved since then…

      • Bought a Kahr E-9 for the girlfriend, she really liked the Kahr series in one of her training classes. Never researched it, this was early Internet days, and figured, “It’s a Kahr”.

        We go out to shoot it and she can’t hit a frame at 15 feet. Round’s kicking dirt. I chalk it up to, “Chick can’t shoot.” and she hands it to me. I couldn’t get rounds higher than the bottom of a B-27.

        Trigger was so stiff, and overtravel so short, that the firer would have to freeze his trigger finger in place after the shot broke or cause the muzzle to dip with the rearward motion of his finger. Didn’t show up on the Ransom Rest testing.

    • I have a CW9 that I bought six months ago. So far 500 rounds with two FTF (nosedives on the rounds). Otherwise flawless. Have shot mostly ball, but some HP without issue. Love it.

  35. Is it just me, or is reading about failed designs far more interesting than reading about successful ones. I love to read about failed products, just to learn what the original design intent was, and how it could be improved/implemented today.
    Reading about testing usually provides a good laugh as well.

    I love my HK VP70z for all of it’s oddness. Unique guns are simply more fun… even if they’re not practical.

  36. Ruger 22/45. Putting a firearm back together should not cause someone that much pain. What’s worse, the difficulty in putting them back together seems to vary by firearm. While a pain, I could put a friend’s 22/45 back together fairly consistently. Mine seemed to require the sun, moon, and stars to align just right before it would go together.

  37. This isn’t a personal fail, but I’ve always been fascinated by the story behind the scuttling of the EM2 rifle during NATO’s formative years. Maybe the technology couldn’t support its design back then, but it’s a fun to think about how different firearms design would be today if NATO adopted a bullpup assault rifle in the 50s.

    • Independent George,

      The EM2 was technically fine, the problem was that it was chambered for a .280″ intermediate cartridge (139 grains at a bit over 2,500 ft/sec) at a point where the US declared that the new NATO was going to standardise on a single rifle cartridge, and that this would be a ‘shortened 30-06’ – what became 7.62mm NATO. The EM2 couldn’t be adapted to the longer, more powerful US cartridge (balance was awful, uncontrollable on full-auto) and the US was immovable on the 7.62mm x 51 being the only acceptable option; so we selected the FN-FAL from Belgium with the full-auto removed; and the EM2 and its cartridge quietly faded away.

      Fast forward another ten years, and the US suddenly decides that 5.56mm is the way to go for a selective-fire infantry rifle (so much for standardisation)… and then spends forty years after that agonising about 5.56mm being too small, 7.62mm too big, and wondering what compromise intermediate cartridge might be better.

      Maybe something around 7mm or .280″ bore, shuffling out of the muzzle at around 2,500fps? 🙂 Any commercial interest going on in the vicinity of that calibre and velocity? Nah, it’ll never catch on…

  38. Make this a poll by brand and type (Pistol or Rifle or Shotgun). For me? Para Ordinance – POS 1911 called the C7.45. Also a Sig 1911 Full Size Scorpion. Both broken out of the box, the Sig I returned and got a compact model which shot flawlessly. The POS, I have left at the gun smith for 5 months and it still isnt back.

    Maybe we need to do a story about gun smiths and why it takes 6+ months to do a little work.

    • I don’t know about all gunsmiths, but the guys I use take so long, because there are 200 people ahead of me, each wanting a “little work” done on their firearm. They tell me about the wait upfront, so it was never a surprise, and I always had the option to take my gun to “Timmy” down the street who owned a Dremel and a vise and declared himself a gunsmith, that is right after he finished cutting all his lawns for people. Just like some people are “carpenters”, because they own a pickup and a circular saw and have watched 12 episodes of “This Old House”.

    • Same. Looking back, maybe I would have made some different decisions, but I have yet to purchase a gun I would consider a fail.

  40. Taurus Judge 3″ Magnum. I bought the hype. I was young and inexperienced. Thought it would be my nightstand gun. Realized it’s not optimized for 45 LC with lousy worn out rifling, and .410 just doesn’t stroke my pole for Home D, nor does having only 5 shots. Also had an issue with a spring popping loose and the transfer bar rattles. Long story short, it’s now my dedicated squirrel gun, paired up with a Savage break action .22/410. Still scares the poop out of the squirrels and is a blast to shoot with birdshot. My new HD gun is a FNX 45 Tactical, btw – which has no limitations for HD and is my go-to piece. Love Love Love it.

  41. Savage Model 64. It was a great little 22 autoloader on the range but once you took it apart you couldn’t get it back together unless you were a gunsmith. i still have it — in pieces.

  42. AMT Hardballer. Jam o’ matic. My local gun shop was really good to me in letting me trade the full price back in towards a Taurus PT1911 the next day. I’ve had the Taurus 6+ years now. The barrel is about shot out but I’ve literally never had a single malfunction.

  43. Taurus Lightning. Less than 20 rds and the carrier snapped and locked the whole gun up. Had to completely disassemble the gun to get the remaining live rounds out of the magazine. Sent it back and Taurus sent me a new gun. Never fired it. Took it out and looked at it, stuck it back in the box and promptly sold it for someone else to “enjoy.”

    WG

  44. I had an original recipe, original release (beta) SIG brand SIG P250.

    Sucketh.

    I don’t have the emotional strength to recount all the ways it disappointed me, F’ed up on me and generally made me madder than hell.

    Deep breaths. Deep breaths.

  46. Mossberg ‘tactical’ 22. An absolute blast to shoot, but the most rage-inducing takedown/cleaning/reassembly circus ever conceived. Every time I pull it out of the safe I find myself wishing I had done some research, instead of being an impulsive bonehead with more money in hand than sense.

  47. I’ve been lucky, but my brother used to own a MAC 10. Talk about trigger slap. After 5 rounds I was done.

  48. S&W Sigma .380
    Biggest POS I’ve ever owned (and probably the single worst thing S&W has ever produced). Bought it on a Wednesday, shot it that Saturday, sold it the following Tuesday. At least I made $25 off of it in the process.

  49. Tek-22, They CAN run with just the right ammo/mag combo and LOTS of fine tuning but most won’t… ever.

    Crossfire MK-II, HORRIBLE in every way other than for sheer “neat” factor.

  50. Forgot to put a mag in my rifle during a competition.

    A bit embarassing I will admit.

    What is a m1917 Browning Automatic Rifle? do you mean the BAR or the 1917 machinegun. How can the BAR be operated manually? I just checked the page, It is a good idea to be able to shut out gas. This can be useful for suppressed use and if the gas system clogs or something. Seems as a really ignorant list.

  51. I’ve got a history of buying a lot of junky guns just because they catch my eye. From a junky old Llama .45 to completely jury rigged all to hell Argentine Hi-Power than ended up blowing up in my hand. Although, to be fare, that turned out to be bad ammo that I had been given. Most of those I never really regretted buying as I tend to enjoy fixing broken things.

    And this is true save for one gun. An M11 carbine made by Leinad firearms. I bought it new from a gun show back in 2000 and in the two years I had it I never got it to operate properly. Stove pipes, FTFs, shattering polymer magazines, and it even started having slam fires. No amount of warranty repair got it to work right. In the end it ended up being stripped for parts and sold off.

  52. Kel-Tec P32 – that thing was horrible out of the box. Extractor was cut so far off of the rim case it never functioned. I had to send it back to get it re-worked. They put a new extractor in it, polished the feed ramp and gave me a new magazine.

    Rossi Ranch Hand .38/.357 – the action timing was waaaay off. It would double feed or never feed. The magazine loading gate was so sharp it would cut your thumb. The magazine spring was so stiff it was difficult to load four .38’s, let alone a tube full of .357. I sent it back and they fixed everything in 2 weeks, but didn’t offer me squat for my trouble. I asked for stickers, a Rossi coat patch, damn near anything just to see what kind of customer service they offer. That’s the last Rossi, Taurus product I purchase.

    • Never owned one, but any Grendel I ever saw was so bloody ugly–The P30 is a .22 WMR semi-auto with a 30-round magazine. Would love to have something like that, but that gun is soooooo ugly.

  54. Kel-Tec PF9
    Brand new gun… FTFs, FTEs, stovepipes, bad extractor… Shittiest gun I’ve ever owned. Terrible QC & terrible customer service from Kel-Tec. That gun spent more time being repaired than it did in my possession. After that, I swore I would never own another piece of Kel-Tec junk again.

  55. Sig Mosquito. Terrible, terrible, terrible gun. It is a 22 that wants top tier ammo and even then will balk. What a terrible gun. Traded it for a Browning Buckmark and I love it!

  56. Late 80’s Auto Ordnance 1911 bought new. Jammo-matic, front sight popped off. Tried new mags, different ammo, gun oil(s), different shooters, nothing would work…Got rid of it at a substantial loss. Pushed me to Glock 21(my only Glock) which has been flawless.
    Lately, my CZ PO-7 Duty in .40. First one was an “A” serial number( research latter indicated a troublesome serial # range) trigger transfer bar broke internals after less than 500 rounds. CZ replaced with no hassle( kudos to them) with a “B” serial # pistol. I’ve noticed the drift pins in the trigger area like to move on their own during a range session…I like the pistol, but I now have doubt in the pistol’s long term reliability/health.

  57. My personal favorite fail if you could call it that is the High Point C-9 9mm. I had purchased it for home defense because it was inexpensive, unlike most of the other semi auto’s these days. I took it to the range, and realized I had made a mistake. The slide was hard to operate and even though I am usually a good shot, I couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn with it. The back of the magazine was not welded together, just dovetailed, so it allowed a lot of play in it, which caused mis-feeds and hangs. Needless to say, I got rid of it. Too bad, because i can’t afford $900-$1500 for a decent pistol.

    • There’s a big gap there between a $150 Hi-Point POS and a $1000 pistol! Plenty of good, reliable guns in the $400-$500 range. There are some gems in the $300 ballpark, too, if you look hard enough.

  58. The only firearm to ever repeatedly fail me was a Glock 19, I shit you not. Before the fanboys get their panties in an epic knot, I am in no way saying this is indicative of all Glocks, but mine was a Gen 3 with serious extractor issues. After about 600-700 or so flawless rounds, it started stovepiping 3-5 times per mag. This was absolutely maddening, as I had been carrying this pistol. This severe emotional trauma led me to carry a wheelgun for 2 months afterwards.

    Anyways, I went Sig and Walther, and have not looked back. I haven’t given up on Glocks, as I am aware they mostly deserve the reputation they have. And I have been dreaming of a G20 since I started my firearms journey.

    • You do know that a Glock can be taken apart, it’s called detail stripping, and the offending piece can be replaced. Takes about 5 minutes or so with a Glock and the part is cheap. If you’re not the type that can take things apart and I understand that not every man can, send it back to Glock and they will take care of it in an expeditious manner.

      Not saying you’re whining about nothing, but you’re whining about nothing. Stop limpwristing, man up, & grab some sack. Glock 19 Gen 3 is one of the most solid platforms you can get.

      • Yeah, I had a feeling someone was going to go there, I just hoped not. You have no idea what you are talking about.

        1. I can detail strip and reassemble an M4, or an M9, faster than you can say, “(insert uninformed comment here).” I did in fact change the extractor, twice actually, to no avail. I did tons and tons of research, and discovered that MANY people also have the same problem with Gen 3s from that time period. Not all Gen 3s are crap, mine was. I called Glock, more than once, and was treated rudely on the phone. I’m not saying all people are treated this way by Glock, but I was, and I was not happy about it.

        2. Whining? I answered the question that titles this thread. I fail to see how my post was whiny, when I was just describing my situation. If you are referring to my “severe emotional trauma” I mentioned, it was a hyperbolic joke.

        3. Limp wristing? Again, you make wild claims about which you know nothing. I have been shooting a wide variety of firearms for over 20 years, and have not limp wristed a pistol since I was 9 years old. I shoot my buddy’s Glock on a not irregular basis, and no limp wristing there. I own many pistols which I do not limp wrist. And what of the 700 or so rounds that initially fired fine out of the same pistol? Would you like to insult me in any other fashion in a fatuous attempt to appear expert and manly?

        I am aware that there are many, many Glocks (Gen 3 and otherwise) out there that do not have this problem. However, half a second of research on your part will discover that my problem is not unique, or self induced. I was tired of the problem, wanted a new Sig anyway, and I made a choice I am happy with.

        So, get off my sack?

        • Better yet, tell him to get off the Glock sack… You know better than to criticize ANY Glock generation, model, or round (lol GAP.)

          These foamy-mouthed fanboys would crucify their own children and stone their own wives for not worshipping at the altar of Gaston.

        • Well now wasn’t that an overreaction! Didn’t read your novel-length CV, sorry. Glad you can do whatever it is you frantically boasted you could do before I decided to stop reading your comeback, but you’re whining again, and oh yeah – stop limp wristing. Operator error – the problem is between firearm and ground plane.

    • I’ve heard complaints about the SPAS before but the one I had seemed extremely well made, functioned flawlessly, patterned well and could take an outrageous amount of abuse. It was finally sold rusty, dented, missing it’s front sight and with the barrel bulging from a slug having been fired into a wad and load of shot obstructing the barrel a failure of reloaded ammo, not the gun). It not only survived this without destruction but continued to shoot for at least a year of hard use despite the damage.

      It was very heavy, the pump wasn’t smooth but the semi auto was highly reliable with everything I fed it and I fed it whatever was cheapest much of the time, interspersed with heavy/specialty loads.

      What I’m wondering is if there were two different production runs or something? It’s as if everyone who ever touched one had a problem with it but my was a juggernaut. Maybe I just got very lucky.

      • @Ardent, I have no idea really. I just know mine sucked balls. And once I handled a Benelli Super 90, I couldn’t shed that POS SPAS 12 fast enough. Just an overbuilt piece of democrat.

  60. Tokarev TT-33 in 9mm built by Norinco. When it would eject, about 7 out of 10 times it would launch the hot brass right into your forehead. Couldn’t get rid of that one fast enough! Replaced it with a GP100. Never fails me. Then there was a Taurus PT-25, beautiful little 25 acp pistol that just would not work. A Beretta model 21 works much better. I wanted the 22 in the first place. Anybody want to buy a Lorcin?
    Just kidding…

  61. The Colt M16A1, issued to me by the United States Army. It was rubbish with a detachable magazine. Add a bit of Georgia sand and clay and it instantly turned into a rather awkward walking stick.
    No firearm I’ve ever purchased as a civilian has let me down, although I was disappointed to find my Remington-made Marlin 336 wasn’t as accurate as I’d hoped.

    • I have used all USG issued models of M 16 and they all sucked. Only one I liked was a Colt Commando/CAR 15. Only problems were it was deafening and blinding in one compact little package.

  62. I never owned a full out lemon firearm. I did buy a used AR-7 made by Charter Arms many years ago that would not feed 3 rounds in a row. I sent it to Charter Arms and they crudely chamfered the feed ramp with something like a pocket knife, but it has worked fine ever since. I have handled a couple of RG revolvers and would not buy one for a dollar, unless it came with a free box of ammo. Some of the best accurate and reliable firearms I own are among the cheapest ones I bought, like my 30 + year old Marlin bolt action .22 LR rifle, my Auto Ordnance 1911-A1 .45 ACP, and my Ruger Single Six revolver (made in 1976). I’ve got some stuff from the 1930’s and 1940’s that surely ain’t pretty, have fixed sights, poorly designed grips, etc but they all go bang when I pull the trigger and the bullets reliably go where directed.

    I remember when Remington introduced the “electric” rifle. It got razzle dazzle write ups in all the gun mags, was going to be the best thing in firearms since smokeless powder was invented. Sure fizzled instead of dazzled. I never did see one “in the flesh”.

  63. CZ-100, it’s the only CZ that I regretted buying, the only one I’ve sold that I didn’t regret parting with, and the only CZ that I will never buy. If you’ve ever fired one you know why.

  64. Taurus circuit judge 45/410. Bought new, shot factory loads and hand loads in 45, and a few different types of 410 slug. Best accuracy I ever saw was maybe 6 in groups at 25 yards. Sent it back, they returned it and said the timing was off. Went back to the range, same results. Really disappointing as the gun was beautiful, and handled so well.

  65. GSG-5P. It was a German Sports Guns MP-5 lookalike. It was fun to handle etc. but when it came time to fire, the rimmed cases on the 22lr ammunition caused significant feeding issues.

  66. My 91/30 mosin nagant refuses to be loaded by a clip, constant double feeds, barrel band refuse to come off for cleaning without hitting it for half an hour, cleaning has been such an ordeal that the barrel is now a pitted mess and the trigger spring snapped locking the bolt into the gun The bayonet also didn’t fit and I had to polish the socket to make it it work

  67. Charter Arms .22lr Pathfinder. The only non-S&W revolver I ever bought, and the last. Timing was WAY off. Cylinder/barrel gap was about 3/32″. There was NO forcing cone – rifling ran all the way to the breech. The muzzle was not square to the bore, and the crown was off-center. The single action trigger was about ten pounds and incredibly gritty. The double action was too heavy to pull. It spit dangerous chunks of lead out the sides, and could not even keep hits ON THE PAPER of a full size silhouette at seven yards. This was a brand new gun. I gave it back to the shop where I bought it for full credit, and they returned it to Charter.

    • I bought a 3″ barrel ..22 mag Pathfinder off a co-worker some years back. He was in some financial difficulty and that was my way of helping him without it being an outright gift. Anyway my Pathfinder has lots of wear but it shoots surprisingly well. I suspect the pistol is one of the early ones made before Charter’s QC went down the toilet. The stock wooden grips are very comfortable and I’d actually like to find a good Undercover .38 which I understand was built on the same frame. The trick would be finding a good one.

  68. Stallard Arms 9mm, I think it was called a J9. 9mm Para blowback ( really massive slide). Extractor pin would come up out of the gun while firing. Happily was able to trade it back in for about the purchase price against the purchase of my beloved Mak .

  69. Colt Stainless Gold Cup MK IV, bought new in 1989. It was a Gold Cup, fachrisake, so I didn’t bother to try the trigger before I bought it. Trigger pull varied from 8 to 12 lbs. After two attempts by Colt and two more by local pistolsmiths, finally got a decent trigger pull. The gun still shot patterns, not groups, and subsequent examination showed that the barrel/slide lockup was sloppy. I ended up trading it for a S&W .44 Magnum Elmer Keith Commemorative, with a guy who wanted the Gold Cup for a pin gun project.

  70. Norinco MAK-90: Five inch groups at 50 yards.
    Kel-Tec PLR-16: First shot, the concussion was so great that it broke the battery door off my brand new $200 Bushnell Holo-Sight. My friend and I shot about 20 rounds through it and I sold it the next day. Damn shame because it looked so awesome.

  71. Sig Sauer P220 .45, Stainless, match accessories (extended slide/de-cock/hammer/match trigger/fiber optic sights). Jammed every other round, it only liked to digest match quality brass. Promptly sold it, made my money on it, and bought an XD-45. I really enjoyed shooting my buddy’s XD-40, but they were so different. Shot 200 rounds through it, hated it, and turned around and sold it the same day.

    Then I bought a Sig Sauer Scorpion 1911. 1k + rounds no failures.

  73. FAL- I owned one for a while and it may have been a lemon, it was surplus, no matter what I did with the gas regulator that SOB wouldn’t cycle properly. I was in the army at the time and our company armor tried to mess with it too, to no avail. Was really disappointed by that one. Oh, and a polish tantal I was given free by someone when the panic hit, because he was a liberal and saw that since Obama hated assault rifles, he should get rid of his, so he gave to me for free. I gladly liberated him of that, a side by side 12 gauge, and a 9mm. Yeah, Retard literally gave me all his guns just because of that. hahaha. Niether of which I really wanted, but hey they were free. The tantal fell apart as I shot it. Was rather surprised, was the 3rd AK I have and never ever seen one fall apart like that. It was a century arms gun though, puke.

  74. Savage/Springfield 87N sometimes semi .22 60’s vintage
    It does something illegal and then jams with a stove pipe or FTE.
    Cleaned and lubed same thing.
    I bought it for tweny bucks in 1970 so the guy could get some beer and ciggies.
    Not a real let down.

    • BTW, bad or not, I have NEVER sold a gun.
      They’re kinda like my college text books
      For the NSA girl, I am selling them all tomorrow out of the trunk of my car.

  75. Taurus 24/7 (gen1) in 45acp. Unrepairable feeding issues. Went back to Taurus ( on my dime) twice, then it went to the pawn shop after failing on the first mag both times back.

  76. I have 2. The first is an original nickel Whitney Wolverine. It is one of only 900 produced in nickel. It belonged to my dad who died in 1961. It is a jam-o-matic. it has no feed ramp! Just a hole for the bullet to feed into. Once you get the first bullet to feed, it will usually, but not always, run pretty good.

    The second is a Walther PPK/S that my stepfather used as his concealed carry gun when he made detective in 1965. I’ve gotten it to run better. Sometimes it doesn’t jam. Sometimes it does.

    I will NEVER sell either. They will be passed down to my children.

  77. EA Fast Eibar .32…. Spanish made in the 1950’s and brought back by an Army vet stationed in Germany in the late 50’s. Its neat pistol, and feels good in hand. It was inherited from my fiancee’s father along with a nice mossberg pump shotgun and a 30-06 remington 760. The pistol was a dud however. The old bakelite grips were badly cracked and falling apart and 2 screws were missing. My fiancee had shot the pistol 10 years before and said it worked flawlessly but hadnt handled it since due her parents divorce and her going to college. On her word that it had shot great i ordered, and paid more than the guns worth, for new grips and screws along with some ammo. After a great deal of sanding to get the grips to fit I took it out to test fire it. It was then that i discovered the firing pin is broken and the retaining pin missing…. It must have been shot/ badly handled after her last range session. After 2 years of searching these parts still ellude me. I wasted that much money on a gun i cannot make work.

    • Why not make the parts? Firing pin shouldn’t be too hard, could possibly be adapted from another firing pin?

      If you can’t find it, make it.

      • I have read online that people have been able make them, but as this is an older design the firing pin is free floating in a small channel. I dont feel safe trying to make one, especially without the original specs. These guns where a little dubious on drop safety to begin with. I just never felt comfortable to try and make one and take a chance on having an ND by hitting the back of hammer or dropping the gun. It has a nice happy place in the gun safe and thats fine with me!

  78. Randall stainless .45, 1983. Front left end of the frame narrowed to a knifepoint. Before that could break, about 130 rounds in, the buffer separated from the guide rod. A gunsmith fixed it with a new, short Colt guide rod & buffer. Traded it for my Glock 19 in ’88,. The 19 has been my constant companion since. (Slide stop spring broke about 100 rounds in. That’s what “break in” is for .Factory replaced at no charge. Not a single problem since.)

  79. Bought a Steyr .40 S&W, Forgot the model but it was new at the time, apparently not tested real well. The firing pin hole was drilled too tight, only touched off the round every now and then, this was the first 1000 copies produced. Sent it back, of course, took 4 months for it to be repaired and returned (can’t figure why, if I’d known I’d have reamed it myself in an hour), after which it worked fine. However, the contour of the grip caused my hand to ache after 10-15 rounds in a day, finally gave it to my kid brother.

  80. For me, the Taurus TCP. Pin came loose in the frame and gummed the trigger such that it would not fire. Fixed it and it went back to being broken again the very next range trip. Sold it ASAP and went and got working guns.

    Only gun I don’t have now that I don’t miss.

    My other “fail” is a finicky Saiga I have a love/hate relationship with.

  81. If I recall properly, the Gyrojet was originally developed as a design for a kinetic round to be used in low- to zero-gravity environments, eg the moon or in orbit, or in other situations where recoil could become a real problem for the user.

    In that sense it was in no way a failure.

    However, it was never good enough a replacement for conventional arms that it could succeed in a commercial terrestrial environment; with no space war to be fought, I’d call it more an idea WAY ahead of its time than a simple failure.

    • I remember reading an article on the Gyrojet when it came out, and it was frickin’ AWESOME! I wanted one. I even spotted a fictional one in a sci-fi or mystery story, and the character who used it was into conserving the rounds, because they were so expensive – they’re little rockets, you know. But it sounds like a perfectly awesome weapon. One thing that got burned into my brain was a pic of a 1/2″ steel plate with a 0.500″ (or so) hole that looked like it had been done with a high speed drill, which, they added parenthetically, it was, the round spinning and all. Maybe the thing that really put me over the top was the idea of exploding rounds – little 500 caliber RPG’s. >:->

      And zero recoil. That’s really why I wanted one. I don’t like recoil.
      And two moving parts (other than the round and the mag thingie.)

      Am I being excessively verbose? I’m sorry, I started my Friday bourbon a little early this aft. 😉

      • Recoil is an integral part of shooting. If you can’t use it then perhaps you are doing it wrong.

  82. Haven’t had any legit lemons yet, thankfully, just small but annoying issues:

    Hi Point carbine in .40. Damn thing refuses to feed right. Rounds stick going INTO the mag. Probably just needs some polishing or a teensy bit of bending of feed lips.

    Contender .223 barrel. I love this gun but I’m sticking to rimmed barrels. Rebated rim ones have a leaf spring to get the extractor where it needs to go. Three shots into owning this barrel and that spring caused the thing to jam up. Doesn’t help that the pin holding the extractor in is TINY so disassembling it is tricky (1/16 inch punch is too wide).

    Marlin 60. Got one of these used, dated it to the 80s. At least one of the clips holding the pins that hold the action group together were missing. Pushed on it just right when reassembling it and it disintegrated. Had to have a smith put it back together before I sold it (with fresh pin clips).

  83. Taurus PT845 that FTFed right out of the box. Taurus Miami made it worse by keeping the gun for many moons trying to replace the slide. Finally relented and sent a whole new gun. The replacement was better but after dealing with the telephone shuffle lying jerks in Miami dumped it at a loss and said screw Taurus.

    Other than that POS, the TEC 9 was good for laughs. Probably the safest gangsta gun ever sold, guaranteed to only fire once and jam.

  84. AR7 Survival Rifle. Bang, click, bang, bang, click, you get the idea. Also, free Jimenez .380 made me bleed. Nasty slide-biting shiny silver piece of crap. Traded toward something else, think I got $60 for it which was $60 more than I paid. Lessons learned!

  85. Wolf Ultramatic race gun in 9mm. Wonderful looking gun. Made the mistake of lubricating it and it started stove piping. It won’t go through a single mag without a jam. It needs a dry lube. Taking it apart for cleaning and checking took a gunsmith and me 45 minutes with the instruction manual. Manual is written in GERMANGLISH.

  86. Ruger P94 in .40 S&W. I hated that thing. I bought it before I knew anything, really. I’m willing to think maybe I got a lemon, but man, I had trouble with that thing. My next gun was a Glock; how awesome was it to have a gun that went “bang” every time you pull the trigger?

  87. I have never owned a gun but the first gun I ever fired was a seriously painful experience. An O/U 12ga. My shoulder ached so bad I couldn’t use my right arm for about three days. I ended up deaf, too, because the recoil shook the earplugs out of my ears. Tinnitus and only one working arm. And all because of one shitty Beretta.
    (Bear in mind I was only nine.)

  88. If it doesn’t say Colt, Smith, Sig, HK, Beretta, Springfield, Browning, CZ, FN, Henry, M1, or Mossberg, I don’t buy it.

    So far, I’ve never been disappointed.

  89. I’ve got a new Savage 11 I’m suspicious of. It’s too early to call it a fail, but it’s on the watch list.

  90. There is an fie Titan ii in .380 auto that constantly fails to feed, rounds go nose up and jam every 5th or so round.

    Also a .25 Acp browning clone sub-sub compact that pisses me off. Grip is too damn small, the recoil stings in a way that angers me, and it fails to eject because of the poor grip causing “limp wrist”

    Also that really small .22 revolver, the naa I believe it was. That thing is just impossible to shoot.

  91. I’ve had a few, and shot a few that others had (saving me from ever buying one.)

    The biggest disappointment: H&K P9. Jammed like crazy.
    The newer PPK/S. Again, Jam-o-matic and nasty slide bite. Weird since the FEG knockoff I had was the exact opposite.
    Ruger 10/22 rifle. again, with the jamming…
    Desert Eagle .357: this one damned thing would drop the hammer when the slide stop was used. Gunsmith could never suss it out. A newer .50 would drop to safe after a few shots.

  93. My worst gun is a Davis .32 derringer I bought in the 80’s one barrel never fired the other works okay. I still have it as a reminder not to buy cheap junk.

  94. Only two really bad ones over 40 years – both .22’s.

    First was surprisingly an old Remington Nylon 66. Mine was the tube magazine version with the brown stock. I bought it back in about 1980 and at the time I thought it was a pretty cool looking rifle. As a kid I’d read all of the Remington ads in Boys Life and thought that the 66’s would run forever. I think that mine had some serious wear issues because it wouldn’t feed more than 4 or 5 rounds without jamming. I did the usual clean and oil stuff and tried every brand of ammunition that the local Otasco had to offer. No joy so I traded it off on a surplus Kar 98K Mauser.

    Number 2 was a Stoeger Luger. A vile and clunky semi-auto .22 pistol disguised as the illegitimate offspring of a real Luger and a pot metal Jennings. The pistol actually shot fairly well when you got used to the sights but it was a nightmare to strip and clean. The grip angle was wrong for me and I still don’t understand how a pistol that’s made of plastic, aluminum, and unidentifiabum can rust! I hate to admit that I still own that Stoeger but I haven’t shot it since about 1985. I keep it to remind myself that hundred dollar gun show pistols usually aren’t very good deals.

  95. My entry is Winchester’s .243 WSSM. The only reason why I can think of is a Winchester engineer trying to justify his pay check. Depending on bullet weight, you only gained 50-150 fps over a standard .243, and paid the price of increased barrel wear from the hotter cartridge, 2-3 rounds in the magazine (not good when you have multiple feral pigs in front of you), and the fat cartridge did not fit into any standard ammo boxes. And the .223 WSSM was even worse reporting to burn out barrels within 400-600 rounds.

    I friend on mine is not a fan of Remington’s new production rifles. He had a new-out-of-the-box Remington 700 in .308 constantly string out to the right during a competition shoot. It turned out the chamber was cut at an angle to the bore. Just as well my friend is a machinist by trade and the barrel was swapped. Other people I know have been complaining about big-green’s QC lately as the stuff that appears in my part of the world appear to the be at least functionally safe (IE: they’ll pass a proof load), but fail in fit-and-finish, extraction-and-ejection, and accuracy. They either need alot of work post-sale or you buy a 700 for the after-market parts availability via Brownells.

  96. Rock Island 1911-A1 FS 9mm. Yes the rounds like to nosedive and jam on the ramp. It also likes to FTB. I think only less than a handful of mag-fulls run through it didn’t have any issues. Otherwise out of the first 300 rounds I have had consistent issues nosedive related issues. **I know why I bought it to be a project gun so I knew what I was getting into.** Only time will tell if I can make this gun run good.

    • I’d like to point out that I actually like the gun and it feels well made. If it had been in .45 ACP I’m sure it would be running just fine.

  97. I don’t know if this counts because it’s a milsurp firearm, but what the hell, my Mosin Nagant sucks. I don’t ask for much out of my firearms, but you would think that a pre-war Tula rifle would chamber a round out of the damn box. Mine didn’t. One replacement bolt head with a properly cut face later and it shot minute of pie plate groups at 100 yards with surplus ammo, as expected. However, I only got a smidgen of improvement shooting both S&B and PPU ammo on a bench rest. I realized that the stock was so sloppily cut to fit the action that it would rock back and forth with trigger squeeze. After tin foil bedding the tang and a simple trigger job, it groups no tighter than 5″ with commercial ammo.

    And let’s not forget about sticky bolt syndrome. I’ve taken a 20 gauge bore brush with flitz metal polish mounted on a power drill to that chamber twice, just as Iraqveteran8888 does in his how-to video, and my rifle still seizes up whenever it feels like ruining my day. There’s also a one in five chance that opening the mag well in the event of a malfunction will create yet another malfunction, as the trap door likes to get stuck and refuses to close without abusive manhandling.

    I’m glad I bought this thing back when $99 + bayonet and accessories was the going rate in my neck of the woods, because it’s given me just enough headaches to still be considered worth it. Meanwhile, my Mauser was made in 1944, cobbled together post-war by the Russians with mis-matched parts, and has failed to feed once. It consistently groups at 3″ with every type of military and commercial ammo I’ve fed it at 100 yards, and I consider myself a humbly average marksman. C’est la vie, and god bless German engineering.

    • I’ve noticed Mosin-Nagants can be a fit finicky in the feeding and extraction. I have a 1938 91/30 and it works fine but I have only ever fired a few rounds for function testing. The 1945 M44 is the one that has been used the most and I have noticed a few issues.

      Loading and firing the first five rounds works without a problem but topping up on-the-go during a match results in the next round to be chambered getting stuck on the interrupter. The only solution is to close the bolt, dry-fire, and then cycle again. The round then picks up on the second try. Other MN users have noticed the same event. And the MN clip? Great for slicing your thumb open.

      The interrupter is a device that is great in theory but was probably only devised to work-around the Mauser patents.

      My M48s (Yugo Mausers) will work perfectly all day and won’t miss a beat if a forced top-up is needed. Ditto for the Lee-Enfields (.303 and .223 conversion).

  99. The M&P 22 has been nothing but a headache for me. The slide often fails to lock open after the last round even with a new clean magazine or the ammo choice. The groups are horrible compared to other .22 pistols I’ve used. I clean my guns after every trip to the range, even if I just fire 10 shots. It seems like every other magazine, a round will fail to eject and a jam will occur. I haven’t cleaned it in a while, though, and it seems to be performing better as far as feeding and cycling goes. Go figure…

    I do love the M&P 45 and M&p 9

  100. When I was first getting into shooting/hunting I needed a rifle for deer hunting. I didn’t know a whole lot about guns at that time and I just wanted a cheap gun to try things out. I ended up buying a Remington 770 in 30-06 and I could not get it to feed from the box ever. I took it to a gunsmith and he polished the feed ramps and still it wouldn’t work. I ended up trading it for a Norinco SKS and went back and bought a Remington 700 instead. At least I ended up with a rifle I had on my bucket list(sks) though.

  101. My new taurus pt22 know affectionately as “bob marly” why? Cuz always be jammin mon.

    • Heh, I had the same nickname for my Bersa. A trip to Gander Mountain’s repair shop fixed that–well, temporarily, anyway.

  102. Rented a (S&W-made) Walther PK380, and it went through the first mag just fine–although it was shooting about 8 inches low. Every mag after that was BANG BANG FTF, drop magazine, reload round, BANG BANG FTF, drop magazine, reload round, etc. Quite literally the longest 50 I’ve ever shot.

    2nd place goes to my Bersa Thunder 380 Plus. Have had one good range session (out of 6). Bought a used CZ 83 to replace it as my BUG. When the next the next gun show rolls around, I’m going to trade it for something that hopefully isn’t $#@!^.

  103. I had a russian makarov (10rnd version) explode in my hand. I don’t believe it was any fault of the gun. I believe it was some cheap CCI aluminum cased JHP 9x18mak rounds that did it. I believe the aluminum casing snagged on the chamber entrance and got folded up and smashed into the chamber. On the next trigger pull it fired out of battery. The slide popped off the frame and the cartridges blew out of the mag well. Some aluminum shrapnel embedded itself in my hand which I picked out later that evening.

    Much to the robustness of the makarov,I inspected the components right after the incident and reassembled the magazine and pistol and frame and loaded some S&B brass ball and finished out the box. i never had an incident with it again – firing only brass case ball ammo (for which it was designed).

  104. OK, this is precisely why I quit reading NRA magazine quite some time ago. The Browning Model 1917 was a HIGHLY successful machine gun, and the only fire selection was by pulling and releasing the trigger. As for select fire BAR, designated as the Monitor and sold as a civilian and law enforcement weapon, it was highly successful, too.

    And now I am really going to set the fox loose in the hen house. The only weapon I have ever had “fail” me is the M 16. Failure to feed, failure to extract, failure to fire. I have used, under field conditions, L1A1, G3 and M 14 and never had one fail me. Pistol fails? That is just part of the territory. Only bad instance I can recall was a broken Barrel Catch on my Enfield .38 revolver. Had many bad ammo problems with pistols over the years, no real mechanical troubles, even with old, hard used Government Model Colt 1911s.

    • “OK, this is precisely why I quit reading NRA magazine quite some time ago. The Browning Model 1917 was a HIGHLY successful machine gun, and the only fire selection was by pulling and releasing the trigger. As for select fire BAR, designated as the Monitor and sold as a civilian and law enforcement weapon, it was highly successful, too.”

      They aren’t talking about either of those. They are talking about a rifle that could be switched from semi-automatic to pump action. Basically a rifle version of a SPAS 12.

      • Hmmm. Did a quickie search and the only Browning Model 1917 I can find is the liquid cooled machine gun. I know about the rifle you are talking about, just never heard it called a Model 1917 before.

        I gave up on NRA publications some years ago. They are riddled with inaccurate information, misspellings and down right willful stupidity. Not just them. Many of the “mainstream” gun pubs are much the same. And don’t get me started on the state of “journalism” today, they tout their superior educations blahblahblah and yet they can not even properly structure a sentence or be bothered with proof-reading. Going through my news feeds in the morning has increasingly become an exercise in frustration.

      • Oh, and I figured the first reply I would get would be for dissing the M 16. Pleasantly surprised!

        • @2hotel9, malfunctions in the M16 are nothing new. You give no context of when this all occurred to you so its hard to comment. Clearly, the rifle was plagued by crap ammo in the 60s and 70s. Clearly the military had no idea how to operate it, but only maintain it in a “parade ground” mode, i.e., cleaned and dried until there was absolutely no anodizing left on it and so on. Its gone through many updates (as Glock like to call them) over the years and has morphed into the M4 and more or less a standard by which all other comers are judged.

          So rock on with the M16 slams. Were it not for the slams, it wouldn’t be what it is today.

          • Context? All weathers and conditions, every model that has been issued by USG. Fact is the M 16, no matter what name it is hidden behind, is, has always been and will forever be a piss poor excuse for a main battle rifle. It is a carbine, and a poor one at that. That is what it is today, just as it was the day Stoner threw it down on his work bench and said”What an under powered piece of sh*t!”

            In the end soldiers go to war with what they are issued, no matter how big a turd it is.

            • @2hotel9, the M16 is not a main battle rifle, never has been.

              As for the rest of your comments. You provided enough context, now I know what I’m dealing with.

              • Of course it is not an MBR. And yet that is the role it has been forced into, and that decision has cost the lives of thousands of American servicemen, and THAT pisses me off.

              • @2hotel9, the numbers (if any) are debatable, but in any event, you’re argument is with the politics of the decision.

              • Yes, indeed. And I just hate poor weapons. No excuse for them, other than lazy weapons designe,,,,,,,,,Damn! Almost made it through that sentence without busting out laughing.

                Yea, I have dealt with the short comings of the M 16 and just don’t like it. Will I use one if it is put in my hands? Sure. Just won’t be happy about it. Except for that smell! Love the smell of propellant, any time of the day or night.

              • Lol. I am 53 and have had extensive training with M 16, I have the knowledge and tools to take one down to its component pieces and reassemble, still don’t like them.

                Ya know immediate action for a jammed M 16? Grasp firmly and throw as far away as possible, then pick up nearest AK. Problem solved.

  105. Remington 742 semi-auto rifle in .30-06, bought back in 1978. It would rip a chunk out of the rim of the cartridge instead of extracting. A gunsmith friend fixed that by narrowing the exit end of the gas tube. After putting a scope on it, it would not do better than a 5″ group at 100yds. Had to leave the magazine in it to hold the bolt back when you cleaned it. Sold it for less than what I had in it, and was glad to see it go.

  106. Brand new, just out of the box, M24 SWS, broke off a crescent shaped chunk of the extractor about 5mm wide on the 3rd round.

    Knew if I sent it in for repair it would be gone for a long time and I’d miss out on a lot of good training so I didn’t say anything. Had around 2,000 rounds through it when I turned it in for the last time.

  107. So many over the years, as a former dealer and avid shooter I can only name the biggest POS ones. The firearms industry has had many fly-by-night operations and people/companies looking to turn a quick buck. You did forget mentioning the “Dardick pistol/rifle” which is truly ugly and the answer too a question nobody asked. I can think of many I have shot, the ones listed below are a highlight because they were marketed/sold as pistols of quality and purpose and they failed badly.
    1. Para Ordnance: Every one I sold plus my own would not feed a complete magazine w/o a stovepipe or failure to feed. Different ammo, different oil, different magazines, polish work and break-in all failed in making this a reliable firearm.
    2. Walther PP .22 pistol in stainless steel. Never worked and many trips to Walther failed to improve the damn thing. History of issues with this firearm indicate they were not a great design, overpriced, overrated and more show than function. My Walther G22 indicates they are still foisting off junk for excessive prices on folks.
    3. AMT back-up in .45ACP Never worked and probably never will both a gunsmith and a tool/die-maker I know cannot figure out how to make this thing function properly.
    4. Colt Delta Elite 1 of 1000, 10mm never really failed to function but the bits keep falling off: front sight, rear sight, grip rowel’s, grip safety and grip panels have all either fallen off, come loose or broken.

    • All 3 Para Ordnance pieces I have fired over the years just did not feel right. They functioned. Fed and extracted OK. Locked on an empty mag. They just felt wrong when you fired them. Just wrong. Had this conversation with people who love and people that hate Para pistols, and they all agree it is different from firing the original of whatever they were copying.

      Never had a problem with a Walther, though both I own are older production pieces. Have not fired a .22 Walther, so I don’t know their foibles.

      • Nice to see somebody actually reads the blog.
        Original Para were a DA trigger and wide-body design take-off on the 1911 pistol. Colt had already issued the Double Eagle a few years earlier and that item functioned very well but was panned by the press, G&A really panned the design. I have two of these and both shoot very well and are nice pistols for carry and have excellent triggers for the type. You’re right the Para does feel strange, I could never place why but they did something different. I have large hands and long fingers so the frame size was not the problem (actually have a Megastar .45 which is huge and easy for me too grip). I always figured G&A got lots of adverts from Para at it was blessed as “handgun of the year” by the same group that hated the Colt go figure.
        The Walther PP worked well in .32 or .380 I have one from the 1960’s in .32 very well made and a great little pistol. The .22’s by contrast never seemed to work well. The spring, slide mass or basic design did not work well with the lighter, faster .22 cartridge. Walther in typical German fashion will never admit too a mistake or error. I a soft spot for Walther but they seem to be cutting corners and not fully developing a design before selling, perhaps their relationship with Smith & Wesson has something to do with this?

        • Was telling a couple of people about this post and got the whole Para discussion going again. Out of 7 people 2 liked Paras a lot, 5 did not care for them. Not hate, just don’t like. And of the 7 six of them are Glockaholics, #7 loves his Python, and all of them think I am weird for carrying a Walther P1/38.

          The only small frame Walther I have fired was in 9mm. Walther action is fairly stiff so I can see .22 not doing well. My pocket piece is a Beretta M21A and the only time I have had trouble with it is crappy ammo. A common issue with any .22 weapon.

          And yea, I like to get the follow up comments on threads, you can get some good conversations going, or verbal combat, both of which are fun! On weapons blogs you can get some good info on guns you are not familiar with, and you can get some absolute quackery, which can be fun all on its own. A lot of people just throw one comment and don’t want to see anything else, which is kinda sad. ;(

          • I guess I’m a little confused on the whole Para debate. Is it the Para single-action 1911’s that some don’t like or the entire line? Because I think the LDA’s are great If you want to carry a double action trigger, these are very nice.

            • I have not gotten to try the LDA, though you are correct, Para makes 1911 “clones”. Their craftsmanship is quite good and lots of people love them. I just don’t like the feel of them when firing. I was raised firing Colt Government Model 1911s, of varying quality depending on how much they had been fired and abused, and I have to admit there are some “reworked” 1911s I don’t like. A lot of clones and knock offs when it comes to them, and there are a lot of variables in milling and machining and materials.

              I like Kimber’s short slide 1911s, not so much their full length. I loved Detonics Pony, never found one for sale at a price I could swing. Norinco has a couple of models that are OK, their quality is kinda low. Safari makes a nice copy, though getting used to the contoured handgrip frame takes a bit, and SW makes a nice clean model, mainly in silver finish which I am not a fan of, although they shoot fine.

              Getting into .45 ACP preferences is a fine kettle of worms to be knocking over cuz everybody ends up getting some on them.

  108. Most embarrassing fail was my Kimber Custom ULTRA carry II had the two-piece op rod leave the pistol and pass halfway down the 15 yd range . I had to stop range and walk down and remove the rod as the pistol was jammed. I fixed and it has never happened in 500+ rounds of practice. Still not a good beginning on a very pricey pistol. I have gone from no trust to complete happiness,

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