What bad guns have you bought, and why?

[webster223]

Bad guns:

• Taurus Model 66, .357 Magnum. Cylinder kept binding. Traded it to a friend who sent it back to Taurus and raved about their great warranty service. I was happy for him.
• Colt Defender. Averaged about one stoppage per magazine. I've been told that some Defenders actually run, but I've never seen one.
• TZ-85. I went with this over the Browning P-35 in the case next to it, because I liked its pretty wood grips and the shop owner told me it was a "DA version of the Hi-Power." I sold it back to the same shop for a $100 less than I paid and didn't regret it. The Browning was gone.
• Springfield Mil-Spec. In 2000 rounds the front sight flew off; plunger tube worked loose; and the grips cracked, revealing grip bushings with stripped heads. Sold it to a guy who wanted to customize his own 1911.

Guns I no longer have and don't miss:

• Glock 23. I believed my CCW course instructor when he said .40 was the bare minimum caliber for a carry gun.
• Taurus Ultra-Lite .38 Special. It concealed well and ran reliably, but the barrel porting made it quite unpleasant to shoot.
• Kimber CDP Compact. I got this to replace the G23 because it was twice as cool, at twice the cost. When it was stolen I didn't replace it; Kimber had gone to Gen2 by then.

Guns I wish I'd never let go:

• My first three G19s. You'd think I would have learned my lesson after the first one.
• Sig P228. Needed money. Should have sold blood instead.

[dookie1481]

Para P12.45

Because I had to have a double stack (despite me having tiny hands), and it had to be 45, because 9mm is for pussies.

Yeah.

At least I got $650 out of it when I sold it.

[Chris Rhines]

A couple of CZ-75s, all but one long since sold. This was back during the dark days of the AWB, and 15-round magazines for the CZ were inexpensive and plentiful.

A Steyr M40. To this day, I have no idea what was going through my head when I ordered that thing. It was the most unreliable and unpleasant-to-shoot gun I've ever fired, much less owned. I traded it for a Glock 35 after only about six weeks, proof there that I can pull my head out of my ass once in a while.

A Century Stg-58 FAL clone, 'built' on an Imbel gear logo receiver. I was in college, destitute, and wanted a cheap black rifle. The gun was mistimed and would not run reliably. I managed to sell it off eventually, although I still have some of the magazines around.

[JV_]

Taurus Titanium Tracker (617TT) in .357 Magnum.
Every edge was razor sharp.

My 4" GP100 is 100X the gun.

[part-time shooter]

I bought a Taurus .357 as well, was "such a deal" and so much cheaper than the 686 I was looking to buy. I gave it away 3 months later.

I traded a great Sig 226 for a buggy Beretta 92FS that ate magazines and was less accurate than my garden hose. Traded that one back to the dealer it came from for a two tone Sig 228, which I still have. One of the original wonder 9's and it's still going strong 15+ years later.

I then bought a Sig 229 40, the only caliber it came in at the time, on the day the Brady bill passed for WAY too much money because "we'd never be able to buy hi cap mags again!!!!", yeah my Visa hated me for that for a long time. It was a great gun though and I kept it for well over 10 years, at which point I traded it for a Kimber 1911...

I bought several Kimber's thinking they were the best thing ever, I still have one but there's very little Kimber left in it. It's mostly Ed Brown/Wilson now plus a lot of time with a good smith. Lost a ton of money on those ill advised purchases.

[David]

Browning buckmark, the top-strap screws would continuously work loose not only causing severely canted sights but major feeding + firing issues. I kept it for a month trying to work out a solution, first it was blue loctite, then it was red loctite. Nothing worked and it kept working loose after the first mag or two. I sold it and got a Ruger MKIII.

[superr.stu]

I traded the gun shop owner a tree for a Sig p250 back when they first came out. I know him well enough that I probably would have done the tree for free, but I figured "what the hell, if he's gonna give me a pistol..."

I lost 2hours on a Sunday morning for that POS. In the end though he has some really nice evening shade over his patio, and I have an awesome SIGUSA paperweight. I don't think I would feel right dumping that thing off on someone though....

Such is life
-stu

[Chuck Haggard]

Years ago, since my Jennings J22 was shockingly accurate and reliable, I took a chance on one of their .380s which wasn't much bigger than the .22.

Total POS

I had a Charter Arms J frame copy, whatever they called it back then, shot it to non-functioning status with exactly 47 rounds of Federal 125gr +P JHP

While my Taurus PT99AF that I bought after basic (couldn't afford the Beretta, and the Taurus was just as good, ya know?) was a very, very reliable pistol even after 10K or so rounds through it, every other Taurus I have had since has been either an inaccurate, or non-functional, or both, total POS

My brand new S&W .380 Bodyguard is now at the factory for the third, I say again third, time since they didn't seem to want to fix it the first two times I sent it back.

I never bought one, but my department had half of the troops in Sigma 9mms before our rangemaster at the time decided that he had made a horrifying mistake and traded them all to S&W for 5906s.


I traded for a Century STG-2000 AK47-ish rifle, I had no idea until then that an AK could be totally unreliable. It also was so far off that even set to max elevation and windage the gun shot a foot low and two feet right at 15 yards.
I ended up sending the gun back to the factory through the gun shop it came from, and trading it for a Marlin 30-30

[smells like feet]

I have a made in China Norinco 1911 that blows goats. I actually don't feel that bad about it because guys with 1911s that cost 3 times as much still complain.

I also have a Basque .380 that is very sketchy it jams frequently, and it's sights and POI are barely on the same planet...but with taxes, shipping, a trigger lock and 2 extra mags it cost me $77, so how can I complain.

[Tamara]

Bad guns I've owned...

Hmmm...

Well, my very first handgun was an FIE Targa GT-25. I've owned a Grendel P-10. A couple Hi-Point/Stallards and a Bryco 9. There was that Charco Bulldog that was a wretched, pulsating ball of crap that was shot to death in a little over 300 (that's three hundred) rounds: Nickel flaking off the topstrap and forcing cone and the frame stretched badly enough to cause serious endshake issues.

I had an Astra A-75 in .40 that ran okay, but shot itself unacceptably loose over the course of a summer.

My early Seattle Detonics Combat Master was a lump of fail that couldn't shoot a complete mag without a malf, no matter what we did to it.

There was that early Smith 581 where the bore axis wasn't even remotely coaxial with the center of the top chamber; it already had all the forcing cone it could handle, too, so it was a jacketed-bullet-only gun, because lead bullets sprayed fragments to either side of the b/c gap like a claymore mine.

I had a Para parts gun, built with worn out GI Colt parts on an early Para frame kit. Could not get it to run.

There's others, but then again, I've owned a lot of guns. And, in fairness, some of them you just don't expect to work all that well: When you buy a hundred-year-old FN M1910 with a shot out bore, you forgive it the occasional light strike and 7-yard groups that look like you might want to switch to an Improved Cylinder...