Disappointing Guns

[olstyn]

CZ Shadow 2.

It actually was a good gun, just not a really good choice for me. I’d heard so much about how awesome Shadows were that when I saw this Shadow 2 at a LGS I had to have it. After I think 3 range trips it went back to the same shop on consignment. I think the major problem was that it was just too damn heavy for my tastes. It kinda made a Beretta 92 seem like a lightweight. I never could really shoot it any better than a 92 either.

I shot a friend's Shadow once, and I've dry fired a few others, both Shadow and Shadow 2, at safety tables. The weight doesn't bother me, but something about the ergonomics feels slightly off to me. I know that they're great guns, and they pretty much universally have stupid light, buttery smooth triggers, but between the weird feel in my hands and the fact that manual decocking creeps me out, I'm personally not interested in having one, which is something that makes my bank account happy.

On the other hand, if I was looking to get into Open, I might consider trying a Czechmate because decocking isn't a thing in that scenario.

[awp_101]

East German Makarov.

There's another one I forget except mine was Bulgarian. Buddy had one and I thought it was great after putting a few mags through it so I went out and found my own. I don't remember what grips his had but mine had a hole in the backstrap (maybe for the grip screw?) and it didn't take me long to figure out that wasn't going to work for me so I flipped it for something else.

[flyrodr]

For me it's custom 1911's. For the money spent, they should work all the time.

Yep, custom 1911s are the one gun I could put both in the "Disappointing Guns" and in the "High Expectations/Delivered" threads. A full house custom is expected to do pretty much everything better than a stock gun, and look like it (better) as well. I have a couple that have delivered - - - absolutely first class.

And without naming names, I've had a couple that didn't run as well as they should. If you've not experienced the wait, the building expectations, and the (usually) immaculate fit and finish, only to be disappointed at the range . . . well, there's nothing positive about your feelings at the time.

[fixer]

Hk usp 9mm.

Total dog. Wouldn’t run at all.

Ruger 44 mag revolver. The hype/reality ratio was way off on this one for me.

[ASH556]

This one: Benelli M1S90, HK Import, NIB old stock on the wall of the shop I worked in for years. When I got big into 3gn I turned my other M1 into a full-on race gun and I picked this 14" SBS up as my dedicated HD shotgun. I LOVE Benelli shotguns. This was just going to be tits. It would ghost load, so it was a 5 + 1 + 1 proposition, which is pretty great capacity for a 14" 12GA. Paperwork cleared and I couldn't get it home fast enough. Set it up RIGHT with a Surefire forend and we were off to the races...not. It wouldn't run Federal LE1321B with the Surefire forend; too heavy.

So, I came up with a different light setup: X300 on a Nordic Clamp. Worked and the gun ran, Yay!

Then came the next issue: Benelli made these with both rifle sight and ghost ring options. I specifically wanted the rifle sight option and that's what I got. Unfortunately the Pattern was 10-12" high at 25yds. At that point I sold the gun. I lucked into the timing with 41F about to go into effect and a local guy wanted the gun badly, so I didn't really lose anything on the deal, but yeah, definitely a letdown.

[revolvergeek]

Not so much a firearm, but a caliber: .327 Federal - all the blast of a .357 without an inexpensive understudy/plinking caliber like the .357/.38 relationship.

I've had a Single Seven and the newer 4" SP101. The S7 was just OK but I could use my stash of .32 Auto in it for fun. Sent it down the road when I just couldn't warm up to it and the chances of finding the other .32 calibers it can fire for less than .38 Special prices were slim and none.

A year or so later I found the newly released 4" adjustable sight SP and fell in really serious like with it. Waited 6 months or so for the bugs to be worked out and bought one. Found out the hard way that while the ejector rod of the S7 didn't care about .32 Auto being semi-rimmed, the extractor star of the SP certainly did because there wasn't enough rim to grab. Traded it off for a 4" .357 GP and haven't regretted getting out out of the .327 game.

I went through a similar progression. I loved the idea of .327 on paper and had a bunch of them; a 3" taurus snub, and then a 5.5" 8 shot Blackhawk and then 2 Single-7s first one 4.5" and then one 5.5". The 4.5" S7 stuck cases like no tomorrow and had to go back to Ruger. The 3" Taurus felt like it was gonna give me a nosebleed when I shot it with full power ammo (and have spent a fair bitof time shooting 2-3" .357s and one 3" .44 mag snub). With the Federal AE 100 grain softpoint load the Taurus and shorter S7 would have everybody at the indoor range walking over to see what I was shooting.

If finally realized that I was more and more just shooting either .32 mag or .32 mag level handloads in them and sold or traded them all off. I should have just kept a couple of them and shot .32 mag and been happy in life...