Guns I wished I never owned.

[DannyB1954]

I seen a thread titled "guns I would never own", and it made me wonder about a saying I once heard about contempt prior to investigation. You know prejudging things that you have no experience with because what you may have heard from others. Some of the brands that were being bashed, I have had, or a friend has had, and they were good guns. Not pretty, but reliable.

So I thought I would start a thread about the guns that we do have direct experience with, and found lacking. I still have these two guns, and am hoping that someday they can be made good, but I really do regret buying them. The first is a Walther p22 even with good ammo it has fail to feed, fail to fire and fail to eject issues. There are good web sites that talk about machining parts of this gun with files and such to get them halfway reliable, but my attitude is I spent good money for my guns. The factory should have done what was necessary to make these reliable.
The second is the Beretta Nano. After many rounds still lots of fail to eject. Beretta seems to be in complete denial that they have a design problem with lots of guns malfunctioning. Beretta says it is an ammo issue, but the same ammo runs in other guns no problems.
So what were your regrettable purchases?

[DefensiveCarry.com]

[Phaedrus]

I honestly can't think of many guns that I truly regretted purchasing, but a few were somewhat disappointing. The first gun that kind of let me down a bit was my Mini-14. I bought one in SS about 20 years ago. It was reliable but just shot terribly- with a good scope shooting off sandbags it the best groups I got with it were in the 6" range at 100 yards. From what I've read the newer ones have heavier barrels and shoot better but mine sucked. I also had an SKS and an AK-47 (don't recall the make, probably Norinco). The SKS straight up sucked it was super cheap so no big deal. The AK was just rough, nothing I liked about it at all. It always went BANG but it made my Mini look like a sniper rifle. The sights sucked, the finish was terrible and I hate the magazine release (sorta like the Mini, actually...). I can't knock the AK as a gun, but I didn't like shooting it.

[Kilowatt3]

Llama IIIA .380
Sterling .22
AMT Backup .380

All of these are from 30+ years ago.

[Tundra5.7]

Taurus Raging Bull in 44 Mag. Loved the look, feel, and how it felt when you shot it but it was terribly inaccurate with many different loads and experienced shooters. Wound up trading it off.

[Ksgunner]

I had a 9mm I bought from a friend that was absolutly the worst gun I have ever owned. I can't remember the manufacturer but is was a real bad gun...

[OldVet]

I had some foreign-made SA .22 once that shaved lead so bad it was hazardous to stand next to it when firing. The barrel wobbled (literally) and hitting tin cans at 10-15 feet was a challenge. Finally sold it and bought a Ruger BH.357 and never looked back.

[bmcgilvray]

The first is a Walther p22 even with good ammo it has fail to feed, fail to fire and fail to eject issues. There are good web sites that talk about machining parts of this gun with files and such to get them halfway reliable, but my attitude is I spent good money for my guns. The factory should have done what was necessary to make these reliable.

My feelings exactly. It's like buying a new set of tires and having to patch them yourself before they will hold air.

I felt much the same way back in 2005 when I acquired a Kel Tec P3AT as a more effective deep concealment pistol than a Colt .25 ACP. The P3AT was becoming wildly popular at the time as there was nothing like it on the market that combined compactness with the .380 ACP caliber. The company had just brought out the second generation revision of the model and folks were snapping them up. Though I didn't like the DAO trigger nor the plastic frame I held my nose and got one.

It proved to be a cranky little devil, with failures to feed and failures to eject abounding. A Kel Tec owners website mostly touted the P3AT and promoted this "fluffing & buffing" technique for gaining reliability from the product that Kel Tec was churning out. Personally, I would have rather paid more for a pistol that worked from the start so viewed this "fluffing & buffing" requirement with disdain.

In the end, the pistol worked out. I determined to make a test out of it to see if the pistol would ever smooth up and function properly with shooting use. After about 600 rounds fired, the pistol did indeed become reliable and remains so today. I still view it with contempt. The pistol could have been so much more. Now there are other runt .380 pistol designs on the market but I'm just not interested enough in the breed to make a trade, preferring to just keep what I got.

The first .44 Magnum I ever owned was a bust. Not having funds for a Smith & Wesson Model 29 which were sky-high at the time, I thought to get a Ruger Super Blackhawk. At the store, lying in the pistol case beside a Super Blackhawk was an Interarms Virginian Dragoon .44 Magnum. It was a very handsomely finished revolver with it's color case hardened frame and very high polished deep blue finish, looking much like a Colt New Frontier only rendered in 1.25 scale. A big ol' revolver, it appeared stout enough for any reasonable .44 Magnum handload. It was only a dollar more than the Super Blackhawk so I thought to give it a try.

It proved to be a big wimp. Primers flattened and pierced with factory .44 Magnum ammunition. Primers flattened and pierced with factory .44 Special ammunition! This was disconcerting. Also, one needed to keep a properly fitting screw driver on hand when shooting it for every screw loosened badly between every cylinder-full of ammunition fired. I sold it to a local gunsmith/dealer at a deep loss and put a large heaping pile of money with the funds realized from the sale, "biting the bullet" and purchasing a Smith & Wesson Model 29 which I still have and which has given 33 years of satisfaction.

[mbguy29577]

I had a Kimber 3" 45 that was a nightmare. Cant recall the exact model but it cost $1300 and never worked. Constant jams even after a gunsmith tried his best. Kimber said to send it to them and wait 3 months til they could look into it. Decided to trade it in and move on. I know many people have great Kimber experiences, I just got a lemon.

[GoPackman]

i had an older polymer frame Kahr about 8 years ago, can't remember the model, was in .40 cal. I owned a couple of 1911's at the time, thought I'd try something really different on a whim. Wicked recoil out of that little gun. But the deal breaker: it was the toughest pistol I've ever come across to break down for cleaning, really a bugger. Never had any FTF, FTE problems though.

[Taurahe]

Bought a NIB taurus .357 snubbie. first trip to the range was a disaster. On the third round the cylinder locked up because the rod was bent, causing the cylinder to turn and catch the cartridge headstamp on the frame face. Took it back to the gun store, they argued nothing was wrong until they actually tried to shoot it.. sent it back to taurus. Taurus "fixed" it, so of course it came back with the same problem. The LGS refused to buy the gun back or exchange it, and taurus said I had to deal with the LGS. I actually gave the gun away to a guy i knew I was so angry. He finally got it repaired and has been carrying it ever since. Since then I have refused to buy another taurus product. I have come close several times but dont want to risk it.

[CPO 15]

Well, there was the PF9 and the Taurus .45, but the biggest disappointment was the PPK; wanted it for years (007 envy) and found it to be heavy, too much recoil, not particularly accurate in my hand and a pain to maintain. It did look cool though.

[chuckusaret]

First generation DB380, and first generation Glock G22. Nuff Said.

[rammerjammer]

Kel Tec PF9. At least one malfunction per magazine and after trying to work with it I had to trade it. It is the only gun that I have ever traded/sold away.

Kel Tecs look and feel like they were made in a dimly lit Chinese garage.

[DaGunny]

Para LDA/PDA 9mm. At least 1 FTF of FTE per magazine. Called Para, sent it in, got it back 3 weeks later. Still had FTF & FTE, but not as often. Found out that they had discontinued the line...I wonder why? Couldn't trust it, so I traded it in on a Kimber.

[pgrass101]

A SS Rossi .357 that I took in as trade (along with some cash) on a Springfield 1911. It had a terrible trigger but I thought I could smooth it out and wanted a SS truck/fishing gun that I would not get too upset over if it went swimming.

The trigger was beyond hope (It still makes a NYPD trigger look smooth and lite) and it is probably best used as a boat anchor. I still have it and use it as a loaner gun.