[Old Dog]

Ever been surprised by how well a gun shoots, when you didn't have high expections of that gun? For example, a cheap gun that turned out to be supremely reliable and highly accurate or a throw-in on a trade that you ended up liking more than the object of your trade?

Or been surprised by how badly a gun shot when you paid big bucks for a firearm that normally had a good reputation?

Forgive me if this has been asked before, but during recent range visits, I've been most surprised by a few guns ... Lately, I've become enamored of my wife's Taurus PT-145 (an astoundly accurate piece, albeit possessed of a looonng trigger pull), which I've been shooting a bit more since I got rid of my last Glock ... I've also been pleasantly surprised by a Springfield GI purchased on a whim (a tackdriver) and a very accurate and stone reliable Makarov ($139 budget handgun) and a Rossi version of the old Winchester gallery rimfire rifle ...

On the negative side, I've had a crappy 1000-dollar 1911 that I ended up trading away and a poor post-64 Winchester Model 70 in 30.06 ...

Any stories out there?

[Sean85746]

Saturday, I bought an NIB Sprinfield GI...shot it today.

DAYUM!

I already own a bunch of 1911's, my current favorite carry piece being the Springfield Armory "Loaded" model. It is a shooter in a room full of shooters! But, I have to say the GI is almost as nice.

As much as I love tricked out 1911's with Novak Nities, and beavertails, and all the bells and whistles...I have a real soft spot for plain old GI 1911's and Series 70 1911's.

This GI model, which I only paid $399.00 for NEW, is worth at least that much. What a great piece! Even with the tiny little original WWII vintage sights...I really like it.

I also have a Smith & Wesson Model 65 3" .357 that I got for some work I did on a neighbor's house. I only did about 3 hours work...and they gave ,me the gun. WOW...hits to the point of aim with 125gr jhps. If I had a BIG stick I couldn't beat that deal!

I am also a Browning Hi Power fan, and a friend sold me a Hi Power copy...FEG PJK9HP for $100.00. I have put a couple thousand rounds through it, and have never had a problem!

I have been lucky in the gunny sack!

[Slimjim]

I own a springfield GI. I love it, i do best with the tiny fixed iron sights. I did add a few things though. Like a bushing, and a guide rod. Other than that, its pretty much stock...and a set of grips too.

[Standing Wolf]

I bought an Interarms Walther PPK because it was irresistibly cute. It turned out to be a heck of a shooter, to my considerable surprise.

[Bob F.]

$200 Makarov, East German, no less. Not only regularly hit the plates @ 25yds but smacked 'em down!!

[SpookyPistolero]

My dad and I were about to go shooting together a few years ago and stopped by the gun store for some ammo ( a great little store this fellow and his wife run out of their converted garage, great people and prices). Well pop got a hankering for this little high-point carbine despite me having very heavy reservations against the brand.

We bought it and I assembled it at the farm and man was I wrong. First of all, I couldn't get it to jam for the life of me. Then I started trying to see what I could hit and saw a heavy log leaning up against a barn about 80 yards out. Im not an expert rifleman and it was hard to tell if I was hitting the log or not. After heading up and checking things out I saw that all but one were in a little 4 inch circle in the middle. I was as happy as I could be! :D

Ugly as sin but, to borrow from Oleg's masterpiece, it's the most fun I can have with my clothes on!

[Mr. Mysterious]

I was really suprised by my little Kel-tec P32...it definitely is a mouse gun that can put a round between someones eyes if the need arises.

[GaryP]

Yep, back around 1980 I purchased a model 302 stainless steel Sterling .22 Auto for pocket carry. Just about every gun person I knew laughed and verbally degraded the little beast. This was the first handgun my son shot! We use to go to the woods, often -- You could do that back then, around here -- and spend a couple of hours shooting holes in tin cans and paper plates. We must have put several thousand rounds through the little Sterling over a five year period with no jams and only a few FTF's that are typical with .22LR ammo. I still kick myself for letting the Sterling go in a trade but that's life. Every now and then I see one at a gunshow and SMILE as old memories of my son and I in the woods with our Sterling flood my mind! :)


This is the only image I could find of the Sterling M302:

Sterling M302 (http://www.gunsamerica.com/guns/976230331.htm)


:evil:

[junke]

just bought win94AE .357 it shoots 2" groups at 100Yds with nearly everything i have run through it. just finished working up a deer round, 180 gr jhp that consistantly shoots 1.5" @ 100 :cool:

[Chupacabra]

1911s in general. :D

One day while at the range, I decided to try one and see what all the fuss was about. WOW! I couldn't believe I had passed over the 1911 all those times I had gone shooting. Maybe I thought the .45 round would be too much for me to handle. Boy was I wrong. I was hooked after that. Bought my Kimber Custom II a short time later.

:evil:

[ChopperKen]

My boss has a Dan Wesson 22 w/ a 8" heavy barrel that I love to shoot.
At 35 yards I can centerpunch beerbottle caps with it.
The last time I shot it he was :what: as I shot clay pidgens at 100 yds..
Ken

[ccw007]

For me it was a Glock 30. I kept hearing good things about them and being open minded person I thought I would rent one to see if I could find a reason not to love it. I had problem Glock 19 that I had sold a year before so I really wanted to find a problem with Glock 30. Well I bought a G 30 less than week later :D

[secluded]

Back in the day when I managed a gunshop S&W had just come out with the "Sigma" series pistols. They were running a promotion with dealers that for every 5 guns sold the salesman got a free range bag, with every 10 sold the salesman got a free SW380, a .380 version of the Sigma. I had a few salesman that got several pistols and range bags. I sold a few and a couple of folks let me have their "extra" sales to reach the 10 gun quota for a free pistol. As it turns out I've had this little thing for about 10 years and it's been 100% reliable, definitly not what I expected. Heck the manual ever suggests that you don't take it apart, it's all held together with roll pins. I even pulled it out at a local steel plate shoot as a joke. I hit 5 of the 7 plates in rapid fire, of course they didn't fall but you could hear the "ding!" :D Not bad for a gun with a groove on the top of the slide.

[Hawk]

A recent Colt series 80 Gov't model was a surprise - trigger, sights, fit, finish and reliability all better than expectations. I must've gotten a dog first time through back in '80's.

SIG P239 in .357 was another shocker - I expected I'd like it, but didn't foresee how comfy it'd be. I had a Kahr P40 previously that chewed up my paw pretty badly, the SIG, with what looks to be the same size grip is downright fun and comfy. I have no reasonable explanation for the difference - just one of those mysteries of life.

[TRK2AJK]

i bought one of these nib w/2mags for $200 ou the door. i was looking for a 22 pocketpistol that i could take to out to the woods. the weapon is basically a walther ppk copy in 22lr. after close to 1000 rounds, this little pistol is 100% reliable period. it has a really beautiful deep blued finish. it is more than accurate enough for perforating tin cans at 15yards. my only complaints are the heavy double action trigger and my inability to find more magazines for it. it is a jewel! :D

[Moondoggie]

I bought a CVA .36 1851 Colt Navy replica 20 yrs ago for $65...mostly for a wall hanger to go along with my BP rifle and Marine Corps Sword.

Of course, I just had to try it out. SHAZAMM!!! It will put 6 rds in the black @ 25 yds just as easily as any of my S&W tgt revolvers. A little slow on the reload, though. :rolleyes:

[sturmruger]

My favorite cheap gun was is my Phoenix Arms HP22. IT was less then $100, but is one of my favorite .22s to shoot.

[foghornl]

A CVA blackpowder .31 "Pocket Remington" Shot very well for its size...I'm not good with 'rodent-sized' weapons, but i could actually keep 'em inside the 9 ring at 10 yds.

[Dave R]

My Kel-Tec P-11 surprised me. First time I bench-rested it, the groups were nice and tight.

First time I shot it offhand, the trigger pull opened those groups WAAAAAY up. But once I got used to the trigger, they tightened up again.

Then I took it plinking out in the desert. Someone had left an old, 2X3' real estate sign. On a whim, I paced off 100 yards, then turned and fired. And hit the thing. Then went 8 out of 10.

Remarkable for an inexpensive snubby semi-auto.

[Rexrider]

S&W 908s

I bought it mainly because my wife liked the way the grip fit her hand. It has turned out to be a really good shooter.

Not that I get a chance to shoot it very often. My wife seems to think it is hers. :banghead:

But that is not a bad thing I guess. I feel better knowing she has become fairly proficient with it.

[HogRider]

Ever been surprised by a gun? yes, sometimes...

A new Taurus PT92 in Stainless was the biggest surprise. Took it to the range and the adjustable rear sight fell off the gun before I had finished the first box of ammo. That was really surprising. After this was fixed the gun developed so much slide to frame play (in less than 500 rounds of factory ammo) that a gunsmith considered it "not safe to shoot". Basically a stainless/aluminum baby rattle.
That was the second surprise. :cuss:

The most surprising thing was that a range buddy wanted it so badly that he actually bought it from me, although he knew the flaws. :uhoh:

[aguyindallas]

I recently got a Kel-Tec P32, which I will admit drastically surprised me in the area of accuracy.

I love it...just bought a matching one for my wife in fact.

[Nathanael_Greene]

Pleasant surprise that I won't stop talking about:

Marlin 1894C. What a great little rifle. No recoil, accurate, cute--just about the perfect small rifle.

Pleasant surprise that I'm ashamed to admit I own:

A super-cheap .25 auto (not a Raven or Jennings; FIE, I think) that I paid about $30 for. I figured I'd be lucky to hit the paper at 15 yards, but it shoots a pretty tight group and has never jammed. I'd actually consider carrying it as a CCW.

[mbs357]

Few buddies and I went shooting one day. Basically it was me and my uncle with some of his guns, my dad's old buddy with his guns, and a few of his buddies.
Anyway, said guy had a .357 revolver laid out. I got a chance to shoot it, and did.
Loaded it with .38 special.
Now, I wasn't expecting it to be crappy, but, I wasn't expecting it to be the best pistol I ever fired either.
I swear I hit everything I looked at with it, and it had a hairpin trigger in single action mode.
ooooooooo

[larryf1952]

I had a Springfield 1911A1 that I'd refinished in hard chrome, and I'd just bought a new Kimber Classic Stainless. This was in about 1997 or '98. I was shooting the .45's a lot then, and I thought, you know, I ought to buy something that I can just take to the range and shoot the heck out of, and I won't be upset if it falls in the mud. A local sporting goods store ran a special on Llama duotone Max-I C/F's a few weeks later, so I bought one. I'd never had a Llama, and I wasn't expecting much. At first, I didn't get much...there was a burr on the frame that prevented the trigger from going through it's entire travel. I decided to detail strip the gun, found the burr, removed it with a few swipes of a small file, put the gun back together and tried it out. WOW! The thing fed 185JHP's without a hitch, and it'd ring a 10" steel gong at 50 yards with no sweat. Now, I have to look for something else again, I don't want to drop the Llama in the mud...I like it too much. :D

[dfaugh]

gave me a Marlin 60, shortly before he passed away....I'd just bought this place, with a barn and land, and he figured I needed it for "pest control"...Had a really atrocious scope on it, so I bought a Tasco Pronghorn 3-9x (29.99 on closoeut) and some decent rings....Total investemnt under $40 in this gun...

Long story short, its the most accurate gun I own (not that own any very expensive/fancy ones)...Semi-auto .22s got NO right to be this accurate!...Here's the group I shot last week...Actually have shot a couple smaller, but I always trhow in one flyer out of ten shots(which i usually call)....So this is the "official" best 10 shot group ever....

Of course I'll never part with it for sentimental reasons, anyway, even if it wasn't a tack driver

[Rickstir]

I didn't know how good a shot I was until I shot my brother's Browning 22 rifle with 4X scope. And turn about is fair play. He didn't know how good a pistol shot he was until he shot my Beretta 92FS.

[Black Snowman]

Taurus 669, 6", blued and ported bought off a friend who needed money and didn't ever shoot. Since sold it to another friend who shoots it more than I did. Superb SA trigger and a smooth, if somewhat heavy, DA. A solid gun that's seen a lot of use and come out stone cold reliable and accurate.

[possenti]

My Springfield XD9. I swear the thing reads my mind because it puts the bullets exactly where I "will" them to. I've never considered myself to be proficient with handguns, but this thing makes me look better than I really am.

I've also owned the HS2000 - the almost identical predecessor to the XD - and it didn't shoot nearly as well for me. Go figger....

[greg531mi]

My Auguata, that I bought from CDNN for $199....What is an Auguata? a Seecamp copy....That little 32 acp gun shot 3 inch groups at 15 yards....

[Roadkill]

My best surprise is a Chinese type 54 Tokarev in 7.62x25, very reliable and accurate, powerful, and cheap to shoot. Worst is a $1000 Luger, after two years I just got a load for it matched with a magazine that will work (5g red dot, 115g fmj, Mecgar) problem is the round's OAL, is way longer than I thought, but it sure shoots now.

rk

[NoHarmNoFAL]

Bulgy Makarov that shoot great for $150 and Barhnal 95 gr. hps for $0.10 a pop and those hp's really bust water bottles :what: .

[LiquidTension]

My Yugo SKS was sort of a surprise...I knew I liked SKSs, but this one is just cooler than the rest.

My old P7 was surprisingly awesome, but I sold it because college kids are destined to be poor :rolleyes:

[mec360]

I have a beat up police trade-in S&W 6906 that is much more accurate than I ever would have expected. I've had bad luck with Smith autos in the past, but this one is great.

[Skunkabilly]

CZs and XDs. Both very nice.

[rick newland]

The CZ PO-1 I bought in Dec. I was so impressed with it's accuracy and lack of recoil I went out and bought another one in Jan.

[ducktapehero]

I bought a 50 year old Beretta 418, which I have heard are totally reliable for 4-5 rounds, and it is the most reliable bottom feeder I've ever shot. The only time it has jammed on me was when I put it together wrong. :banghead: It's also surprisingly accurate, at least for my wife, I can't hit a thing with it. Not a bad little pistol for a hundred bucks.