Exceeded Expectations?

Those shoot great, but wait until the extractor issues start arising. Pretty frustrating having to take the spring clip out and bend it to provide more tension every 100 rounds or so. Wish an aftermarket solution would arrive for these, because they are scary accurate for the cost. I have and FV-SR and shooting suppressed it gets dirty which doesn't help extraction either.

Swedish Mauser. 2800 FPs with 140 grain bullets, 2" groups at 100 yards with iron sights. Paid $150 for it several years ago.

Savage/Steven's bolt action 30-30. A blast to shoot with cast bullets, and it's minute of jackrabbit. Paid $165 a few years ago. Hard to beat the enjoyment per dollar.

My Rock Island M14Y Youth Rifle has exceeded my expectations, but then again I only paid $66 new for it. What's not to appreciate about a 22lr bolt, threaded barrel (had to clean up the threads) for $66. Great for barnyard pest control!

My Romanian m69. Once I got the feed issue sorted out (just needed a proper mag) it ended up being a pretty stellar rifle.

CZ P-01. Yeah, we know they're top notch now but this was in 2004. I was carrying a Colt Series 70 .45 and was looking for something smaller in 9MM. A Friend suggested the P-01. I handled one at the LGS and it did feel right. I bought it and it wasn't cheap by any means. I went home and cleaned it and strolled out to my range. It put 14 rounds in the center of a silhouette a 25 yards. I like everything about it. That led several more CZ's and I have carried a CZ ever since.

I picked up a Rossi RS22 from a friend for forty bucks last summer. It is surprisingly accurate for a cheap 22, eats everything I have put in it, and I love the fiber optic sight.

Just re-read...diamond in the rough this was not.

The Pistola Sistema Modelo Argentino 1927. It came to me as a $400 shooter and was pretty darn good as is. Its had a few upgrades since then, and is still one of my favorites

I’ve posted it before. My 70’s model 444 with micro-groove barrel. Was told it wouldn’t shoot heavy bullets accurately because of the micro groove and slow twist. But it shoots true cloverleafs at 100 yards with 300gr Sierra FP’s over H-4198.

AMT .45 BackUp. I shouldn't be surprised by liking it since a Border Region DEA pal carried it as his backup until the market for lighter and better-featured guns exploded.

Still, being a fan of all-things-AMT, I was well aware of the reputation and entered into my relationship with it accordingly. I mostly bought it on a lark to complement another very favorably owned and shot AMT of dismal repute shown here. I guess it too, fits the OP's bill.

After confirming the gun's mags and others bought later and running though a few different loads (none of which led to failures) I settled on Federal HSTs and never looked back. It still gets carried from time to time and has never caused me to address the slide due to any failures.

The accuracy is the next great shock. Only a trench for a sight and yet great groups and very easy and repeatable pointing.

Holster selection flat sucks.

Another would be a beat to hell Garand. One of those shameful Korean re-imports that had literally been drug by the muzzle, shot corrosive and ignored till the bore had a permanent black presentation and otherwise simply made you feel sorry for it. For no particular reason before tearing it down - I took it out shooting. Hot-damn but it was accurate. In the end, I merely tarted it up a bit and gave it to a Pal who was Garand-shy at the time.

Todd.

The gun that has surprised me the most is my old single shot Remington 410. I never saw a need for one until I had it. Now I don't know how you could not have one.

My son’s Rascal.

For such a tiny little rifle it sure does give big smiles!
It has a great trigger. Not just a great trigger “for a kid’s gun”, but a seriously nice trigger.

The aperture sights make anyone a crack shot. They came dead on and I left them there. Anything Little Bear can see is toast! Golf balls beware!
Supremely packable even if it doesn’t come apart.
It’s bite-sized fun!

Like this guy. A MiniMe!

I tend to do a pipe of research, so am rarely surprised with the outcome of a purchase. They maybe slightly better or worse than i expect, but rarely is it day and night.
If there was a bad one it was my last new 700, after which i bought my A-bolt.
The A-bolt is functionally everything I want in a rifle, and the conversion to .375 Ruger made it even better.

My biggest surprise is my Henry H001 rifle which not only shoots ANY 22 ammo pretty well, with mini mags it will shoot sub 1/2" groups at 50 yards on a very consistent basis.

I would have to say that my Ruger 10/22 really exceeded my expectations. I was just looking for a fun plinker to play around with and maybe do some small game hunting. Didn't expect great accuracy and total reliability but I certainly got both with my Ruger!

My Mossberg 151M. Shopping for a 352 and not finding one worth buying, I came across this. Looked beautiful, and since I was thinking of paying 200 bucks for the only well-worn 352 in the place, I offered the same to the guy that had this. He accepted and I love it. Shot it today in fact-below are today's targets.

Howland937 said:

Tell us about your diamond in the rough, beater or cheapie that turned out to be surprisingly accurate, reliable (or both!) that you had to shoot again...and again...just to be sure it wasn't a fluke.
What's yours?

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Another of mine. Came as half-a-beater. At the time I listened to too many who pooh-pooed Charter Arms and really thought the Target Bulldog monicker was a stretch.

It was offered to me in a car-parts trade by my barber in Monterey and since I didn't need what I had I figured... How bad can they really be?

Turned out to need going through and cleaning ALL the treaded surfaces, loctiteing a few and then figuring the best .44spl rounds for it.

Accurate, light, tough and reliable these past 3 decades+.


Todd.

Taurus 415 41 mag exceeded my very low expectations.

Haha. That is how I describe most modern movies I like. “It exceeded my low expectations.”

Interesting topic. I have 2 entries :

First is a run of the mill white bread Marlin 60. I picked up because I wanted a cheap .22 rifle ($100 and change...) - and it turned out to be a really good shooter. If I am ever in a shooting slump I can load up that old rifle , look out over the simple iron sights , go 5 for 5 hitting clys stuck on the the face of the berm at 50 yards , and the slump is over.

The other is one I have posted here before ... about 5 years back I wanted a "guinea pig" revolver for a learning device ; I felt the need to become familiar with disassembly , deep cleaning and parts replacement without putting my valuable revolvers at risk. I found a beat up S&W 15-3 for $193 , tore it down , managed to put it back together , and found out that it was the best shooter in my modest collection! Since then I've had a target trigger fitted and had the "trigger job" done by a fine old smith ; now it is my "sleeper".
Last gun I would ever part with.

Howland937 said:

I'm a bit of an impulse buyer at times, especially if a deal jumps out in front of me. I'd just commented to another THR member who was at the same gun show that I hadn't bought an actual gun at a gun show in years. So this purchase was like 50% because of that. 25% because it seemed like a good deal. 25% I'm still not sure about.

Click to expand...

I tend to be a pretty impulsive about actual purchases, but more often than not its something ive been looking into at some point. Ive only really bought 2 or three guns on shear whim. One was my first ruger american, in 300aac, and I was really not thrilled.

It was at a somewhat higher price point, but my Ruger American Ranch in 350 Legend has wildly exceeded my expectations. Accurate well beyond what I would expect for a short barrel in a compromise cartridge, handy and quick handling, fun to shoot. Great trigger, minimal recoil (especially for the power), takes AR mags. My only beef is that it feeds a little balky, but this isn't a high speed shooter. I can't wait to see what it will do with cast bullets in heavy, slow loads. If I can get good accuracy with one of those I may finally buy a can.

Mine is a Savage Model 25 Varminter. Don't recall what I paid for it, but it was a lot less than some of the other bolt actions I was considering. Mounted an inexpensive 3X9 scope on it andtook a box of 75gr Hornady Matchto the range. As inexperienced as I was, I still put 19 of 20 rounds inside a 2in. pasty @100. I've since bedded the stock and mounted a Vortex 6X24 and it shoots 1in. groups @300 consistently.