OK What's the WORST Rifle You have ever owned ?

Mini 14, ranch rifle. Really bad.

AR-7 made by charter arms, Tried everything to get that to run. Horrible. I wanna try the Henry one, but I am still mad at that ar-7.

1979 I bought a Charter Arms AR-7 Survival Rifle .22 Caliber. Novel thing, an example was in from "Russia with Love" with James Bond, of course it shot down a helicopter!! Oh well, I could have forgave the pot metal. But, the sights were abysmal. Yeah, it floated. But, if I were stranded somewhere, please lord any single shot .22 made in the 1930's would do me better. Haven't examined the new one from Henry, maybe its better. But, 5 times better? I bought the CA back then for 90 bucks. Today Henry on GB 399.00???? and up

Electrod47 said:

1979 I bought a Charter Arms AR-7 Survival Rifle .22 Caliber. Novel thing, an example was in from "Russia with Love" with James Bond, of course it shot down a helicopter!! Oh well, I could have forgave the pot metal. But, the sights were abysmal. Yeah, it floated. But, if I were stranded somewhere, please lord any single shot .22 made in the 1930's would do me better. Haven't examined the new one from Henry, maybe its better. But, 5 times better? I bought the CA back then for 90 bucks. Today Henry on GB 399.00???? and up

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$279.99 - $299.99 locally.

Mine was a Ruger American in .358Win.

After my intensely disappointing experience with a .35Rem Marlin that identified as a shotgun, I really wanted the .358Win to shine as a medium bore 100 yard rifle.

Despite the outstanding reputation of Ruger's American rifles, it was not to be. The magazine sucked, and I've done nearly as well with a heavy revolver as that rifle did at 50 yards.

I've never owned a lemon. I was most disappointed with a Mini-14 Ranch Rifle (5.56). It functioned well with factory magazines and I tinkered with it quite a bit but could never get it to group to my satisfaction. I really wanted to like it but as Col. Whelen said, "Only accurate rifles are interesting."

I had a 336 in 30-30 that was so bad I couldn't hit a barn with it if I was in the barn. Tried different scopes, rounds, etc.

Bought/Owned? 2010ish M700, nearly all the "common" Remington screw ups on that one. Still shot ok, and after rechambering by hand to STW shot well.

Nothing "new" comes close to that one.

If were considering damaged/neglected....

Worst gun ive ever shot? Janky win94 thwt got left in a leaky storage container (according to the owners tale). Trigger didnt work, you pulled the hammer back and let it slam fire. Mag tube rotted clean thru, and the bore was ruined...bullets had to be single loaded, and sometimes didnt hold together after leaving.

My father had a reproduction "Tommy" gun that had trouble running more than a few rounds through it. Never even got to try the drum mag. The stick mags wouldn't even feed correctly, then the bolt came apart.

We were so excited to try it out and became disappointed very quickly.

I had a savage in .204 Ruger I couldn't get to shoot better than 3moa, no matter the shooter, scope, rings, or ammo. Sent it back to savage a few times, they finally replaced it with a decent shooting one.

Henry lever action .22 from the late 90's. Poorly built and re-badged Erma.

I’ve had plenty of turds, but I’ve generally been able to fix them all to either shoot accurately or function reliably, or fix fit and finish issues.

The one that probably bummed me out the most was my savage 12 BVSS. It would keyhole bullets and was also blowing up bullets coming out of the muzzle. I sent it back to get rebarreled and the new barrel did the same thing so I put a criterion barrel on it myself.

The worst rifle I’ve ever had though was a savage model 12fv. One of the heavy barrel cabelas exclusive rifles that they sell around the holidays for cheap every year. The stock was so floppy and cheesy, and the spray on finish on the rifle was so bad that I couldn’t be bothered to even put a scope on it. I kept it around for a few months and ended up trading it for one of the worst handguns I’ve ever had, a Kahr CW45.

I was happier to see my special order Kimber 84M Select Grade depart my safe than I was the day I picked it up. Pretty thing that wouldn't shoot for beans.

Shot a lot of bad guns, had or seen any number of handguns actually break, but for rifles... gotta be the Marlin 989 M2. The Marlin magazine-fed .22 (the 99 is the same, but tube fed) and sort of a Marlin 10/22, this one dressed to look like an M1 Carbine with an 18" barrel, making it pretty handy.

With proper Marlin magazines and the best ammo, it would periodically fire two shots in a row. With other mags, less happy ammo: zero. I mean, sometimes I'd expend 20+ rounds being smashed by the bolt before they got loaded much less fired. Took it all apart, cleaned scrupulously, changed springs, etc. Never got better.

Gun show traded for... well, now I can't remember actually. One of my very first guns, when young and poor, so any purchase was at least partly funded by trades, but for this one, I recall I got into it cheap, it got me good trade value as it was in lovely condition, but no recollection of what I traded it for.

Winchester model 94 357. It would feed and go bang and that was about it. I have no idea how poor the accuracy actually was as it would not stay on the 18 inch target holders at the sportsman’s club at 50 yards.With most loads at least 50% of the bullets showed some key holing. Some would show the entire bullet profile if they happened to hit the target. With loads light enough to be shot without muffs you could actually hear the bullets buzz as they went down range. Sent back to Winchester twice. The claimed 2 inch groups, but, absolutely refused to say what range. Bet those targets had powder burns! You could actually see huge gaps in the rifling if you shined a light down the barrel.

+1 on the Charter Arms AR-7. Simply. Dreadful. Garbage.

Honorable mention to that horrid Daisey .22 bolt action they briefly marketed.

Savage edge,

Tikka T3 Lite .243. Lucky to hit the backstop at 100. Terrible customer service. Said I could send it back if I paid shipping and included a $75 bench fee cause it’s “never their fault”. Free floated the barrel and at least I can now hit the backstop.

Rem 770. Surprisingly accurate, but pieces started falling off after 2 or 3 rounds. Had a big gouge inside the chamber that had to be cleaned up with a chainsaw file.

Winchester 190 22. lr. Maybe it was cursed from the begining, I don't know, all i know it was terrible!

Bought it at an auction back in the good ol days of less restrictions. It wasn't in the best conditions, the receiver had gouges in it, threads screwed up, under barrel magazine tube missing.
I'm always up for a good gunsmithing challenge, bought the missing pieces that I could find (cocking handle unobtainable at that time).
But....I'm guessing it was in its condition for a reason. Couldn't get it to shoot consistently, two shots in a row was about it.

Traded it off at a gunshow, and I'm much happier without it in my life.

MosinT53Hunter said:

Winchester 190 22. lr. Maybe it was cursed from the begining, I don't know, all i know it was terrible!

Bought it at an auction back in the good ol days of less restrictions. It wasn't in the best conditions, the receiver had gouges in it, threads screwed up, under barrel magazine tube missing.
I'm always up for a good gunsmithing challenge, bought the missing pieces that I could find (cocking handle unobtainable at that time).
But....I'm guessing it was in its condition for a reason. Couldn't get it to shoot consistently, two shots in a row was about it.

Traded it off at a gunshow, and I'm much happier without it in my life.

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Those were notorious junk. Ive seen several recently in nice condition, but ran away as fast as I could!

Had a few lame shotguns and handguns over the years and fixed most of them, but the worst rifles (yes, rifles) have been the ar7. I've had two, convinced I could polish the turd into something useful, and have worked on/cussed at three different ones for my uncle and a couple friends. I got all of them to work, but they just aren't reliable. So those are the worst.

The worst one due to neglect might be the Mossberg tube fed semi auto that decided to go full auto on me next to a sheriff at the range. We both took it apart and had a laugh at the completely filled trigger assembly with unburnt powder. A can of gun scrubber later and it was semi auto again. I had just got it from a gun show. Had me sweating for a minute.

Romanian SKS was junk, wouldn't cycle a full mag of any ammo. My Chinese SKS is flawless.

2nd worst was Marlin 925 22mag. Brand new, the firepin was not designed well, frequent ftf from light strikes with every ammo made.

3rd was Rem 788 in 30-06. You get what you pay for with them. Accuracy was ok, but nothing else.
Love the 700 Cdl's I have, but the 788 is junk.