What is the worst pistol you have ever shot? For me it was a Jimenez Arms JA Nine...

Although many people seem to like them, the worst gun I've ever shot was a Bersa Thunder .380. It was crudely made, jammed quite often, had terrible ergonomics and a trigger pull to match.

first let me say that i'm really glad you're able to afford very nice, well crafted, high end pistols.
However;
many of us are simply unable to afford such weapons. ( house notes car notes kids to feed and other such trivial stuff,)

my first pistol heavier than a 22. Was jiminez 380. And while it was nowhere near the level of the stuff you seem to have just lying about, i can say honestly that with a decent cleaning regiment it was never prone to jamming, it was quite accurate out to 20 yrds, (short barrel belly gun.... I tried to be half way realistic) and i felt more than comfy carrying it with me anytime i took my wife and kids out on the town. it was used when i bought it for the measley sum of 100$. i was told quite clearly that it was worthless by my local gun shop. but it served me well for a solid 5 yrs until it literally started to fall to pieces. I was a novice shooter with novice shooting skills.... Did i mention how impressed i am with you shooting better than the guy with the worst pistol ever?
Would i rush out to buy a jimenez ?
No.
Would i carry one ?
Absolutely.

Any gun will do if you will.

and somehow managed to put two bullets from an entire clip on the target;

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JA Nine's use magazines, not clips.

Anyways, the worst gun I've ever actually shot? Probably an FIE E15. It's a little .22LR single action revolver. My dad pay $40 for it way back in the early to mid 1980's. Shot it a few times and then just tossed it in a drawer never to be seen again. After I got into handguns he gave it to me. You have to use some off-set aiming due to the sights not being on, and I had to deburr several cylinders, and the cylinder pin stop had worked it's way out of the gun over the years requiring replacement, but overall, it's serviceable.

Jennings J22. neither the frame nor the slide are steel. it jams all the time. dirty, clean, dry, lubed; it will jam. at least the one I owned. But i guess you get what you pay for with a gun you pay 65 dollars for.

all things being equal....jennings turned into jiminez

^^^ I didn't know that. haha this thread sure isnt good publicity for them .

S&w sigma 380.

Worst one was some tiny one, the name slips my mind at present.
Getting OLDER is no fun.

Had an RG double-action .22LR snubby. I once shot 150 rounds out of it, using all the different .22 rounds I could buy locally. Out of 150 rounds, I hit a 9" paper plate TWICE, both of those coming from the last cylinder full, and less than 2 yards...you read that right...less than 6 feet away.

It also sent ALMOST as much lead downrange as it sent sideways.

Without a doubt the Sig Mosquito. I purchased it with high hopes but was very quickly dismayed. I ended up selling it to a friend for $100 with the caution that it was not exactly the best .22 in the world. He says that with CCI Minimags it only malfunctions 1/15-20 shots or so. That was after a trip to the gunsmith.

Ruger P89. That magazine release was so awful it is the prime reason I've never looked into buying any of their P-series pistols. From a quality standpoint it was probably quite well made but that magazine release was so terrible that I still remember it 20 years later.

JustinL said:

Without a doubt the Sig Mosquito. I purchased it with high hopes but was very quickly dismayed. I ended up selling it to a friend for $100 with the caution that it was not exactly the best .22 in the world. He says that with CCI Minimags it only malfunctions 1/15-20 shots or so. That was after a trip to the gunsmith.

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+1 For the Mosquito. My father bought one on a whim, that thing has only gotten worse.

I know .22LR pistols aren't known for their stellar reliability, but I expect to be able to make it through a magazine at least ONCE a range trip...

Jennings J22 ....Paperweight! lol

I tried sending Friendly, Don't Fire a private message, which I would have preferred, but private messages to him on this forum have apparently been blocked at his request. This is the message I get: “Friendly, Don't Fire! has chosen not to receive private messages or may not be allowed to receive private messages. Therefore you may not send your message to him/her.”

Friendly, Don't Fire, this is at least the third post you’ve made about the LWS .25 you bought. I’d like to hear from you to clarify some things so that we can avoid a repeat of the bad experience you had. Be assured I'm not questioning your integrity. We've certainly deserved our share of criticism.

I can be reached at my private cell number 203-606-0688.

Some things you’ve said leave questions and confusion as to what might have happened. Here’s an earlier post I made with regard to a post of yours. I received no response. I assume you did not see the post. Please call me.

I would have had to have been the guy with whom you talked. There's no-one else here who takes those type of calls. All service questions go directly to me.

It's unfortunate you took a beating on the sale as .25s are going for more than brand new .32s right now. I think the going rate on a .25 that listed for about $150.00 when we stopped making them in 1985 is now around $500.00. They've become collector pieces. The extra magazine by itself would have gone for $50.00 as those are no longer being made and much sought after.

Please email me the serial number of the pistol or the name on the warranty card (or the name the pistol was sent in under for repair). This will allow me to look up its history. Your experience will be an object lesson to keep this type of bad experience from happening to someone else. Please accept my apologies.

Our email address is [email protected]. Or you can call me directly at my cell, which is 203 606-0688.

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The worst I shot was a Clerke First, .32 S&W (short) five shot "pot metal" revolver that a previous user had shot with .32ACP (the case head stamp ".32ACP" was impressed into the recoil shield of the frame). It was not my gun, and I returned it with the firing pin removed and the warning not to reinstall it.

I own a .38S&W Forehand & Wadsworth 1890s revolver (they were listed in the 1897 Sears Roebuck catalog for under $2) whose firing pin hole in the frame is so enlarged that primers flow into the hole, binding the cylinder, even with very mild black powder loads. I might try it sometime with small rifle primers, which are supposed to have thicker cup metal. Or I may leave it where it is now: mounted in a frame on a copy of the Sears "Department of Revolvers" page with a out-of-time S&W top break for company.

On the Ring of Fire Guns

Jennings family of guns above .22 or .25 are not very durable. Apparently some of their .22s and .25s ended up decent but cheap guns. Once a year or so I take my .22 J22 and .25 MP25 Raven out to the range, shoot the carry magazines (4 for J22 and 2 for MP25) empty, clean, lube, and reload the mags with fresh ammo. Mostly range toys (people so underestimate them that a palm sized group* at 10 paces actually surprises people), but they are sometimes a backup or even carry piece for me (striker down on empty chamber, safety off) when anything larger is impractical.

I would not recommend one as a first gun and for a budget self defense gun I would suggest the minimum as a HiPoint C9 if you just can't save and do better. But they are better defensive weapons than harsh words and a mean scowl.

Jennings Nine always struck me as a defensive gun bought with one box of ammo, two magazines shot to see if the magazines and gun worked, then stuck in a bedside table drawer, and eventually sold at estate auction with the original box and 30 rounds left. They do not hold up to extensive use. But I don't believe they were meant to be used extensively.

Also cheap guns bought used are more likely to be abused, poorly maintained or subjected to amateur "gunsmithing" and seldomn are a bargain.


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*Palm of hand size group, not palm tree sized group.

Worst for me was a mini firestorm 45(I think that was the name but it might have been firestar) It was a 3.25" bbl 1911 variant with a double stack mag. I think the mag was made by para but I could be wrong. I think I paid $175 for it(used but only fired once) and sold it for $150 after breaking it in. It would not feed hollowpoints reliably no matter what.

My worst was a Taurus pt140 millenium pro. And 15 ft it would hit about 12 inches low left in single action. I traded it for what I paid and got a Springfield xd.

Star model b 9mm(or so I thought)

would jam like crazy and just didnt cycle hardly at all.. The guy I bought it from sold it to me as a 9mm luger but I broke it down and sure enough 9mm largo was stamped on the barrel.

Not the pistol's fault and they are great guns BTW.

Grendel P10. But, it did eventually start to work after a lot of polishing up, at least, to the level for which it is intended.
Incidentally, I have never had any problems with my Jennings J-22. It's always fired and is pretty accurate given its size.

Fmjblack said:

Although many people seem to like them, the worst gun I've ever shot was a Bersa Thunder .380. It was crudely made, jammed quite often, had terrible ergonomics and a trigger pull to match.

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+1. Horrible trigger pull. Looks like a Hungarian PA-63, but sure as heck doesn't shoot like one. I shot a guy's Bersa .380 and I just kept pulling and pulling and pulling on the long, heavy trigger, expecting it to break, until I started to lose strength because I'd pulled too far and lost leverage. It FINALLY broke. It was the absolute WORST trigger I've ever experienced. The guy shot my respringed Polish P-64 and immediately said he loved the trigger. All 3 of my 9x18 ComBloc pistols have better triggers than that thing, and every one of them cost a heck of a lot less money.

Hands down, a Taurus 85 revolver in .38 special. Bought it for my wife to carry at the time since she was new to handguns and didn't have to worry about it jamming. She kept complaining that it wasn't that accurate, and I chalked it up to user error.

One day, while we were at the range, I decided to give it a trial to see if she was right. Got a bench rest, ran a silhouette target out to 7 yards, with the gun steadied on the rest, ran all 5 rounds. 3 were outside the silhouette around the arms an shoulders, one was in the groin, and the other would have grazed the femur. Considering it was benched and aimed at center mass, I took it to the next gun show and traded it in for something worthwhile.

And while it was nowhere near the level of the stuff you seem to have just lying about

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Were you there?

In answer to the OP, the worst pistol I have ever shot was an AMT .380 Backup DAO Jammomatic.

Stoeger "Luger" in .22LR for me.

Mag spring is unusually weak/flimsy, and one mag already broke on me. I know the Luger action isn't the most reliable, but this thing jams like every 5 rounds. Honestly, my 1940 S/42 Luger works better than this Stoeger.

Also has an unusually weak firing pin that is probably the source for most of my problems with this gun.

Don't really care too much because it was inherited and I barely shoot it.

Worse double action revolver trigger pull was a 1895 Nagant, 20+ lbs most likely but at least it has the option of being fired single action.

Worse autoloader trigger pull was a S&W Sigma. That trigger is a mushy heavy mess.

Worse for accuracy is a friends old Rohm RG-10. It would miss the paper completely when fired at distance of 10 feet. Just horrific.

I never wanted and wished so much that a gun would work well, but it didn't, more than the Sig Mosquito that I owned a few years ago. What a teriffic gun it could have been.