What's the worst handgun you ever bought and still have?

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I have a Phoenix .25 that I bought because I won it (new) in an auction for $60. I've shot 1 mag through it. It's been sitting in my safe for 6 or 7 years now.
 
I decline to answer on the grounds it might tend to humiliate me. I sure won't sell it to some other uninformed fool. Besides I have only had it for over 35 years and someday a "buy back" may offer a way out.
Even if the fool wants to only make it a wall hanger?
 
Back in the mid-80's I made the mistake of buying a Sardius SD-9, it is still taking up space in my safe, I can't bring myself to inflict it on anyone else....
 
SCCY 9mm. It's a rare occurrence for me to shoot and not engage the safety by accident. I called them and was told to tighten the safety lever screw but it didn't fix the problem. If I modify my grip I can make it do ok but it is completely unnatural. This is an early generation right after they changed from SKKY to SCCY. Now days it doesn't get shot much. If I ever find someone who shoots it well I may sell it. I think this problem was very common in their early guns.
 
A Walther P22. The whole experience soured me so much on Walther that I have not, nor will I ever, purchase one again. The Walther fans will chime in and say that Umarex makes them yadiyadayada. I bought a WALTHER and it is the worst firearms purchase I have ever made with the worst customer service I have ever experienced.
 
Hey, Umarex makes the P22 :p

Don't blame Walther too much, it isn't like they knew what they were doing when they licensed the product...
 
I e been watching this thread for a while thinking about posting one of my guns.
20170910_183945.jpg I bought this officer length 1911 Metro Arms Amigo used to see if I liked 1911s. It was unreliable and failed me during my ccw qualifier. I decided to put new recoil spring in it before I got rid of it. Low and behold, it fixed it! I don't think it has caused any problems since.
I carry it often as a ccw and as a woods runner. 20170305_153331.jpg
 
Not due to function, just better options - a SA revolver.
Load six, shoot six, unload six, repeat.
It just sits.
Flame away.
 
Yes; I still own the worst handgun I ever bought..... A Raven Arms model P-25 in .25 ACP. Purchased in March of 1995 for the grand sum of $25. It got traded in with several other handguns at the LGS in a multi-gun deal. Shop owner who's a friend of mine said : " I don't stock junk like that; You want it? Gimme 25 bucks!" So I bought it just for grins and certainly not for any serious use. Dug out my shooting log book and its had 207 rounds through it since 1995 with no problems yet. I just don't trust those el-cheapo things like that . I've heard too many stories of those things breaking in all sorts of ways. Used to put a few rounds through it every year or two as a function check but now it's pretty much retired and kept as a curiosity item from another era because they sure aren't as common as they were 25 or 30 years ago. Have talked to young guys at gun shows who've heard of them but never seen one in person. At least if I ever want to sell it I could probably get more than 25 bucks for it although I have no idea of its present value. IMG_1592.JPG
 

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A Grendel P10, purchased on a LE purchase order in 1989 or so. The company was marketing the product to LEOs as a potential OD/BU weapon to replace the .38 five-shooting revolver. Officers had skepticism over small semi-autos having levers and buttons that could be inadvertently actuated during duty, especially when the gun was worn on an ankle. The P10 offered the same simplicity of a DA-revolver, with more than twice the firepower, in a package that was thinner and lighter than the snub .38 wheeler. Since most of those said wheelers were carried without a reload, the idea that the P10 had no means for a rapid reload was of little concern.

But, the gun was marketed before it was perfected, and was typically unreliable. Almost all of us who got in on the deal (about 15 of us) reported issues with jams and misfeeds, though we figured out that most of that could be resolved with a good feed-ramp polish. Still, the guns are so tightly built that they foul quickly. Mine will now run two magazine-fulls flawlessly, then start failing to fully extract or eject. That wouldn't matter much in a fight, though, since one magazine is all you get (unless someone calls a time-out!)
I have the P12 version. Mine ran well enough out of the box.

SAFETY NOTE: Don't ever drop a round directly in the chamber and drop the slide on it....ALWAYS strip the rounds out of the magazine.
 
I don't have any bad ones anymore. If I have problems with a gun, or I just don't like it, it's gone pretty much ASAP. I had a bunch of past losers though.
Last dud was a Taurus 809. It just wasn't reliable. Odd feeding issues. A friend's was perfect, and that made me get mine. That friend has it now, and it's ALMOST as good as his is now. He's messed with it so much now, he's not even sure what was wrong with it. I have bought another 809 and an 809c since then. The 809 is as good as my friend's is, so far, I haven't shot the 809c yet.
Worst "good" gun I ever had was a Colt Combat Commander I bought in 1980. Most expensive new gun I've ever bought. Total trash. Never should have left the factory. Nothing was smooth or straight. Colt didn't fix it, a couple of gunsmiths laughed when they looked at it. Sold it to a Colt fanboi who wanted it even with it's issues. Good riddance.
Another good gun that had issues was my Bernardelli P-018 Compact. Kind of an all steel, closed slide Beretta 92. Was fantastic first 500 rounds, then it got very ammo picky. I finally sold it and replaced it with a Beretta 92FS. Great gun.
 
I traded a Walther P-1 for a Heckler & Koch VP70z 30(?) years ago at a pawn shop. The P-1 had been used hard for many years (even before I bought it) and was starting to show the love. It needed parts replaced and work done that I couldn't do. For many years the VP70z was the only center fire pistol I owned. There isn't anything wrong with it, and I still shoot it occasionally. It's just really big and has a really long trigger pull.
 
The worst gun that I still have is definitely my FIE Titanic .32 revolver, circa 1960's. First of all, who names a gun after a ship that's the world's preeminent example of catastrophic failure? FIE does, apparently. More importantly, who buys a gun with such a name? I do, apparently. I got it for 89 bucks online and it's in pretty good cosmetic shape, if you can get past the casting marks on the pot metal frame and shiny plastic grips.

Second of all, the cylinder doesn't index, but I think that's by design. If you pull the hammer back the cylinder indexes and locks in place. Thirdly, the gun had light strikes, but I put a spacer under the main (coil) spring, so the extra tension on the spring now makes the cartridges ignite pretty regularly. Lastly, the cylinder doesn't swing out, as it uses a removable cylinder pin instead...one that starts coming at after every couple of shots due to recoil. But I've found if you push the pin back in after every shot you can stop it from malfunctioning.

Sheesh! Did FIE really expect people to rob liquor stores with these things?
 
I purchased? Hmm, guess a Glock 30S. Nothing wrong with it, I just shoot other stuff better. I keep meaning to sell it but haven't yet.
 
Hmm. I'd say the Nagant revolver. Bought it because it was cheap ($79 at the time I think). It works fine but the Nagant is an unwieldy piece. Underpowered cartridge that is hard to find, a trigger pull that makes a staple-gun feel like a finely tuned 1911, and it's butt-ugly.

Still, I doubt I'd ever get rid of it. It works and the price was good.
 
I was asked to talk to the widow of a retired officer. She had a gun of her husband's she needed out of the house. It was a generic 40's Spanish .32 semi-auto pistol, looked like a POS, but I gave her more than it was worth.

When I released the slide to strip a cartridge out of the magazine to load it, it slam fired. Hmm, now I have a hole in my bedroom wall. Luckily, it didn't exit the house. Later, I accidentally dropped it, it went off with the safety on. Hmm, now I have a hole in my bedroom ceiling. Again, luckily, it didn't go through the roof, or more luckily, through me.

I wasn't going to wait for strike 3 for it to kill me. Never loaded it again, pieces were thrown off various bridges. So no, I no longer have it, but thought it deserved mention, certainly not honorable.
 
I was asked to talk to the widow of a retired officer. She had a gun of her husband's she needed out of the house. It was a generic 40's Spanish .32 semi-auto pistol, looked like a POS, but I gave her more than it was worth.

When I released the slide to strip a cartridge out of the magazine to load it, it slam fired. Hmm, now I have a hole in my bedroom wall. Luckily, it didn't exit the house. Later, I accidentally dropped it, it went off with the safety on. Hmm, now I have a hole in my bedroom ceiling. Again, luckily, it didn't go through the roof, or more luckily, through me.

I wasn't going to wait for strike 3 for it to kill me. Never loaded it again, pieces were thrown off various bridges. So no, I no longer have it, but thought it deserved mention, certainly not honorable.
Wow- that was an interesting tale of a spectacularly bad gun! I think you made a wise choice to spare not only yourself, but also others, from harm :eek: with the way that you disposed of it... :thumbup:
 
I have an FIE Titan .25. It's horribly inaccurate. I'm lucky to keep my shots on paper at 25'. It keyholes, and the safety lever is likely to fall out at inopportune times. But it's reliable. It always goes bang with any kind of ammo.
It's just not worth the trouble it would take to sell it and none of the local gun shops will take it in trade.
One of these days maybe I'll hear about a gun by-back before it happens and trade it for whatever they're offering.
 
The worst pistol I ever bought (well, it was a gift actually) was an LCP, but I traded it for a crate of combloc x54r. Best trade I ever made if you ask me.

Just to emphasize how crappy it was, I actually told the guy all the problems it had because I would have felt bad pawning it off on someone who didn't know. He didn't care though. He wanted an LCP and was willing to put up with it. The mag wouldn't hold the last round, and it didn't lock in unless you pushed forward while pushing up.
 
Kel-Tec PF9. Piece of garbage. Can't sell it or give it away because I don't want anyone else thinking they can rely on it. I keep it as a demo for range guests. Nobody wants one after they shoot it.
 
I have an FIE Titan .25. It's horribly inaccurate. I'm lucky to keep my shots on paper at 25'. It keyholes, and the safety lever is likely to fall out at inopportune times. But it's reliable. It always goes bang with any kind of ammo.
It's just not worth the trouble it would take to sell it and none of the local gun shops will take it in trade.
One of these days maybe I'll hear about a gun by-back before it happens and trade it for whatever they're offering.


I have two of those. Both are 100% reliable at this point. My better one I got at Robertson't Trading post in TN, and it's actually a fairly solid gun. The second one I got from an LGS for $43 last year and I think the trigger pull must be like 18 pounds or so for some reason. It has some internal rust that's been doused in lubricant, so that may have something to do with it. It didn't come with a mag and wasn't reliable with my better gun's mag, so I ordered a new replacement mag from Jack First, and now it's 100% reliable,
 
I don't know about worst, but I have a Taurus 709 slim.
I guess it would be it because it is a Taurus and I'm really not that fond of it.
But it is reliable and there is a gap that it fills nicely so I'll likely keep it.

I don't hate it persay, but its definitely not anything that I feel all warm and fuzzy about either.
The ones I've truly hated didn't stay around long.
 
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