Have you ever had a rifle you didn't like?

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saiga308 said:
[QUOTE="LoonWulf, post: 11343215, member: 125508

Honestly the 6.5Grendel 527 i bought is sorta the same thing. Great in concept, but boring at the range, and not quite light enough to be a huge advantage over my other larger rifles.....Still tho gonna hunt it and see if that changes my view on the mater.

I'll take a 6.5 Grendel over a 223/556 anyday and be happy about it:thumbup:
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For what I do, so will I. My major complaint about the 527 Gren isnt really anything to do with the rifle or how it works for its specified task (which is hunting). Its simply that I just havent taken it out yet lol. For another 1/2lb or so i can carry my .375 Ruger, and have i mentioned i like big holes?
Anyway, not getting rid of it any time soon i dont think....but its not getting as much use as i thought it would.

I really ought to be shooting it too, ive got 500rnds of wolf fmjs for plinking lol...maybe its time to build another grendel AR upper (speaking of guns i dont generally keep around)
 
D.B. Cooper said:
Remington Nylon 10C. Ruger 10/22. Both jam-o-matic junk.
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Growing up much in Minnesota... I HATED RemNylons!

Laying your cheek up against those of a cold winter's day sucked. Too, they were astoundingly noisy to carry in a winter woods. Seems like they used to make noises like they were self destructing when you brought them into the ice-house or cabin and they warmed up.


Todd.
 
LoonWulf said:
Now a 6.5WSSM sounds VERY interesting to me, but im guessing its sort of a specialized build. Or at least how i would conceive it (even when very well implemented) might just turn out to not be what one wants.
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My 6.5 WSSM was built on a Browning ABolt II that was originally a .223 WSSM. The barrel is a 19" SS Shilen with a light sporter contour. Last spring, I had just started working loads for it when my wife decided it was time to down-size.
The project was intended to provide 6.5x55 power and range in a short, quick handling package. I thought I would like the tacky rubber covered synthetic stock, but it has yet to grow on me.
This project has taught me a couple things about the WSSM's:
1) If you base your 6.5 WSSM on a .243 case, by all means use that case. It will make life easier for you. (Mine is a 6.5-243 WSSM.)
2) Necking up the .25 WSSM is easier than necking up the .243 WSSM, but the shoulder angle is different enough and Winchester brass is heavy enough and stiff enough that fire forming and blowing the shoulder out to the 243's shape is nearly impossible.
3) Hornady's .243 WSSM brass is excellent brass! I was pleasantly surprised to find it much better quality than the 300 rounds+ of Winchester brass I had on hand.
4) Lighter bullets are going to be better as the rounds have to be no longer than the SAAMI spec if you intend on the rifle being anything more than a single shot. Anything longer, probably will not feed through a WSSM magazine in a WSSM receiver. Believe me.
5) Sierra Game Kings and Pro Hunter bullets seated to SAAMI spec feed just like they should. Any bullet more pointed than the Pro Hunters tend to hang up / bind before entering the chamber before they can clear the magazine. Including Hornady Spire Points. And I will never get a Berger bullet to cycle from the magazine. No way, no how.:mad::mad::mad:

IF I ever get my shop set up again, and that seems to be getting to be a pretty big "IF", I'm thinking I may see what I can do for a different stock. Maybe buy a blank and whittle it into a nice shape and make it a single shot with a follower and no magazine. Or maybe convert it into a blind magazine without a floor plate? I dunno. Just fantasizing, I guess. :uhoh:
 
I really thought I would like the Mini-6.8, but I just couldn’t.

Not sure I have ever had a 22 WMR I actually enjoyed.

Hated the Mosin Nagants I had, top to bottom, back to front, the entire time I had them. Really sad I have one hanging around still.
 
My hit rate for rifles has been a lot better than with pistols, I guess there tends to not be as much "feel" involved with them as with handguns.

That being said, I bought a Century Romy AK and it flat out sucked. Right out of the box, it had a piston frozen solid that required the gun to be sent back to Century. After 2 months or so, I got my rifle back from warranty work and put some rounds through it. It was terrible.

2 liter bottles at 100 yards? Not happening. The stock felt terrible, even after I put a rubber recoil pad on it to lengthen the short Combloc stock, it still felt terrible. The donkey-dick foregrip looked kind of cool in pictures but felt like crap in my hand. About the only positives I have is that it hasn't jammed since it got repaired, and the wood and parked-metal finish are actually VERY nice. It shoots horribly, but it does look good.

Still, I wasn't happy with it when I paid $400 on Buds, and after the sanctions on Russian small arms went through, the prices on all AKs pretty much doubled. $750 for a WASR today is a joke.

I would sell the thing and pocket a couple hundred dollars profit on a POS rifle I don't really shoot. But part of me is like "are you sure", because if I sell this AK now, I will never own one again. I won't buy back in at today's prices.

Honorable mention for the Mini-14. I was going to buy one for $750, but I asked a friend to borrow his and try it out before I took the plunge. Good idea. The stock was too long for me (feels like it was even longer than the usual 13 1/2" LOP), it was heavy for what it was, and it shot like crap.
 
Hands down M16A1

Two of the rifles I was issued were Colt's I saw no difference between them and the Harrington Richard's I was issued at Ft. Carson.

I had 2 A-1s ( full auto) and 3 A-2s ( three round burst)

Never had any reliability issues W/ any of them. Obviously the price was right and the Ammunition was free as well.

The problem was every time I got to shoot one it meant I had to lose sleep ( & maybe my day off) get up in the middle of the night, ride halfway across Germany ( or Fort Lewis, or Fort Carson or Fort Sill) usually in a snow storm or a rainstorm. get to the range at 4 am and wait till 9 for range control to get done W/ PT and open the range ( did I mention the rain and snow) Eat a nasty MRE for breakfast , a NASTIER MRE for lunch and suck it up for dinner. spend at least 12 hours on the range ( not counting drive time) to shoot 49 rounds usually in a foxhole full of mud & the ocassional rattlesnake and climb back in the Duece & a half ( did I mention the rain & snow ) to arrive at the barrack ( usually right after taps) just in time to spend 2 hours waiting for the armsroom to open up ( for what that was worth ) and the rest of the night scrubbing that GD M-16. If I never shoot one again it'll be too soon.
__________________
 
Can't say I've ever had one I didn't like. The only one I've ever sold I would say I wasn't smitten with after the newness wore off but I didn't dislike it by any means. Just didn't enjoy shooting it as much as my other options.
 
+1 for the mini-30. Would have loved it were it reliable and even just a little more accurate. I even installed an accu strut and wolff hammer spring. It failed to feed or stovepiped relentlessly no matter what brand name mag I put in it. Tried 5 or 6 types of ammo, brass case etc. wolff spring did fix the light strikes, but not the other problems. i would buy another in a heartbeat accuracy aside if I knew it would atleast feed reliably from factory 20 round mags.
 
Several. Had a couple of different DPMS 308s that were absolute garbage. Had an Adam’s Arms 308 that refused to run with a suppressor, same with a Spikes Tactical AR-15. Too many rifles to count that I liked, but didn’t like well enough to keep them.
 
I've had many rifles over the years that didn't perform to my expectations, and not just cheap junky rifles. Some of the worst: I was sorely disappointed in the Ruger mini 30. I also had a 308 Remington 700 PSS that grouped 2.5 MOA , even with match grade ammo.I also had a H&R handi rifle in 308, I couldn't hit a barn with that thing if I was inside of it, and the auto ejector never worked.I had a Marlin 336 that shot terribly no matter what I put in it. There have been others.
 
Ruger American Predator 6.5CM that won't group better than 1.1MOA @ 300yd for me regardless of the rounds I roll for it. Buddy likes it, good enough for minute-of-deer, so he's taking it off my hands. My RAPR in 223Rem shoots lights out.

The other is a Remington 788 in 6mm Rem that I've had since a teen. It feels like trying to shoot a fence post, but it too shoots lights out. This one I'll keep for nostalgic reasons, but maybe I can find a better feeling stock that won't break the bank.
 
Marlin 336 .35 Rem. Running a patch down the Microgroove barrel was reminiscent of a threaded sewerpipe. Firelapping helped (it didn't tear patches any more), but it was still bad. No load, over 4 years, ever reached <4 MOA. Sold.

Now I have a .358Win Ruger American (it's @LoonWulf fault) and at 3 weeks in, it's already world's better. I have seen a couple promising ~MOA groups from cast and 280 XTPs.
 
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Mosin Bubba said:
My hit rate for rifles has been a lot better than with pistols, I guess there tends to not be as much "feel" involved with them as with handguns.

That being said, I bought a Century Romy AK and it flat out sucked. Right out of the box, it had a piston frozen solid that required the gun to be sent back to Century. After 2 months or so, I got my rifle back from warranty work and put some rounds through it. It was terrible.

2 liter bottles at 100 yards? Not happening. The stock felt terrible, even after I put a rubber recoil pad on it to lengthen the short Combloc stock, it still felt terrible. The donkey-dick foregrip looked kind of cool in pictures but felt like crap in my hand. About the only positives I have is that it hasn't jammed since it got repaired, and the wood and parked-metal finish are actually VERY nice. It shoots horribly, but it does look good.

Still, I wasn't happy with it when I paid $400 on Buds, and after the sanctions on Russian small arms went through, the prices on all AKs pretty much doubled. $750 for a WASR today is a joke.

I would sell the thing and pocket a couple hundred dollars profit on a POS rifle I don't really shoot. But part of me is like "are you sure", because if I sell this AK now, I will never own one again. I won't buy back in at today's prices.

Honorable mention for the Mini-14. I was going to buy one for $750, but I asked a friend to borrow his and try it out before I took the plunge. Good idea. The stock was too long for me (feels like it was even longer than the usual 13 1/2" LOP), it was heavy for what it was, and it shot like crap.
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Take a drink of vodka and calm down comrade. We don't aim for two liters at 100. Where is your pie plate? Your rant on the AK wood is funny. It's made for malnourished little communists who eat rice and potatoes not some scandanavian brute with Viking heritage. You can get NATO length stock or make Mikhail roll in his grave and put a six position adjustable on there.

My caveat here is that I've never met a functioning rifle I didn't like. Even though a mosin is one of my least favorite rifles I think they look great in a rack, especially multiples. Now handguns I dislike, that's a different subject altogether.
 
My PTR-91. Started off having to send it back twice for light strike issues. After getting that sorted out (several months), I went down the rabbit hole of getting it "customized" and, while it wasn't unpleasant to shoot, it never felt comfortable. I could have dealt with that if I could've shot better than 3-4 MOA with it. Never could figure out if it was me, the gun, the ammo, or some combination of all three, and got tired of trying to figure it out.

After selling it, I figured it was time to settle down and take my time with a bolt action. Bought a sweet Savage FCP-10 (6.5 C) and have been much, much happier! Accurate guns are so much more fun to shoot...
 
My most hated gun- back in the day, the feather weight "mountain rifle" was in vogue, think a light weight rifle with a major caliber on the order of 6-7lbs. Critter in question was a 300WM in a 6lb rifle with plastic stock. Two shots and I was done. This was a chance to "shoot before buy" situation, those two shots convinced me not to buy the beastie.
 
Three that I can think of off hand:

1- Charter Arms AR-7, 'nuff said.

2- Original .45-70 Trapdoor Springfield Carbine, recoil was more than I was willing to put up with.

3- AR-15, purchased as a political statement, just had no love for it.

They all found new homes.
 
I had two that I can think of, both savages. First one was a .223. Couldn’t get ammo to chamber. Bought it used, and I suspect the previous owner had used lacquered ammo that built up in the chamber. I used a .45caliber bore brush with solvent on a drill and cleaned it up enough to function. God awful trigger. It went away in a hurry

My good friend sold me his Savage .308 for cheap. Too cheap to pass up. He had bought it new and and best it could do was 3-5” at a hundred. Sent it back to Savage and they rebarreled it. Shot inch or better when I got it. At that time we couldn’t use it for deer, so I had no real use for it. For some irrational reason I dislike Savages and dislike.308’s so it’s gone

This thread reminds me of the “I’ll never sell a gun” guys. I have been far better off getting rid of stuff I don’t like or won’t use and getting something I’ll actually shoot rather than a safe queen
 
Savage A17

Having a semi-auto .17 HMR spitting out 40g bullets at 2,600fps was something I felt I needed to have.

Savage got a lot of the big things right, particularly the delayed bolt unlocking design necessary to safely run these high pressure rim fires in a semi-auto.

Unfortunately it seems that once they got that figured out they quit designing the rest if the rifle.

The trigger is a jumbled mess of plastic parts that gives you no idea on where you are in the process of breaking the shot. The only thing you can count on is having to manually reset it each time.

As bad as the trigger is, the magazine is worse. Also plastic, hard to load, jams frequently and often falls out of the rifle, especially when you’re standing in mud. Get dirt in it and you might as well buy a new one because you’ll never get it cleaned out.

Calling the trigger and magazine crap would be a complement
 
2 I won't ever touch again.

Ruger mini-14. Wouldn't hit the broad side of a barn from the inside.
M-16. No A. No 1. 1967 issue. Couldn't her a whole out to shoot . I don't care if they're supposedly fived. A battle rifle, I'll take a FAL.

AFS
 
Nature Boy said:
the shot. The only thing you can count on is having to manually reset it each time.

As bad as the trigger is, the magazine is worse. Also plastic, hard to load, jams frequently and often falls out of the rifle, especially when you’re standing in mud. Get dirt in it and you might as well buy a new one because you’ll never get it cleaned out.

Calling the trigger and magazine crap would be a complement
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So, I take it you didn’t fall in love with the rifle. :) ?

Sounds like you hit the lottery of crap rifles
 
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I have a nice looking Remington 700 in .308 that I am quickly falling out of love with. I cannot seem to find a load that it likes. I have not given up yet but this thing just may end up going down the road soon if I can’t find a load that will shoot 1 inch at 100 yards.
 
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