Top 3 handguns that you regret buying, and top 3 that you regret selling!

I regretted buying a S&W Model 60 stainless, new out of the box it came with several defects that included not allowing it to fire. Total POS that two trips back to the factory didn't fix.

Regret selling? Many!

WWII 98% Luger

WWII Hi-Power w/ German markings

WWII 1911 by Remington Rand

S&W 586 no dash

S&W 36 3"

2 Walther W. German PPK/s

Early Dan Wesson .357 revolver

But the one I regret the most selling was a beautiful High Standard Victor with the box and all factory papers. What the hell was I thinking?

Regret buying?

The snub by .460 X-Frame I had was in hindsight foolish and the Ruger Alaskan I replaced it with was better in every meaningful way. I sold it and don’t regret selling, but I’m also kinda glad I bought it too.

The Taurus PT-145 I bought was never reliable for me, but I don’t regret buying it, I regret Taurus not being able to make a better version. If someone made a competing gun in the same form factor but more reliable I’d consider buying one.

I can’t think of other handguns I really regret buying.

Regret selling? None really.

Side note: It has been a long time since I’ve seen Internet Sigma Syndrome on display. Fond memories. I bought a Sigma S&W9VE back when they were about the cheapest centerfire handgun you could buy. Didn’t need it, but a cheap 16+1 pistol that came with 4 mags seemed like the perfect utility gun. It was 100% reliable, accurate, and while the trigger wasn’t great by the standards of semi auto pistols that cost twice as much, it was no worse than a lot of revolvers. Had a lot of fun going to public ranges and outshooting people with “good” guns using my Sigma or my Springfield GI with the sights everyone says are non-functional. No regrets at all about either of those.

I've never really regretted buying any handgun (well, I had this Kel-Tec that couldn't make it through two consecutive magazines, but I sold it for more than it cost me). Even every single Taurus I bought new was a worthy gun.

Regret selling? Sigh. Had I kept some of the classics I started buying in the late '70s, I could sell them all now and pay cash for my new Corvette C8. So, yeah -- all of 'em.

Regret buying...
Colt Delta Elite. Unsupported chamber made it an overpriced POS. Got rid of a great revolver to fund the Delta. Traded the delta for a....

686-6. Gun was not what I really wanted but it was offered as a heads up trade for me to get out of the delta elite. It was new in box so I figured it would get better as the trigger smoothed over and the action was worked. It was never all that great of a gun.

Stallard 9mm, at a time where anything that went bang was worth $100 this $50 pistol was $60 too much. Bullets were tumbling before they got out of the barrel, it was super reliable though, just couldn’t hit anything with it and it was wore out long before I bought it. It’s 1 of 2 that got destroyed rather than put back into circulation.

regret letting go...
Taurus 689. My first revolver. Great shooter and super accurate. I shot Untold number of nuclear loads in it and essentially destroyed it, but it could have been fixed and I would have never fooled with the junk Ruger gp100s I had.

Taurus 405...
40sw in a revolver is a fun round. In a snub nose it has no business being stupid accurate, but it was. I loved the gun, so did my friends step brother, so much so that he talked me into trading it for a 6” Taurus m44.

Taurus m44 (yep same one) was a wonderful shooting gun, and not unpleasant either, but I had no real need for a 44 so when I saw a screaming deal on a Colt Delta Elite (yep same one) I couldn’t say no to I decided I needed a 10mm more than a 44 and I did some trading.

Colt DS. Not an incredible gun in any way, but I got rid of it cheap and should have hung onto it. Would be a $400 or more gun now, and I would have a better Colt in the stable than the new line 22 that will probably never be complete again.

HiDive

The 3 that I regret selling are:

1. A late 1970's blue Colt Python
2. A late 1980's SS Colt Anaconda
3. A late 1970's S&W model 57, pinned barrel and recessed cylinder
I could make this list go on for quite a while.​

Click to expand...

Me too! A Colt Trooper Mk.III (built like a tank and my first .357 Magnum), 2 Colt Troopers Mk.V ( blued and one with a 4" barrel the other with a 6"; both these guns balanced and handled perfectly to me), and two S&W .41 Magnums, a Model 57 (blued with a 4" barrel), and a Model 58 (found it in the Used Gun case but was still NIB)!​

Regret buying is a strong word but I was very happy to sell my S&W 642. Never could grow to like that horrible trigger (admittedly, an Apex trigger kit did help quite a bit) hand slapper.

Regret buying
Ruger SP 101
S&W 340PD
H&R 22

Regret selling
High Standard Supermatic Trophy
Classic S&W 686
Ruger Security Six

I have guns that didn't work out for me, but I do not yet consider them "regret" purchases. Probably the top three are:

Used Interarms-imported Rossi 68. I love the size and feel of this older gun, but the lockwork, well, locks up in fire. Opening the cylinder, then closing it and re-indexing it fixes the problem. Not sure what's up with it. I wanted it as a knock-around truck and kit gun. Didn't pay much for it at all, about three years ago.

Kahr CW45. Won't run a magazine. To be fair, I've only tried one magazine and one brand of FMJ ammunition. Bought used maybe two years ago, fairly-priced.

I'm really struggling to come up with a third. Maybe the great little Phoenix HP22A that the only regret about is having paid more than I should have at the time.

I have guns I've bought that I probably shouldn't have simply because I never get around to shooting them, but they are all guns I could turn back into what I spent on them if I needed the cash, so I do not consider them "regret" purchases.

I have only sold two guns, both during hard times. Anyone would regret having sold these, a Smith and Wesson 659, and a Interarms-imported PPK/S.

No regrets buying

Selling - Smith model 19. Needed tuition money.

Regret buying .380 Walther PPK/S. Just never warmed up to it and sold it. Only handgun I have ever sold and no regrets there.

No actual purchase regrets per se, but don’t know why I bought a handful of Glocks that I don’t shoot, or care to.


Selling regrets, letting my brother talk me out of:

My first two Auto Mags.

My original Coonan.

My custom Hi Power with ivories.

My brother was 1100 miles away and died. His son sold the guns immediately (I’m positive he got screwed), so I have no chance of getting those guns back.

There are two I really regret buying:

An AMT .380 Back Up. I bought it for nostalgia purposes, those were a big hit as on duty back up guns when I got into LE. It sucks as a pistol in too many ways to count.

A Beretta 96 Centurion. A friend had a cancer diagnosis and he carried a 92F. I couldn’t afford a 92, so I got the 96 cheap thinking it could fill the role as a memory-keeper. It is a DAO, a .40 and it is sort of funky.

Regret selling? Three S&Ws: a 640 Centennial .38, a 4” Model 19 .357 and a 5” Classic 629 .44 mag.

Stay safe.

My first regrettable purchase is the Hi-Point 995 ST Carbine. Shoots okay but a bear to clean, small magazine capacity and pricy additional magazines.

Second is a Savage model 958LS 22LR that I bought used with 2 10 round magazines. The magazine springs are so stiff that they only hold 9 rounds and the rifle stove pipes every 3rd or 4th round.

Third is a S&W Victory revolver that I purchased on Gunbroker. The seller grossly misrepresented the condition that is very poor and almost looks like an assembly of spare parts.

Unfortunately, I still have all three


No regrets about any I’ve sold since I’ve never sold a gun.

Regret buying Polish P64 x 2. (C&R Madness) Horrible 20 lb. plus DA, kicked like mad, tiny sights. 9mm Ruger American. Would shoot four shots in a fair group, fifth shot went wherever. Never did figure it out. Rohm .22 LR .22 Magnum Revolver. Pot metal junk. Regret selling, Walther PPK 7.65 MM. Nothing else.

I have never regretted buying a hand gun. I have never sold a handgun. I have 4 purchases spread over 50 years. I was going to add one this summer but replacing my truck transmission took care of that. Plus everything I really wanted is sold out. I have long regretted not buying the Smith and Wesson target .22 auto that was at a local hardware store when I first started to buy guns.

Bought none

Regret

A IZH 46m Target Air Pistol. A Pistol that literally has more than doubled in Price if you can find one. At the time, I needed the money.

My list would be longer if the question was: What pistols do you regret NOT buying when you had the chance. That list is long and quite distinguished, hindsight being 20/20.

Dumbest pistol I ever bought was a S&W 617 .22LR with a full lug 8 3/8" barrel. Not only was it not accurate, it was just a very dumb setup. That pistol started me down the path to 'less is more' in barrel length.

2nd dumbest move I ever made was trading my trusty S&W 686 for a Kahr P45. I really wanted that P45 as a carry piece, and I have had very good luck with my Kahr CW9's. What I got was a pistol that wouldn't make it through a magazine without a failure to fire that I eventually traced to a short chamber (the slide was not closing fully into battery.) The ergonomics of the Kahr 45 just didn't fit me as well as the 9's did... I wound up trading the P45 for... you guessed it... another CW9 and about 5 magazines.


Following the episode with the S&W 617, I decided my factory tuned S&W 657 Classic, with a 6.5" full lug barrel was too much... and sold it. That remains to this day the One Pistol I Regret Selling.

The other pistol I regret selling is a Ruger Bisley stainless .41MAG I bought. In typical Ruger fashion, it wouldn't hit the broad side of a barn, and the action was gritty. What I should have done was send it off to have the throats reamed and the action tuned, but I sold it instead to buy a Dan Wesson 741. I don't regret buying the Dan Wesson, but I do regret selling the Ruger... I should have just sucked it up and worked with it.

I only regret one, a Ruger Bearcat. I found it to be too small and sold it a long time ago. Now that I have great grand children I regret that I didn't keep it as it would be perfect for them They are strung out in years and it would have gotten a lot of use by passing it along to each. Oh, well, spilled milk and all that.

Regret buying ... ? ... I don't understand

Actually I have bought a few duds. I won't give the models here because it will just start a flame war as others have praised these guns

Regret selling ...

1. My complete collection of S&W mountain revolvers
2. My Talo S&W 640 .38 spl with gold trigger
3. All of the rest that I've sold

Regret Buying:

Every of the dozen Derringers I have ever owned. No exceptions. Just couldn’t help myself, and was foolish to keep going back.

I suppose I regret buying my wife’s Sig P238. Amazing little pistol, but exceptionally expensive, and we bought it for her to carry - which was the regrettable mistake. Manual safety carry pistols do not align with our philosophy, now or then, so effectively I let myself get wooed by the beautiful aesthetic and exceptional production quality, and overlooked my own better judgement. Can’t sell it now, but have notable sunk cost sitting in the safe with nowhere to go.

Regret Selling:

One which always comes to mind when I consider this topic is a Ballister Molina Policia Federal 1911-ish Argentinian knock off. It was one of my tightest shooting 1911’s I have owned, despite a nearly completely washed out bore (poorly rifled originally, then abused in its life). However, as a capitalist, I bought it for $80 at a farm sale and sold it to a fool which offered me $400 for it a handful of years later - double market price at the time.

Regret buying:
A Dan Wesson .22 revolver---would only shoot patterns not groups no matter what ammo or what you did with the gun (cylinder gap, barrel tension).
The good news was I traded it for an Interarms Mark X in 30.06 with a Bushnell (cheaper) scope. LGS said it wouldn't sell because it had a light wood stock.
But the stock was very well fitted and finished and it had a Mauser action (made in Yugoslavia). Once properly loaded I could shoot 1 1/2 in groups (good for me) at 100yds.

Regret selling:
Any gun I sold--- it was time to go---never looked back.

Regret buying:
SP101
GP100
Also had major misgivings about a S&W 586 and a 617, but both turned out OK after several trips to S&W.

Regret selling:
3-screw Single Six that had been lightly engraved. The engraving was very good but bothered me. Think it was my 2nd handgun.
P85 that was very inaccurate yet very reliable. Would've made a good truck gun.

Regret screwing up:
Ruger Bisley 357 - Scary accurate with 38spl loads, a tack driver if there ever was one. Yet anything approaching full-power loads would stick in the chambers. Went back to Ruger twice; they finally put a new cylinder in it. But the Gilt-edged accuracy was gone.

I don't regret buying any, as I've always found a good trade later on (that's why I got those)

But here's 3 I occasionally wish I had back:

1. A Belgian .44 double action revolver, copy of the Smith & Wesson.

2. A .40 Cal pinfire revolver, black, civil war era. This was what started my fondness for .40 cal.

3. honestly can't think of a third.

Regret buying:

1) A used Taurus 32 H&R magnum revolver. I paid too much and everything that could go wrong with it did.
2) A brand-new Ruger LCRx 22lr. I couldn't shoot it worth beans and the trigger was dreadful.
3) A brand-new Ruger SP101 4.2" in 327 magnum. The trigger is terrible and even with bigger grips it doesn't fit my hands well. They were new back then, so I also paid too much.

There are a few more cheap ones that I bought just for grins. There aren't really any I regret selling. I traded two or three that I liked pretty well towards other guns, but I replaced them very quickly.