UGLY GUNS...

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USFA Zip pistol--not only the ugliest but also one of the poorest designs ever for a pistol. It jammed constantly, was unsafe, and put an end to an otherwise successful company that had been making some of the most excellent Single Action Army copies ever to hit the market!

Zip22Right.jpg
 
forward observer said:
USFA Zip pistol--not only the ugliest but also one of the poorest designs ever for a pistol. It jammed constantly, was unsafe, and put an end to an otherwise successful company that had been making some of the most excellent Single Action Army copies ever to hit the market!

Click to expand...
WINNER!1

they went from SAA to THAT? who hired the Harvard MBA to ruined that company
 
Wow! You guys posted up some ugly guns! ;)

I guess I only have a couple ugly guns. Several years ago I built a light weight walking and stalking rifle in 308 on a 700 action. Its been on several air liners, in a couple of different countries, several different states, on horses, 4wheelers, in the back of trucks, up and down rocky hills, ect ect. It still shoots about an inch and when I pick it up it just feels right. But the blueing is faded and worn, the blueing on the rings has bare rub spots, the Brown Precision stock had dings and dents. Every scar was earned!

The other is a Inglis copy of a Browning Hi-power. It looks like it was cast from a sand mold and parkerized. But it shoots!

On of my Prairie Dog hunting buddies is a 2-time Natural Champion and a few of his rifles are butugly. One of them had a hand full of molding clay put on the pistol grip to make it fit his hand and never had a finish applied to it. But he usually shoots a "possible" anytime he shoots it!
 
forward observer said:
USFA Zip pistol--not only the ugliest but also one of the poorest designs ever for a pistol. It jammed constantly, was unsafe, and put an end to an otherwise successful company that had been making some of the most excellent Single Action Army copies ever to hit the market!

View attachment 1093641
Click to expand...
the sad thing is, it was a great idea. But the trigger was horrible, and it couldn't get through a single magazine without multiple malfunctions
 
Mark_Mark said:
WINNER!1

they went from SAA to THAT? who hired the Harvard MBA to ruined that company
Click to expand...

While I don't know much about his background, the United States Fire Arms company was founded by a man named Douglas Donnelly. They started out in Hartford, CT sometime in the early 2000s. Initially, they were importing revolver components from Italy and hand finishing them in the US. They also produced some reproduction Colt-type percussion revolvers but then seemed to gradually specialize in the SSA clones. They had actually taken over part of the old Colt Armory in Hartford after Colt moved to a new location. Eventually, as they added new CNC machinery, they started manufacturing their components from scratch and had a custom business that would perform all of the specialty work that Colt used to do in their custom shop, i.e., fancy engraving, ivory grips, etc.

Many felt that the quality was equal to, or actually exceeded, that of the Colts---and at a much better price point. Thus, they cost more than a Uberti but less than a Colt. They were quite popular with the cowboy action crowd.

Donnelly was a bit of an eccentric maverick, it seems and sometime around 2011 or so he came up with this idea for the ZIP pistol. It was mostly plastic along with a metal barrel and other metal parts where needed for wear. Evidently, to help finance converting over to the production of the ZIP gun exclusively, Donnelly sold off much of the equipment needed to continue or resume making Single Actions. The ZIP had a lot of problems and got nothing but bad reviews. It forced USAF into bankruptcy by around 2017 and Donnelly just seems to have disappeared.

USFA Single action revolvers are quite collectible and bring prices approaching and sometimes even exceeding those of comparable Colts.

They also produced a very nice reproduction of the Colt Lightning pump action rifle from the late 19th century. Being a bit rare, the last one of those I saw at auction went for something like $3 or $4k.

Cheers
 
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I have three nominees for ugly guns I have actually owned:

Stallard-Arms-JS-9MM-2.jpg Cobray_Pocket_Pal_1.jpg Lepage2.jpg


The first is a Stallard Arms 9mm. To me, it looks like a child's drawing of a pistol made 3-dimensional. It is the crudest mass produced automatic pistol I know of. Even the Spanish "Rubies" from WWI seem refined next to it. At least it evolved into the High Points of today, via Haskell and Maverick and maybe other brand names.

The second is a Cobray Pocket Pal. This is a case of "ugly is as ugly does". It's just an awful gun. Somebody looked at a Mossberg Browning and said "This would be great if only it was a revolver! And convertible between 22 and 380! And if we got rid of as much of that nasty steel as possible!, Sure, it'll be heavy as lead but it'll be cheap to make!" It is ingenious, admittedly, but the result is nothing that anybody wanted.

Finally, we have a LePage 32 automatic from the 1920's or 1930's. LePage wanted to get a leg up on the competition by doing something different, I guess, but the result had no practical advantages and was unsightly. I mean, it has kind of a packaged removable firing mechanism, like a Tokarev or a Clement, but how often do you really need that? It appealed to people like me, who find novelty attractive, but it's not actually good.
 
Monac said:
I have three nominees for ugly guns I have actually owned:

View attachment 1093736 View attachment 1093737 View attachment 1093742


The first is a Stallard Arms 9mm. To me, it looks like a child's drawing of a pistol made 3-dimensional. It is the crudest mass produced automatic pistol I know of. Even the Spanish "Rubies" from WWI seem refined next to it. At least it evolved into the High Points of today, via Haskell and Maverick and maybe other brand names.

The second is a Cobray Pocket Pal. This is a case of "ugly is as ugly does". It's just an awful gun. Somebody looked at a Mossberg Browning and said "This would be great if only it was a revolver! And convertible between 22 and 380! And if we got rid of as much of that nasty steel as possible!, Sure, it'll be heavy as lead but it'll be cheap to make!" It is ingenious, admittedly, but the result is nothing that anybody wanted.

Finally, we have a LePage 32 automatic from the 1920's or 1930's. LePage wanted to get a leg up on the competition by doing something different, I guess, but the result had no practical advantages and was unsightly. I mean, it has kind of a packaged removable firing mechanism, like a Tokarev or a Clement, but how often do you really need that? It appealed to people like me, who find novelty attractive, but it's not actually good.
Click to expand...
NICE COLLECTION!!!!
 
forward observer said:
While I don't know much about his background, the United States Fire Arms company was founded by a man named Douglas Donnelly. They started out in Hartford, CT sometime in the early 2000s. Initially, they were importing revolver components from Italy and hand finishing them in the US. They also produced some reproduction Colt-type percussion revolvers but then seemed to gradually specialize in the SSA clones. They had actually taken over part of the old Colt Armory in Hartford after Colt moved to a new location. Eventually, as they added new CNC machinery, they started manufacturing their components from scratch and had a custom business that would perform all of the specialty work that Colt used to do in their custom shop, i.e., fancy engraving, ivory grips, etc.

Many felt that the quality was equal to, or actually exceeded, that of the Colts---and at a much better price point. Thus, they were more than a Uberti but less than a Colt. They were quite popular with the cowboy action crowd.

Donnelly was a bit of an eccentric maverick it seems and sometime around 2011 or so he came up with this idea for the ZIP pistol. It was mostly plastic along with a metal barrel and other metal parts where needed for wear. Evidently, to help finance converting over to the production of the ZIP gun exclusively, Donnelly sold off much of the equipment needed to continue or resume making Single Actions. The ZIP had a lot of problems and got nothing but bad reviews. It forced USAF into bankruptcy by around 2017 and Donnelly just seemed to disappear.

USFA Single action revolvers are quite collectible and bring prices approaching and sometimes even exceeding those of comparable Colts.

They also produced a very nice reproduction of the Colt Lightning pump action rifle from the late 19th century. Being a bit rare, the last one of those I saw at auction went for something like $3 or $4k.

Cheers
Click to expand...
Wow! So it was the Owner Donnelly who messed up a good thing with a really Bad thing

those get rich schemes!
 
Mizar said:
This little fella looks even uglier than the Haralamb Dimancea's abomination which did set the bar quite high...

Click to expand...
wow that’s UGLY. is this a ComBlock gun? this is what happened when you send the artist to the wheat fields to work
 
Mizar said:
Actually British... Made by the Gatling Arms & Ammunition Company in Birmingham in the end of the 19 century. The designer was a Romanian officer - Captain Haralamb Dimancea.
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Romanian us pretty much ComBlock! UGLY!!!!
 
Well i finally had to look up a rem 742 and saw round furniture plus it says a rare 20 round mag.
So what gives op?
 
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