Didja ever buy a cheap pistol?

[hemiram]

I've had a bunch, some were great, some were garbage.

I actually have done better with new cheap guns than I've done with new expensive ones.

I love my Taurus PT111 G2, it's a great little under $200 gun.
Both of my Erma PPK clones were trash.

Worst new guns of all time(for me):

Taurus Model 83. Bad barrel, spit like crazy. Taurus said (Twice!) the barrel was fine. Having to chisel out lead with a brass rod is normal?
Colt Combat Commander in SS. Junk. Not one decently machined surface. Sent it to Colt twice, and they mostly scratched it up. Good riddance.

 

[Panzerschwein]

Cheapest pistol I ever bought... oh lemme see here it's been a while... hmmm... welllll... oh! That one!

It was a Zastava M70A 9mm for under $200 NIB. In short, it was totally unsafe trash. I sold it for a profit and spent the money on (far) better guns!!

 

[Pelo801]

I bought an RG 23 for $50. Its a small snub 22 lr revolver. I dont shoot it often, mostly because of their reputation. But it sure is fun to shoot and challenging in DA.

 

[Tacoma]

I used to buy cheap "B" brand handguns when I was young and thought I knew it all. Then somewhere down the line I had a 38 snubbie blow up in my hand. I learned a whole lot more about quality and value that day. I pretty much stick to S&W, Sig, Ruger etc these days. That said, on the rare occasion I do break rank, it is usually for some homeless and interesting .22 revolver. I've got a soft spot for them. Looks like you rescued a nice one there too.

 

[commygun]

I had a HS 21S single-action that looked very much like the OP's Heritage. Though very inexpensive (about $125 with the cylinder combo) it was a very solid, well-made revolver. One of many that I regret selling.

 

[Blacksmoke]

Many years ago I bought a Spanish made auto in 7.65 mm from around WW1. I paid like $25 for it. Could not get through a full magazine without jamming.

 

[bangswitch]

Not cheap in quality, but the price was right. Back when I was 17 (around 1971), I bought a pistol from a friend; I didn't know beans about guns, but thought it would be cool to own a pistol. I gave him $50 for it, with one magazine that was half full. It was a Parkerized 1903 Colt Pocket Hammerless, a military issue with the "US Property" stamp. I had no idea what it was in terms of collectibility or real value; I suppose I should feel lucky I didn't shoot myself with it, I knew so little about handguns. The only gun I'd ever had was a .22 bolt action rifle.

I kept the pistol less than a month, and sold it for what I paid for it. I only shot it twice, I was paranoid I'd get caught with it.

 

[Mike J]

I had a Heritage Rough Rider for about 5 years. I bought it without the .22 mag cylinder & purchased it later separately. In all honesty the .22 mag cylinder was a waste of money for me as I shot a couple of cylinders of .22 mag though it & never used it again. I enjoyed that revolver but reached a point where I wasn't really shooting it that much. I sold it and a shotgun I seldom used because I wanted to buy something else. Then I wound up getting into a bind & not making the purchase. Sometimes I miss that little revolver. I may pick up another sometime. I would kinda like to have another with the birdshead grip like the last one had as I think it would work well to use teaching my kids as the grip was smallish.

I probably consider the best deal I got on a firearm to be a Dan Wesson model 15-2 .357 revolver I bought from a pawn shop in the 90's for $100. The bluing is a little rough but I think it is the most accurate handgun I own.

The first pistol I bought was a Star in 9mm Largo. I gave $100 for it at a gun show. I wound up trading it off. Neat pistol.

I also have one of the Taurus PT-111 G2's not a fan of the trigger on it but it is a great value for a $200 gun.

 

[MosinT53Hunter]

I bought a cheap Chinese 213 TT 33 9mm clone about 10 years ago from a gun show, complete with two magazines, and holster for about $100. Nice looking gun, more accurate than I would imagine, shot everything. But, there's always problems that pop up. Spent shells would kick back in my face continually, and a safety I could not trust ever, so I traded it off. There are days when I think back and wish I had it again, but that's life.

 

[tark]

Bought a Russian Nagant a few years back for $59 bucks from J&G. Best $59 bucks I ever spent and I discovered that .32 S&W ammo shoots beautifully in the thing !! The .32 case is about .015" undersize but the pressures are so low it doesn't even bother to expand to fill the chamber!! Accuracy is equal to the Nagant round. Only trouble is finding the .32 ammo. I drive to California twice every year and Cabela's in Sidney Nebraska has mountains of the stuff. They even have wadcutter target ammo.

I've heard that 32 magnum (NOT 327 magnum!) also works, but I'm a little wary of shooting that round. Not gonna try that one...

 

[Browning]

I've bought cheap pistols before.

These have almost all been cheap (meaning inexpensive) in just price and many have been former military pistols and were sold as surplus though. The vast majority were just to try out.

Some of them in rough order or purchase ...

• Hungarian FEG Femaru Mod. 35 .32 ACP (starting in 1989)
• Star Model B 9mm
• Jennings .22LR that I bought for $20 or $30. Don't even remember what happened to it. Sold it or gave it away. Just wanted to try it.
• Intratec 'CAT' .45 ACP (trigger like a handweight). Traded it as a partial trade for a CZ-75. The rest of the trade for the CZ-75 was made up by the S&W 19 further down the list.
• Ithaca 1911 from WWII that I bought for $200.
• CZ-27 .32 ACP
• Spanish Astra Mod 400 9mm Largo
• Spanish Astra .22LR revolver
• Phoenix Arms HP-22 .22LR (traded this for the Llama double stack .45 ACP)
• Llama double stack .45 ACP compact. This plus a bit of cash got traded for an H&K-4 pistol with 3 barrels (which put it over the $300 line).
• S&W Mod. 10 .38 Special back when they were $100. (Wish I'd bought several).
• Two Loricin .22LR pistols that I bought for $20 each (two of the few on the list that I got malfunctions from and they were bad - surprise, surprise - could never get through an entire mag with it). Sold each of them for $60.
• S&W Mod. 19 .357 Mag former police revolver that someone had removed the finish from and then attempted to cold blue all over. It didn't work out and the finish looked like an awful grey mess. Mechanically it worked great and was incredibly accurate and I fired more cheap .38 Spl ammo out of it than almost any of the first 10 combined except for the Argentine 1911.
• Argentine 1927 Systema 1911 .45 ACP
• CZ-52 7.62x25 Tokarev
• Russian 9x18 Makarov
• FEG PA-63 .32 ACP
• Beretta 1919 .25 ACP
• Star Ultrastar 9mm
• H&R 922 .22LR revolver
• Davis Arms .22 Mag derringer (it's always worked, never failed to fire in the half dozen times I've tried it. It has basketball sized groups at 5 yards though. I paid $20 for it and bought it from a friend).
• Kel-Tec P32 .32 ACP.

Vast majority of them were to just try out at the time. Some were from WWII or from the post war period. The cheapest pistol I have that I rely on currently is a Walther PPS M1.

To me 'cheap' is less than $300.

 

[DaddioDan]

I've bought cheap pistols before.

These have almost all been cheap (meaning inexpensive) in just price and many have been former military pistols and were sold as surplus though. The vast majority were just to try out.

Some of them in rough order or purchase ...

• Hungarian FEG Femaru Mod. 35 .32 ACP (starting in 1989)
• Star Model B 9mm
• Jennings .22LR that I bought for $20 or $30. Don't even remember what happened to it. Sold it or gave it away. Just wanted to try it.
• Intratec 'CAT' .45 ACP (trigger like a handweight). Traded it as a partial trade for a CZ-75. The rest of the trade for the CZ-75 was made up by the S&W 19 further down the list.
• Ithaca 1911 from WWII that I bought for $200.
• CZ-27 .32 ACP
• Spanish Astra Mod 400 9mm Largo
• Spanish Astra .22LR revolver
• Phoenix Arms HP-22 .22LR (traded this for the Llama double stack .45 ACP)
• Llama double stack .45 ACP compact. This plus a bit of cash got traded for an H&K-4 pistol with 3 barrels (which put it over the $300 line).
• S&W Mod. 10 .38 Special back when they were $100. (Wish I'd bought several).
• Two Loricin .22LR pistols that I bought for $20 each (two of the few on the list that I got malfunctions from and they were bad - surprise, surprise - could never get through an entire mag with it). Sold each of them for $60.
• S&W Mod. 19 .357 Mag former police revolver that someone had removed the finish from and then attempted to cold blue all over. It didn't work out and the finish looked like an awful grey mess. Mechanically it worked great and was incredibly accurate and I fired more cheap .38 Spl ammo out of it than almost any of the first 10 combined except for the Argentine 1911.
• Argentine 1927 Systema 1911 .45 ACP
• CZ-52 7.62x25 Tokarev
• Russian 9x18 Makarov
• FEG PA-63 .32 ACP
• Beretta 1919 .25 ACP
• Star Ultrastar 9mm
• H&R 922 .22LR revolver
• Davis Arms .22 Mag derringer (it's always worked, never failed to fire in the half dozen times I've tried it. It has basketball sized groups at 5 yards though. I paid $20 for it and bought it from a friend).
• Kel-Tec P32 .32 ACP.

Vast majority of them were to just try out at the time. Some were from WWII or from the post war period. The cheapest pistol I have that I rely on currently is a Walther PPS M1.

To me 'cheap' is less than $300.

 

[Dr.Rob]

Hundred bucks for a FEG AP9 (Pa63 with a 380 barrel) decent piece, horrible DA trigger.

 

[macadore]

I bought an RG 23 for $50. Its a small snub 22 lr revolver. I dont shoot it often, mostly because of their reputation. But it sure is fun to shoot and challenging in DA.

I bought one of those for $25 back in my poverty days. I slept in my car quite a bit and figured it was much better than nothing. I still have it to remind me where I came from and how bad it could get. It keeps me humble and grateful.

 

[Monac]

I bought a Phoenix HP-25, not as a shooter, but A) because I thought the way it copied S&W 3rd Gen auto styling was funny, and B) because it was lesson in automatic pistol safety design, with one safety just for safely lowering the SA hammer, and a second system that locked up the magazine release, adopted from some German 25 in the 1920's (Haenel? Zehna?). I got the 25 ACP Phoenix because I figured it was more likely to work if I did want to shoot it. The Phoenix actually got a decent reputation for reliability (for the price), the Phoenix people actually produced a target version of it.

 

[22250Rem]

My cheapest pistol purchase was in March 1995 when I bought a Raven Arms model P-25 in .25 ACP. Was at the LGS run by a friend when he took in 4 or 5 pistols at once from an estate. One of which was that Raven; and he asked me if I wanted the Raven because, in his words, " I don't stock junk here". So I asked him "how much?", and he said "gimme 25 bucks and it's yours". So on a whim I bought it, just for grins. I really don't need a Raven and I've got several other pistols for carry use and wouldn't use the Raven for that. Seems that this one is one of the earlier production models before they got carried away with cheapening them. Dug out my shooting log book and that thing's had a total of 207 rounds through it since I bought it and I don't recall any malfunctions. Last time it was fired was 6 rounds on Jan. 24, 2010 with a notation of "Function Check, No Problems". So I guess now I just keep it as a curiosity, because I've talked to guys in their 20's who have heard of them but never seen one in person. Maybe this year I'll put a few rounds through it at the range as another function check as it hasn't been fired in almost 7 years now and I've still got about 3 or 4 boxes of 25 ACP tucked away with no other gun to use it in.

 

[H&R Glock]

Yoe! Commiegun- you have great firearms and a sweet looking wiener dog.
I'm now stuck with a Smith 10 looking at me for $300 from centerfiresystems.com. These were trade in guns. I'll probably buy one because I am a sucker for the price. My wife can't pass a garage sale either!

 

[ILikeLead]

once

 

[north east redneck]

A CX American Arms .22. It actually shoots realiably with Stingers or Mini Mags. Certainly not a go to gun for anything, but it's not bad for a cheap pistol. Fun to shoot at 5 yards, it's really not bad. I don't know what I paid for it, more than $150, less than $200.
I would not buy one now, at the time I did buy it, I was happy with the purchase.

 

[Kaeto]

Yep! I've got less than $100.00 in both of these. $45.00 in one and $50.00 in the other.

 

[22-rimfire]

My first handgun was an H&R a long time ago and I purchased it in a hardware store. H&R still existed then. After learning about the way things ought to be, I will never buy another H&R or any "cheap" handgun. Honestly, I have considered buying a Heritage Rough Rider in 22LR just to play around with it, but why should I spend my money when I really don't want one in the first place. You see I have many 22 handguns made by Colt, S&W, and Ruger. Just bought another a couple of weeks ago... S&W Model 63. Don't own any Taurus handguns although I have considered buying one of their 41 mag revolvers.

 

[Kaeto]

I'd like to get an inexpensive .22 revolver as I don't have much money available. However the only one in my range is the Rough Rider.

 

[MedWheeler]

I posted in this thread last summer, and I'm sure I mentioned, among others, my HRR 4.75-inch .22 revolver. I've since acquired another one, a "Taurus Blem" special, for $150, but it's the 3.5-inch "birdshead" model, also with both cylinders. I'd been wanting one, and they do run a bit more than the "regular" ones.

 

[BearBrimstone]

I've bought a couple cheap pistols. I once bought a Hi Point .380 just to check them out and was surprised how great it performed. I also own a Taurus pt111. They're a little more expensive now, but if I remember correctly mine cost me just under $200 when I bought it.

 

[JeffG]

I bought a brass framed .36 Navy black powder revolver. I went hopelessly out of time in a week.
I bought a Makarov, and although it functioned well, the ammo selection at the time was poor.

I like to buy reliable quality guns, and pay the rate.