Do you have a surprise gun?

Virginian Dragoon, S/A .44 magnum with a 6 inch barrel. I mainly wanted a .44 to carry every now and then if I went into the woods since my house is surrounded by wilderness. It shoots accurate, handles the recoil well and has been dead on reliable and I am not concerned if it gets dinged up. I have ended up carrying it far more than I thought, on the ATV, on my tractor, out and about the yard, even picked it up to check on a bump in the night a few times when I am down stairs.

 

My SA XDs in 45 acp. I was hoping for a gun that was reliable, and reasonably accurate for a SD pistol. As it turns out, it is surprisingly accurate for a gun that size, and not terribly difficult to shoot. It's a little snappy, but not bad.

 

I always wanted a 50 bmg, so I built one me havend shot it in 6 years or more. Back when I built it it cost about $1.25 per shot can't get myself to use up my stock pile of ammo because it would cost $6 a round to replace it.

My most pleasant surprise was a estate sale Remington 510 for $35 a year or so ago.

 

Mine is a flintlock.I never hunted with a muzzleloader.At a household auction I saw two percussion rifles and a flintlock in .50 cal.The percussion rifles had rusty barrels.The flintlock was in new condition.The bidding for it hung up at $70.I thought this was too low and jumped in,got it for $90.I enjoy the loading procedure and that ignition is fun.I don't notice a delay in ignition and am confident with the round ball to 75 yards.

 

S&W SD9VE, bought because I am cheap; it's accurate & reliable.

 

Dominican Republic Mauser in 7x57 with a 20" barrel. It was drilled and tapped, had a one-piece base, bent bolt, glass-bedded, Dayton-traister trigger, but no scope. I picked it up as a donor for $150. I made the mistake of mounting a scope ($70 Centerpoint 4-16x40 from wally-world) and shooting it. It's the best shooter I have that doesn't have a new barrel. With 145 gr Speer SPBT @ 2650 fps, it will do close to MOA @ 100 yards all day ( 3-shot groups; it's a hunting rifle).

Another one is a Finn-captured 1933 Tula M91/30. The bore was the worst one I've ever seen, but it was less than $100 and had the been-there-done-that-have-the-T-shirt look that I like. The back half of the stock (typical Finn spliced stock) is from a Austro-Hungarian M91. It has parts from every pre-WWII mosin maker from Chatellerault to Westinghouse. After I got the bore scrubbed out, I could actually see rifling. With handloads (174 gr 0.312" HPBT), it does 2" @ 100 yards if someone with better eyes is shooting it. It has an M39 trigger.

Matt

 

I have 2 firearms that were huge surprises to me. The first one was a Mossberg Maverick 88 12 gauge. It was the first gun I ever purchased (decades ago). I picked it up purely on price and had no point of reference since I was relatively new to shotguns. Over the following years, I came to see what a huge bargain it was. I have used a lot of shotguns since then and still nearly always prefer the 88.

The second was a Hi Point 995 9mm carbine. I bought it when I first started reloading to test rounds. I didn't want to ruin my "good guns" with my newbie crappy ammo. It ended up being as reliable and accurate as any 9mm I have ever owned. It looks like the rifles from Lost in Space and Buck Rogers got together and had an ugly baby but it pretty much rocks and is a lot of fun.

 

I have one of those. Inherited it from my dad, it was his BUG when he was a cop back in the 70s. It's one of my 2 guns that I know for a fact has shot someone.

Initially, I couldn't hit squat with it. I talked with a friend who is into revolver shooting, and a big S&W fan. He suggested putting a beefier grip on, which I did.

I literally can hardly believe that a gun can be so accurate with a 2" barrel.

Good pick! I almost picked that too.

 

I wanna see that! PM me a pic, or post one!

 

I've been pleasantly surprised twice by Argentine pistols. First around 1977, I bought a rattlely slide Ballester-Molina .45ACP for $45 that never malfunctioned and could hold a 2" group at 25 yards. Sadly, a friend "lost" it.

Then a few years ago I saw an FM Hi-Power for sale for $225. I field stripped it and liked what I saw. Then I tested a factory HP magazine for proper function. Remembering my positive experience from the '70s, I snapped up this Argentine pistol and it functions great. A little research turned up great news, the FM is a 100% authentic Hi-Power licensed by FN made with FN machinery. I'm gonna try to hang on to this one!

 

The two firearms that surprised me have been my P64 Polish Radom and my 1944 Inland M1 Carbine. I purchased the Radom because it was under $200 with two mags and a holster. I really like to shoot the little piece and it is easy to carry.

The M1 Carbine was an impulse buy. They had them at Perry this summer and I happened to get one. I bought it to add to my budding WWII collection. I had no great affection for the little rifle. Then I took it to the range. What a blast to shoot.

Negative. CZ75B. I just couldn't warm to the little pistol. Nothing wrong with it, I just prefer my Beretta.

 

My G26 with factory night sights - what a hoot. Shoots much too accurately and very, very fast. Homely as a mud fence, common as fleas on a dog, but an exceptional shooter anyway.

 

Surprise: HK VP9

I've only taken it to the range a few times, but if it continues at it's current clip, and if HK intelligently releases more compact versions of this pistol, without raising prices (though the magazines are kinda steep), my 9mm Glocks may be taking a backseat.

Now HK just needs the huge model lineup, affordable magazines, and common-as-dirt accessory/aftermarket support so I can move over from Glocks

 

So get get another.

 

Milsurps are like underwear. They may be nearly identical as they come, but you get that one that just fits right. My experience with milsurps are that one shoots like a dream while the next is a sack of horse bleep. Although with the prices of M44s one could certainly afford to take that risk.

 

Hi Point. I first bought a used Hi Point C9 because I was sick and tired of reading all the negative posts along with all the the ones from the fanboys. Took it home, cleaned it, got new mags for it, let 'em sit for a week, & took it to the range. Functioned flawlessly. There's a post somewhere on this site with pics of my results. It ran as well as any of my Berettas, Colts, Rugers, S&W's or Tauri.

Sold the thing after a while because it was just collecting dust. Ended up buying another HP 9mm, a 45 ACP, & more recently a HP 9mm carbine. Why? 'Cause there's something to be said about guns that are made in the USA, that are completely reliable, and are affordable to lower income folks. Why would I NOT want to support such a company?

 

In early 2002 SOG had two images on their homepage that caught my attention; Czech CZ 52 pistols and Polish TT-33 pistols.

The former looked interestingly exotic and the latter, dated & unappealing ...

... so I in Mar'02 I ordered a CZ 52.

I received the CZ 52 and found it to be blocky, cumbersome and generally uncomfortable ... a decidedly non-ergonomic design.

Bad Surprise.

A little over a year later, mid-July'03, I was sitting at my "Kitchen Table" 01FFL Buddy's ... kitchen table (really) ... talking and he mentioned that he had gotten in one of those Polish TT-33s that used to be prominently displayed on SOG's homepage.

He retrieved it and handed it to me and ... WHOA! That little pistol (smaller than I thought it would be) felt very comfortable in my hand. I was surprised that it was actually "concealably" small/slim with no snag-bits on the frame or slide.

I bought it ... and once I shot it I was firmly HOOKED.

Good Surprise.

Funny thing is, in early 2002 looking at these two pistols on the SOG homepage, prior to touching either pistol, I thought that the CZ 52 was attractive and the TT-33 rather homely.

After owning & using both, I am left with an impression of these pistols that is just the reverse.

Since that time I have accumulated another Polish TT-33, two Romanians, four of the Yugo M57 Variants and 3 original Russians (sans add-on safeties).

 

FM Argentinian High Power clone. Accurate, feeds everything, natural pointer like BHP do in general, nice trigger, fits my small hands well. Wish I had bought one of those FM Detective models from Sarco when I had the chance though.

 

A-5 shotgun and a Glock 19. I thought I'd just try out the funny-looking shotgun, it turned out that I shot it better than any other shotgun I had and it's a great gun.

I was a 1911 guy all the way and bought the Glock mostly because it was such an iconic pistol, it seemed I ought to have one. I still love the 1911s, but mine are all put away and I have 4 Glocks.

 

Polish P-64. For just over $200, these pistols run like tanks. Heavy, solid, and incredibly accurate and reliable. They're a great deal. I highly recommend getting one or two now while they're still readily available.

 

One of my favorites is the S&W 686 plus/4", but I expected it to perform as well as it does......

Biggest pleasant surprise has been a Colt Government 1911 in 38Super, nothing fancy and it's a fantastic caliber to shoot and handload for.




The next turned out to be a S&W M29 Mountain, it's carried more often than I ever thought it would. I feel comfortable with carrying Cast Performance 255gr WFNs when there are large black bears near the house, day or night.





210gr Gold Dot expanded to 0.750" @1390fps.



First time carry on the trail.

 

Maybe 10 years ago my brother gave me a Swiss K31 rifle. I'd never been gifted a gun before and had no real idea what a K31 was either.

The follow up surprise was when I took it to the range and found out how absolutely well it can shoot.

Too cool, and thanks again, bro.

 

Good surprise. $180 Bersa Thunder two tone. Fits like a glove and the trigger is exceptional, especially given the price.

Bad Surprise. S&W Sigma. Sure, everybody said they were bad but I just figured they couldn't be as bad as their reputation. Surprise! It was much worse than advertised. HORRIBLE trigger and reliability. Just goes to show you, sometimes what you read on the Internet is accurate.