Do You Have an Awful Handgun that was Expensive?

[jmr40]

My Kimber Classic II has been perfect. In fact it was the 1st 1911 I ever bought that was acceptable. Prior to buying it I tried Colt, SA, Dan Wesson, and a few other less expensive 1911's. All gave me issues at one time or another. I've been quite pleased with the S&W 1911's too.

I owned an HK 45 briefly that was a disappointment. I really wanted to like that gun, it just wasn't as accurate or reliable as I expected based on reputation. I probably just got one of the few lemons.

 

[CajunBass]

Funny. I had a 70 Series Colt "back in the day" and I don't remember it giving me any trouble, or when/if it did, I blamed it on my reloads. I was using the old "wack a mole" Lee-Loader to reload my ammo back then, but I really don't remember it malfunctioning all that often.

That was also during my IPSC phase. I got bit by that bug too.

But, no, I don't think I ever had a bad gun. I remember people warning me not to get a Remington 1100, 3" magnum, but I did it anyway. Gun worked fine for me.

 

[Uglyducky]

I know I'll get a lot of flack for this but I HATE kimber. Owned 3 and not a single one was worth a poop. Had to send them all back for useless repair as they all came back unfunctional. Never buy another.

 

[Corpral_Agarn]

Yep. Took me 9 months to get it too.

Uberti Schofield 5" in 45 Colt.

I really like the design, the uniqueness, the feel, accuracy, etc.

But it wouldn't do 50 rounds of smokeless powder before the cylinder stopped rotating.
That's not acceptable. I hope that they have fixed the issue since then!

 

[gwpercle]

My mistake was a Beretta Tomcat 32 acp. I bought it to replace a Walther PPK, which I really liked, but was stolen. The Tomcat was by no way , shape or form a Walther PPK.
About the only thing I liked was the pop up barrel. It was heavy, bulky and very hard to draw the slide back, and had more recoil than a 32 acp should have( blow back design).
I took a beating when I traded it in on another purchase but I was just so glade to get rid of that thing I didn't care.
Gary

 

[Uglyducky]

My mistake was a Beretta Tomcat 32 acp. I bought it to replace a Walther PPK, which I really liked, but was stolen. The Tomcat was by no way , shape or form a Walther PPK.
About the only thing I liked was the pop up barrel. It was heavy, bulky and very hard to draw the slide back, and had more recoil than a 32 acp should have( blow back design).
I took a beating when I traded it in on another purchase but I was just so glade to get rid of that thing I didn't care.
Gary

What made you chose the berretta out of curiousity?

 

[Peter M. Eick]

My Colt Super Stallion, a reputed "Gold Match" level build in 38 Super. Not cheap and has a sewer pipe for a barrel. It is bad, and I mean really really really bad for a "NM" class Colt. To me this was what was wrong with Colt and right with Les Baer. Both guns costs within dollars of each other and the Baer is brutally accurate while the Colt is brutally not.

 

[Damon555]

I guess I've been lucky....The only lemons that have passed through my collection have been cheap(er) guns.....I got a steal on my most expensive handgun so it wasn't really expensive to me.....The Kimber Eclipse Custom II that I own will be in my possession as long as I live....It's an incredibly nice handgun.

 

[Jim K]

It was supposed to be expensive, but I got it at a bargain basement price. A Colt AA 2000 that I could never find a way to shoot accurately. Perhaps I would have been less disappointed if the gun had not had so much hoopla and baloney written about it. I will say it worked, with no failures, but that trigger pull was atrocious.

Jim

 

[Blacksmoke]

Yep. Took me 9 months to get it too.

Uberti Schofield 5" in 45 Colt.

I really like the design, the uniqueness, the feel, accuracy, etc.

But it wouldn't do 50 rounds of smokeless powder before the cylinder stopped rotating.
That's not acceptable. I hope that they have fixed the issue since then!

I had an Uberti made Schofield which jammed up with blackpowder rounds. Good for about 25 and then it was a trip to the faucet. I could have just peed on it but the Range Officer objected. I imagine the original S&W had greater tolerances to account for the fouling by the ammo of that era.

My nemesis was an Auto ordinance Model 1927 with a stick magazine. Would not feed more than 2 or 3 rounds before a jam had to be cleared. This was with Ball Ammo. I learned later that the previous owner sold it for this reason. I passed it on to another optimist.

 

[Rodentman]

The placemat...

Sol, yes the "Learning About Money" placemat was great. I honestly don't know what happened to it. I think it got damaged by solvent. I posted a lot of gun photos on that mat on a local forum and took a lot of heat about my lack of fiduciary common sense.

 

[MyGreenGuns]

H&K USP 9MM COMPACT
$900 NEW
Bought without shooting it first.

The front sight was canted left out of the box.
The gun rattled when holstered.
Traded it for a truck.

 

[hemiram]

My Colt Commander I bought in '79 or '80 was total garbage. Two local gunsmiths said they didn't understand how it got out the door of the factory. One called it "trash". Two trips to Colt got it scratched up, nothing was fixed. It was, to this day, the single most expensive gun I've ever bought (Barely). I finally sold it to a Colt fanboi for a big loss, but I didn't care, I just wanted it gone. It began a long string of brand new dud guns, expensive or not, they all had issues. The used ones shot fine, the new ones blew extractors, had sights fall off, springs break, it was crazy. The new gun failures ended with my first Astra A-80, it was great and with only a couple of minor exceptions, it's continued until this day. The last gun I bought was bad, a Taurus 809, that just didn't shoot right. I should have known better, but I really liked my friend's, and so I bit on one, and got bit back. No more Taurus guns.

 

[FLeddie]

I bought a Sig P227 when they came out last year. Just could not shoot it very well, and a few reliability issues. Thought maybe it was just me. Sent it back to the factory for action job and short reset trigger. I still can't shoot it adequately.
Several other experienced shooters also tried without good results.
Got over $1 k in it, wish I didn't. Ed

 

[sgt127]

Back in the early IPSC days, it was accepted that you didn't actually buy a Colt .45 to shoot. You bought the kit that you then took to a reliable gunsmith so he could turn it into a gun that actually worked.

Worst I have ever had was a Rorbaugh 9mm. It never made it through one full magazine without a jam. Ball. HP...Premium ammo...nothing. I'll bet I spent over $200 trying every "recommended" premium ammo in every bullet weight I could find that others swore ran in theirs. Nope...

Close second was a SS Interarms Walther TPH in .22. Just a wonderful little pocket pistol to show people. As long as no one wanted to actually shoot it. Never functioned reliably, no matter what ammo I tried.

 

[hAkron]

My 2nd gun that I ever bought myself was a S&W made Walther PPK/s. I bought it new at a retail sporting goods store and paid a mint for it. Right out of the box it would either stove pipe or fail to fire. I sent it back to S&W right around the same time that one of the popular gun magazines re-announced a major safety recall for the PPK/s (mine wasn't affected by that, but it back logged S&W's Walther service folks). I waited 8 weeks (+ an additional 9th week due to a holiday shutdown at S&W) to get my gun back. S&W replaced the entire slide assembly. The gun ran fine but the rails were galled like you couldn't believe for some reason. I sold the gun at a pretty big loss out of irritation.

Honestly though, troubleshooting the out of the box issues with that gun is what caused me to find most of the gun forums that I still participate in today, and waiting impatiently for its return caused me to go on a bit of a gun buying spree (that continues today, a few years later). The experience initially turned me off to smith & wesson, but that was short lived as I now have quite a few smiths...so really, it ended up being a positive thing for me.

 

[Ed Ames]

Smith 329PD scandium framed 44 magnum revolver. Way expensive and totally unreliable with full power ammo.

How can a revolver be unreliable with certain ammo? Do you mean the ammo was (or became, due to insufficient crimp) too long for the cylinder?

 

[anothernewb]

I'm thinking scandium frame was just plain horrible to shoot with full power ammo. nigh uncontrollable.

 

[HankB]

. . . Back in IPSC days were I used a Colt Series 70, I just never saw one, OUT OF THE BOX, that didn't jam . . .

My Colt Commander I bought in '79 or '80 was total garbage. Two local gunsmiths said they didn't understand how it got out the door of the factory. One called it "trash". Two trips to Colt got it scratched up, nothing was fixed.

I had a Colt Government Model jammamatic that would seldom get through a magazine without jamming - usually more than once. Repeated trips back to Colt for warranty service - and it remained a jammamatic, with every combination of magazine and ammo I tried. Aside from the poor quality, Colt's unwillingness or inability to stand behind their product made me vow to NEVER buy another Colt product.

And I haven't.

Also had a polymer Kahr P9 with numerous problems; unlike Colt, Kahr tried to fix it, and ultimately replaced it; I traded the unfired replacement for a Glock 26, which isn't as neat a package, but has the virtue of actually working very well.

 

[Valkman]

Not a lemon but bad timing I guess - right before the CA AWB went into effect I went into a gun store and asked "what would you buy if you had $1500?" and he showed me a pic of a Pro Ordnance Carbon-15. I was smitten and ordered one and yes it cost $1500. They were known a jam-o-matics but mine was a good shooter but the value just plummeted over time. I sold it for $550 last year.

 

[psyopspec]

Another former-and-never-again Kimber owner. Felt like such an idiot having to learn that lesson twice. Never again.

 

[csa77]

all my handguns have been good but my brothers springer's ejector came unglued in a uspsa match

 

[tarosean]

To me this was what was wrong with Colt and right with Les Baer. Both guns costs within dollars of each other and the Baer is brutally accurate while the Colt is brutally not.

Why not drop a new barrel in it??