What is the most useless handgun design?

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BSA1

BSA1

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What is your candidate for the most useless handgun design? For discussion purposes let’s focus on post WW-2 handguns although if you have something really interesting go ahead and post it. And for Carne Frio benefit a actual production gun.

Please post your reason(s) for your choice.

My choice is the Heizer PS1 Pocket Shotgun. It is a single shot handgun that shoots .410 shotshell. According to the write up in The American Rifleman is has “pie plate" groups at 7 meters and the recoil is sharp. MSRP is $499.00!

Sharp recoil, pie plate (10 -12") accuracy and high MSRP make it to the top of my list.

Heck the Bond Texas Defender Derringer have MSRP of $415.00 and you double your firepower in the same size package.
 
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Strange defense gun....

I recall posts a few months ago(a bit after the 2014 SHOT show) that described a new handgun/defense weapon that fired a round from a weird trigger system that the shooter had to unfold & "set up" first :uhoh:.
Even the company model couldn't deploy the firearm quickly.
The retail price was $700-$800.00 USD too, :confused: .
I think it was a .45acp but it might have been a 410 shotshell.

Rusty
 
Stinger pen gun. In addition to being a one shot pen gun, this design required you to first fold and arrange the tube into a pistol shape before it could be fired.

bigfamily_s.jpg
 
CWL Stinger pen gun. In addition to being a one shot pen gun, this design required you to first fold and arrange the tube into a pistol shape before it could be fired.
Click to expand...
That's because it would be an NFA AOW if it was a true "pen gun". The design that requires it be folded into a pistol shape is to avoid the NFA.
 
If what is left of my memory cells recall correctly,

... I seem to remember reading and seeing images where WW2 German technology offered, to a select few, a spring loaded belt buckle that hid, and when released opened and fired, hands free, a pistol round.

Maybe the SS Officer Corps didn't trust one another very much. Another possibility is they spent a lot of time in the bathroom.

salty
 
The Dardick automatic revolver and the "tround" ammunition.


The Gyrojet Pistol, firing rocket propelled "bullets."

The DAO automatic pistol.


Bob Wright
 
dogtown tom said:
That's because it would be an NFA AOW if it was a true "pen gun". The design that requires it be folded into a pistol shape is to avoid the NFA.
Click to expand...
Yeah... and this is a thread about useless gun designs, right?
 
I'd suggest that the Kolibri was intended from the outset as an art piece and not as a usable firearm.

On the useable front I'd have to give the nod to any Derringer or Derringer style two barrel over and under handgun. Bond Arms offerings included. When I've shot both an original Remington and a Bond Arms gun the POI of the two barrels is SO radically different that it makes using them at anything over 2 yards away all but pointless.

The new Double Tap pistol seems to be in the same boat. Although I'll never see any of those up this way since they only come in this country's Prohibited Status barrel length. And that means that no one can import them.

The silly part is that it would not have taken much more effort to make the two bore axes angled for all of these guns such that the two rounds stay within the same zip code out to around 10 yards. But they don't.

Then there's the spur triggers on both the Remington Derringer and the Bond Arms guns. These things don't need a safety since the triggers are SOOOO heavy that a safety would be pretty much an afterthought.
 
BCRider said:
I'd suggest that the Kolibri was intended from the outset as an art piece and not as a usable firearm.
Click to expand...

I consider the Colt Python to be a work of art so if the Kolibri is intended from the outset as an art piece it is a paint by numbers painting compared to a Python.
 
This is going to rile some, but I'm being serious here; 45LC/.410 revolvers. No. I am not trolling.

Why? Because why use a .45 diameter barrel for a 100 grain slug with a max diameter of .40 when you should be shooting a 200 grain bullet with a diameter of .45? Why have the additional heft to chamber 2.75 or 3" shells?
 
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Onward Allusion said:
This is going to rile some, but I'm being serious here; 45LC/.410 revolvers. No. I am not trolling.

Why? Because why use a .45 diameter barrel for a 100 grain slug with a max diameter of .40 when you should be shooting a 200 grain bullet with a diameter of .45? Why have the additional heft to chamber 2.75 or 3" shells?
Click to expand...
I don't know if they are the MOST useless, but I will concur that they are very high on the list.
 
Ruger charger. Lots of fun but totally worthless for anything other than range use...not even great at that.

I bought one though when they first came out. Heavy, bulky, impossible to use as a handgun, no stock for use as a rifle...but it's tons of fun with a 50 Rd drum and s shoulder sling with a Crank fire rig mounted up to the trigger guard.
 
I've never actually seen one, but IMO the Semmerling LM4 is pretty useless.

300px-Semmerling_LM-4.jpg

Despite its appearance it is not a semi-automatic. You shuck the slide forward, then back, to cycle and fire the rounds. A handgun should be able to be operated with one hand. Good luck if you only have one available. It does at least hold five .45 ACP cartridges.

Here is another, the WSP Downsizer.

WSP3.jpg

In 9mm or .45 ACP, this single-shot is about the size of a pack of cigarettes. Gunwriter Leroy Thompson - who, if you've seen him, is a pretty burly guy - in testing fired three shots from a 9mm, one of which was a complete miss, before his hand gave out! :eek:

I don't think much of the Heiser Double-Tap, either. It is thin, but larger in height and length than many 7-10-shot subcompact pistols, and the square and sharp grip edges seem certain to beat up your hand. All this for only two shots.
 
Mares leg is pretty useless too....ar pistol...

If they took a rifle and cut it down to be a pistol it's pretty much useless.the opposite however works...take a pistol and add barrel and stock you have quite a nice piece.
 
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