Your Favorite Inefficient and Obsolete Guns

[Deanimator]

My Mauser Broomhandle:

 

[Trey Veston]

My 1885 Winchester High Wall in .45-70 govt.

 

[Rock185]

I guess my old 1914 Colt Pocket Hammer .38 ACP certainly qualifies for obsolete. I don't consider it inefficient though, because it still functions just as reliably as it was designed to do. No surprise really, after all John Browning did design these old guns...

 

[AlexanderA]

1911s.
I kid, I kid! Aside from the engineer in me screaming that a feed ramp integrated to the barrel (or at least a straight feed angle) is a modern necessity and external extractors are so much more effective, a good 1911 is a lovely thing.
I know you can get those, but then it doesn't say 'workhorse' like a plain parkerized USGI m1911a1.

1911

I was going to say this. The M1911 (in its WW2 guise) is still my "standard" handgun, even though I have lots of newer ones. In fact, a 1911 is the first handgun I ever owned (back in 1967), and I still have that particular one.

As a matter of fact, any guns introduced after, say, the 1980's don't seem to interest me all that much. That especially applies to guns in the AR-15 family. I like SP1's and A2's. The current M4geries don't do anything for me at all.

Maybe my viewpoint is skewed a little by being 74 years old.

 

[Pudge]

Most (all?) Of my firearms are inefficient and obsolete, but they are imminently capable of the jobs I give them. I don't know if it's fair to label the firearm as inefficient and obsolete, perhaps it's me.

 

[Labguy47]

I’m what’s inefficient and obsolete. Even though most of the platforms I own are out of production all are shooters that I really like.

 

[JR24]

Well, I just got an old and inefficient 1911 (though a modernized CCO in 9mm) and my next deer rifle is gonna be a lever action, once I save up some scratch.

 

[tark]

This old C-96. Well, actually it's new. Only been fired once.....the proof round. 1913 tech, bad sights, bad trigger, difficult to load.....but I'll never shoot it. I'm too lazy to clean the cosmoline out of the interior of the thing anyway.

 

[bannockburn]

AlexanderA

I like SP1's and A2's.

Me too; still enjoy shooting my "vintage" (over 40 years old), SP1. Like the round A2 handguards better than the original triangular ones.

All of these "new and improved", high-tech versions are fine and all that but they just don't do it for me like my old Colt AR15 Sporter!

 

[entropy]

<old man voice> That's that thar M16A2, what them whippersnappers that went to Kuwait wuz issued......</old man voice>

Though your Sporter has the A1 sights and pencil barrel. Still a nice obsolete firearm!

 

[Armored farmer]

How about a single shot falling block #1?

Oh yes.
Yes, indeed.

 

[labnoti]

Glock 65, 6.5 Creedmoor yo

 

[Jack Ryan]

Sometimes you just like something without good reason. Often guns fit that mold. What are your favorite guns that you know are obsolete, inefficient, or objectively-not-the-best for the job you use it for?

For me there are a couple:

Single or double barrel shotguns for hunting. I can’t really think of a time when these can’t beat by a pump or semi, but they’re just charming to me. The wood and steel elicit a nostalgia that the plastic of a modern scattergun just can’t compete with.

Another is the large framed .38 revolver, like a model 10. Heavy, low capacity, and underpowered for their size, they’re objectively beaten in every category by even compact autos or similarly sized magnum revolvers. However, the wear on the finish of an old, blued .38 is something special. When compared to a lot of other pistols it’s pretty obvious there are better guns you could carry, but on a Sunday I like the idea of a model 10 in a well-worn leather holster.

I don't buy obsolete or inefficient guns, but I own quite a few single shot rifles and shot gun. May be you just don't know as much about shotguns as you think you do.

 

[Jack Ryan]

There are many avid bird hunters that disagree.

or any one who knows anything at all about ANY clay shooting game.

 

[Labguy47]

<old man voice> That's that thar M16A2, what them whippersnappers that went to Kuwait wuz issued......</old man voice>

OEF/OIF, Yugo, Nicaragua all where with A2/M9

 

[jmorris]

The past is as important as the future. Without it, you have no measure of improvement.

Look at all the new idiots that think socialism “done right” can be successful for the bottom level folks, when that has never been the case.

To keep it gun related, if you ever wanted to see how low can you go, old obsolete stuff is “choice”.

 

[Vern Humphrey]

Lemesee here:

Colt Woodsman made in 1938 -- most accurate pistol I've ever owned.
Colt New Service in .45 Colt, made in 1906 -- my standard carry gun in the woods (when I'm not carrying the Woodsman,)
1903A3 Springfield -- I have two, one Smith-Corona, and one Remington. Mostly shoot cast bullets in them.

 

[Al-jim19]

I don't buy obsolete or inefficient guns, but I own quite a few single shot rifles and shot gun. May be you just don't know as much about shotguns as you think you do.

I don’t know that much about shotguns.

But you’d be hard pressed to convince me that there’s something that a single shot or double does that a semi doesn’t.

I reserve all judgement if it’s something that just really works for you.

 

[entropy]

OEF/OIF, Yugo, Nicaragua all where with A2/M9

My Division, 7thID(L), actually had them in Panama. I was a REMF, so I was issued an A1.

I don’t know that much about shotguns.

But you’d be hard pressed to convince me that there’s something that a single shot or double does that a semi doesn’t.

I reserve all judgement if it’s something that just really works for you.

You can't fire both barrels at once with a semi auto, though there is a pump you can do that with.......

 

[JR24]

I don’t know that much about shotguns.

But you’d be hard pressed to convince me that there’s something that a single shot or double does that a semi doesn’t.

I reserve all judgement if it’s something that just really works for you.

Just one man's experience but I've seen too many pheasant and grouse get away because someone's new fancy auto jammed after the first round to trust a semi shotgun in the field.

With birds, you won't get a third shot anyhow, so a double works real well. At least in my experience, though I mostly use a pump. Because that's what I have and i dont accumulate shotguns like i do rifles and pistols for whatever reason.

 

[RedlegRick]

My H&R 158 Topper 12 gauge. Simple, straightforward, and inexpensive, I can shoot any load I have handy, even BP, with no qualms, and with the recent acquisition of a 9mm subcaliber adapter, it's a PCC now as well.

 

[Pudge]

Obsolete and inefficient do not mean the same thing to everyone. It was suggested that the 03A3, and a .357 lever rifle fit that definition. But not for me. For me the AR15 is obsolete. I do two things with long arms, hunt and target shoot, right where I live. I primarily hunt whitetail deer, I'd take a black bear if given the opportunity, but I really enjoy hunting deer. In Pennsylvania, it is illegal to hunt deer with a semi automatic. So, what's the point of an AR? My range tops out at 100 yards, and it won't poke holes in paper more efficiently than my hunting arms. An AR15 is obsolete, whereas I watched a young man harvest his first buck with an 03A3. I shoot revolvers better than semi automatic handguns. Had a Colt Commander in 9mm, pointed like a dream, but man I was all over the target. I do better with a snubby. And a revolver is a legal backup when hunting, and can be loaded with shot shells for pests. Take your cutting edge Sigs, AR's, and Benelli M3's and apply them to the appropriate situation, but they're more obsolete to me than a lever action or 03A3, a Blackhawk, and an old Stevens SXS. As I said earlier, maybe it's me who's obsolete, I'm becoming a low speed high drag kind of operator.

 

[redneck2]

The pistol I have that’s the easiest to shoot accurately is a Ruger Bisley in 45 Colt. Virtually everyone that tries it does well, even people that have never shot a pistol

 

[PapaG]

1892 Winchester rifle converted to 357. Great uncle's 1898 Krag. My 1903 Colt. My Savage 24V 222/20. TC Contender carbine in .223, 30-30, 22lr. All kind of dated but still fun and useful. A few black powder guns, some old, some I made in the sixties.

 

[FlSwampRat]

I love my muzzle loading rifles. T/C Seneca in .45 and my Hawken in .50 are just the most fun to shoot.

but on a Sunday I like the idea of a model 10 in a well-worn leather holster.

What is it you do on a Sunday?