What was your worst factory rifle and why? Brand, caliber, problem, how did you get rid of it? jb

Winchester Classic Featherweight 243Winchester.
Metal work on bolt was terrible ,one locking lug barely touched receiver,poorly cut chamber,stock pressure on one side of barrel.
Would not shoot under 2 inches out of the box with anything.

To fix,

Lapped locking lugs,bedded action, floated barrel,lightened trigger .
Now a regular 1 inch performer or less at the range .
What happened to it.
I gave it to the brother in law to use on his farm as a knock around work rifle.
It works great for him.
{ I should have charged him for it on reflection]

I Think I will stick to Weatherby's from now on.At least they are finished like some one cares at the plant.

Regards
Charlie

Ruger 77/22 Hornet. Very pretty little rifle. Too bad it wouldn't shoot for shit. For one thing, it came with a 7lb trigger. It shot patterns, not groups. Tried every accurizing technique(extensive handloading included) known to man to get it to shoot, never did. Had it been a good rifle I probably would have bought one in 17HMR, instead of the CZ I just ordered. I eventually traded it in on a Ruger #1 in 218 Bee. Now that's a rifle.

Ditto the Ruger 77/22 Hornet. Three inches out of box with any and all ammo shot through it. I took it over to smith, and he fire lapped and then hand lapped the barrel, glass bedded it, and got the trigger down to a manageable 2 1/2 lbs. With my best hand loads it would shot 3/4" for five shots. Then after 15 to 20 shots it would just quit shooting because of copper fouling. I put up with that rifle for 4 years and then traded it on a old 700 chambered for 308 win. I don't know why I waited so long to do it. Cured me of ever wanting a Ruger rifle.

Shoot Safe, Shoot Straight.......RiverRat

Well, I hate to keep beating up on Ruger's here, but my worst factory rifle also came from them.
I had owned two Ruger rifles previously, so I was much surprised when a new Ruger 77Varmint in 22-250 would not hardly shoot 3 inch groups.

I tried all sorts of factory and hand loaded ammo and it just shot 3 inch groups, mostly spread horizontaly. I finally tried to take it out of the wood (it was one of those pretty laminated stocks) and found the actions screws were put in by some gorilla. It was ALL I could do to get the screws loose. After adjusting the action screws properly, it was about an inch and a half gun, sometimes.

I had it at the range one day shooting it and a friend of mine's cousin came along and just plain went crazy for that rifle. He could see the groups I was shooting, but he just had to have it.
I promptly sold it to him and went and bought a new Remington 700VS which shot much better. I guess he just sits and looks at it, I understand he hardly ever shoots it, just as well.

R F

Marlin Guide gun in 45/70. Would not group with factory ammo or handloads. Best pattern I ever shot from that POS was 6 inches+.

Traded it in on a Ruger # 1 in 45/70 and never looked back. Love it.

The Marlin was the only gun I never regreted parting ways with.

Mine was a Winchester Ranger in 223. I scoped it with a Leupold 6X and spend 2 hours trying to get it sighted in. Nothing but 10" groups and a different place evertime. I was getting ready to replace the scope when I looked down the barrel (boresighting it) and you could only see half of the barrel hole at the other end. The barrel was bowed, no way it would ever sight in. I took it back to Walmart and told them the problem, they look at me like I was crazy, but I got a refund.

A stainless Remington 700 in 7mm STW....went back to the factory twice for extraction problems (the first time, they claimed that the chamber was too rough). Eventually, I installed a Sako-style extractor and now it works fine.


Lee Martin
www.singleactions.com

Judging by the responses I guess I'm smarter than I thought in avoiding Rugers. Some shoot
well, but most do not. Winchester doesn't appear to be much better. The rifle that is giving me the most grief is a Remington 700BDL in .17Rem. It will print the odd .5" 5 shot group at 100, but may well print 1.3" before and after it. I shoot slowly, shoot a clean and cool barrel. It doesn't seem to matter. The rifle does as it damn well pleases. Size wise the groups don't appear to be overly large, but you have to remember you're usually shooting it at small creatures. It's certainly given me enough humility to last out my years. Best wishes.

Cal - Montreal

I am sure I will not be the only one who will stand up for the manufacturers on this. I have had a 2 Winchester that did not shoot worth a dam. I sent them both back to the factory. The Ranger in 223, they gave me a Model 70 in 300 Win Mag, since I had acquired a Featherweight in 223 that was a tack driver.

A 243 Model 70 with a great smooth action and beautiful wood and would not shoot for crap. Sent it back to the factory after owning it 3 yrs, they did a little stock work, and put a little bedding at one point half way down the barrel, and it was a tack driver.

Ruger 22 Mag, magazine would not even chamber a round, as it was miss aligned. Sent it, they replaced it. Got it back and it grouped like a shotgun. Sent it back, they replace the rifle with another Caliber, ( 22/250) since I had bought a Marlin 22 mag instead. The 22/250 was a take driver.

If you have a bad rifle, ( hey we all have off days< or projects that should take 5 minutes that take 5 hours because we screw them up) send it back to the factory and give them a chance.

If their customer service sucks, then YOU have a bad rifle.

Nikon Scopes for example. I think they make a very clear scope. However, ever tried dealing with their customer service. I did. I am back to buying a Leupold if I need a good scope.

If other American product companies backed up there products half as good as most firearms companies did, we could brag on American " quality" once again.

Savage model 340 in 222. What a piece of crap.Would not eject every second round. Took it to the shop only to be told it was a common problem with this model even with factory rounds. Sold it to another gun shop that did't know any better!
Mick

Remington. Not enough room here to go into the reasons why. Wish they made a product and had a customer service as good as Ruger. But wishing will never make it true. Lawdog

Another vote for the Ruger 77/22 in .22 Hornet.
4" groups out of the box. Trigger job, free-floating, glass bedding, new trigger & sear, shimmed the play out of the bolt. Finally got a reliable sub-MOA load, then bought a CZ 527.
Great little rifle, that CZ!
The Ruger's becoming a .19 Calhoon now...
Regards, George

Ruger M77 - 257 Roberts - Something was VERY WRONG with this rifle. It would blow primers and gas in your face with low power FACTORY ammo and any sort of reload I tried to put thru it. Gun scared me to death! I tried seating bullets deeper, changed powders, bullets, etc.

Still blowing everything up! In fact, the whole gun was just looking for a place to BLOW UP. It was a POS.

Oddly enough my 2nd worse rifle was ALSO a Ruger M77-44Mag. It didn't particularly like to feed ammo from the clip. You could expect at least one jam per clip full usually, regardless of bullet or seating depth etc. But the really nice thing was a typical 50 yd group was about 6"....with factory or reloads...and this was with a 3 x 9 scope sitting on top of it and fired off benchrest, everything padded up like new born baby. Another fine Ruger POS.

In the past, I have owned some GOOD Rugers but the last few years their rifles have turned to crap. I wouldn't own a Ruger today.

I had a Browning Buckmark that would self destruct. When holstered the magazines would fall out every time you sat down. Once on the firing line, I pressed the slide release button and it broke off. When it worked, it shot well. This gun, with out a doubt, was the biggest POS I've ever owned. It spent more time at the smiths place than mine in the three years I had it.

Two Winchester rifles (270Wby & 7M/M Rem) I bought in '94 had to go back. Both needed stock work and both got new barrels. Winchester fixed them, no problems since. I still own the 7M/M.

Remington M-700V, .223. The barrel had a waivy surface inside. It looked to me like they stuck a chip when they were boring it. They then ran the rifling button over the rough smoothbore surface. The stock looked like it was inletted by a trained rat. The finish looked like a half used all day sucker. I did not shoot.

I replaced the barrel with a Pac-Nor and made up a new stock. Now it looks great and shoots 3/8" five shot groups. Basically I bought a $600 action.

Two Rugers tie for my worst rifles.

1) M-77UL in 250 Savage, bought it for my daughter when she was born 20 years ago. (Good excuse to buy a new rifle, right)? Put a Leupold 6X compact on it and went to the range. Had 7 misfires from the first box of factory ammo. Looking at the firing pin strikes on the cartridges that didn't fire showed the firing pin was hitting a long way from the center of the primer.

Took it to a gunsmith and showed him the ammo. Before I ever took the rifle out of the case he said "You got a Ruger there don't ya?". Sent it back to Ruger and they re-barreld it. Today it shoots groups around 1 1/2". Good enough for her deer and antelope hunting needs.

2) Ruger Mini-14. Could not keep 10 rounds on a 4X8 sheet of plywood (actualy tried this out of frustration) at 50 yards. That was with a scope too!! Sent it back, they re-barreld it. It still only could manage 3" groups. Sold it, got a AR15, never have looked back.

[ 09-16-2003, 20:37: Message edited by: Elkslayer ]

Remington Sendero 300 Win. Mag. - It would not chamber a round from the factory, burrs in the chamber, it would peel brass strips off brass and the round would only go 1/3 of the way into the chamber.

I polished the chamber and it would shoot but you had to palm the bolt handle to get it to close. It would shoot a good tight group at least. I called Remington and they said to send it to them. I sent it to them and their response was that the extractor was broken (you would have thought that they would have replaced it). They sent it back and I fired a round and went to extract the case and it stayed in the chamber. I tapped the butt stock on the ground and the case came out. I fired another round and the case did the same thing.

I sent the gun to a gunsmith and he told me that I had gotten the rifle back from the factory with a broken extractor.

I had the gunsmith fix the rifle and I went and traded it for two Ruger No. 1's. That fixed that problem.

John

1.Ruger MKII RSI .270WIN, Kicked like a mule, enough muzzle blast to set the woods on fire, loud as hell, grouped around 4" @ 100yds. Folks, A .270Winchester needs more than a 17" barrel, Ruger should have known this and I should have too! The only question is who's dumber, Them for making it or me for buying it! I hope it's new owner is happy with it!

2.Remington model 7 in 6MM REM. , Just wouldn't group worth a damn. Wasted a lot of time and ammo on that one. didn't feel I could justify rebarreling it, so it went down the road too.

3. Ruger MKII .243WIN, This rifle was aquired in a trade for #1 rifle (RSI .270) It won't shoot either. In all honesty, I took this rifle to the range once. After seeing the groups it shot @ 100yds with factory ammo I threw it in the safe and swore I'd never buy another Ruger again. I know with a little tinkering I can get the groups a little tighter but you ain't going from 6" @ 100yds to a MOA rifle I can guaranty that I still own this gun, I don't know why.

Those are my worst
Terry

Late 70's Wnchester Model 70 in .308 Win. Got the gun as a gift for xmas ...x wife bought it. They were both mistakes. When you closed the bolt up on a factory loaded round you could move the rear of the bolt back and forth 1/16" either way. When I started trying to load for it I noticed you could see the empties were crooked like the chamber wasn't cut true to the barrel.
The gun was never able to shoot better than 4" inch groups at 100. Traded it and some money for a Remington LSS .300 WM. Didn't get that good a deal on the ex wife.

I gotta weigh in on this one . a few years back i bought a ruger 77mk II in 280 rem . loaded up some test loads and headed to the range . the first case fell off the bolt face with the bolt half way back . figured it might need shot a little more . same thing happened . had the dealer order a new extractor but it didnt fix the problem. boxed it up and sent it back to ruger . they had it 3 months . first trip back to the range and the problem hadnt been fixed . the dealer who sold it to me was very apologetic and took a new one off the rack and we did an exact exchange . the new rifle extracted quite well but the damn thing wouldnt shoot under 3 inches at 100 yds . tried every known combination of bullets , primers , brass , powder and scopes . finally swapped it off for a rem 700 adl in .243 . very very accurate right out of the box. i sat down and wrote a very nice letter to ruger expressing my concerns and 3 months later i still didnt have a reply . the next letter i wrote wasnt so nice and to this day i have never recieved a response . i have a very old flat bolt 77 in .243 that was my fathers and i treasure it . shoots well . i told a rep that dealt ruger product at a gun show last year that the only thing ruger rifles were good for was propping the barn door open . i related this story to him and he fot quite huffy . the last words i said to him were F_ _ _ Y_ _

Hm.
The Remington 710 has not yet been named even once.
Interesting.


Carcano

Carcano, the reason no one posted about the 710 is that most people on this site are too smart to own one.
Andy

I really like this thread!!

For me it was a tie!!!!

Weatherby, Ruger, Savage, and EMF

Please don't ask for details.....it's truly horrible......

This is the first thread that has agreed with me on Ruger's quality.....I finally feel vindicated!!!

Worst: Ruger 10/22 (1980s vintage), ugly birch stock. Jammed so often I started calling it "my single shot automatic". The trigger broke at a crisp 12 lbs or so - firing it was like trying to start a lawnmower.

Definitely the POS Ruger Mini-14 I owned. I’ve had shotguns with skeet chokes that grouped better. The day I traded that rifle in on an AR-15, ranks right up with my baptism and my wedding day.

I’m no gunsmith, but give me a magazine and 20 minutes in the bathroom, and I’ll make a Ruger Mini-14.

I had a Remington 710 that took two hands to draw back the bolt to eject the empty brass after a shot.I got rid of that in a hurry.

I'll agree with craigster on this.
Had a Ruger 77/22 Horne, and it never shot any good. There were a number of reasons why, none were my fault..
...so I used it to stake my tomatoes.

ALSO had a Remington 7400 semi auto in .270.
Now this thing was possibly the single biggest piece of #@!!$*! that I owned.
It only ever shot 150gn Remington ammo..on a good day... HAd it looked at 3 times by a gunsmith.
I sold it to a china man and bought a BARII. I now have 2 BAR's.
My 2 cents.

I suspect that the reason for only one posting on the wonderful 710, is that no one has bought one.

Hey - my disaster - RUGER 77VT in 220 swift. How Uncle bill could call that POS a varmint gun beats me - its groups with any load were bigger than the varmints we have around here. I guess it would be OK for those large prairie dog things they shoot at in the US. ( only kidding.) I managed to persuade a friendly dealer to swap it for a really ducky CZ built Mauser 98 in .308, which Im about to convert to 30 WSM.'cos it has a 10 twist tube, Timney trigger etc - and shot better that the bloody ruger out of the box!

To continue the Ruger theme:

Mine was a Mini-14. It jammed all the time. And the groups weren't so terrible big...actually. It's just that the group would "walk" - usually high and to the right. When you set the gun down - let it cool - you never knew where it would start shooting next. Put a lot of money and effort into making it work right. It wouldn't.

Sold the P.O.S. to a guy at work.

Bought a SKS for less than half the price and - WoW! - feel like I'm cheating!

Marlin 444 lever action, would feed first cartrige in fine but would not eject and feed simultaniously with anything I could find.

Sorry, no Ruger story. Never owned one and from the lookes of this thread I'm glad

One more vote for the Ruger Mini 14. Have one (looking to unload it, any takers?)that groups 3" at 25 yards if you are lucky.Good for about 4 shots until it jams and louder than my .308. I am amazed that a company can keep selling those d@#m things and stay in business.

This was an impulse buy at a gun show. Came with a nice scope and a few 20 round clips. took the scope off and learned to "spray and pray".

A Weatherby in .257 Wby. Mag.with 3/4's of an inch freebore. I put a Lilja barrel chambered with a zero freebore .257 Wby. reamer and it drives tacks. The Ruger barrels are junk and I own several. A Lilja barrel and a little tinkering will make them drive tacks also. I realize we don't buy guns to rebuild but it seems that's what it takes nowdays.

Ok, here we go! Again it's a Ruger M77, 22in bbl chambered for 22/250. This was one of the tang safety models before Ruger started making their own barrels. The rifle would not group with any load with bullets seated to fit in the magazine. The best I could hope for was 2in. groups. If I seated the bullets out so they were just off the lands it would shoot 3/4 - 7/8in. with almost anything I shot in it. This of course required single loading... I sold it.

In all fairness I must say I now own an M77VT in 22/250 and it's a whole new ball game. This one shoots the way you would expect a varmint rifle to shoot. Also the trigger is adjustable and can be setup at a crisp 2#s.It will hold in the low .3s or high .2s as long as I do my part. It still has the short magazine, and that make no sense to me, as the same rifle is chambered for .243 and .308 with slightly longer followers, and no filler block in the mag.,,,,go figure.

Ruger M77 (3)

1) .270 Winchester m77. Horrible accuracy and it scratched cases so bad they were unusable after 2 extractions.
2) 7mm RM m77R. Best groups ever were still patterns. Bolt binded, Floorplate didn't fit properly, and it wouldn't feed ammo properly.
3) .223 m77 MKII. Mediocre accuracy at best (2" at 100 yards).

You would think I learned my lesson, but I recently bought a left handed Ruger M77 MK II in .300 Winchester. The price was good and I needed a left handed in that caliber. So far accuracy has been diasappointing, but I figure I will work with it to see what I can do.

Savage 111 in 30.06 was my worst. Wouldn't shoot less than 20" at 100 yrds. Had it bedded, rechambered in same caliber, and a muzzle brake installed. Hand loaded new ammo and shot .75" at 100 yrds. Got an offer to trade for a 700VLS in .223. Made the trade and now am looking for a good dear and elk rifle. Also before the work was done it kicked harder than a horse after the work it shot like a .243.

Thats my $.02 worth.

Ray

Ray it sounds like your action screws were not tight or the action didn't fit in the stock properly. That would explain the recoil and horrible groups.

Usually when you get groups that bad, you have something loose or the barrel or scope is bad. You've been pretty blessed if your worst rifle ever shot 0.75" groups after bedded the action.