After viewing the most accurate rifle thread, I am curious about what the list views as the most inaccurate out-of-the-box, factory rifle. I would request no flames because everyone has their own experiences.

My vote: The Thompson Center Encore. Although I love mine, I consider it a accident to get any sub-MOA group with a factory barrel.

T/C Contender

Universal M-1 Carbine. Yeah, I had one.

Without a doubt, the Ruger 77/22 Hornet that I just had to have. My SKS was a tackdriver compared to the Ruger. Most disappointing rifle I ever owned.

I 2nd the 77/22 Hornet. The 1st ones were total junk. They supossedly have it fixed now.

George is right. The only thing less accurate than a semi-auto mini-14 is a full auto mini-14. Blecchh!
JCN

Call your Mini 14 and I'll raise you a Marlin MR7.

Gentlemen,

You cannot possibly know how inaccurate a rifle can be unless you have fired a rifle we had here build by BSA in Great Britain!

It was chambered for the 243 Winchester cartridge, and the best groups we could get out of it - with any bullet, from 55 grain to 105 grain - was about 5 inches!

I looked at its bore, and I was amazed at the most horrible tool marks I have ever seen inside it.

There were ver deep cuts across the rifling, and the rifling had breaks in them.

We replaced the barrel, and teh rifle would shoot about 1.5 oinch groups after that consistenly.

As a general rule, Browning BAR rifles are not know for their accuracy.

Saeed, 5 inch groups would be considered a tack driver for a Mini-14. I've seen some BAR's that were very accurate, but I've never even heard of an accurate Mini-14.

There are lemons of every make and model, but it does seem like Rugers have a high incidence of disappointment. I've had two 77's that were very nice shooters, but others that were as disagreeable as a mother-in-law.

-Ruger Mini-14's. I've seen adds that say for $1500 or so they can turn a Mini-14 into a gun as accurate as a $700 AR-15..........DJ

I own 3 mini 14 now and have shot another 20 or so they are 2 inch rifles not great in the accuracy dept. But what they are designed for they work well. We did have one that wouldn't keep its rounds in a 8 in paper plate that went back to ruger they put a new barrel on it and it is now a 2 in rifle with mil spec ball ammo.
Then I had a rem 700 in 300 wm that would not group with in a plate also. Then I glass bedded it free floated the barrel worked up a good load now it is a .75 rifle.

I just shot a couple of Rossi single shots for about 4in at 50 yards. No matter who is making them they all are going to turn out a bad one now and then.

Mini-14. A cute, handy gun that scatters shots with boring consistency.

I have never shot one that would group acceptably, nor have I known an owner of one that was really happy with the accuracy "or lack there of" that Mini's characteristically display.

Considering the routine accuracy gained from M-1a's and M-1 Garands, this is truly remarkable. I have a as issued M-1 that shoots <2" with most issue ammo and an M-1a that does the same (talking 8 shots and 10 shots respectively. You would think that with a little tinkering the Mini-14 could be made into a fun and reasonably accurate rifle, but that does not seem to be routinely achieved.

My vote goes to the mini-14 also mine was very inacurate, I also had a MKII 77 stainless Target that couldn't keep it's shots inside 3 inches. I don't know about Ruger products anymore from everything I have been reading here they don't seem to be very accurate.

Ruger Mini-14- I've had shotguns that patterned better....

Ruger Blackhawk .45LC. All the chambers were different sized, mismatched to the throat and barrel, spent some money and had them uniformed, but to no avail. That one found a new home....

Ruger MkII stainless/synthetic in 30-06. Totally inconsistent. One group into 1", the next five groups from 2-6". Tried everything but could not get it to work. Went into the auction and down the road.....

Ruger, either you get a good one (rare) or a mediocre shooter at best, a POS at worst. I don't get it either, they look like they should shoot well and external quality is usually exceptional. I keep trying them, hoping to get a good one, but its rare.

I do have a Ruger 77/22 .22R that is an absolute tack driver out of the box. Love that one.

H&R Handi rifle chambered for 357 mag. Bore measures .355 so I reload it with 9mm bullets. Still doesn't work well.
Shoots coffee-can sized groups @100 yards.

I would have to vote for the Savage 99 in 243 my hunting buddy bought new about 25 years ago. Couldn't get it on paper at even 25 yards! His dad looked it over and suggested he take it back out and try it again with a box of 308s. He was right....the barrel was marked wrong from the factory. We've often talked about how lucky he was that they did'nt mark a 243 as a 308!

He's killed a lot of deer with that rifle ever since...all with 308.

Max503

I don't think H&R/NEF knows how to make an accurate barrel or rifle? When one comes along it is just a fluke. Fred M.

Winchester Mdl. 70 Ranger in 30-06, You couldn't hit the side of a barn even if you were locked inside it, and that was after trying most factory loads and half a dozen different reloads. Sold it to a guy as a shotgun.

Steve E...........

Hands down would be the Carcano. I picked one up at a gunshow just for the historical factor of the whole Kennedy thing. Could not keep it on a 18"x18" target at 50m. Not to mention the Carcano is a piece of junk mechanicaly.

I also had a Parker Hale 30/06 that wouldnt shoot 6" at 100m. Slapped a new Shilen barrel on her and she shoots sub MOA now.

I woul;d have to say the Remington 7400 and 742 auto rifles are the most unaccurate rifles I've ever dealt w/. Not to mention, they would hang-up every other shot. I've seen a few that wouldn't jam but, I've seen even more that would.

A couple of folks said the H&R/NEF Handi Rifles were innaccurate, The couple that I've dealt w/ were pretty accurate and I've heard from many others they were accurate as well.

As some others said, They all make duds here and there. It seems w/ some manus, it's alittle more of a gamble to get an accurate rifle.

Good Luck!

Reloader

I had to have a lever gun once. I bought a Marlin 336 in 30-30 winchester. I brought it home and returned it to Wally World the next day! I understand they won't take guns back any more. I always wondered if Wally World was selling 2nds!

Please, everyone don't scream at me at once, but my most unaccurate rifle right out of the box was a...

REMINGTON BULL BARREL 22-250.

I tried factory ammo, and handloads for 4 months. This gun was a dud. It NEVER grouped better than 6".

Sold it.

The most inaccurate rifle I've ever owned believe it or not was a heavy barreled 700 in .222 of all things! That rifle drove me nuts (short trip) until it was discovered to have a little bitty flaw in the crown. Had it re-crowned and it thought it was a bench gun after that. It went from the worst I ever had to the best overnight. It was the first true quarter minute rifle I ever owned. I wish I had a nickle for every prarie dog that fell to it. I would need a larger truck than my F-250 to haul them! Jim

My vote, at least for the guns I've had, would be a tie between the Ruger 77/Hornet and the Remington 742/7400. Both of the ones we've had were horrible in the accuracy department. My son bought the 7400, (against my strong advice), and it would not keep it's 270 bullets on a paper plate at 100 yards.

If you think Ruger 77s aren't accurate, take a look at my website, at My Webpage and you'll see one old model 30/06 and several new MKIIs that will shoot very nicely. I admit I've had some that didn't shoot too well, but I've had the same with Remington, Tikka, Winchester, Savage, Browning etc. I'd stack these Rugers against anything out there.

hi
persian made mauser short rifle it could never print better than 2 inches @100 yds and average of 3-4 inches and kicked like a mad ass too,but i was only a child (9 years old).
danny

I think it is absolutely true that, like barrel-makers, all rifle manufacturers turn out both "hummers" and "bummers" when it comes to accuracy.

I have had great shooting rifles in the Rem. M742, Ruger M77, BSA Royal, and others mentioned here as being inaccurate. Four different AC-556's (full auto mini-14's) each shot well under 2". One, an AC-556-KF, would even occasionally shoot a group under 1/2" on 3-shot burst setting! (Oddly enough, all 4 seemed to generally shoot better on 3-shot-burst setting than on semi-auto setting. Straight out full-auto caused them all to self-desruct in relatively short order....which is why NONE of them live here anymore.) Rem. M722/700's (and I've owned literally dozens of them) were all usefully accurate when fed ammo they liked, as were/are most other makes of bolt guns that have passed through/into my hands.

The ones which have not performed well on average FOR ME are the heavy-barreled versions of the TCR '83 (from their "custom" shop...their standard-weight non-custom-shop barrels shoot fine), most factory-issued Ruger No. 1's (they shoot great when rebarreled with quality after-market tubes, so that tells me something), recent M70 "varmint-weight" rifles, and any rifle other than the Winchester M61, if chambered for .22 WMR...the M61's seemed to handle that cartridge well.

Of course, all the experimenting to find out which loads make which rifles shoot well is really much of the fun I get from shooting, so I don't resent the fact that some rifles really take some experimenting. I still have a brown-stock Steyr SSG-Match from the 60's that I was literally ready to throw away until I decided to use up some ammo which didn't shoot well in a particular Tikka sniper rifle. I decided to blow that ammo away rather than pull it down, and elected to use the "inaccurate" Steyr rather than waste barrel life in a "good" rifle. That load shot sub-3/8" in the Steyr and still does, thus saving both a LOT of ammo AND a rifle....

When evaluating rifles for accuracy, it is probably worth remembering that acceptable accuracy depends at least in part on the intended use of the rifle. A 2 MOA SMG is a hindrance, not a help...when you gotta spray & pray, SPRAY is what you want, not 1/4" groups. Likewise 2 or 3 MOA is plenty good enough for a DG rifle intended for fast shooting up close in thick bush...in that instance fast and dependable are much more important than groups half that size. Some shooters who are mainly paper-punchers tend to put FAR too much emphasis on accuracy and far too little on all-around usefullness for a practical purpose.

Go figger...

Alberta Canuck.

Add another Ruger Mini-14 to the pile.

Just gone through my records:
I second the Remington 742 semi-auto in 30.06, after months of load develoment the best I got, 8" at 100yds, total heap of shit. SOLD! for a loss.
On the old Ruger 77 in .270 best was 4" as above.

My best accurate rifles I have are Winchesters,
375H&H super express,270grner Woodleigh's 1" 100yds.
30.06 180gner's Woodleigh's XTR 1" 100yds.
.357 trails end 158gner XTP's 1.5" 80yds.

22.250 Remington adl any 55gner 1" 200yds.

" You would think that with a little tinkering the Mini-14 could be made into a fun and reasonably accurate rifle...... "



And you would be correct.



http://www.perfectunion.com/forums/index.php?showforum=8



You guys should get out more.

Yup,
Going to a mini-14 web site.
Got that on my to do list right after I get done poking myself in the eye with a sharp stick next Tuesday.
JCN

JohnCharlieNoak, you just don't understand, a Ruger will shoot just as good as an AR once you done a slew of alterations that take time and money. Of course the AR will shoot that well out of the box and are infinitly easier to tinker with, but we're not going to mention that are we?

Toolmaker

The least accurate rifle I've owned was a M 71 Winchester .348. I also had one of the same guns that was just the opposite. I had the poor one converted to .450 Alaskan, and that change seemed to cure it!!

My worst experiences have been with Ruger M77 rifles. They have ranged from below average to shotgun patterns.

I can honestly say that I have never owned an Un-Accurate rifle!

I have only owned around 25~30 rifles but none of them have been un-accurate. I have only owned lever and bolt actions, but even the lever actions, while not as accurate as my bolt guns, still would be plenty accurate for there intended ranges. Most of my rifles now are M 70's and the like that are either semi or full blown customs and will hold under MOA on most days with most loads but even at that, I can't think of any rifle I've had that wouldn't shoot less than an inch and a quarter with a little work and some carefull handloading.

The only incacurate gun I can think of is the Rossi 22lr pump action I got for my kids to learn to shoot with. I figure a 22 should be able to at least hold 1" at 25 yds, but more likely at 50 yds. Well, it's lucky to hold 2" at 25 yds, and even at 10 yds, 1" groups are rare. Still, it'll hold tin can accuracy at 50 yds.

The other two disapointments are the very heavy trigger pull, which is doubly bad for small weak hands, and the fact that it won't feed 22 shorts.

interesting link to the mini-14 accuracy site. But, what is done there is a bunch more than "a little tinkering". Most folks don't have the facilities to do the work required in shortening and recrowning the barrel (in 1/4" increments) until it finally shoots better. Bottom line for me is that Ruger aught to make the thing right from the factory, they would sell a bunch more.

Yikes!

When I lived in a small town in Illinois the local police chief had the full auto mini-14 (AC-556). Shooting it felt like driving a car with no shocks down a washboard road. Just glad my heart wasn't prone to dysrhythmias...