It seems like every hunter and shooter dislikes a particular brand or type of rifle for some reason. Some hate a rifle because of the construction or design. State your favorite hate rifle and why?
My hate rifle was actually a pistol in a rifle caliber...
I know the T/C Contender is a popular item, but my only and only experience consisted of a scoped Contender in 30-30. I got it in my head one year to try deer hunting with a handgun. Bought one, sighted it in at the range, thought I was ready.
Sitting in the woods on opening morning, a beautiful buck walks into view...and what do I do? I couldn't "get it up" fast enough. I hadn't really practiced the quick shot, so when the time came I was ill prepared to hoist that heavy gun and scope at arms length and take a decent shot. Mr. Whitetail could have crawled out of sight for all the time it took me to get steady and try to make any kind of sight picture...
Rather than frustrate myself any further, that pistol was traded at the next gunshow. It was probably the shortest length of time I had owned any gun, couldn't have been more than 6 months.
Posts: 497 | Location: Lewistown, PA USA | Registered: 21 December 2000
Mine was a Kimber in 3006. I had this rifle for 2 years and I tried numerous loads (handloads and factory) and the best I could was about a 4" group. I even gave to a couple of buddies to try, thinking it was me. same thing. I got sick of using it for a door stop and traded it for a marlin 30/30.
Posts: 204 | Location: Alaska | Registered: 06 December 2000
Mine is a Browning composite stalker in 308Win w/BOSS. I thought I never would get it to shoot. After pillar bedding and throwing away the BOSS I finally got it to hold about .5 MOA. It is now my main light carry rifle, but I still resent all the effort I put into it.
In almost 40 years of being a gun nut my absolutely worst gun was in the late 70's, a Colt Sauer, in .375 H&H mag. I mounted a 4X scope on it and my first shot off the bench told me that it was the worst .375 for recoil I EVER shot. Found out that it had a LEFT handed stock with CAST ON, which accentuated the recoil to ones cheek. Accuracy was not very good, and most cases showed borderline pressure signs. Later found out that the barrel was UNDERSIZED which accounted for the presure signs. Sent it to the factory, had it rebarreled and restocked, promptly sold it without firing a shot when it returned. I lost a mess of money on that gun too.
FN
Posts: 950 | Location: Cascade, Montana USA | Registered: 11 June 2000
Great topic. Mine is a Ruger mini 14. It shot OK when I bought it but after about 500 rounds you couldn't keep 5 shots on a sheet of typing paper. I sent it off to a shop that "guaranteed" 1/2 MOA accuracy. Yeah right. Any way after spending twice as much as I paid for the rifle in the first place it merely shot OK. I hindsight I should have sold it and bought a top of the line AR or a bolt gun. But I have so much money into it now that I kept it.
I once had a Remington 700 Sendero chambered in 7mm STW and the best group that I or my friends ever shot with it was roughly 3" at 100 yards. Needless to say, I was not impressed with that gun at all. The funny thing is, every other Remington 700 that I've owned has shot very well. I still don't know what was wrong with that rifle.
I once made what I thought was a hell of a trade for a Supergrade Model 70 made in '59 in .30-06.
The first shot at a pie plate at 50 yards completely missed. Missed three more times. Figured the scope was off. Moved up to 25 yards. Four inches right. Three inches left. Tightened the scope and action screws. Six inches left, then four inches right.
Borrowed a bore scope and couldn't even see the lands. Almost looked like a smoothbore. Tried two different copper solvents. Finally in desperation, I stuck the muzzle in a block of parafin and filled the barrel and chamber with straight amonia, put it in the closet and forgot about it for about a week. Lot's of green slime came out. Went to the range and tried it again. Shot three into about 2 and a half inches.
Traded it for another supergrade in .264WM, also made in '59, which I still have.
------------------ Ignorance is curable but stupidity is terminal.
Mine was a Parker Hale I picked up in about 74. First bolt action I was able to buy. Was a 270 and at a hundred yards I could get about a 12 inch group, at two hundred I couldn't tell you, I never found the target
New Marlin 94 in 44 mag. After 2 years of farting with it, it never did feed any ammo from the magazine without double stroking the lever. Tried round nose, flat nose, long seat and short seat lengths. Pity was it sure was accurate once you managed to get the damn round in the chamber. Gave up in disgust and bought a winchester in 45 long colt, and never looked back. That winchester fed it all with no fuss at all. Including 300's and 335's with long flat noses.
I had a Win M-94 big-bore in .375 win. I could shake it and you would hear so many badly fitted parts clanging together it sounded like an episode of Soul Train.
Wouldnt shoot worth a hoot either, I mean bad. I ended up tradeing it in for something else, the thing was almost all plastic too.
After that Winchester eventually cleaned up their act and went nback to making good lever-guns. But boy, that rifle showed how low a company could go.
BTW someone gave it to me, and the rifle was so bad I told the guy to never give me anything again.........10
My worst rifle of all time was a Weatehrby MkV. The rifle was a 257 WM and was accurate, but it had a nasty habit of misfiring. Usually, this would manifest itself when you had a big buck in your sights, you squeezed the trigger and click nothing else would happen. You could then reload the same round and get it to fire.
This was back in early 80's by the way. The rifle was recalled for a "weak" firing pin spring and I had to wait for 5 months to get it back from Japan. The issues described above was after I got it back too. I would have hated to see how it shot before the weak sprng was replaced.
I had a Weatherby Vanguard in 30-06 about 10 years ago. Couldn't hit a barn from the inside with it. Nothing worked, not factory ammo, not handloads, nothing. That was my one and only experience with anything made by Weatherby.
Give me a Remington Model 700 Classic any day. I've got 3 of them, 350 Rem Mag, 6.5x55 Swedish and 375 H&H. They all shoot extrememly well and cost lots less than the Weatherby.
Mac
------------------ When hunting and fishing get in the way of your job, it is time to quit the job!
Posts: 1638 | Location: Colorado by birth, Navy by choice | Registered: 04 February 2001
My worst rifle was a Savage rifle-shotgun combo .22 WinMag/20G. It did never fire the bullets in the same direction as when I zeroed it. And the shotgun barrel did put the shot pattern about two feet beneath and one beside the bullet impact. One simple thing was quite sure with it: it did never hit where you aimed.
What I hated that gun!!! I sold it, but I confess that I still deeply regret having put that h-l of a gun in the hand of another hunter. It would have been better that I�d used it as a sinker for fishing nets or some other honest purpose.
Fritz K
[This message has been edited by Fritz Kraut (edited 07-08-2001).]
Posts: 846 | Location: Sweden | Registered: 19 April 2001
CIL Model 830, which is actually a Savage Model 340 in 30-30. I picked it up about 8 years ago thinking it would make a good "starter gun" for my two boys. Best 3 shot groups at 100 meters were in the 4 inch range, no matter what I fed it.The flimsy detachable mag was another headache. It would feed if it felt like it, or not at all.Funny thing is I had another one about 2 years ago in 222 and it shot like a champ, whish I'd kept it.
Mine was a Remington 7400 with a sythetic stock. Jammed every other round no matter what kind of ammunition I used. To see the iron sights you had to press your face hard into the stock. The top of the stock came to a sharp edge and it was painful to shoot.
I still have a Remington 742 BDL with a wood stock. It is very comfortable to shoot and quite accurate.
So much for the improved version.
Posts: 598 | Location: Missouri | Registered: 16 June 2000
I have one of those, still. They will shoot one or two rounds to approximately the same point of aim, but once the rifle barrel heats up it starts shooting progressively lower and lower, because of the influence of the cold shotgun barrel below. I can not adjust the sights in one trip to the range. True, the shotgun barrel seem to shoot low ( on all three of the ones I have ) and there's not much that can be done about that. On one that was rebored ( .223 to 6X45mm ) the shotgun barrel now shoots close to the same point of aim as the rifle, by random chance.
Tom
Posts: 14388 | Location: Moreno Valley CA USA | Registered: 20 November 2000
mine was a remington model miuntain in 280. i tried a bit of everything with it but could not make it shoot an better that an improved cylinder and buckshot. i guess it was the exception as my experience with other rems was rather satisfactory. montero
Posts: 874 | Location: Madrid-Spain | Registered: 03 July 2000
Mine was a Browning BPS shotgun in 3.5" 12 gauge. I had my left handed Wingmaster Remington 870 stolen (along with my car) and I needed a new shot gun. I researched things and the BPS was bottom load - bottom eject which works with lefty's, and I wanted a 3.5" for waterfowl. I purchased it and proceded to 'get to know' it at the skeet range. I was in skeet leagues at the time and used to get 22-23 out of 25 with the Wingmaster (which shot a 24 out of 25 the day before it ended up in other hands) and was in the top 1/4 of the league (which my brother won that year). I was lucky to hit 6 or 7 out of 25 with the BPS. The problem was that it was a 12ga built on the heavy 10ga frame, so it didn't swing right for me. I traded it for a Browning Gold Hunter and brought my score back up to the 22-23 range. Get what feels right was the lesson I learned, especially with shotguns.
7.35 Carcano that my ex-wife bought for my birthday (not the only reason she's an ex, but definitely one of them). I waiting for the next big gun buy-back campaign so I can unload it for about $50 more than it's worth.
I thought I would make a neat little light-weight pronghorn rifle and put a 4-12X Leupold on a ruger mini-14 ranch rifle. OOPS! I found out quickly that these things won't group for S*&t! Sold the package (at a profit since I bought it at cost) and bought my trusty 40x in .308. THAT is a proper pronghorn rifle!
JohnTheGreek
Posts: 4697 | Location: North Africa and North America | Registered: 05 July 2001
My best and worst rifle are the same. At its worst, a mannlicher stocked Sako that threw EVERY factory load like a shotgun, never under 3 inches! At its best in a bell and carlson stock bedded and floated, with handloads three shots touching at 100 yds, consistently. Longest measured shot? 411 yards fence to fence across a valley measured from an airial photo. One shot one buck.
I have one of those, still. [Sc. Savage Rifle/Shotgun Combo] They will shoot one or two rounds to approximately the same point of aim, but once the rifle barrel heats up it starts shooting progressively lower and lower, because of the influence of the cold shotgun barrel below. I can not adjust the sights in one trip to the range.
Tom
Well Tom,
if it had been so good. "Climbing" - sinking on Savage because of superposed rifle barrel - is a common phenomenon of combination guns as Bockb�chsflintes and Drillings, where you can expect the second shot to hit � - 2 inches higher than the first one. But the POI impact doesn�t vary from time to time when you shoot with a cold weapon. My Sauer and Sohn 3000 drilling was zeroed by a gunsmith nearly 30 years ago and the POI still remains.
It was not so with my Savage combo: the first shot with a cold weapon varied from time to time. If you did hit the bull�s eye on monday, you would hit a 3 to the right upwards on tuesday and 1 to the left bottom at wednesday.
You have been luckier with your Savage. It is a nice and simple construction, but the quality seems to vary.
Best regards,
Fritz
[This message has been edited by Fritz Kraut (edited 07-12-2001).]
Posts: 846 | Location: Sweden | Registered: 19 April 2001
Worst was a Rem 788 in .243. The bolt stop broke and was replaced twice. Even then it would allow the bolt to be pulled out when cycling the action. The small plastic button on the 2 clips I had both fell off so the sharp metal of the clip release would chew up my thumb. 243 just didn't seem to have the jam needed for large northern whitetails. But would it shoot. With Burger bullets and a case full of IMR 3031 it would keep 5 in one slightly enlarged hole.
One of them had the rifle and shotgun barrels cast in one piece; it is not adjustable in any way other than the rifle sight. The other two have clamps at the end of the barrels, and they can be a problem if not tight. Some adjustment of right and left alignment of the two barrels can be made by loosening the clamp and moving the ends of the barrels; I did this by accident once and had to re-adjust them. No help for up and down, though. I think this could be done with some machining and a shim, but have not dared to try it.
Tom
Posts: 14388 | Location: Moreno Valley CA USA | Registered: 20 November 2000
Remington 742 in .308. It shot fine but it pissed me off because you could not break it down and strip the action. Never truly felt that it was clean. The wood fore stock had a horrid fit also. Gone, but at a profit.
One of them had the rifle and shotgun barrels cast in one piece; it is not adjustable in any way other than the rifle sight. The other two have clamps at the end of the barrels, and they can be a problem if not tight. Some adjustment of right and left alignment of the two barrels can be made by loosening the clamp and moving the ends of the barrels; I did this by accident once and had to re-adjust them. No help for up and down, though. I think this could be done with some machining and a shim, but have not dared to try it.
Tom
Hi Tom,
I had one of those with clamps, and tried soldering at the very end. It didn�t help, although I resolved many times to find the right positions.
That pair of iron tubes with a wood handle drove me finally nuts and I sold it away. I can�t say that I miss it.
Fritz K.
Posts: 846 | Location: Sweden | Registered: 19 April 2001
A Ruger Mini-30. It would shoot a reasonable 5-shot group, but the next day, the zero would be 4"-5" from where it had been, using the same ammo. It just never would hold a zero. Glass-bedded it, similar to a NM M14, but it still did the same thing. Just had to "let it go"!!
Ruger 77/22 Hornet. After stuffing around with handload after handload I tried factory ammo replaced the scope with a Leopold, had it professionally glass bedded including free floating the barrel and finally target crowned the barrell. Result = my mossberg pump action 12 gauge with cylinder bored 18 inch barrel and rifle sights shot better groups with solid slugs than the Ruger at 50 yards. Sold the rotten thing and bought a Ruger 77 Mk 2 in .223. Bit of load development = sub moa groups and no gunsmithing required.
I'm new to this site so allow me some lattitude to revive this thread. For me it is entirely appropriate that the original question was posted in the Gunsmithing forum.
The worst rifle of my life is a custom built 270 on a commercial FN action, Turkish walnut stock, Blackburn bottom metal. It shoots like a dream but it has rested in my safe unused except for one trip to the range three years ago.
Why do I so despise the rifle? Because the gunsmith who built it for me turned out to be a bi-polar SOB that made the project into a living hell for 18 months. Everytime I look at the rifle I still get mad.
Posts: 5052 | Location: Muletown | Registered: 07 September 2001
