What's the worst firearm you've ever owed?

[Catt57]

Worst doesn't necessarily mean just low quality or unreliable. (Although those would certainly qualify.) Maybe it was difficult or painful to shot. Maybe it doesn't do what was advertised. Maybe you just hated it.

I've been through several over the years.
My top contenders include:
Clarke 1st
Rohm 10 (22 short)
Jimenez JA-22
Old West 9x19 derringer

But I'd have to put the Jimenez JA-9 at the top of the list. While it was definitely low quality and very unreliable, the reason I put it at the top of the list over my other cheap unreliable pistols is because it was originally sold under the pretense of being a viable self defense pistol. Yet it would often fail and quite often jam up to the point of requiring tools just to get it apart and unjammed. For a "self defense" pistol, this is not only fatal for the pistol, but quite possibly fatal for the user....

Also, it was extremely easy to reassemble it incorrectly and cause the slide to instantly lock closed and be impossible to remove without requiring tools and a decent amount of gunsmithing know how. Rendering it a permanent brick for many owners.

 

[gerhard1]

For me, it was a copy of the Colt Officer's Model, which is a variation of the 1911. The brand name escapes me at the moment, but it simply would not chamber. It would shoot, extract and eject just fine, but stripping a round from the magazine and chambering it? In the words of the cute little lizard on the insurance company commercial; FUGIDDABOUTIT!!!

I took it to a gunsmith that many of you old KSCCW guys might remember (kanhunter) and he said that the ramp was improperly polished and that the only realistic option was a new barrel.

There was another issue as well, and that was that, try as I might, I could not field strip it. That was the primary reason that I did not replace the barrel.

It was made in the Philippines, and was normally a halfway-decent brand, but that particular specimen was a stinker.

 

[Alpha-17]

For me, it was a Sig Scorpion 1911. Damn thing was over a grand back in 2012, a fair amount for a broke Army Specialist, and yet it never wanted to work, and nor shoot quite right. It simply wouldn't feed/go back into battery correctly, and every time I thought I had ironed out the problem, it would flare up again. Meanwhile, my $500 Para USA GI Expert ran like a top. Not the way things were supposed to be. Really wish I had grabbed the Kimber Desert Warrior that the shop had at the same time; one of those is still on my wish list.

 

[Shotfired]

I once had a cheap pot-metal .22 once that couldn’t finish a magazine without stovepipes, it turned every range trip into immediate troubleshooting.

 

[Black commando]

Calling a Jimenez JA-9 a "self-defense" pistol feels like a total setup. When you're selling something that just locks up and needs tools to get working again, especially when someone's life might depend on it, that just feels wrong, maybe even criminal.

 

[Alan]

Worst doesn't necessarily mean just low quality or unreliable. (Although those would certainly qualify.) Maybe it was difficult or painful to shot. Maybe it doesn't do what was advertised. Maybe you just hated it.

I've been through several over the years.
My top contenders include:
Clarke 1st
Rohm 10 (22 short)
Jimenez JA-22
Old West 9x19 derringer

But I'd have to put the Jimenez JA-9 at the top of the list. While it was definitely low quality and very unreliable, the reason I put it at the top of the list over my other cheap unreliable pistols is because it was originally sold under the pretense of being a viable self defense pistol. Yet it would often fail and quite often jam up to the point of requiring tools just to get it apart and unjammed. For a "self defense" pistol, this is not only fatal for the pistol, but quite possibly fatal for the user....

Also, it was extremely easy to reassemble it incorrectly and cause the slide to instantly lock closed and be impossible to remove without requiring tools and a decent amount of gunsmithing know how. Rendering it a permanent brick for many owners.

Hard to argue with that, when a gun needs tools just to unjam it, it’s already failed the job it was meant for

 

[cp1969]

As part of an automobile trade, I ended up with a foreign-made semi auto pistol. It didn't have a caliber marking and the guy I got it from didn't know what it was, either, as he'd never shot it. I found some rimmed pistol cartridges that would fire in it but only as a single shot. I don't remember what happened to it; all I know is it's gone and I'm glad.

The other gun came to me in a trade of some sort was a 12 gauge Marlin Goose Gun. 12 gauge, bolt action shotgun that I couldn't hit a barn (from the INSIDE) with it, so it, too, was given its walking papers although I don't remember to who or where it went.

 

[Catt57]

Anyone else? Tell us what gun you regret owning.

 

[Tahoe]

Walther P22. It wasn't an awful gun but I just didn't like it for some reason. Kind of small in the hand, and I don't have huge hands. I traded it away as part of a deal for a FAL.