What is the least fun gun you have shot?

[alamogunr]

Mine was a Ruger .44 Mag Super Blackhawk. The one with the square back trigger guard. It was the first big bore handgun I acquired. Bought it from a Philadelphia dealer as is. Someone had stored it in a holster or zipper case and the barrel and cylinder were severely rusted but the rest of the gun was excellent. Shooting just a half box of factory ammo left my middle finger swollen and blue.

The gun sat in the safe for several years until I sent it to Jack Huntington and had it converted to a 5 shot .45 Colt. With a reshaped grip it is one of my favorite guns to shoot with heavy loads.

[EMC45]

Another one is my 10in. Contender barrel in .44 Mag. 429-421 over 18gr. 2400 is a handful and sounds like a deer rifle going off.

[Johan Steyn]

A custom build 7.5lb .500 Jeffrey that a gunsmith friend built, (for a guide on a reserve with the big 5) and asked me to test fire since he had recently had surgery. It only took 3 shots offhand to convince me that it was a bad idea

[jdfoxinc]

S&W 29. Hurt to fire factory loads.

[GhostHawk]

Mine was a .410 bolt action shotgun, mossberg. Had interchangeable screw on chokes.
I bought it as a freshman in collage. Worked fine on close range cottontails. But it was dismal on everything else.

I still have it, it is cleaned, oiled. It did help feed me through some lean collage years.
But it sucked at anything longer than 30 yards and tougher than a cottontail.

I did finally figure out that a "step" in the bolt was catching the rim of the next shell and would lock it up.

I took a dremel, hollowed the center out some, made a more gradual ramp for it to go by those rounds in the magazine. No more jams.

We have some history, it fed me in some lean times. But it also did not feed me some times it should have. So mixed feelings.

Eventually I got pissed at its inability to kill at 40 yards or more. Went and bought a Rem 870 wingmaster in 20 ga, had local gunsmith fit it to me. Took an inch and a quarter off the stock, remounted recoil pad.

Within two weeks we were a killing machine. Everything fell, Rabbits, squirrels, Partridge, ducks, geese and deer with slugs. We were a team, still are.

Now I have 3 Rem 870 Wingmasters, 12, 16, and 20 and the 20 is still my favorite woods gun. The 12 is the special trap, extra high stock and rib, 30" full choke barrel, double beed. She laid the smack down on a lot of ducks and geese. She also wears a camo pattern tape job.

The 16 was my grandmothers brothers gun, passed down to me. We were fishing partners when he was in his 60's and i was 6. Plain barrel, this gun was one of the earilest 870's made, and was used hard for decades, and shows it. It is the smoothest of them all. Although my 20 may catch it.

I took it out a couple times for pigeons just cause. It dumped em clean. Orrin, I be thinking of you, those early mornings on the water. Time going by without the need for a single word being said. Miss ya, Love ya. I think you'd be proud of the boy you helped raise.

[DxieLandMan]

My .577 Snider Enfield and I say this only because after I shoot a few rounds, my shoulder hurts for a couple of days.

[murf205]

A friend's 470 Nitro Express. Hard for me to keep this bazooka from recoiling out of my hand holding the forearm. It is a beautiful Merkel sxs and if the thing belonged to me, it would stay that way because I have a total shoulder replacement and I DO NOT want another one!Attachment 242150 But it sure is purrty

[RED BEAR]

The least fun gun was a bersa 380 that i hot loaded and blew the top of the barrel off and it hit me in the face. No Permanente damage just brused and burnt.

[stubshaft]

Single shot H&R 10 ga. barrel cut down and stock skeletonized with rifle sights to shoot slugs. The gun weighed about 4 1/2 lbs. and was meant to shoot slugs.

[JoeJames]

Marlin 1895 - 45-70 with hot loads, and no recoil pad.

[Walks]

S&W 60 2" With full house 158gr loads, 2 shots.

Then I went back to my .454 Casull 4 3/4".

Didn't like the T/C 14" in .45-70 before muzzle break.

[Conditor22]

M2 Garand full auto, metal butt plate in a T-shirt when I was 12. Left an impression on me in more ways than one. (Parents friend who took me shooting was wearing a padded shooting vest.)

[Der Gebirgsjager]

Three come to mind:

1. An original, early Ruger .30 Carbine Blackhawk. Can still remember the serial #, it was 4406. The only ammo I had was some WW II FMJ stuff. One evening, about sundown, I shot a raccoon with it. The fireball, noise, and concussion made me feel like my nose would bleed. I put it away for about 15 years. As time seems to make memory dim a bit, I thought it couldn't possibly have been that bad. I tried it again, it was that bad, and I immediately sold it on Gunbroker.

2. A 3 inch barreled S&W 629 with a Magnaport job from Lew Horton. Short, stainless, .44 Magnum -- what not to like? Tried it out with some Win. factory 240 gr. JHP. Similar experience to No. 1 (above) but the recoil was even worse. Two shooting buddies were there, one fired one round and the other just handed it back to me. Still have it, not sure why.

3. When a middle teenager a friend showed up with a single barrel 10 Ga. shotgun and a handful of black powder shells he had found in the attic. The gun was quite worn. I don't know if I ever knew the brand name, but it was probably one of the turn of the century hardware store guns like Crescent. So worn, in fact, that when the action was closed it sagged open enough that the firing pin wouldn't reach the primer, so to shoot it successfully one had to push upward on the fore stock while pulling down on the wrist to close the gap. He insisted that I shoot it, claiming to have done so himself several times. Not wanting to be a sissy I fired it off. It didn't knock me down, but did stagger me backward two steps as I fought to keep my balance.

DG

[gpidaho]

My least favorite (WE like all guns, right) was a 15" T/C Encore chambered in 454 Casull. It would bloody the middle finger of my shooting hand with the trigger guard every time I fired it. The second least favorite is a Remington R51. Well, first off it's a Remington and I'm DONE buying Remingtons. Second, it's the most likely to slide bite of any pistol I've ever shot and is just a female dog to break down and clean. Only two guns that I wear a shooting glove with when firing are these two. Gp

[unique]

This cause it has steel recoil pad. Brings tears to my eyes after couple rounds.


https://www.americanrifleman.org/art...classic-rifle/

[goryshaw]

.460 S&W, inadequate hearing protection at the time, the muffs I used for my 24 inch AR just didn't suffice with that 6 inch revolver. One shot and I was done, ears were ringing and hand stinging.

[jwlegal]

Many years ago, a T/C in 44 mag. Had a wooden stock and a long barrel. That pistol shot very well. Just broke the skin in my hand from the base of the thumb to the middle of the hand. Could not handle that wooden stock. Carried a 44 mag S&W 4 inch with rubber grips for many years and never had a problem shooting it. But learned that a pretty stock is not necessarily a good way to go. Not a comment on the gun...just on the fellow shooting it and the way his hand fit that particular handle.

[truckjohn]

My least favorite gun ever was dad's pump 30-06. It kicked like a mule and I couldn't hit squat with it. It left me deaf for a day every time we shot it. It soured me on 30-06 for over 30 years. I finally tried another one out about 8 years ago with some decent ammo and had no trouble with it.

Next was my 8mm Mauser which I promptly sold off after 100 rounds of 200gr ammo...

And I will never shoot high brass turkey loads off the bench to test patterns *ever* again....

I think there's a lot to be said for starting kids off slow with greatly reduced loads and quality hearing protection.... Nothing ruins the fun of shooting quite like ringing ears, seeing stars, blood, and bruises. I let my boy try out my 91/30 - but with a soft shooting reduced cast bullet load. I will probably make up a batch of light cast boolits over a light charge of Unique to ease the kids into High Power rifles when that time comes.... Or maybe pick up a Marlin 1894 in 357mag to shoot 38spl light target loads with the kids...

Another thing I noticed that greatly reduces the perceived recoil is loading with slightly faster powders to minimize muzzle blast.

I have tested this out on myself and several friends - we all agree 100%. For example - load up some 30-06 with IMR4895. Then load up another batch with 4350. Same velocity, same bullet. Everybody will swear the 4350 loads are 3x as powerful and kick like a mule where they perceive the 4895 loads are much softer shooting and not nearly as powerful..... Yet they have the same bullet and velocity - what is the difference?

Muzzle blast! The 4895 loads have a minimal muzzle blast where the 4350 loads shoot an 8' fireball out the muzzle...... That's the same problem the 91/30's have... All the Military loads were originally developed for the 32" barrel M91 and Maxim machine guns... Then they basically kept the same loads a for the 29" barrel 91/30 - now with quite a bit of muzzle blast.... THEN everybody chopped them to the M38 and M44 20" barrel length with the same case full of super slow burning machine gun powder and you have a 12 foot fireball with each shot. Try loading with IMR 4895 or 4064 and it's a totally different rifle.

[rmark]

Surplus CZ52 pistol, slapped my trigger finger with every shot. Fired off about two magazines and sold it.

[Golfswithwolves]

The gun I had the least fun shooting was a Freedom Arms Model 83 in .454 Casull caliber. It had a rubber Pachmyr grip on it, and the grip was too big for me to get a good hold. I reckon that a regular-sized smooth wood grip would have been much easier for me to shoot, but that grip moved around a lot in my hand and made for an unpleasant shooting experience.