What is the least fun gun you have shot?

[azrednek]

It wasn't me but I did read in a book about a WW2 US GI capturing a Japanese Knee Mortar. As you probably guessed he launched it off his knee and got an early ticket home.

[lawdog941]

I would vote for the S&W 500 with heavy loads. I have small hands and it felt like a sledgehammer hitting me. Got rid of it, happily.

[MT Gianni]

I am OK with recoil for a few rounds but my old Rossi "Puma" in 44 mag made me head straight for the catalog and a recoil pad. I had a P-89 Ruger in 9mm that the best day was the day I sold it the second best was the day I bought it. The trigger pull felt like 10 lbs in DA and was over 5 lbs in SA. The best loads grouped 6" @ 25 yards and that was with jacketed. I own a lot of Rugers but that was my least fun gun my far. It was my only autoloader at the time and I had hopes but finally they left me too. I sold it and a scoped 44 Super Blackhawk for the $$ to buy a used Redhawk, Win 94 30-30 and a S&W 22A.

[waco]

Marlin 1895 .45-70 with RCBS 405 which weigh out GC and lubed at 415 @ 1850FPS
Not a lot of fun.

[geargnasher]

Hard recoil and ill-fitting guns are miserable to shoot. But what's even more miserable to me is a gun that doesn't shoot straight or accurately.

My wife's Model 36 is a pretty little nickel-plated jobbie, tame on the recoil, and has a nice action. It was made during the era when S&W was cranking them out about one every six minutes, and with .355" cylinder throats and the frame twisted so badly from where the barrel was cranked on there it shot nine inches to the right at ten feet, had to correct almost two blade widths (on a snubbie!!) to hit center. Useless. A couple of come-to-Jesus sessions with a 10" bench vise, some strategically placed hardwood blocks, and a 3' cheater pipe fixed that, then a chucking reamer fixed the cylinder so it didn't turn into a lead-lined smoothbore every three shots. Nice pistol, now.

I worked all summer one year to get my Ruger New Vaquero to try to print to the sights, came close with 340-grain boolits and light charges of 2400, but I finally gave up and hit the front blade with a bench grinder. MUCH better and now prints just over the blade with normal loads and boolit weights.

One gun I don't intend to own: A Glock. Fine weapons, they are. Excellent design and execution, well thought-out, highly functional. But as a guy who grew up shooting 1911s and K-frame Smiths, I can't get past the fact that when I grab a Glock and poke it out in front of me, I'm seeing most of the top of the slide. If you started with one, fantastic. Otherwise it really jacks up one's muscle memory with other handguns.

One I got rid of was a very nice, engraved Nikko 12-gauge O/U. Try as I might to make it fit, it would not. Adjustable comb, six-way butt plate, spent a lot of money on that buttstock and never could get all the way under my eye and my scores showed it. I finally admitted defeat and sent it down the road after many miserable hours and dollars wasted on it. Dadgum thing probably resulted in souring me on sporting clays.

I recently got to put some rounds downrange through a friend's competition double-stack .45, at MY range and my own reactive targets no less, and was amazed at the shots I could make and how I could tell what I did wrong immediately when I missed. Great fun. I know those targets well and how much I struggle to hit them consistently with my own 1911s. Interesting to get that revelation of "Well I'll be danged, I'm not such a lousy shot after all!" Guns I can shoot well are FUN, even if they might make me a little sore sometimes. Guns I can't shoot well, or that don't shoot where they're pointed, are miserable.

I'm going to send a rifle I love to hate to Goodsteel next year to get fixed. It's a push-feed Model 70 Featherweight in .270 Winchester that in less than 400 rounds of its life has destroyed three scopes and nearly every shoulder that's fired it. It kicks worse than anything I've ever shot from a bench, far worse than any other .270 and I've shot many other people's rifles just to see. It has that sort of recoil that crushes muscle tissue and leaves a deep soreness that lasts for many weeks. If I hadn't shot my first deer with it it would have been sent down the river for cheap long ago. It's getting a longer, sporter-weight barrel on it chambered in 30-'06, a Pachmayer Magnum Decelerator, and about 3/4 pound of lead in the butt. On top of all that it won't group less than 6" at a hundred anymore.

Gear

[jonk]

Guns that aren't fun to shoot.

I'm sorry, I don't quite understand the concept. Could you elaborate?

[TheGrimReaper]

Marlin guide gun in 450Marlin

[Hanzy4200]

S&W 6906. Obviously not "unpleasant" to fire, but I couldn't hit squat with it. It proved many frustrating range visits for a brand new handgun shooter. Picked up a Springfield XD9 and started hitting what I wanted. The S&W went into a Zastava AK trade. Good riddance.

[Newtire]

.38-55 Winchester "Legendary Frontiersman" with curved steel buttplate. Put the buttplate anywhere and it still hurt.

[Bulldogger]

S&W airweight .357 mag carry pistol. I bought it, took the safety class for my CHP, then the next day fired two cylinders of full-house CORBON magnum HP defense rounds through it and promptly walked to the front of the range/store and put it on consignment. Had a bruised, purple hand for four days. replaced it with a chunky, klunky ARMSCOR model 200 .38 snubbie and love it. She got no grace, but she do the job.

The FEG PA63 I once owned is a close second, silly little 9x18 caliber pistol but in my hand it tore me up and bruised me. Just didn't fit. Sold it for a profit and don't regret it.

Bulldogger

[Tatume]

The worst was a 458 Win Mag Ruger No. 1 firing 720 grain bullets at 1700 fps. I still have 25 of those bullets if anybody cares to abuse himself.

[btreanor]

Browning pump action shotgun in 10 gauge. Spent a day in a duck blind and shot about 2 or 3 boxes of shells. Never again!

[Tatume]

The worst was a 458 Win Mag Ruger No. 1 firing 720 grain bullets at 1700 fps. I still have 25 of those bullets if anybody cares to abuse himself.

P.s., my friend's 50 BMG single shot rifle with mil-surp FMJ ammo was not nearly so uncomfortable.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I've had a few guns that had heavily felt recoil, that I didn't like to shoot, the one I remmeber most was a Rem model 700 featherweight in 338 WM.

BUT, and I may get some heat about this, my least favorite shooter was a Ruger Single Six. All that work loading and unloading 22LR for just 6 little pops. Don't get me wrong, I like the single actions in big bore pistols, but the little 22 could have just as well been a cap gun. Yeah, it also wasn't accurate in my hands either, but a friend could hit bulleyes with it ???

[Green Frog]

Another vote for the Ruger #3 lightweight carbine in 45-70. The one we had was fired 3 times, once by my father and twice by me (I'm a slow learner... it couldn't really recoil that much!!) It was traded off with 17 rounds left in the first box of ammo. There is a reason that they sold slowly in small numbers!

I'll give (dis)honorable mention to my Remington 870 shotgun with 30" full choke barrel and a too-short "tactical" plastic stock. My cheek smarts every time I think about that one!

Froggie

[bangerjim]

S&W SD9VE. Will not cycle my cast boolit loads......no matter what I try. Carts will not go completely in the chamber.

Will shoot FMJ factory loads perfectly but totally inaccurate. at 25 feet, it lays down a pattern larger than a basketball! Never seen/had a handgun that was that inaccurate.

This gun sucks. I guess it will stop someone at close range with factory loads.

banger

[MacFan]

I built an Ingram/Mac10 45acp semi-auto pistol from scratch... all the bending dies, sheet metal and internals. It's a miserable gun to shoot. It'll eat any ammo I feed it but it's big and heavy. I think I sprained my wrist the first time the 24 ounce bolt slammed back.

[Eddie2002]

A 30-06 with a widefield scope on it when I was 18. My dad and I drove 14 hours straight to a friends hunting camp in upstate New Hampshire, spent most of the evening sitting around drinking scotch and then sighted in the rifles early the next morning. I was hung over and holding the rifle like a .22. When I pulled the trigger the rifle bucked up and clobbered me between the eyes with the scope which drew blood and sobered me up. Still have the mark from the scope to this day. I think it also started my love for the 30-06 caliber.

[Mumblypeg]

I had a #3 Ruger in 45-70 once, wish I had it back. It was nice with light loads. I did load some 350grainers to full potential once..... just once.... when I fired it the first time the forend came out of my hand from recoil. Not pleasant. But my ex-brother in law had a Ruger M-77 in .458 Win. I fired it with factory 500grs..... I think I shot it only once.... I really don't remember.... broke me from wanting to shoot a 460 Weatherby.....

[jonp]

I've had a few guns that had heavily felt recoil, that I didn't like to shoot, the one I remmeber most was a Rem model 700 featherweight in 338 WM.

BUT, and I may get some heat about this, my least favorite shooter was a Ruger Single Six. All that work loading and unloading 22LR for just 6 little pops. Don't get me wrong, I like the single actions in big bore pistols, but the little 22 could have just as well been a cap gun. Yeah, it also wasn't accurate in my hands either, but a friend could hit bulleyes with it ???

Thats funny about it not being accurate. I can headshot squirrels with mine. It's not a target pistol but pretty accurate with the right ammo