Pistols that just did not suit me

[johnson1942]

today i went out in my rural yard and shot a fair number of 45 long colt out of my ruger old army conversion cylinder at a small metal gong at 15 yards off hand. couldnt do any better than 5 out of six rounds hitting it. the miss would have downed the bad guy anyways, just not in the heart. if i would have took my two open top colt uberti 38 special out their i would have shot faster and done 6 out of six. the ruger is fine tuned with wolf springs and the back sight is stone honed to point of hit at 15 yards. a good gun but not as easy to shoot to point of aim as the open top 38/s. by the way, when i travel off for a few days the ruger old army is with me. it is good enough to save me in a bad situation. it is the real deal for knock down power.

[Outpost75]

ruger lcp.....a gun I loved the look and feel of but hated firing.

I have an LCP of recent production, put a Hogue grip sleeve on it, and I love it. Gobbles anything, very tolerant of any reasonable handload, and quite accurate enough for what it is. Sights and DA trigger pull are as good as on my Colt Detective Special
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[DerekP Houston]

I have an LCP of recent production, put a Hogue grip sleeve on it, and I love it. Gobbles anything, very tolerant of any reasonable handload, and quite accurate enough for what it is. Sights and DA trigger pull are as good as on my Colt Detective Special
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That is true, I only shot the first gen product and with stock grips. I heard they made a new version with an improved trigger, nice to know it worked out well for you. At this point i've already filled the roll with others but maybe if I catch a good sale .

[tazman]

I have owned several handguns over the years that were not very accurate. Part of the problem might well have been me as the operator. I didn't learn how to shoot a handgun properly until recently(3 years ago).
I have owned a few that were just plain bad for one reason or another. 2 of them broke(can't remember the names, too long ago), one shaved lead(S&W 28), and 2 of them just plain beat me up(single action revolvers).
I can't shoot any Ruger single action larger than 357 mag and that one only with replacement grips. I could have just as much fun by pounding on my knuckles with a hammer.
I recently owned a GP100 6 inch that would not shoot accurately with any load I devised or factory loads either one. It made four trips to the range and then left the premises.
For some reason, the 1911 design just doesn't work in my hands. I love the design, but it just won't work for me.
Now due to arthritis, I am limited to power levels of 357 mag or lower. Higher levels of recoil are just too painful.
I now have some excellent revolvers and a couple of very good semi-automatics that are working well for me.

[Bigslug]

Outrage at the invention of the DA/SA semi-auto trigger system: the REAL reason Germany was bombed flat in 1944/45. The Nazis are gone, but their stupid triggers remain. At least they seem to be steadily falling out of favor. . .

Any mindset that would grossly compromise the ability of the average shooter to hit their target and negate a threat with the first couple of shots (the primary purpose of a handgun after all) in a mostly futile effort to keep them from shooting themselves in the foot needs a straightjacket and a padded room.

Sooooo. . .pretty much any handgun derived from the PPK, P-38, and S&W 39 families.

[FergusonTO35]

Not a fan of DA/SA on bottom feeders myself, especially not DAO. I will put up with it on a pocket rocket like the LCP simply because there is no such thing as a striker fired version and Ruger did manage to give it a decent pull. I like Sig pistols and wouldn't mind having one, I would just consider the double action pull to be the "fire at close range in an emergency" mode. I think CZ's DA/SA with a cocked and locked option is pretty cool, you only have to fire double action in the event of a hard primer.

[prsman23]

Your PPK post made me remember another one that I should have listed. A Walther PP in 32acp. Functioning and accuracy were good but it chewed up the web of my hand after a few mags.

Easiest way to remedy that is by slightly changing the grip. These are my favorite guns to shoot. Just have to slide the thumb down about half an inch. Unless you have really big hands.

[AK Caster]

My worse two (4) were both Rugers. They were the P95 and P345. Neither would shoot better than 6 inches at 20 yards and both could not make it through one full magazine without experiencing 2 or 3 jams. Both went back to Ruger and came back "fixed". Both shot like they did before going back to Ruger.
Sold both and bought new ones. Same story all over again.

I wouldn't own either of these pistols if they were given to me for free.

[GunGuy2756]

Easiest way to remedy that is by slightly changing the grip. These are my favorite guns to shoot. Just have to slide the thumb down about half an inch. Unless you have really big hands.

My hands are on the large side and I did try lowering my grip but I can't seem to shoot good unless my grip is up high.

[GunGuy2756]

I have owned several handguns over the years that were not very accurate. Part of the problem might well have been me as the operator. I didn't learn how to shoot a handgun properly until recently(3 years ago).
I have owned a few that were just plain bad for one reason or another. 2 of them broke(can't remember the names, too long ago), one shaved lead(S&W 28), and 2 of them just plain beat me up(single action revolvers).
I can't shoot any Ruger single action larger than 357 mag and that one only with replacement grips. I could have just as much fun by pounding on my knuckles with a hammer.
I recently owned a GP100 6 inch that would not shoot accurately with any load I devised or factory loads either one. It made four trips to the range and then left the premises.
For some reason, the 1911 design just doesn't work in my hands. I love the design, but it just won't work for me.
Now due to arthritis, I am limited to power levels of 357 mag or lower. Higher levels of recoil are just too painful.
I now have some excellent revolvers and a couple of very good semi-automatics that are working well for me.

"I could have just as much fun by pounding on my knuckles with a hammer."

That line made me chuckle. I know what you mean about arthritis and pain, I'm with you there.
Yesterday I spent about an hour mopping up a mess on the floor at work and my hands hurt like hell today.

[Quickdraw4u]

My list would be long but off the top of my head...
The new Smith and Wesson 627 seven shot- expensive, heavy, big and poor metal work on the frame where it met the barrel. Only shot OK. A lot of hype about in the gun rags. Traded it for a 1911.
Kahr M1 Carbine- after two trips back to Kahr still could not get 3 shots off without it hanging up. Nicknamed it the "Jamster" and traded it a gun show.
Savage 308 starter rifle (forget the mod #) cheap plastic stock, bad trigger didn't shoot but about 3 moa. Sold it to my Brother-in-law. Hope he is not reading this.
Anything by RG- my 22 revolver is a single shot (sometimes). I am waiting for the next police gun buy-back program to turn it in.

[bichettereds]

I'll second the CZ82. Very unpleasant to shoot. Was going to use it as a ccw but it was heavy for its size, and I had trouble getting it to feed Hornady HPs reliably so I sold it.

[TenTea]

Glock (any)

Beretta 92

Davis O/U Derringer

S&W 2206

SIG P226

Colt New Agent

Kahr MK9

Browning HP

*some of these are good pistols, but didn't suit me for various reasons.

[35remington]

I know DA/SA autos have fallen from favor with the masses, but a second strike capability that many of them have is not a bad feature. In fact, it is quite desirable. A most common failure of autoloaders is a slightly out of battery condition on feeding and pulling the trigger (does not fire) that drives the slide/barrel to battery on the first strike and goes off on the second. In the event of a misfire the natural response is to pull the trigger again.

I don't like the pull transition from DA to SA myself, but hey, it's got at least one upside.

[GOPHER SLAYER]

Two come to mind. The first was a beautiful replica Derringer made in Italy. It was all steel with a case hardened frame. I drove up to the mountains to try it out. Some scuds bag had dumped an old refrigerator beside the road. I loaded the little gun, aimed and let loose. When the pistol fired my arm went numb from my hand to my elbow and the bullet bounced off the door of the fridge. I don't remember if I ever fired it again. The second was also a pistol. I bought a stainless Ruger Old Army and fired it very little. I took it to the range twice. The beast was just too heavy. I found it was impossible for me to hold and fire it with one hand. Ruger should have named it the Dragoon. We parted company soon after firing it the second time.

[tazman]

"I could have just as much fun by pounding on my knuckles with a hammer."

That line made me chuckle. I know what you mean about arthritis and pain, I'm with you there.
Yesterday I spent about an hour mopping up a mess on the floor at work and my hands hurt like hell today.

In one respect I am lucky.The joints on my father's hands looked like a collection of walnuts connected by skin when he was 15 years younger than I am now. He always had trouble with them hurting. In his later years he couldn't drive a nail with a hammer since it hurt so bad. I can still work with my hands but must limit the impact somewhat.
I finally remembered the name of one of the guns that broke on me. It was an RG 357mag. The side of the barrel blew out between the frame and the cylinder. I didn't reload at the time so I can't take the blame for that one. I had less than 100 rounds through the gun when it happened. Quickdraw mentioned the RG name and that tripped my memory.