Thread: Question: What’s the worst (hunting) rifle you've ever owned/used & why?

Hi

I was thinking the other day that I've personally owned in excess of 200 rifles/shotguns over the past 20years. Some were good, some not so much...but most were pretty much the same despite the make or model.

But out of all those rifles the worst by far for practice hunting was my Styer .308 police tactical model. It was set up for me when I was culling deer in the UK and the law changed forcing us all to use suppressors. The choices were limited, so I put a BR Reflex T8 and added a Zeiss 8x56 fixed power scope, plus a Harris. Man what a pig of a rifle to carry, it must have weighed 15lb's!!! It was only dumb pride (I didn't want to loose face after spending all that money on it and admit I'd made a mistake) that made me preserver with it for 6 months use before finally admitting that I'd fucked up and it was a total lemon for hunting with! I ended up buying a Tikka M595 as a replacement and still own that rifle today 10 years latter...and it’s still my favourite rifle of all time.

So what was your ''dream rifle'' that turned out to be a turd?

kj

My Tikka T3 Varmint.
Pig to carry anyway with the heavy barrel and centre of gravity where the big stick out mag was.
Wasn't reloading back then, and every type of factory ammo I tried was at best 2 inches at 100m.
Then I put on a Loopie scope with front adjustable objective dial, which was too low in the Opticlocks and touched the barrel.
So had to go and get some horrible Warne adjustable windage rings or some cr*p to mount the scope. Hated the new rings with passion.
Sold if off for $150 less than I paid, so wasn't too much of loss.
New owner got Alan Newham to develop hand loads for it and its apparently a tack driver now.

Interesting topic. I cant really think of a gun I dont like that I have used before. Maybe when I first started shooting shotgus and the bigger trigger gaurds for double triggers always kicked my small hands bad but doesnt happen much now.

Haven't owned one, but had the dubious pleasure of sighting in a mates brand new Remngton 770 in .308, Holy shit, I have never ever felt an action that rough or a stock that felt that cheap, seriously, he paid $600 for it with a no name 3-9x40 scope and I felt like he had been ripped off!

Worst part was when he asked me what I thought of it, couldn't bring myself to be honest as I could see how proud of it he was!

I sort of did the opposite. Bought a lousy, cheap, fairly inaccurate rifle that only had to be minute of pig at 30m. Got the thing suppressed and it has turned into a great wee shooter that I won't be parting with in a hurry, if at all. Kind of messed things up as I was wanting to upgrade to something better but found no need to.

Originally Posted by Spudattack

Haven't owned one, but had the dubious pleasure of sighting in a mates brand new Remngton 770 in .308, Holy shit, I have never ever felt an action that rough or a stock that felt that cheap, seriously, he paid $600 for it with a no name 3-9x40 scope and I felt like he had been ripped off!

Worst part was when he asked me what I thought of it, couldn't bring myself to be honest as I could see how proud of it he was!

Yeah I know what you're saying, many a time have I had to bite my tounge when a new hunter proudly shows me his new rifle. I never like being the one to burst anyones bubble and figure its too late anyway to change anything. I guess this is kind of the angle my question was loaded at, trying to see what works and what doesn't and why, so we can all learn from others mistakes without having to make them ourselves.

kj

The first Remy 338 700p I owned was the biggest heap of shit ever, had a zeiss on it
Heavy as fark, worst action you can imagine, stupid arse box mag sticking out the bottom, and they made the barrel on a Friday cause she sure didn't shoot.

Only one bad rifle. Ruger m77 ultralite i bought back in the eighties. Nicely finished rifle. Just didn't shoot.
Plenty of bad scopes.


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Never owned a rifle that was bad as such, though the Savage Mod.12 204 varminter wasn't exactly built for walking hills after wallabies and goats! Accurate (once the previous owners crown damage and dodgy off centre threading was fixed), Lovely to fire but a bitch to carry, my own fault/lesson in buying rifles fit for purpose. Didn't keep it long.

One rifle I really didn't get on with was a mates Weatherby 270 before I had my own deer gun - heavy beast, clunky sloppy action, no half cock meant I had to rely on the safety - which I couldn't reach/find with my thumb while pointing at a deer, so I had to lower the gun to look down and find it. The deer got away.

Norinco M14 piece of junk - headspaced like a AI

Other than that, I havn't had or dont have anything I'm not happy with

35 years ago I wanted an all purpose rifle so I studied up on it , consulted a few mates and went to Reloaders and got a Ruger mini 14 mod 181 . It was a waste of time, it grouped ok with the iron sights but it would change point of impact between groups , it never seemed to want to shoot 2 five shot groups in the same place . I fitted a scope and tried all sorts of fixes but nothing worked so I took the scope off and traded it back to Reloaders on a 222 Varmint Sako Vixen ,now that shot . When I traded it ( pre e cat days) I also traded a pistol grip stock , 2 x 30 shot mags , 5x 20 shot mags , a flash eliminator , 1 x 5 shot mag , the origional carton and 2 different scope mount systems . It was crap but it was fun to shoot . I kept the " If guns were outlawed only outlaws would have guns" sticker that came with it for sentimental reasons

Sterling model 20 .22 semi absolute danger. the extractor would catch on the receiver and fire the round before the bolt closed it was well used before i got it second hand but found out one of the ex owners was a nutbag ex army guy who played around with firearms and bombs in a bad way. chances are he had this thing full auto. i tried to shoot a hare one night had a ear ringer discharge out the side thought fuck this and got the cops to scrap it. i was not prepared to sell it to anyone. the best 22 i have ever had was a DUCO that was a tight shooter hammer broke so sold as parts 15 years later brought another duco off the same guy i sold mine to. it has my old broken hammer in it. any DUCO collectors out there?

Favorite rifle in use would be my 243 love it howa 1500 it just shoulders right and feels right.

Rossi 44 mag. Got it thinking it would be a nice short bush rifle.
First one wouldn't feed and was replaced.
Second one would only group 4 inch at best which was ok for purpose but the main thing that pissed me of was every time i took it out i would see a deer or pig 300 y away and wish i was holding my Sako.
Dad had a parker hale safari in 270 he hated with a passion. Something about it jamming the second shot.

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Remington 7400 semi-auto 308 - not a bad gun, nice to shoot and great if you hit a mob in the open, but terrible bush gun. Especially in the heat of the moment when the dogs had a pig they're struggling to bail and you have to empty the mag (not with the trigger I mean) to make it safe before you go in to stick it. Noisy action and heavy too. Give me a single shot or a bolt action any day.

8mm mauser. Bullets would just go clean thru the deer and not breakup. Put 5 shots in a spiker once ,and it stumbled off . Went home and grabed my 303 and the dog and finaly put it down. Any of those first shots should of dropped it . When I butchered the carcase ,you could eat virtualy up to the edge of the hole. Paterson Gunsmiths ,reakoned it was because the ammo which was labeled sporting, was still loaded to Geniva Conventions or something or other. So consequencly wasn't really designed for our Deer population. Lost 3 deer to this gun. Heavy bugger as well. Had a scoped Jungle Carbine for awhile and loved it, especialy in the thick stuff, where you could lock the bolt on an empty chamber and not have it catching on every bit of lawyer, Supple Jack or fern stalk. For the last 15yrs a 6.5 x 55 has been my go to fire arm, and I luv it, don't mind the weight for the accuracy it gives.