The WORST Shotgun You Ever Owned? (And Why)

[mcapo]

Smith & Wesson 916a.

Why? Junk by any standard. Bad feeding, crappy rail material.

 

[pitbulld45]

Siaga 12. Under gassed, took it apart and drilled out the gas ports, ran fine for a bit but gets dirty fast.

 

[d.kaufman]

I cant say as i really had a bad shotgun in my life. Every one ive owned has ran and ran without issue.
On a sidenote my favorite is probably my Filipino Armscor. Lots of rounds thru and a pretty soft shooting 12 gauge. Have taken a few deer with it as well. Accurate as all get out too.

 

[JettaKnight]

Remington 1100.


Well, I've only owned two shotguns, and I don't like the safety on Remington's... so it's the worst (which is a relative term).

 

[1nderbeard]

Mossberg 200D. Old shotgun made in the 50s-60s.
Weird 12 gauge shotgun. Wood stock, but plastic pump handle.
Granted the gun was about 50 years old when I inherited it. I did some research and some forums said the shotgun was rare, but not valuable. Indeed.
The plastic pump cracked the first time I shot it, which wasn't all that surprising. What was worse was the 2 round magazine would not stay in the shotgun. The recoil made it fall out of the gun after every shot. Basically I had a single shot 12 gauge. I "donated it" to a bargain bin in a LGS to make room in my safe.

 

[IronsKeeper]

Ranger Model 30 12 gauge

Old Sears catalogue gun. It shoots and handles well, but there's so much built up grime inside I'm worried that's keeping it together. The lever that feeds it from the tube, stopped. Now it's a single shot that I will either fix someday or hang over the fireplace (if we ever get a fireplace).

I looked for parts. Numrich's is expensive.

Sent from my LM-G710 using Tapatalk

 

[gregkl]

Ranger Model 30 12 gauge

Old Sears catalogue gun. It shoots and handles well, but there's so much built up grime inside I'm worried that's keeping it together. The lever that feeds it from the tube, stopped. Now it's a single shot that I will either fix someday or hang over the fireplace (if we ever get a fireplace).

I looked for parts. Numrich's is expensive.

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Those are kinda cool looking!

 

[IronsKeeper]

Oh yeah, that's why the wife agreed it could be mounted on the wall, too!

Old Browning look-a-like if I recall. I love the look and that earns it a spot til I do... something with it.

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[johntheplinker]

Let me preface this by saying my worst was NOT due to any fault of the gun, but my own.

Wanted a 3" 12 ga with relatively short barrel and choke tubes for coyote hunting. Found a lightly used Mossberg 835. Thought that if 3" was good, then 3 1/2" would be even better. Shot a few boxes of cheap light loads to get a feel for it. Ran like a champ. Time to pattern it with buckshot. Found a couple of 2 3/4 and 3" loads it liked. Even with 3" shells recoil was manageable. Great!

Found some 3 1/2" buck loads at a LGS on sale so picked them up. Owner looked at me weird when I went to pay for them. Ok wonder what that is about. Time to try them out. Load one, pull trigger. HOLY **** BATMAN!!!!!! Did a UPS 747 fall out of the sky on top of me? Or a rather large meteorite land on my head? It actually took a minute or 2 to regain full use of my facilities.

Now, I'm not exactly a wuss when it comes to recoil, after all I used to deer hunt with a T/C Renegade .54 caliber loaded with a 425 grain Buffalo Bullet on top of 110 grains of FFg and have shot crates of 7.62x54 and 8mm surplus for fun, but that 835 actually scared me. That was about 6 or 7 years or so ago and that was the only 3 1/2" shell I've fired out of it. Actually developed a flinch even shooting smaller shells that was so bad I just quit shooting the thing. Oh, and did I mention I painted it so it has next to nothing left for resale value?

 

[gregkl]

^^^ This reminds me of shooting my dad's 10 GA double barrel shotgun with 3 1/2 shells. Even though that side by side was heavy, it still kicked like a mule.

My father used to say that recoil was in your head. Until he got that and his .300 mag Weatherby. That also kicked like a mule.

I am not a recoil junkie so shooting those two firearms a few times was enough for me just to be able to say I did it.

 

[BStarkey 46947]

Had a an old Winchester from Sears Model 200 from early production in 20 gauge (borrowed from my FIL). Was using it for deer hunting in my early years of hunting. Missed a buck an 30 yards 3 times. FIL thought is was buck fever. Missed a second deer the following day, he could see this all happening from his position in the opposite field. We decided to bench shoot the gun, turns out the barrel was bent and the gun shot 4 ft. high and 3 ft. right at 50 yards. He traded the the following winter to a co-worker for another gun. Don't care for safety or cycling button placement on Winchester guns.

 

[63PGP]

My worst is only the worst because everything I have is better now. 1998 Browning Gold Hunter 12G. Still have it.

 

[hps]

1187 premier, lil piece that laid on top of the mag tube inside the receiver broke and fell out! contacted Rem only to be told i was on my own. That was nearly 20 yr ago and have never bought another Rem.

 

[DeadeyeChrista'sdad]

It was a pump gun. I believe a Stevens 320? That I bought from an INGO member at New Castle. He assured me it was good to go. Shame on him. It was a P.O.S. jammomatic. Sold it to a vendor at the next 1500 for 10.00 more than I paid (with full disclosure), and called that a win. What a turd.

 

[Mgderf]

Brand name- Safir Arms (Turkey)
Gauge - .410bore
Ar15 built upper
Inertia driven

Did nothing but jam when I first bought it new. It came with two mags, and no replacements were available. Didn't matter, they both had same problems.
Contacted manufacturer and was mailed a replacement bolt at no charge.
The replacement bolt looked like a 12 year old had taken a grinder to it. It was in worse shape than the original.

Frustrated, I took the whole thing in to see Dan at Applied Ballistics in Lafayette.
After playing with the action for about 5 minutes he pulled the bolt out and started concentrating on the extractor.
There was not enough room under the extractor for the rim of a .410 shot shell!

Dan took a jewelers file to the under side of the extractor arm, checked for fit, then tore it apart and cleaned/lubed it and had it reassembled in less than 45 minutes total.
He didn't charge me squat for the work done.

That shotgun actually runs as advertised now, at least for now...LOL but it's not something I think I'll ever really "trust".

I also have a wall-hanger that is in such bad shape that I need to tear the firing pin out of to keep anyone from TRYING to load it.
This is a hardware store gun that reads the "Compeer Gun Co." of Indianapolis In.
Dbl barrel 12ga that is so loose it feels like it's going to fall into pieces when you pick it up.

 

[indiucky]

Browning BPS Upland Special in 12 gauge...Shot it one dove season and flinched for year...That SOB kicked like a mule...I then went to 20 gauge o/u's and side by sides and have never looked back....

 

[cb46184]

Sometime in the late 1990's I bought a new Remington 1100 20 ga "Special Field" at the Indy 1500 gun show. The first time I tried shooting it was with Federal Game loads, #7 1/2 shot. It would not cycle. I tried some "high brass" loads and it would cycle the high power loads satisfactorily. I contacted Remington and they told me to take it to my Remington Authorized gunsmith for repair. I can't remember the gunsmith's name but he was well known and located in Speedway. He test fired the gun in his shop, checked it over while I waited and said he could not find anything out of specs. He kept the gun for a couple weeks. His conclusion was that there was nothing he could find wrong with it and advised me to run several boxes of the high-powered loads through it to let it "wear in." My take is that machines don't "wear in"...they "wear out." But, after 6 boxes of high powered loads, it still wouldn't cycle the game loads (even from a different lot#). I called Remington and told them the situation. They said there had been no other problems reported with the 1100, however, I could send it to them but the backlog was about 12-16weeks. Really? You've had no problems but yet a 12-16 week backlog for repair? I would miss the entire season. I told the Remington customer service rep that I would sell the POS gun to someone I don't know and never buy another Remington gun the rest of my life. (BTW, I told the buyer about the problem but he didn't care...I sold it cheap) They pretty much said, OK, whatever. I held true to my word and have never, and will never own another Remington product. I have only two shotguns that I trust: A Browning 16ga Citori O/U and a H&R Topper 12ga single shot.

 

[Disposable Heart]

Stevens 320 Walmart Special 20g...

Peened the upper and slide arms within 20 rounds. Turned it over for warranty "repair". Received a new one, had to fill out the 4473, etc... Went out, fired the remainder of the 100 round pack of Federal low brass Wally World ammo, noticed the hulls stretching weird and looking strange after firing. Examined the gun and found the barrel was warping the magazine tube/barrel weld part FORWARDS, creating head space issues. Actually bent it forwards from firing. Sent it in, got yet another new one and sold it without firing it.

Norinco Side By Side "Coach Gun" 12g
After about 200 rounds of low recoil buckshot and slugs, noticed the slug patterns going to heck after about 100 of them (relegated it to buck after, then noticed the buckshot patterns weren't overlapping like they used to). After about round 200, noticed the patterns not side by side (which I know can happen on cheaper SxS guns) but spreading away from each other. Using a lot of measuring patience, I found that the barrels were separating away from each other. Norinco's importer told me to pound sand, inordinate wear from shooting slugs, etc... everything under the sun. Sold it to a guy I knew in another state who reinforced it (great with welding and silver soldering), double checked his work, sent $200 to the ATF and he now has a really nice looking side by side short barreled shotgun.

 

[Dead Duck]

OK- I must intervene.

I can understand if you guys are buying guns like crazy or get stuck with a couple lemons or maybe getting a bunch in trades or something simpler.
Other than that how are you getting stuck with these guns?

I am an official shotgun guy. I like shotguns. Most of what I own are shotguns. That said, I have never, ever had any gun that had problems that I couldn't easily fix. Ejector, pin, spring, o-ring, etc... I still own every one of them. My first purchase is still sitting in my safe now and will be there when I die and my kids open it up.

Now, what's with this hard recoil complaints? Kicks like a mule, beat me up, and so on....
Besides a few 10s all I own are 12 gauges. A lot of what I have are military types with no fancy recoil reduction systems, inertia damper device or even a rubber buttpad. Most are wood and/or metal right to the shoulder. A 12 gauge kicks like a 12 gauge has always kicked. I only shoot hi-brass buck and slugs through mine. Granted a heavy auto-loader can help with this but -
STOP COMPLAINING!


You're making us look bad.
Oh - And stop buying crappy shotguns that are "Known" to be crappy shotguns.






....you may continue whining now....

 

[bdybdall]

My worst was also one of my best. High Standard 12 gauge riot gun. Bought it for 35 dollars from a guy I worked with. Spent significant time breaking it down and cleaning it and then machined a forward magazine retainer/sling swivel mount for it. Only pump gun I ever had that would automatically eject due to wear. Because of the fixed barrel I drilled and tapped for a Weaver base and mounted a Weaver K2.5. It would put Brennekes in a tea cup at 50 yds. all day long.