What is the worst revolver you have ever owned?

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nightbuck

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Just wondering what is the worst revolver you have ever owned and why? I once acquired a well used Iver Johnson .22 that had a bad cylinder that would seldom line up correctly with the barrel. Kinda dangerous when pulled the trigger .:cuss: Worked ok after replacing the cylinder.
 
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The worst revolver ever owned was a Belgian made "Cowboy Ranger" double action made like a Single Action Colt. The revolver took ".38 Colt, .38 Special, and .38 Smith & Wesson" cartridges, as so stated on the barrel. That's right, it DID take .38 S&W cartridges. Also chambered .357 Magnum as well, though I knew enough even then not to try that. It had remnants of nickel plating on the frame and bluing on the other parts, including the trigger guard. The trigger guard was separate like the old Remington revolvers, while the grip straps were integral with the frame. It had black hard rubber grips, with a buffalo emblem molded into the grip where the Colt emblem would have been. And there were five notches filed into the bottom of one grip. I got this from an second hand shop for the princely sum of $10, a small fortune in my funds!

The cylinder was free to rotate when the hammer was not cocked, so you could never be sure where the empty chamber, or fired case, would be.

As to accuracy, it was generally totally absent, but it did have one of the smoothest double action trigger pulls I've encountered.

For all its shortcomngs, to a kid, it was cool!

Many, many years later I sold it to a man for $50 who wanted it for decoration.

Bob Wright
 
Chiappa. I believe it was called "plinkster". Single action 22 rimfire, 22 WMR. It had a wide cylinder gap and spit lead with the 22 rimfire cylinder. Despite all this it was fairly accurate but I couldn't tolerate the spitting and traded it off. It took less than a week to find a new owner. I wonder how they liked or disliked it?
 
Two come to mind. An early production Charter Arms Undercover. Pins kept walking out of the frame and the screw which held the cylinder assembly in place kept backing out as well. This was with only 50 rounds through it!

The other one was one of the rough finished Colt Agents made during Colt's labor troubles. I could take the sloppy assembly, tool marks, and the otherwise unevenly applied finish but I couldn't accept that the cylinder was misaligned and couldn't make a full rotation without binding on the forcing cone of the barrel.
 
when I went off to college my girlfriend gave me one of these - later on (when I knew more about guns) I had to question her motives.... :what:

I was "given" my great-grandmother's Rohm RG-10 .22 short revolver after she died. It was junk. I never tried shooting it, but I don't think it would have worked anyway.
 
Kimel 2000 .32swl. I think I gave $20 for it. I did some work on, got it working again then gave it away. It was by far the biggest POS I have ever owned. Had a 2’ pattern at 3”. I lightened the truck suspension weight trigger spring to about 9 pounds and was losing reliability at that point so I stopped. I did get it going again, but realistically I should have gave it the bandsaw treatment.

My Colt New Line is almost as bad, but it has an excuse. It is legitimately 100 years older than that Kimel. The Colt will never fire again, but it’s an exceedingly simply design so once I get a machine shop running again I will make a new frame for it and transplant parts....if I don’t shadowbox the old Colt before that. Brass castings as frames was a bad idea.
 
A stainless Rossi M971 chambered in 357 mag. My brother bought it new, and I acquired it soon after. It’s not really that bad of a gun but the quality of it is lower than my Smiths, Rugers, and Perdersoli.

I don’t have a lot of revolvers, but most are pretty nice, the Rossi is the exception. Like I said it’s not really bad but, it’s just not up to the quality of the others.


OOOOH, I take it back I Almost forgot, I have a H&R sealed 8 that belonged to my grandfather, it’s pre WW2. It’s pretty bad, no finish, poor wood, homemade front sight, etc. but I just have it because of the history, it’s not supposed to be a good gun.
 
Clerke 1st. Easily and without question.
Can cock it and still turn the cylinder
Can grab the barrel and grip and bend the entire gun exposing cracks in the frame.
Can hold the cylinder still and pull the trigger in double action.
The gun looks new. Not sure what finish they used but that's the only thing they did correctly
Doesn't weigh enough for a club, not heavy enough to call it a paper weight
Not sure if I own it though. A friend bought it at an auction and after examining it, left it in my safe.... almost 20 years ago
 
crestoncowboy

Not sure if I own it though. A friend bought it at an auction and after examining it, left it in my safe.... almost 20 years ago

Yeah, I think after all that time it's yours!
 
NIGHTLORD40K

If it was made from a more long lasting material, like steel or even aluminum, it might have been really neat as a Kit Gun.
It was a more or less direct copy of the original S&W Ladysmith, which was, of course, steel. Unfortunately a decent Ladysmith these days is worth waaaaay too much to throw in a pocket or tackle box!
 
Just wondering what is the worst revolver you have ever owned and why? I once acquired a well used Iver Johnson .22 that had a bad cylinder that would seldom line up correctly with the barrel. Kinda dangerous when pulled the trigger .:cuss: Worked ok after replacing the cylinder.
I had one too, an RFK Assassination Special, 2" barrel Cadet 55. Spit lead horribly, I always wore gloves when shooting it.
 
Charter Arms Mag Pug, .357. 300 rounds in, the mainspring works 50% of the time. Just waiting for a local buy-back program, to get rid of this piece of junk, and not have anyone else suffer from its awfulness.
 
I have only ever owned pre lock S&Ws and a Colt Trooper MkIII and a Ruger Security Six.

Nothing bad to say about them. I have shot over 100 rounds from my boss’s Taurus Poly Protector .357 and that has the most awful DA trigger of any gun I have ever shot.

There are folks out there who could not physically pull this trigger. After 5 shots of deliberate double action shooting my forearm started to burn.
 
I don't know about worst revolver, but the absolute dumbest revolver I've ever owned was a 8 3/8" barreled, full-lug S&W 617 in .22LR. Not only was it insanely muzzle heavy, it wasn't that much of a shooter, either.
 
Let me preface this with the factual statement that I absolutely love the Charter Arms Bulldog .44.
Had owned many of them, through the years, and only ONE iteration of that revolver EVER gave me any trouble.
I had a Charco or Charter 2000, forget which, Bulldog Pug .44. You could revolve the cylinder by hand when the hammer was down.
Clockwise, counterclockwise, it didn't care. You could spin that sucker either way.
 
Early Redhawk 44 ,blue. I am a total Ruger fan but this one frustrated me to no end. Would not group with anything and I could shoot 4-5" 100 yard groups with both my Super and my stainless 357Blackhawks. Match reamed the cylinders, lapped the throat and forcing cone, nada. Traded it for an 870 Wingmaster for my son. He still shoots it 28 years later. I got a beat up Super also in the trade and Ruger rebuilt it for nothing and I traded it for a 686+ which is great. All worked out.
 
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