Least accurate firearms we've owned and loved.

[Jack B.]

Me.

 

[Lloyd Smale]

not the most inaccurate rifle ive owned but a poor shooting gun for what it was that was a real beauty. A 257 roberts win 70 featherweight I bought in the mid 80s. It would at best do a 2.5 inch 100 yard group and some were near twice that. thing had absolutely gorgeous wood. I should have held on to it at least until I bought my next featherweight, a great shooting 280 just to swap stocks. Bought a third featherweight of the same era in 757 that wasn't much better then the 257 was. It too went down the road.

 

[ScrapMetalSlug]

I dont tend to like firearms that arent accurate. If i cant get them to shoot well i send them on their way. However, i dont call 2 inch groups bad for a rimfire at 50 yards, that sounds acceptable for practical purposes. Sounds like itd bust clays at 50 yards and would be fine for small game.

I also dont shoot from a rest measuring group sizes or compete unless just sighting in, so that may skew my view of accuracy. I like shooting clays and milk jugs without a rest at various unknown distances.

 

[Mn Fats]

Call me petty, but if a rifle doesn't shoot well, I can't fall in love with it. I might spend a foolish amount of money "accurizing" a rifle I really like to coax better precision from it, but if the dog don't hunt...

Well put. My k98 doesn't shoot well but I still fell in love with the bolt design and overall look and feel of it. There's my exception.

 

[hdbiker]

Back in 1972 I bought a used, like new, Rem. 742 carbine in .308 Win.This rifle was never accurate, no matter what I fed it, I load my own ammo so over the years I tried dozens of combinations and ended up with a 2 1/2 inch rifle. I live in Wisconsin and hunted heavily wooded county, state and federal public hunting areas, where quick fast shooting at running deer was the norm.This 742 never failed me or my loads, 5 shots as fast as you can pull the trigger.I know I've got 50-60 deer with this rifle over the years and it's still my favorite woods deer rifle.I do own all the common bolt action rifles but the 742 is my go to deer gun. hdbiker

 

[Arkansas Paul]

The only way I think I would love an inaccurate firearm is if there were sentimental feelings attached to it. I am guilty of that. If a rifle is given to me as a gift or passed down in the family, it has a special place with me and I will never get rid of it. I always shake my head when someone posts, "My father left this rifle and I'm not into guns. What is it worth?" I understand on a logical level, but I'm a softie on things like that.

However if it is something I bought, I agree with Townsend Whalen. Only accurate rifles are interesting.

 

[bluzman]

Based on 5 shot groups at 100 yds, my 581 series Mini 14 is at the bottom of the list of all the rifles I own. I produces 2" to 3" groups. For comparison, my CZ 527 Carbine is a sub-MOA firearm.

 

[Tiro Finale]

I love my SW SD40. It's cheap, it's ugly, and it's about the polar opposite of a precision instrument. It was designed for close-quarters defense, and its groupings show it. It is a minute-of-bad-guy gun.

However, it will eat the absolute worst garbage ammo without a hiccup. Cheap Tula and Wolf? Not a problem. Crappy lacquer-coated bimetal ammo? Pfft, bring it on. Cousin Bubba's handloads? BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!

It's a great little pistol.

 

[Llama Bob]

I started shooting in an era where most of the rifles shoot. So not a lot of inaccurate guns. I do have a M96 Mauser that does about 2.5moa, but I've never tried to find an accurate load for it. I do like it for field position shooting.

I have a Kimber 84m in 7mm08 that I can't get to shoot consistently well. It's getting bedded now. But I don't love it. If it starts to shoot then it'll be different.

 

[SamT1]

Mosin M-44. It was cheap, the ammo was cheap and cycling that stubborn bolt was oddly fun. I could never achieve anything greater than 10 MOA at 100 yds.

I have a soft spot for a m44 too. I knocked the sights and bayonette off mine and changed the stock. Trigger job. Polished everything (bolt lugs chamber) and ended up with a MOA shooter. A lot more work than its worth. But I had a good time with that thing.

 

[RedlegRick]

I've owned 4 AR-7s, as I have this love-hate thing with the design. #1 was a decent shooter, 2" groups at 50 yards. #2 was about the same. #3 was the real stinker, built from surplus parts when Charter Arms folded back in the 90s. 8" groups at 25 yards, but I hung onto it solely because I was in a state of flux as regards my living and employment situation.
I kept it simply because it broke down small enough to fit into the duffel bag I was living out of and I had just moved back to NY and couldn't own a pistol yet. Function was more than acceptable with most ammo, but as soon as I got my permit, off she went. #4 was bought on a whim and traded the next day, because I didn't want to endure the heartache of wringing another one out.

 

[mshootnit]

Lee Enfield jungle carbine. Awesome little rifle. Shoots horrible.

 

[Rshooter]

I bought my wife a mini-14 that was a special edition with stainless and a laminated stock. It was a very beautiful rifle but not up to par in the accuracy department. She was a rifle expert in the USMC so she was happy when I sold it and built her an AR-15.

 

[hdwhit]

Charter Arms AR-7. Great rifle to stow in a car trunk or backpack. Useful for harvesting rabbit if you're hungry enough. It would hit the broad side of a barn, but that's about it. Too much play where the barrel joined the receiver. My wife took it over when she had to use it to defend herself. Accurate enough even for a novice across a 10x10 bedroom.

 

[csa77]

Pietta 1860 army. Very crude rear sight mounted on the hammer. round balls from 15 yards look like a shotgun pattern. Fouls Badly after a few cylinders of shooting


By far the funnest gun to shoot I own.

 

[illinoisburt]

+1 on Norinco SKS. Not exactly accurate (4 moa seems about normal), but just plain fun to shoot. Been steel cased ammo its whole life. Even with super cheap (and sometimes stinky) suplus, it just keeps on going. Maybe some day I'll feed it something nice and see what happens?

 

[Picher]

Years ago, a friend had a 7mm Rem Mag Ruger77 that got 2.5 minute "patterns" so I offered to work on it. I glass-bedded and free-floated it, handloaded various supposedly accurate batches, but never got it to shoot well, so he traded it.

 

[splattergun]

dupe

 

[splattergun]

My Norinco SKS. Even with trigger work, the trigger stinks. Even with careful aiming and good ammo, it is unsatisfying to shoot at tennis ball sized targets at 25 yards. But, it is the first rifle I bought myself and is in fantastic condition. So, I'll likely never part with it.

hey Chich, I coulda written that myself. In fact, I was going to until I read our post. So I just quoted it!
My Norinco SKS sucks. But I've taken a few deer with it and I've had a ball shooting it. Well worth the $99 I paid for it. 3 inch groups at 50 yards is fine with me!

 

[T.R.]

Back in the early 1970's, I bought a Marlin 1894 in 44 MAG complete with micro-groove rifling and slow twist rate. This carbine was fitted with a good Weaver 4X scope but factory ammo produced 7 inch patterns at 100 yards. I discovered that Hornady bullets were slightly larger in diameter and my hand loads shrunk groups to 3 inches. Despite this less than ideal accuracy, I killed many deer with this outfit. Majority of my shots took place at about 75 yards or so. But I traded it away when Ruger introduced their model 96 which has a faster twist and far better accuracy.

TR

 

[DLrocket89]

Stainless Mini-Thirty. Got it to shoot 2" at 100 yards, not bad given what others have experienced I think. Given the ballistics of the 7.62x39 one can argue that 2" is "accurate enough" for this gun. But, it could shoot 6" and I wouldn't care - the clatter of the action cycling, rock solid reliability (with non-steel ammo), light weight, "over your shoulder all day" handy... great gun.

 

[DLrocket89]

(deleted double post)

 

[Offfhand]

Most of them..

 

[Picher]

My B.I.L. had a Marlin 336 that shot very well for a while, but the hole for the front sight ramp was drilled too deep and eventually, a dimple formed in the bore. After that, bullets would keyhole at 50 yards and would barely stay on a 100 yard sighting-in target. He kept it, because he had shot a few deer with it before the problem occurred. (R.I.P. Slabsides.)

 

[illinoisburt]

My B.I.L. had a Marlin 336 that shot very well for a while, but the hole for the front sight ramp was drilled too deep and eventually, a dimple formed in the bore. After that, bullets would keyhole at 50 yards and would barely stay on a 100 yard sighting-in target. He kept it, because he had shot a few deer with it before the problem occurred. (R.I.P. Slabsides.)

If he still has the rifle, that's a fairly easy fix if the dimple isnt too far from the end of the barrel. Either cut the barrel a little shorter, recrown and reset the sights. Or even simpler have the barrel counterbored back past the deformation. It wont matter if the screw hole is exposed in the counterbore as the bullet will be free of rifling and lands before it passed by.