Most over rated pistol

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Of all my revolvers and pistols, the Sig P220 .45ACP
has been the most disappointing performer. It has
been finicky with nearly all versions of ammo, causing
occasional misfires and numerous flyers. On the other hand,
my Sig P226 9mm has been perfect, regardless of which
brand or bullet is cycled through it.
 
I'd have to say 3rd gen. smith autoloaders (Other than the CS series), and .40 caliber glocks (With some exceptions, as well).

H&Ks and SIGs, while somewhat overpriced seem to work well out of the box, and are very accurate, for the most part. Seems like a good idea to me, but what do I know?
 
HK P7. I've gone through five of them, old and new production, and I finally decided that I'd rather carry either my Makarov of my CZ-75 over the P7. I shoot both of the other guns better, the Mak is more concealable than the P7, and the CZ holds twice as many rounds.

The P7 is a great example of sterotypical German engineering combined with the "stellar" HK marketing and customer service. It's overengineered, overhyped and overpriced.
 
HK USP.

It's just another tilting-barrel recoil-operated plastic pistol; a Glock for folks who want hammers and manual safeties and a whiff of SPECOPS cachet.
 
USP, definitely.

I've fired a couple of them, and while they seem like solid guns, they aren't anything special.

Walther guns in general have always struck me as being overpriced for what they are (especially the PP and PPK)
 
Glocks. People who own them feel that they are the be-all-and-end-all of pistols. I've seen more Glock jams than any other type of pistol in competition. Don't get me wrong, the Glock is a fine weapon, but it is far from the infallibility that so many people make it out to be.

I disagree that the USP is the most overrated. Either get the LEM trigger, or work on the standard trigger, and it suddenly begins to shine. I've purchased both of mine for not all that much more money than Glocks in this area, so the price difference doesn't play into my equation. Both of mine are accurate, reliable, and durable.

I also disagree about the 1911 being overrated. Once you've fired a well-tuned 1911, everything else just seems so bland.
 
Glocks wins the award. Really how many even Glock lovers expect or would
want to pass there glocks on to there children.?
 
I'll be another person to say the USP. Just a Glock with a 50% mark-up and a longer trigger reach. A case of HK regression, not innovation.

Glocks are only over-rated within the more cultish Glock circles who think that their stamped and injection-molded derivative of older designs suddenly made everything else obsolete. New shooters buy a Glock, it doesn't jam, and they start talking smack about how their gun is "perfection" and you are a chump for using something else... whatever.

The same goes for the 1911, though there seem to be more butt-ignorant 1911 bashers out there to even things out.

Sig P210 overrated? Depends. A target pistol (and that's what a P210 is) is only overrated if you can find something in the same caliber that is more accurate and has a better trigger and better sights for less money. Good luck... not too many guns can group at 25 yards what the P210 does at 50, at least not until they wind up costing as much as a P210 does anyway. And target pistols have no need for high capacity or light weight, so those factors are irrelevant to judging if the P210 is "overrated" for what it is meant to do. You might as well say Ferraris are overrated because they get bad gas mileage.

Kimber has gone from killer deal to highly overrated. Now Colt makes a superior product by a considerable margin... higher quality materials, nicer finishes, a firing pin block that DOESN'T cause malfunctions, and even better triggers and accuracy. Spoken as an old Kimber owner: who'd have thunk it? :confused:
 
I think most handguns are over-rated by their owners. On boards like this, everyone defends their personal faviorites. They all have faults. They all will malfunction. They all need care and maintainance. They all will break with wear and abuse. They all will fail at some point when not maintained..........................
Of course some are better than others, but I prefer to be realistic and believe that there is no one magic handgun that is the do all and end all of the firearms world.
That being said, the most over-hyped handgun in my opinion is the Glock. On boards like this the we hear all kinds of tales of severe abuse, yet the gun keeps right on ticking. However this has not been my experience. Because of all this hype I guess I pay attention when Glocks malfunction more than I do when other handguns malfunction. I took a formal training class this past weekend and the instructors Glock .40 could not go through a single magazine without a malfunction. Was it broken ? Was it not maintained ? Was it bad ammo ? I don't know. I took another formal class last month. The instructors of that class put on a little demo first thing as the class started. One of the instructors Glocks had a type 3 malfunction during the demo. In that same class I became friends with the guy shooting next to me on the line that was using a Glock 17 that had all kinds of problems. I personally owned a Glock 21 that had to be sent back to the factory within weeks of me buying it.
I personally believe the Glock to be a great piece of gear. I own a Glock 17 myself. I recommend Glocks to people all the time who want to buy a defensive handgun. But my experience is that they don't live up to the internet hype by a long shot. In terms of reliability, accuracy, and overall performance I think they are roughly the same as any other good quality defensive handgun.
 
Of handguns in current production, I'd have to say Glocks. They are good pistols but IMO better guns are out there.

Of handguns no longer in production, Lugers (AKA the Parabellum). They look cool but for actual shooting they have lousy triggers, poor sights, and the tolerances are too close for a combat handgun.
 
Most over rated, has to be the HK USP.

I agree with Sean. IMHO, too many folks worship at the throne of the high end 1911, $5,000.00 for a top end custom job is over the top. Then again, like Sean said, there are enough ingnorant 1911 bashers out there to swing the pendulum back to dead center.
 
Wow. I set a match to a fiery dung storm here, but this is a fascinating conversation. There are a lot of well-reasoned, convincing arguments for and against just about everything.

My personal dislike of the USP has to do with the placement of the magazine release. I tend to bump it with my thumb and drop the magazine while shooting. Combine that with the fact it doesn't fit my beefy mitts well and it makes for an unpleasant shooting experience. By contrast the cheap, "clunky" Ruger autoloaders fit my freakish hands quite nicely.

My personal liking of the Glocks has to do with the fact that I really like their tigger actions, once I got used to them. Plus I appreciate a compensated gun.

I have to wonder how many misfeeds are caused by damaged magazines and have nothing to do with the gun. I've found that any autoloading pistol can jam if the lips of the magazine get even slightly bent.

The one thing I emphatically agree with is that the 9mm Luger is without exception the most overrated handgun in history. And likely one of the worst. I owned a Stoeger Arms Luger about 25 years ago, and that experience was so bad that I swore off autoloaders all together and only owned wheelguns until just a couple of years ago.

Thanks to all who shared their wealth of experience.
 
Are we listing the most overrated pistols or the most overpriced?

In my opinion many are confusing the two.

Who is doing the "rating" and just what are they "over" on? I'd like to see people respond with exactly what the supposed "ratings" are of the firearms they believe to be overrated.

i.e. if you say GLOCK is overrated, tell us what merits it is "rated" to have that it does not have in reality. It would serve to illustrate that this overrating thing is pretty subjective.


Overrated

o·ver·rate

tr.v. o·ver·rat·ed, o·ver·rat·ing, o·ver·rates

To overestimate the merits of.
 
I think price needs to be included in the equation. Economy has to be one of the parameters for judging merit. Besides, one gun doesn't cost significantly more to build than another gun. A manufacturer charges what it thinks the market will bear. The market decides what it will pay for a gun by assessing the merit of that gun. If the public deems a gun meritous enough to pay $1000 retail, but only deems another gun meritous enough to pay $350 retail, then price is indeed a reflection of perceived merit.
 
Besides, one gun doesn't cost significantly more to build than another gun.

Objectively untrue. Materials used dictate a fair portion of the total cost of the gun to make. Likewise, the more skilled labor that goes into building the gun, the more expensive it is to make. Glocks made of injection-molded plastic and steel stampings that only need cro-magnon labor to slap the gun together are going to be cheaper to make than something hand-honed by a gunsmith at Rock River Arms or SV from steel forgings.

Of course, only their accountants can tell us how much of the MSRP is profit margin. :D
 
But the question is about a gun being over rated, not over priced.
If a $300 gun is touted to be the do all and end all of the handgun world and it doesn't live up to they hype, then it is overrated.
If a gun costs $1200 and it is everything it is cracked up to be, then it is not overrated.
Obviously in order to qualify for this discussion, the gun has to be "rated" by some method. In this case it is word of mouth, magazine articles, and internet discussion.
 
Agreed 444. . .

I failed to enter my choice for most "overrated" handgun. . . It would be EVERY handgun. Why? The general public (and many firearms owners) believe handguns to be better than they are for personal defense.
 
I am going to have to agree with those who've chosen the USP series as the most overrated. I've owned USP full size pistols in 9mm, 40 and 45 and a Compact in 40 and the only one I would consider buying again is the 40 Compact. It's a nice gun. But ALL of them are incredibly overpriced and way overrated.
Any non-9mm Glock would have to come in second.

(Wow, 100 posts...took me a LOT longer to get to 100 here than at TFL...)
 
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