Lemon Gun Stories
 

I bought a Stevens model 320 shotgun and its a POS, I shot 30 rounds through it it jammed about 25. It jammed on the eject cycle and inject cycle. Stevens/Savage will be getting it back. But it got me thinking how often does a lemon get bought? I have owned close to 100 guns in my life and been very fortunate this is my first real lemon (besides a .22lr on occasion).

So anyone have any stories? I would love to hear them!

AMT Hardballer Longslide, circa 1981. Complete POS.
Out of the box, it would not chamber or eject a single round.
I had to poke the round into the chamber, close the slide, fire it, then pull the slide back and manually dump the empty out. Eventually, the barrel burst. The lug tore a section out of the barrel.

That's the short version of the story.

A Remington 597 (22 rifle). After the first 10 rounds were OK, it started failing to feed and eject. Then, rounds would get stuck halfway down the magazine. Then, it got kinda fun when it started full-auto - 4 rounds with one trigger pull & the RO got a little pissed.

A buddy also bought one at the same time. His wouldn't fire a 10-rd. mag without malfunctioning.

After two factory "fixes" with nothing fixed, we both made Remington give us full refunds.

:supergrin: I think the one in "Terminator" also jammed when Arnold was shooting the wrong Saaaaara Connor. Something fell off the gun on the last shot.

When I was in retail firearms, the AMT Back Up 380 was also a lemon. Most of them came back for repair.

It makes it a little better when there is a good manufacturer to back the gun, but it still sucks when you spend hard earned cash on a gun and its junk!

A stainless Taurus PT1911. That thing was a turd. ILS (in the hammer) broke after 80 rounds. I replaced the hammer with a Nowlin Pro only to have the ambi safeties start falling out shortly thereafter. It was the only gun I've ever had rust in a humidity controlled safe. No other gun has ever had even a speck of rust. The MIM parts on the Taurus started rusting with the quickness. It was not terribly accurate either.

I sold it a gun show and have never been so glad to see a gun go.

:wow: that's way worse then my POS did you get some kind of reimbursement?

I have heard a few horror stories about the Taurus 1911 and most of them were about the safety

I got caught-up in two consecutive S&W recalls in the 80s (model 469 9mm, and 586 .357).

Made myself a promise to not buy any new gun designs/redesigns or new calibers until they had been on the market for at least 5 years (basically, let other folks be the Beta testers). Working well so far, but I broke the promise this year for the first time in 2+ decades. Waiting for the shoe to drop...

Worst I've had was a Walther P22, I couldn't run a mag through that gun without a problem. Even with the recommended high velocity ammo it just refused to work

Winchester 94 trapper in 30-30. After visiting three gunsmiths it still won't work right. Its frustrating because it will out shoot my full size 94s but it won't cycle cartridges.

That would drive me crazy as well. :steamed:

Hope you get it worked out, eventually.

Had an early Para Warthog. It would not cycle a full mag without an issue.

My first handgun I bought. I can't even remeber who made it. All I know is that it was a Hungarian paratrooper militray pistol. Bought it and a box of ammo. Went home and shot it and the dag gum guide rode broke. Called the shop I bought it from and he said they didnt make parts for the gun no longer. He did however buy the gun back from me at cost.

Only weapon I ever owned that gave me any trouble was a KT-P3AT 2nd gen. Wouldn't get thru 1 mag with out a failure to feed.

I had an AMT backup 45 that I never could get to work right. And it had a trigger pull of about 68 pounds.

Yeah, those things were notoriously bad.

I really think the majority of firearms that have problems are attributed to user error in one form or the other. Improper cleaning, grip, ammunition etc.

I can't really say I've had a problem before. I think that some firearms have inherently worse designs than others that make them less reliable.

The PF9 and LCP don't seem to be as reliable as a larger pocket pistol like the G26.

Out of 3 M&P's I have purchased, they have each ran FLAWLESSLY out of the box with ANY ammunition. I absolutely love them.

Sigh no internet back then. The only thing I could judge it on was a AMT .380 that functioned fine on FMJ.

My first was a Gen 2 Keltec p3at. It was a total POS. It FTE and then double fed once per magazine. It also stovepiped and cracked the magazines at the front from the feed ramp hitting the mag. It went back to KT and returned a few weeks later with a hand written note saying it was test fired with Rem UMC FMJ and it cycled perfectly. I tried it with that ammo and it still jammed.

I traded it to a local shop after telling them it had issues. They gave me $100 credit for it towards the purchase of a Smith and Wesson 442 and haven't looked back.

My second was a Remington 870 Express 12g. I bought it with the 28" vent rib barrel and picked up a 18" Remington HD barrel. The shell latch would not release a shell from the magazine about 1 in 4 times the action was cycled. The HD barrel would stick shells in the chamber so bad that the extractor would rip through the rim of the shell leaving the hull in the chamber.

I called Remington and they told me the problem was I was using crappy ammo. I told them I was using Remington shotshells. Turns out Remington does not service their own weapons. They gave me the address to a gunshop in B'ham, AL and told me to ship it there for service. 4 months later I got it back with a note saying the shell latches were replaced and the chamber of the barrel was polished.

The shells released from the magazine now, but still stuck in the chamber. I immediately sent the barrel back to the same gunshop and gave them a phone call. About a month later I got a new barrel in the mail. They replaced the Express barrel with a 870P barrel and the gun worked, but I had no confidence in it.

I traded it in for a 870P with a wood stock. I kept the 28" vent rib barrel to use for hunting.

Buying a lemon sucks, but if you buy and trade enough it will eventually happen.

My worst:
1. Taurus 94 .22lr Revolver - cylinder would bind up, effectively jamming it.

2. Olympic Arms K9GL Carbine - every type of malfunction in the book despite 4 trips to the gunsmith and 1 back to Olympic Arms. A client was shooting it and it almost blew up on him. I sold it to a gunstore who said they would fix it and resell it. It sold and then was back on their shelves 2weeks later.

3. Mossberg 500 Home Security .410 Shotgun - would not work with .410 handgun rounds(although it should have) and then would not work with regular .410 shotgun loads(pump action would seize up).

The only guns I had issues with were el cheapo pocket guns from the early 1980's. One was a Jennings 22lr I got new for $49 and a excam .25 bought used for $20. I sold or traded them both off. I told myself only buy quality name brand stuff and pass on the cheap crap that was good advice.

Not 1 but 2 separate Gen3.5 G30sf's that wouldnt stop ejecting brass into my head. Real stinkers those were.

Sure does. That $99.00 sale price was what made them so tempting to us. They had really nice fiberglass stocks which were probably worth almost the cost of the whole rifle.

At least is saved you a gym membership.

I bought an AMT backup 380 for my wife about 20 years ago. Never got as far as the trigger pull, she couldn't pull the slide back. Small blowback pistols are not fun guns to shoot especially for anyone who doesn't have significant grip strength.