Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Most overrated guns

Here's a thread that ought to bring mass butt-hurt, but hell, let's go there...

Remington 740 series semi auto sporting rifles...Utter crap!

Thompson SMG - exorbitantly expensive, horrible ergonomics, unreasonably heavy; all the things you want in a military small arm....But they are damn cool!!

M14 - There are very good reasons why it had the shortest lifespan of any rifle in US military service.

AK-47 - Generally they're better than most American's give them credit for. What's overrated is their reliability. Yeah they're pretty damned reliable, but they're not nearly as reliable as their fanboys would have you believe.

Mosin Nagant - Everyone who owns one praises them. They're good for one thing, they're cheap! Other than that, the manual of arms sucks, triggers S U C K, accuracy is at best decent, the stock design sucks...the rifle just sucks.

Remington 870 - Yes the most successful shotgun of all time has some chinks in its armor. It is extremely vulnerable to short stroking, which will completely lock the action. Last shotgun I'd ever choose for self defense.

S&W K frame .357's - This is tough, because I absolutely LOVE the S&W 19 & 66. But truth be told, it's NOT an appropriate frame size for a .357, even after SAAMI lowered the factory pressure to accommodate S&W's optimism. The infamous split forcing cone is a REAL problem, that REALLY happens, and it will REALLY completely lock up the action and take the gun out of action. Also longevity issues with cracking of the frame under the barrel threads is a problem. Full magnum loads really should be used sparingly in these otherwise magnificent revolvers.

Winchester Model 21 shotgun - Okay, it's not just a good shotgun, it's a VERY good shotgun. They are amazingly robust for a break action gun and can take a tremendous volume of fire. They have legendary status and command HUGE dollars. But they tend to not balance well, and here's the big kicker for me...How can ANYONE look at that 2x4 of a receiver and say that's a good looking gun? No gun that ugly, no matter how good of a gun it is, should go for that kind of money; period!


Okay, I have publicly murdered some very sacred cows; so either join in with your list, or flame on!!! Let's do this!

Interesting about the 870, I must have half a dozen.. Shot some since the mid 70's, and I have never had the action lock up.. Must take a talent to do that!!

remington 700's and pistols that rhyme with cock.

Kimber Montana...
A $1200 rifle that may or may not shoot 1 - 4" groups

The only one of those I've ever had was the 870. There is something about the stock that just doesn't fit me.

I agree about the 740, Thompson, and the AK.

Never spent any time around a Nagant since most of my friends have jobs.

I know nothing of the 21.

Can't call the K-frame overrated as most know they aren't set up for high volume .357 loads.

I'll happily refer to the Hi-Power and 1911 as overrated.




Dave

I'd call a Kimber Montana underrated.




Travis

Dump all your M-14's and Thompson's on me.

Pre 64 Model 70s.

A decent 1920 design cone breech bolt action but, at best, a poor copy of a 98 Mauser. FN commercial Mausers are superior in every way and cost less.

(Remington 870 - Yes the most successful shotgun of all time has some chinks in its armor. It is extremely vulnerable to short stroking, which will completely lock the action. Last shotgun I'd ever choose for self defense.)




must be from having to short stroke something else....

As for the battle weapons, I think you have to view them in the context of the period of time that they were used. A Thompson was a highly prized item in the Pacific during WW2. I was very familiar with a WW2 vet of the Pacific war who carried one through the entire ordeal. I suppose he could have traded it for any other weapon at any time. He didn't.

As for the M-14,...basically it was a modified Garand. Everybody seemed to like the Garand. I know one Marine who did an 18 month tour in Vietnam. He says they trained with M-14's but were issued M-16's to fight with. He says that most would have rather kept their M-14's.

I have a 16guage 870 i got as a kid in the 50's. I remember firing it so fast and with so much ammo one time the ammo was swelling in the gun. I have never had an issue with it in 60years.

"M14 - There are very good reasons why it had the shortest lifespan of any rifle in US military service."

That's because a lot of 'puzzies' didn't...and weren't taught how to shoot them!!

As much as I am addicted to collecting them the 99 Savage would rightly make the list.

Not sure I would agree with that one...We trained on the M-14 at Benning in the 60's and it was a very accurate rifle..Recoil was nilch as the DI demonstrated, firing a couple rounds off from his crotch for the non-believers.

Very easy to score well on the range fire test(silhouette pop ups to 300 meters) with the accurate M-14.

it's full of crud, the article is.
The only issue with the thompson in its various builds is its weight. Having actually shot them a bunch, they are pretty controllable. i should add they took a bit to make, thats why the wwii version is what it is, the poor stepson of the 1921 and 28.
a m14 is the son of the garand. Enough said really. It's a real weapon as opposed to the poodle shooter.
as to the a.k., and the mosin for that matter, they have been used all over the world to kill a whole lot of people.
And i have a finnish mosin i would put against quite a few rifle in accuracy.

Winchester M70, most especially Pre-64, is far and away the most overrated.

I would certainly second that. They worked God bless them.

I was lucky enough to train with a wide variety of issue rifles.Boot camp with the M-14, ITR with the Garand and BAR, Two more years with the M-14. Began transitioning to the M-16E2's [Pretty nice weapons].
Went to Vietnam and got old style M-16's since we were Air wingers [Tac Ops Center/DASC/ASRT, etc].

The old M-16's had the usual well known problems with ammo and mags that were reluctant to feed. We cleaned ours meticulously too. Thankfully, we had Ithaca's and some other arms available.

I put a Krieger barrel on this $50 1939 91/30 Mosin Nagant and converted to 300 Win Mag.
I welded the bolt, drilled and tapped, and milled out the magazine. The Timney trigger has a safety. I made Aluminum pillars.

I shot a mule buck with it in 2015.

log cutter, nice to see you back!!