Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Most useless hunting rifle you've ever bought?

NEF

Ya'll ain't gonna believe this, but I bought a used Bansner LH Sheep Hunter in 7mmWSM about 5 years ago. I couldn't get factory or my reloads to shoot worth a hoot (MOA). I was in a hurry to get things right, so I sent it out to Larry at Superior Ammo to reload for. He couldn't hit the sweet spot, so he sent it back to Bansner for me. They declared it to be fine and sent it back to Larry, who threw together his best effort for the hunt. I nailed my goat that year, and the rifle was light, but I had to let that one go. I mention that Bansner because I think of most "off the shelf" rifles as a roll of the dice in the accuracy dept., and I don't really expect a winchester 70 to properly feed three rounds in a row without gunsmithing and prayer, but a custom????
Don

I had a raptor 270 also.Maybe I had it after you.It would print 3/4 to 1 in groups one day,and the next it would do 12" groups,same ammo,same everything.Found out the recoil lug wasnt contacting the recoil shoulder in the stock by 1/4".And the rings were misaligned by .050"! wrecked a good scope before I figured that out.After wounding a nice buck one year,I sold the POS for half of what I gave for it.Still get pissed when I think of the guy who sold it to me.

Rossi 243.

6" groups w/o a rear sight aint half bad.

I bought a heavy barrel savage 10 in .223 for prairie dogs. Worked up a great load for it, then Colorado closed the season so they could study the "endangered" prairie dogs. No use for the rifle after that. Sold it to a friend just before the bastidges reopened the season.

Wichester 1886 Featherweight Japanese reproduction in 45/70 bought brand new.
Lovely, smooth and..............accurate. With peep sight from bench 7 shots in 2 inches at 100 yards for 405 grain bonded Alaskan Bullet Works bullets @ 1800 fps.
Trigger a bit on the heavy side but crisp. Needs to be polished up. Only problem is.......what am I going to hunt with it?
I have a couple excellent bolt rifles that do precisely what I need and want. The 45/70 for me is lovely and useless.
I have had it now for a number of years, take it to the range fire 10 rounds, admire the group, clean it until I shoot it next year.
Guess one of these days it will have to go.

Belgium made Browning BLR in 243 inherited by my half brother. He pawned it and I got it back for him. It would put them in around 1.25" groups with the Redfield 4x scope that was originally bought with the rifle. It was promptly pawned again and was lost forever.

A Benneli R1 in 30-06 absolutely stunning wood on the thing, I bought after reading a rave review in the NRA gun rag, major POI shift due to its break down design. I did see one that had been fixed by a guy with a pair of visegrips however, not pretty but I bet the forearm nut was tight on that one!

Remington 700 CDL SF useless, and very poor finishing. Put me off Remington, all the way. It's been the only 7-08 I've had that wouldn't shoot.

Remmie 700 XCR in 300 wsm...piece o crap
Remmie 700 LTR in 6.8 SPC(what was I thinking)same as above
Remmie model 7 in 308, it was awful
Ruger M77 lightweight in 308, patterns more than groups with that gun. Those are the worst. I have had very good rugers and Remmingtons since those dogs, but those are the big ones that stand out in my mind

I bought a Marlin 1894CL in 218 Bee that I thought would be interesting to use on turkey. Right after the purchase, G&F changed the regs to eliminate centerfires for turkeys, ending the lever's intended usefulness.

44 black powder six shooter, made in Italy, no brand name. Less than useless still doesn't capture it.

NEF or H&R 10 ga single shot Turkey/ deer combo. never shot it with the turkey barrel, but the slug barrel has horrid. not only did the recoil bad have about half inch of surface area, it shot 2' groups at 60 yards. POS! gone!

Remington 660 in .243

There is no real use for the 243 unless you have extremely tough coyotes in your area.

A Winchester SLR in 401 Winchester. It undoubtedly was a worse punkin-thrower than Ward's 44.

It finally dawned on me after I bought it that those guys who had one just carried them. They never shot anything with them.

Ward-I've written about this one b4 but here goes...

I did a 700 shorty action with a Shilen 284 tube on it. 140 Nolzers @ 2900 was ok with me.

What wasn't ok was that it fed like generic perro cacca and was basically a single shooter.

My wet dreams of a 700 Shorty Mtn rifle in 284 got crushed when I did that one...<g>

Dober

The Ruger no.1 45/70 I bought that had wandering zero comes to mind it's gone now. The NEF 35 whelen I now have would be useful but it misfires so that counts as useless to me.

Savage 17 MachII, just ended up buying ammo that was 2x .22 LR and no real advantage in range. Just tore up more meat on the bunnies. Now the .17 HMR is a horse of a different color!

How is that useless???

Does a build count?
I once spent over $2000 building a Whelen on a Mauser action, that, when it was all said and done, could be counted on to shoot 5 inch groups at 100 yards.
That was my first and last custom rifle, and probably explains why I like Tikkas so much.

Royce