I've had more than one rifle purchase or build that just didn't pan out. Custom rifles that cost too much and took too long that just didn't provide accuracy or reliability better than an off the shelf purchase. There have been a couple rifles that I'd wanted since boyhood that just weren't as good in reality as they were in my hopes. But there was one that took the prize for absolute stupidity. I decided I wanted an elk rifle for Roosevelt elk that provided plenty of power, was easy to carry and could give me a quick second shot. Then I got a really good buy on a BLR in 7mm Mag and knew a gunsmith who'd worked on several Browning levers and sem-auto's. Long ago I'd owned a .358 Norma that was a sporterized 1917 Enfield so I had the dies and brass sitting in the back of my loading cabinet. It wasn't long before I had a lever action .358 Norma.

The first shot from sandbags was a surprise. By the time it was sighted in, I was talking to people long gone. My body shape, the stock configuration and recoil generated by the Norma Mag were a toxic mix for me. Thinking it might be OK for hunting, I took it to the range a second time for some offhand practice where my jaw and shoulder continued to suffer. All my hopes and planning resulted in a nearly unusable rifle for me. It was my good fortune to have a friend who diagnosed me as a recoil puzzy and gave me an offer for the rifle that nearly covered its cost. He later sold the rifle without telling me why.

I am sure I could come up with another ill considered hunting rifle if given the chance. Old age and downsizing are about the only things that might save me from myself.

The first custom I built was a Mauser action in 338 mag and I used a laminated stock, it put the total weight at 9+ lbs. too much for a rifle used in the mountains. I have replaced the laminate with a Bansner and the bottom metal with a blind magazine, now it's 7.75 lbs. more better....

Kimber Montana 7-08. Couldn't hit a pie plate at 100 yards and wouldn't feed from the magazine. Worked out in the end because Kimber let me trade for a rifle of my choice, took a .223.

My worst one, was one that i bought on gunbroker. It was supposed to be a sporterized m1917 30-06, but when i got it, it was a sporterized p14 303 British. Yes, i was pizzed, but i bought it cheap and was really only buying it for the custom stock that was on it. I ended up throwing a different stock on that rifle and gave it to one of my hunting buddies, as a birthday gift. He likes the 303 British, so it worked out great for him.

Bought a Steyr in 243 that couldn't keep minute of pie plate no matter the load nor tinkering. After accepting that fact, I swapped in for a lovely Sako 17 Remington that is almost minute of house fly.

Also had a zytel stocked Ruger in 7 mag. I think it put more hurt on the stock end than anything it would hit, which wasn't often. My buddy still has a semi permanent bruise from us trying in vain to sight the thing in for a moose hunt. Sent that one down the river too, and pity the soul that has to grit his teeth every time he touches it off.

Have a Henry single shot now that although fairly accurate, I just can't get over how such a horrible trigger can be offered on a factory rifle. Had I known, I'd have never tested those waters either. Trying to find someone who is competent to work on it, but otherwise it may just go the way of the Steyr.

My Dad bought me a Stevens .22 when I was a kid that had a stock with a fox carved into it. It never functioned correctly or would hit the broad side of a barn. I wanted so badly for that thing to shoot since I was a squirrel hunting addict and it is a cool looking little .22 but it just wasn’t meant to be. Sits in the back corner of my gun safe only because my dad bought it for me.

The one the smith never finished. Eventually (after nearly 2.5 years) I ended up with a nice looking 7x57 Model 70 barreled action (Douglass Premium featherweight) that once dropped into a stock wouldn't shoot worth a chit no matter what I did with it. The walnut stock never got completed. I keep it in the basement with all my rifles as a reminder to choose 'smiths more carefully. Eventually I may burn it for some satisfaction.

Frankenstein Model 70 7 WSM. Spent a bunch of money getting back together and even more money on brass for so so accuracy.

Built a super nice lefty 700 chambered in 9.3x62. Shoots great, lightweight, really like it a lot. Then CDNN closed out the lefty 375 Rugers for $599. Would have saved me a few grand.

Seeing this thread makes me realize that I've been very fortunate in my rifle purchases. It would be easier to think of the ones that I regret sending down the road. I've purchased several hand guns that were real duds though.

As far as rifles go I bought a sporterized Enfield in .303. It would not feed reliably and accuracy was very poor. I wound up using it in a trade for something else.

Winchester 100 .284 - Shot so poorly I doubt you could successfully commit suicide with it.

Browning Safari .264 - Gorgeous rifle, but shot patterns rather than groups regardless of the ammo.

Did a couple of dumb builds when I was new to custom rifles. I was ignorant and my gunsmith wasn’t someone to tell me I was doing it wrong. One of them I ended up getting good use out of as my primary deer rifle for a few years and killed some really nice bucks with it. The other I never really took to

I’m in the process now of having both rebarelled and restocked into rifles that suit my needs much better. One is done and was my main deer rifle this year and I love it. The other I’ll take delivery on in January

My mistakes were probably pretty typical. Barrels too heavy and twists too slow for the most part

Bought a left handed Savage 110 in .338 Magnum. The cracked stock should have warned me. Put a couple hundred more bucks into it with a Lee Six fiberglass stock. Hated it, sold it and bought a 30-06.

Way to light 300 WM. Built on a 700LA. 23" Tube all up at 7.5 Pound. Decent Rifle shoot very well NOT FOR ME.
My teeth hurt thinking about Hot 180's.

My very first build.
M77
358 norma
20" #2 hart
Brown stock- pounder maybe.

I never weighed it but probably around 6lbs sans scope. It kicked so hard and so fast even my 25 year old self couldn't take it. I don't think I made it through a hundred shots.

Had a hunting partner who bought a plain jane Remington 700ADL in 243 that shot incredibly small groups. Went out later and bought another 700ADL in the same caliber and put the same model scope on it, and it wouldnt shoot for anything after bedding, different scopes, etc. About drove him crazy.

Several years back I found an early Kimber of Oregon M84 223, I can’t remember if it was a Custom Classic or Super America. Definitely gorgeous claro.

Rifles that wouldn’t hit your hat at 100 yards? That was one of ‘em.

Before I talked myself into having it rebarrelled, I sold it to a KofO collector who wanted it to put on the wall and didn’t care how it shot.

Built a 257 on a yugo mauser. Spent over a grand even with trading for labor. Too heavy and hard to find stocks etc.

Learned a big name barrel doesn't mean much if it won't shoot.

Sako 75 .270 win

Never had any horror stories, but a #1 Ruger in .22 Hornet wasn't inspiring until it got reamed to .22 K-Hornet. Sub MOA after that, end of story.

Ruger M77 Ultralight in 308.
The trigger was horrible so I had a trigger job done, the recoil was absolutely miserable and 2MOA.

Ruger 77 Target in 22 Hornet. Biggest POS I’ve ever seen. I never could get it to shoot decent and I tried hard.Buddy of mine bought a Regular M77 at the same time and wouldn’t take no for an answer and ended up sending it back to Ruger 6 times before they got it to shoot good.

Every Remington M7 I ever bought, thinking: this will be the one I’ll keep.....I still like to look at them when others have to shoot them.

Weatherby Vanguard LW carbine in 30-06...the old ones, back in the ‘90s.....20” skinny barrel and crap stock was where they saved weight. Thing was hell from the bench, on shoulder, face, eyes, and ears....it hurt with muffs......haven’t had much issue with other short ‘06s, but that was a bad combo and had a distinct fireball.


No custom horrors.....helped make them for people that could afford them, back when I couldn’t. Might do one for myself one day, but it’ll be KISS or for an heirloom.....not too eccentric.

Two Vanguards in the space of 3 years--both of them in 25-06. No matter what I did they would shoot 4 in groups. I now it's unfair but to this day I wont touch a Vanguard..........

Rem 700XCR in 300WM. Out of the box it would shoot 1 inch groups...at 25 yards. Trip back to the factory had it shooting better but still struggled to shoot MOA and took a lot of load tinkering to get there. Then got a letter saying not to use it due to trigger and Remington would be in touch. Almost 3 years later the trigger was done and I sent it down the road.

Ruger M77/44 times 2, 2 years apart. Tried everything in and out of the book to get them to shoot better than 2 and a half inches at 100 yds, consistiently. Either one would not. Down the road they went. I considered a 44 Mag barrel for a Contender, but after having the "experiences" with the Ruger carbines, I decided to get a .357 mag barrel from MGM for my Contender Carbine. It shot several of my hand loads sub MOA consistiently. RJ

I took a perfectly accurate Remington LTR and decided I could make it shoot better by having a Krieger barrel installed in .308 as well as having the HS precision stock milled using solid modeling to perfectly fit the action. The action was also trued as well as some other items. The results are a less than stellar rifle that shoots around 1 MOA.

Wanted a LH Rem 700 chambered in .243. Instead, bought a Ruger Ranch rifle chambered .223 in an effort to save $40 back when $40 would still buy something. The Ruger was "Minute of paper plate" at best. And "which paper plate?" changed every time I took it out. Burnt 2x the price difference trying to find ammo that it would shoot accurately. Never did. Finally tripped it.

Traded a Winchester 94/22 mag for a "cool" 10/22 with a heavy barrel on it. Three months later they quite making 94/22's and the price of them nearly doubled.

Was looking for a cheap coyote/truck gun and found a M700 223 on GB for $400 including scope. Was in CA at the time which meant unleaded so loaded up some Barnes and shot it. No holes on the target. Moved to 25 yards. No holes on the target. Moved closer. No holes on the target. Finally moved to 20ft and had perfect bullet silhouette holes in about a 6 inch pattern. It had a 1 in 14 twist and wouldn't stabilize any Barnes except 40gr Varmint Grenades. 2 barrels, a new stock and bedding, etc.and my cheap $1000 rifle shoots 1/2 MOA..

A beautiful Browning Citori that I nicknamed Tyson after 2 rounds of skeet. Even light loads hurt bad, I decided I liked my ugly of Winchester pump more and sent that pretty girl down the road.

I bought a used Rem 721 .264 win mag at a gun show once. It had a custom barrel (seller couldn't remember the make) but the rifling looked good, and it was in a B&C Ti stock, and looked well put together. I overlooked the fact that the barrel was only 22'' long with the muzzlebreak! I think I only put 8 rounds through the rifle, ear plugs and muffs together were not enough, the concussion was unreal!! It wears a new barrel now.

Kimber 84m 7mm-08 . Terrible inletting, Warped Stock and as a result horrible accuracy. I sent the rifle in and got back a new stock and bottom metal . They did turn it around quick

I have a long list of rifles that were almost as Bad

I had one in early 90s or so. Absolutely no problems. Killed WT with it. Fantastic woods rifle.

? ? ? ? Some do, Some don't.


Jerry

My only horror story was also a 303 B......(fill in the blank) !
In the mid 70s, my early Loony years, a nice looking sporterized stock and was accurate. Could ONLY shoot ammo 1 time.
XESS headspace !! I'd guess it probably had the bolt swapped by someone earlier.

In a diff vein, a R 77 O G, red pad 338 WM ---- HURT every time I shot it. Nothing wrong with the rifle EXCEPT lack of a real recoil pad.


Jerry

Worst purchase was one of these two:

1. A Noble pump action .22 that might have been a Model 33 or 33A. You know that you've got a real winner when the plastic buttplate is attached to the stock with brads instead of with screws.

2. An EAA IZH-94 in 12 over 6.5x55 Russian combination gun. I never could get the rifle barrel to shoot worth a damn and the guy who bought it from me claims to have tried dozens of different loads in it and he couldn't get it to shoot worth a damn either.

Worst build was a Ruger #1 in 257 ROY. I never could get it to shoot and moved on to other projects.

Win 94 Ranger 30-30. Trigger was about twice as heavy as the rifle and 5” groups scoped were about the best I ever found with factory or handloads. It went down the road

Salvage Model 16 lightweight Hunter.... Biggest POS I ever owned.. Shot 4 inch groups with its pet load!! Much worse with most others. Looked down the barrel with a borescope and it looked like the rifling was serrated. It flew better than the boolits it shot when I got mad and flung it one day! One good thing came out of that disaster though. A gun shop owner liked it and made me a great trade in on a T3 Lite Stainless. That's what I shoulda bought in the first place.

1916 Erfurt small ring Mauser modified by Mike Palazzo of Covington, WA. What a turd! I found corrosion creeping out from under the scope mounts and front iron sight almost immediately. His DuraCoat finish fell off in sheets, revealing hammer marks, the caliber marking appeared to have been applied by a child. The scope mounts were machined with a .080 error, which would have bent the scope tube. He brazed a crack in the rear receiver ring and never told me about it. It still won't feed cartridges from the magazine.

Scheisse verk!

I just looked at the list of the 160 some odd firearms I've owned through the years and decided on one that I bought almost a year ago. It was a Rossi 92 in 357 magnum and it shot all magnum loads too high even with the rear sight all the way down. It shot 38's to the point of aim buy it wouldn't feed those.

Ruger M77 boat paddle 308. Just a horror in every way. I gave it to a buddy who wanted it. He loves it.

It groups like #7s regardless of feed.

H&R survivor in 223. Tried various ammo and Target looked like I shot with a shot gun. Tried it with a different scope and same results. Then I tried The 62 grain and it key holed.
That was before I knew about twist and stuff... I still don’t know what twist it had
Never got rid of a gun so fast

2 Kimbers

Savage 99C .308 Win. Action ran about as smoothly as a set of tank tracks. Shot 2.5-3.5 MOA on a GOOD day. Kicked like Festus' mule, Ruth. Traded it on a Model 70 Lightweight Carbine in .308 Win.

Remington 700 ADL matte/synthetic .270 Win. Accurate enough with plain old Green Box. But, a bolt throw that felt like you just pulled it outta a sand dune. The blind mag was also a PITD. I won the gun at an NWTF banquet. So I had $20 in it. I got more than that out of it.

I have that gun too. I have had it for years but haven't shot it much. You've got me curious now. Im gonna have to shoot it some.

Had a “quote” gunsmith from another board who is from the east coast sell me a ex-mil. 700 with a heavy barrel and MCMillan stock that wouldn’t group under 1.25”, and when I pulled the stock I found the receiver was pitted so it was a trashed (unserviceable-able) receiver. What a sad Joke.

I didn’t pay a;out of money for it, but he was pushing me to buy it and it turned out he was a shister.

Had one of those myself. Shot the 357's like you describe, however, it worked just fine for the 38's.

From an accuracy standpoint, an early Mini 14 and marlin 1894 in 44 mag.

From functionality standpoint, I had a few. 1903a3 with an after market stock. An early M77 300 win mag. A 788 in 22-250

A model 70 243 feather weight . Beautiful wood smooth action great trigger. It shot a pattern not a group.

Ishapor Enfield in 7.62 nato, it might hit a sheet of plywood at 50 yards and recoil was terrible. Still have it but haven't figured out why.

Twice in my life I bought “budget” rifles and I won’t do it again. I had a Ruger American 7-08 that wouldn’t let the bolt close unless you slammed it forward and down. Had a gunsmith look at it to make sure it was safe and he confirmed that it was, he said he could’ve made it better but I didn’t see the point in investing the money on a rifle of that grade.

The other was a Savage Axis without the Accutrigger. The trigger pull was dreadful and the only way I can describe working the action is “sticky”. Again, could’ve all been fixed but wasn’t worth it as I had several other guns.

Both of those would shoot decent groups and I know people who own both of those rifles and love them. Just not for me.

Mine was a remington 700 in .260 that was the worst shooter I have ever owned . Factory or my loads . If I were to do it over , would have put a drop in Criterion barrel from NSS
Wish I had the savage lrp I traded .

I bought a Salvage Axis 223 without the accutrigger and the trigger was as bad as you described. Spent 5 or 6 bucks for a little kit for it on Ebay and it is fairly decent now. Its a decent truck gun!