.22's you would not buy or own again...

[topper]

Norinco ATD. Absolutely the worst POJ that i ever bought. Cruddy finish, loose fitting, jams often. I should have bought the Browning ATD for a bit more money and had a much better quality rifle.



Live and learn

[user]

Had a Ruger Mark III Target version, 7" tapered barrel in blue. Very accurate, but over-engineered. Way too hard to get it apart, and much much harder to get back together. I had to set aside half a day for each cleaning.

Much prefer my S&W model 63:


Also have a Ruger 10/22 Target model; bought the year before they went to plastic parts. Never had a problem of any kind, shoots reliably and accurately. But from what I hear, I got the good one. I think that's one of those that has so many models that range so much in price that you pretty much get what you pay for. If you get the cheap one at WalMart, you'll have wasted your money.

[Tom Militano]

I have some older S&W revolvers that I wouldn't take anything for, but that 22A was the biggest piece of junk they ever made. My older Model 41 S&W is still a tack driver. I believe I read somewhere that they quit making it.

[BETH]

I have a Beretta 950 short no problems and Walther p22 no problems use cci ammo

[gdmoody]

Bernadelli .22, don't remember the model number but I cringe when I hear the name. Had one go off in my pocket one time when I leaned against a desk and the disassembly pin caused the firing pin to slam forward. Took it apart and dropped it in the nearest dumpster. It was given to me and if you were to offer me another one, I would have to refuse!

[LDBennett]

Tom Militano:

While the S&W 22A is a bit of a cheapy gun the same design in Stainless Steel, the 22S, is actually fine. It is not in the same league as the now $1200 S&W Model 41, which is still being made today. The 22S was discontinued as was the 622 and 422. These latter guns are a completely Unique design loved by some and not so much by others (me, because they are so light that they are hard to shoot well, mostly).

I have several S&W revolvers purchased over the last 20 years. Every one is an excellent, well finished, reliable gun. Admittedly they are not as robust looking as equivalent Rugers but they get the job done through finesse. Direct comparison in front of you and a simple pull of the triggers of both the Ruger and the S&W will have you buying the S&W. I know it did me, some 20+ years ago. And I still buy them today.

LDBennett

[UncleFudd]

Interesting topic that always brings out some good and some bad with different models.
I agree with the S&W 22/22A though.
After 22 years in the range it is still the only gun we sold that required literally every unit to be sighted by our gunsmith. Nearly every one we got was off, most were off radically from the factory which always amazed me. I was told that all of their guns were laser sighted at the time of manufacture. But someone must have been drunk when they sighted these models.
I finally quit selling them and they were so cheap as were almost all models made during the realm of the British ownership that we could not keep them in the rental counter.
But this was true of nearly everything S&W was making during that era and we quit putting all models in the rental counter unless they were from the 60s and earlier.
Those guns were/are still the best S&W had to offer and as already mentioned the best buy you can make when you find one.
22 and 22A, garbage.
UF

[Tom Militano]

UncleFudd, I have S&W and Ruger revolvers and I like them all, but they're older guns. As I said in a post earlier, when I sent that 22A back to the factory all they did was bend the bridge on the rear sight and it only took them six weeks to do that. I'm a retired military shooter and I've shot both pistol and rifle. I have some national match pistols, both .45 hard ball and wad guns and rifles that were built by real military gunsmiths, not parts changers like S&W has at their factory now. I've been to the national match rebuild and maintenance course at Rock Island Arsenal myself. I understand the course is no long in existence. I can't seem to get in into my head why the price of guns is so high when the quality on some guns is going down.

[UncleFudd]

Tom;
I cannot agree more with your sentiments, in particular with the S&W line.
They made IMHO the finest revolvers on the market through the mod 66 and 19s but when the Brits took over and they began the "third generation" of firearms, they have yet to build a quality firearm in either revolver or pistol.
I cannot tell you how many times I have had to send back their third generation guns from customers as well as from our rental program until I could no longer sustain the rentals. I took all of their new guns out of stock and replaced them with 66s and 19s for my customers to shoot. I have three of the 66 and 19s and all have in excess of 200 thousand rounds and we just replaced two of them two months ago. How many people will ever approach that many rounds, but it speaks directly to the quality of these guns.
Even the new M&P series of guns will not stay in the rental counter as we have to send them back for repair all to often. I finally stopped the rental program with Smith again earlier this year. They just will not hold up.
The 22 and 22A autos were again IMHO junk and they actually look like cheap parts reminiscent of the Loricin or Bryco models. I was actually shocked to see them at first but I decided to give them the benefit of doubt as they were after all, S&W. Mistake.
They were as cheap as they appeared and never lasted for anyone to do any serious shooting with them.
The truly sad part is to have such quality as they did with the 66 and 19s along with the 41s and 52s and then instead of improving on that success, they completely fell apart and tried to depend on the name alone. It did not work and to this day they are not making the quality they once did.
And is it not another surprise to see the S&W lines are more expensive than all others on the shelf with such poor quality!!

Well it is almost time for new blood and after helping and working with the shooters in my state and community for thirty five years, I am hanging it up. I am selling the range and my holster business the end of this month and going quietly into the night. It has been a wonderful experience and it has afforded me the opportunity to meet and greet and work with the finest, most honest and caring class of people remaining in the United States of America, The Legal, Gun Owners of this country. They are truly without equal any place on this earth today.
I have been truly blessed with all those encounters.

Stay safe my friend.

UF

[oscarmayer]

uncle fudd . your experiences mirror my own. as a former owner of a gun shop i at one time stopped selling all smith and wesson products and would only order one at "special request" with the warning if and when it fails do not bring it back to me deal direct with smith and wesson. i do agree that the model 19/66 was a winner as well as the L frame 581/586 and 681/686 but beyond that no thanks. i stated in this forum before if anyone has any doubts about s&w's quality just google gun recalls and see that s&w in top of the heap. older guns are the exception to this. the 4006 and it's other variations were good guns but on the other hand the sigmas and the cs9,40, and 45 were stinkers. before i get tons and tons of loyal amith owners telling me how mistaken i am and how happy they are with their gun of choice remember this is just my opinion but it's based on years of experience and real life wittnessing of countless imperfections brought to my attention. if you have a good,nice, reliable smith and wesson ...great, cherish it but again there is good reason why s&w once totally controlled the police market and now stand in 5th place in overall police sales, behind glock, beretta, sig and h&k

[Brian48]

Originally Posted by Keystone

A Jennings .22. That thing was a POS. I never know where the bullet is going to go. I'll never buy one of those again.

+1

[Rexaroonie]

A remington 547. been back to factory once, and is going back again. I don't think I'd buy any Remington again, unless I had a lenghty "test drive".

[ARB]

Marlin model 60. I had one as a kid that would do no wrong. That's why I bought another. Whoops! I should have saved a little more and bought higher end. This thing jams all the freakin' time.

[pinecone70]

Originally Posted by ARB

Marlin model 60. I had one as a kid that would do no wrong. That's why I bought another. Whoops! I should have saved a little more and bought higher end. This thing jams all the freakin' time.

So does mine, I should get rid of it.

[38 special]

Harrington and Richardson

[johnmpeters]

Mossberg 702 Plinkster. On the upside it fed properly, was comfortable to shoot, iron sights were OK. Downside, was the least accurate .22 I've ever shot (actually had two different customers try to return it for this reason), and the receiver actually cracked wide open on the right side while my buddy was shooting Stingers! His face was all black on the right side and it scared the pee out of him, but he was OK. The rifle was about 3 months old and had about 200 rounds through it at the time it BLEW UP!

[Redhand]

Any Mossberg. Great guns, highly underrated. Anyone that doesn;t want theirs let me know.

[Zane71464]

Originally Posted by TOOHSOTKIL

REMINGTON 522 VIPER

SO VERY TRUE!!! The Viper I had was as about as worthless...well lets just say I owned it about 2 days and that was 47 hours too long.

[Joe M]

I would never buy another Remington 522 Viper - ever! I hate to say it, but because of the 522 Viper it soured me on any Remington products ever again. Perhaps I should not be that way, but once burned,,, well let's just say I don't trust Remington's quality any longer.

[Revolver-time]

Worst to best list
1) Iver Johnson Sidewinder... so far out of time you had to help rotate the cylinder.
2) S&W Escort...jammed all the time
3) Ruger 10/22...use plated bullets if you wanted to shoot it more than the first shot
4) Marlin 39A...had to hold your mouth just right to get it to feed
5) Can't rank the rest as they are all perfect
Model 49 Ithaca
Model 60 Marlin
Colt Trooper Mark III
Ruger Mark II
Smith 22A
Smith Pre 17
Remington 572
Browning ATD
I am surprised at the negative responses on the 22A. I have many, many rounds thru mine and it is a can killer.

[cadamson]

I had a S&W 22A that wouldnt fire the second round out of either mag. The scary part is that the second round would not go all the way into battery but the weapon would still drop the hammer. IDK about you guys but a firearm that will try to fire out of battery bothers me. Never could adjust the sites to get on paper eather. Had to hold under about a foot at 25 yards! No way they give a damn about quality!

[ecurn2011]

Taurus pt22. Blech. Plastic handles cracked and disintegrated. It was also a huge pain to rack the slide. Fed everything poorly. Not that I expected much in the way of sights for a gun this small, but come on. Finish was poor. Traded it with some cash for a 5.5" S&W 22a. Ugly and also had feeding issues, and the sight rail seemed to be missing some grooves Traded that and some cash for a Browning Buckmark Hunter. I am happy to say that I have no desire to trade this one.

[Oohrah]

Tazz, A Winchester Model 70???? I can only recall centerfire rifles in that Model number?

[user]

I had a Ruger Mark III; no feed problems to speak of, very accurate, functioned as advertised. But I'll never buy anything like that again. Took me two and half hours with the manual in front of me to put the thing back together after I'd taken it down for cleaning.