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Most useless firearm in your collection?


10-Ring

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I recently aquired several firearms from my father in law.  Amongst them was a Taurus Judge.  Admittedly, I own several firearms that haven't left my safe in years and may not have been fired in decades.  However, each has a use.  The barrel of the judge is too short to legally use it for deer in Tennessee, so it's out for hunting purposes.  

 

I seem to have an ongoing rat problem in my chicken coop/shed, a .410 single shot is my go to for rats because it does the job well and doesn't blow too big of a hole in the wall.  I thought that the Judge would make a good rat gun, but it doesn't even do that well.  One recent evening I had a rat out there, so I grabbed the Judge loaded with .410 7 1/2 shot.  Walk out there and sure enough the rat is sitting at the opposite end of the shed 12 feet away.  I fire and holy crap it was loud.  At 12' the .410 had 3' (yes feet) of spread and the pellets didn't even penetrate the thin sheet metal walls.  I took a second shot at another one with the same results.  

 

So, it's no good for hunting.  The .410 is useless for rats.  I've heard several people sing the praises of the Judge as a wonderful stuff defense weapon.  Do I want 45LC slugs being flung in my direction?  Absolutely not.  I also have no desire to carry around something that bulky that has a 5 round capacity.  I do have quite a bit of .410 PDX, and I honestly haven't messed with it, but after seeing what the 7 1/2s do out of that 3" barrel I don't think I could confidently use .410s in a self defense situation.

 

Hate to be a negative Nelly, but in my opinion this gun has few (if any) redeeming qualities.   What is the most useless firearm in your collection?

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One of several antiques that I wouldn't dare fire.

I have an old Sears (Barker) side-by-side double barrel in 16 gauge whose primary role is dust collection - it was my grandfather's. Follow that with a Stevens .22 scout with falling breech block. It was my uncles and has several notches in the stock.

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I have an old Hopkins & Allen 12 gauge single shot. Best guess is it was made around the 1930s (?). It was used for many years with old corrosive ammo and rarely cleaned. The bore pretty much resembles the surface of the moon. 🙄  But it belonged to my Grandpa, so I keep it. 😉

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In terms of the likelihood of it ever being shot, probably my 1889 Berdan II single shot rifle.  The (single) action screw is broken, and thus far I've been unable to find a replacement anywhere on the planet, plus the ammo (components) are fairly rare, often out of stock, and expensive.  In terms of how I feel about it, the most useless is undoubtedly my AR15.  A few years ago I built one, just because, shot it a couple times and put it away.  Not a big fan of this platform, I wound up with quite a few parts in anticipation of building others, after the first I just lost interest ...

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28 minutes ago, No_0ne said:

In terms of the likelihood of it ever being shot, probably my 1889 Berdan II single shot rifle.  The (single) action screw is broken, and thus far I've been unable to find a replacement anywhere on the planet, plus the ammo (components) are fairly rare, often out of stock, and expensive.  In terms of how I feel about it, the most useless is undoubtedly my AR15.  A few years ago I built one, just because, shot it a couple times and put it away.  Not a big fan of this platform, I wound up with quite a few parts in anticipation of building others, after the first I just lost interest ...

Interesting what some people like and others do not.  I find my AR to be one of my most used rifles.  Mostly it is used for pigs, but I've deer hunted with it as well.  I also like to just shoot it.  I like it as a hunting rifle because it's light and I don't worry about it getting beat up like my nice wood stocked rifles. 

A couple of years ago my AR fell out of the rack on my ATV while traversing a deep mud puddle.  I took the optic off, hosed it off/out, lubed it and resembled it and it was good to go.  

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I have a 40 year-old Ivar Johnson .25 ACP that's absolutely worthless for anything. Not enough power to punch through a wet paper bag. I just have a difficult time selling anything, and it only takes up a wee bit of safe space, so what the heck. 

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Amongst others from my dads that I inherited, he had a FEG in 380. I’ve gone through a magazine with it back about 10 years ago and it probably won’t see daylight again. Single barrel hammer fired 12 gauge is useless too but more interesting to look over than that 380. 

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1 hour ago, jhc77 said:

Amongst others from my dads that I inherited, he had a FEG in 380. I’ve gone through a magazine with it back about 10 years ago and it probably won’t see daylight again. Single barrel hammer fired 12 gauge is useless too but more interesting to look over than that 380. 

I think I have about half a dozen .380s.  I carry my Taurus TCP daily, and bought my wife an LCP, but it's a safe queen.  The fact that I'll carry the TCP when I won't carry other guns qualifies it as a useful gun for me, the others not so much.  A cumbersome gun, such as a Beretta 84 that I have, in a controversial round such as .380 isn't appealing as a carry gun and just isn't desirable as a shooter.  Not a fan of the caliber at all, which is ironic considering the number of them that I own.

 

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3 hours ago, Grayfox54 said:

I have an old Hopkins & Allen 12 gauge single shot. Best guess is it was made around the 1930s (?). It was used for many years with old corrosive ammo and rarely cleaned. The bore pretty much resembles the surface of the moon. 🙄  But it belonged to my Grandpa, so I keep it. 😉

Same story with my Iver Johnson except mine has a crack in the comb. I haven't ever fired it but I don't consider it useless at all. Since I don't hunt now I guess they are all useless to some but I love them all.

At the risk of offending some, I agree with the OP, I see no use for the .410 wheelguns, but I still want one LMAO.

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3 hours ago, No_0ne said:

In terms of the likelihood of it ever being shot, probably my 1889 Berdan II single shot rifle.  The (single) action screw is broken, and thus far I've been unable to find a replacement anywhere on the planet, plus the ammo (components) are fairly rare, often out of stock, and expensive.  In terms of how I feel about it, the most useless is undoubtedly my AR15.  A few years ago I built one, just because, shot it a couple times and put it away.  Not a big fan of this platform, I wound up with quite a few parts in anticipation of building others, after the first I just lost interest ...

I am sure we could find new homes for the stock of parts. I have an AR pistol in .300BO but I'd like to build another just to do it. they are a good arm to have around even if they do eat a lot.

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3 minutes ago, Alleycat72 said:

20211030-181730.jpg

 

Doesn't feed well from a mag. Extraction is good, but no ejection. Really quite with a suppressor. 3/4 × 24. 

I was picturing a broomhandle. Very nice looking rifle even if it is temperamental

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Rossi .38 special 3 inch barrel.  Have never successfully fired more than one round out of it at a time.

Got it like new in box early 2000s, don’t know when it was made.

I load up a cylinder,  pull the trigger goes bang and the cylinder locks up.

A Winchester 190 .22 Jam-O-matic even after I tightened the barrel.

The current runner up is a Cobray 45/410 double barrel. At least it shoots, but I kind of hate it. 
 

Lots of others in the past. 

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It's a tie between an H&R 940 .22 revolver that fires about 1/2 the time the trigger's pulled and a Mini Draco. I can't hit the broad side of a barn with that one but it's loud and stupid fun.

 

My Mosin 1891/30 and M44 are both pretty useless too, but at least I can hit a target with them.

Edited by monkeylizard
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Years ago I had a Taurus 455 wheel gun in .45ACP That thing would never get through a full cylinder before locking up. I do like the .45 ACP in a wheel gun, nice novelty, but that Taurus never worked correctly. My gunsmith bought it off me and worked on it then "lost it overboard" on a fishing trip. He no longer works on Taurus at all.

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8 hours ago, 10-Ring said:

Interesting what some people like and others do not.  I find my AR to be one of my most used rifles.  Mostly it is used for pigs, but I've deer hunted with it as well.  I also like to just shoot it.  I like it as a hunting rifle because it's light and I don't worry about it getting beat up like my nice wood stocked rifles. 

A couple of years ago my AR fell out of the rack on my ATV while traversing a deep mud puddle.  I took the optic off, hosed it off/out, lubed it and resembled it and it was good to go.  

Yes, I'm very aware that many (most?) people really like their AR's.  I tend to be much more of a collector than actual shooter, thus I like really old guns with some historicity about them, preferably made from wood and steel.  Revolvers, along with old bolt action, black powder and single shot rifles are more up my alley than AR's and the current crop of plastic fantastic pistols.  Each to his own ...

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31 minutes ago, No_0ne said:

Yes, I'm very aware that many (most?) people really like their AR's.  I tend to be much more of a collector than actual shooter, thus I like really old guns with some historicity about them, preferably made from wood and steel.  Revolvers, along with old bolt action, black powder and single shot rifles are more up my alley than AR's and the current crop of plastic fantastic pistols.  Each to his own ...

I shoot less often than I would like due to ammo cost. and I prefer steel and wood myself. I was looking for a wood and stainless mini 30 when I bought my AR. Black powder has never interested me until lately, I'd love to get one of the Uberti revolvers to play with. I don't have a large collection and only three plastic pistols. two are specifically for carry when I need something light. Since we are discussing our most useless firearm I can't include AR in the mix. It's quite versatile and tons of fun to shoot, I don't really have useless since the one I never shoot is a keepsake and I bought a box of shorty shells to knock the dust off of her. Even the ones I've sold because they were of little use I'd like to have back. Oh well, enough rambling about everything for now. 

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