Guns that surprised you/ guns that disappointed you

[GopherGetter]

Pleasant surprise - Remington 597 VTR .22LR. Purchased it new because it looked cool. Shoots great. Accuracy is as good as my Savage bolt guns in .22LR, and never had any issues with loading or ejecting. Was so impressed with it, I bought a second one to have on hand when I heard Remington discontinued it.

Biggest disappointment - Remington 700 in .223, with heavy varmint barrel. I don't know if my expectations were too high, or if it was the Vortex Viper scope, or if it was operator error, but it just never grouped as good as I expected it to.

[Jayhad]

At one time I had much more space in the safes than I do now and my "hunting" rifle was being worked on longer than I expected. so I needed a rifle package and I didn't have a the $2000 for a something that was up to standard. I picked up at Axis stainless 7mm-08 off of AOF for peanuts, and the seller was nice enough to give me the 16 rounds left in the Federal blue box.

Next morning i took the rifle to the range, put 3 down range and was very surprised at the grouping. I settled myself, adjusted my rest and let 3 more fly. Wowza, this garbage savage shoots.

It seems to be the rifle I grab most often, even though some of other rifles in there are 10-20x its value. But I don't care if I drop it down the mountain or it gets scraped bush whacking.

I remember sitting on top of a mountain one day with my buddy. He asked to look at my Savage, put it up a few times, looked it over and handed it back. He giggled and shook his head and said, that glass isn't that bad. How much did you pay again?

I've never really been disappointed from a rifle, guess I've been lucky

[58thecat]

I got a 1925 Rem model 14 chambered in 30rem....used it down south on a mule deer hunt a few years ago...150 yards bang flop It has a 3 powered weaver scope on it and it really limits your ability to see early morn/evenings under legal light hunting but it was a pleasure to use and still is.

[Lefty]

Biggest good surprise was a 308 Stevens 200 I bought for my son when he started hunting. Heard they shot good from a variety of people, and loaded up the first load and the 12 year old shot an inch 5 shot group with it right of the back with no playing and him just starting shooting. Shoots better than a lot of custom rifles that are a lot more money.

Worst surprise was a brand new 700 BDL Remington in 7-08. Horrendous groups and bedding got it down to 3 inch with one bullet/powder combo and 5 to 8 with everything else. A friend bought cheap and took it to a gun smith and he got it shooting 1 to 1 1/2 after a bunch of work.

[Roamer]

[QUOTE=Anomaly85;4276265]Disappointing - Famae SG-542
The rattliest $2600 gun you'll ever buy. It's not so bad you think, you're not going to hunt with it after all. Let's go buy another mag for it; oh they're $105 each. Lovely. Oh you want aftermarket accessories? There are none. Oh you want to fire a magazine without a FTE stoppage? Haha, nice try.

That thing was exceedingly rattly and unreliable. Too bad, could have been fun if it was better executed.

[obsessed1]

Originally Posted by Lefty

Biggest good surprise was a 308 Stevens 200 I bought for my son when he started hunting. Heard they shot good from a variety of people, and loaded up the first load and the 12 year old shot an inch 5 shot group with it right of the back with no playing and him just starting shooting. Shoots better than a lot of custom rifles that are a lot more money.

Worst surprise was a brand new 700 BDL Remington in 7-08. Horrendous groups and bedding got it down to 3 inch with one bullet/powder combo and 5 to 8 with everything else. A friend bought cheap and took it to a gun smith and he got it shooting 1 to 1 1/2 after a bunch of work.

Always wanted one of those ugly grey savages. At the time I just kept putting it on the back burner and spent my budget on reloading tools thinking " I'll get one one of these day" one if these days came too late and I missed out on what could have been a fabulous shooting rifle for under 250$ at the time...dang

[45-70govt]

Surprisingly good - Savages. Bought a 243 Axis package years ago and other than a terrible trigger it’s surprisingly accurate. Bought my wife an 11 lightweight hunter in .243 a few years after and it’s a shooter also. Would highly recommend

[cbc_anderson]

Best surprise, and not sure if this really fits, was my first attempt to build a bolt action rifle for my son. I purchased a used Stevens 200 rifle for $250, "screwed-on" a Shilen barrel in 7mm-08, added a Timney trigger and glass-bedded the action in a cheap Boyd's laminate stock and used my newly acquired reloading skills to work-up a load. I'm just a guy with basic farm-boy skills, and the resulting ~1/2" groups (some much better) hooked me on the idea that affordable upgrades to an economy rifle could deliver impressive results. Building is almost as fun as shooting for me now.

[Tronneroi]

Bad surprise: Weatherby Camilla in 6.5 CM. Fit my wife like a glove (as was advertised) and the finish was very nice. I couldn't get it to shoot under 1.5" at 100yds to save my life. Tried plenty of hand loads as well as some premium factory ammo to no avail. for $1100 I should be able to group sub MOA. Put a sour taste in my mouth for the magical manbun magnum as well. Spent $900 on a tikka in 7-08 instead and couldn't be happier.

[Blacktail22]

6.5 prc Christensen Arms ridgeline! Very impressed with how it shoots wasn’t expecting much

[Bergerboy]

1. Bought a Savage Axis in 223 as a gong banger for freehand practice. Put a Timney trigger in as the factory one was terrible. It shoots incredible.

2. Buddy bought a Tikka Varmint 223 that would not get under 2"at 100m with any ammunition or shooter that was introduced to it. Set the barrel back and rechambered to 221 Fireball. The thing groups like a drill press now.

3. Remington Versamax 12ga. After 1000rds of trap loads the damage to the internals was disgusting. The hammer was mushroomed like an old punch.

[kujoseto]

Originally Posted by cbc_anderson

Best surprise, and not sure if this really fits, was my first attempt to build a bolt action rifle for my son. I purchased a used Stevens 200 rifle for $250, "screwed-on" a Shilen barrel in 7mm-08, added a Timney trigger and glass-bedded the action in a cheap Boyd's laminate stock and used my newly acquired reloading skills to work-up a load. I'm just a guy with basic farm-boy skills, and the resulting ~1/2" groups (some much better) hooked me on the idea that affordable upgrades to an economy rifle could deliver impressive results. Building is almost as fun as shooting for me now.

Did pretty much the same thing with my brother.
7 wsm shilen barrel
Used Savage 7 rem mag
Timney trigger
Bit of time in a school shop after hours lol
Manners stock
Factory ammo zeroed at 300m, 1 inch group after that, then handed the rifle to brother a week later and dialed in for a 450 yd single shot on a cantaloupe

I’d do it again if I didn’t dislike the savage bolt so much. It’s dumb I know, why not shoot an accurate rifle but I just prefer a Tikka bolt so now pay stupid money to get someone else to do the work. What was I thinking?

[cbc_anderson]

Originally Posted by kujoseto

I’d do it again if I didn’t dislike the savage bolt so much. It’s dumb I know, why not shoot an accurate rifle but I just prefer a Tikka bolt so now pay stupid money to get someone else to do the work. What was I thinking?

I hear you. Other than the inherent accuracy, the Savage actions are hard to love. If I could do the gunsmithing to mate barrels to Remington and Tikka actions, I'd have to get another job to afford all the builds I'd like to do. I'll have to try a "Remage" barrel one of these days.

[Outbound]

Remington 870. Well built but the control set up just doesn't work for me. I really hated where the safety and slide release were. I ended up selling it and going back to a Mossberg 590A1.

[WildBillG]

I guess my best surprize rifle came to me Christmas eve day. My cousin stopped in to say hi and deliver gifts. We were talking in my gun room when he says I think I am going to sell my rife. I ask him how much do you want and he says for you 250. Well I didn't need to think long it is a tika M65 in 7 Rem Mag. He says then you can have all the stuff that is there with it. After he left I got looking and I also got 2 and a half pounds of Imr 4831 100 brass and a spare magazine. Oh yah and I know the gun shoots really good.
My other good suprize rifle was a Marlin 1895 gbl in 45-70. It will shoot .387 inch groups at 100yds.
My bad 2 were a M70 Feather Weight in 6.5x55 and Ruger #1 in 25-06.

[raised by wolves]

One surprise was a Rem700 CDL 35 Whelen. After ditching the crappy walnut and dropping it into an HS Precision stock it was splitting holes at 100 metres. I miss that rifle and have been kicking myself for selling ever since it left my hands.

Another surprise is my Sako 85 375H&H. It is amazingly accurate. I never imagined shooting it from a bench, feeling mild recoil even from heavy loads, and creating a cloverleaf at 150 metres with this type of rifle.

The biggest disappointments were several of the original Remington 700 Titanium rifles. The accuracy was very poor in most of them. I only had one that shot well, that being a 260Rem. Yet another disappointment was literally every Kimber I had in hand. The only one I ever encountered was a Mountain Ascent owned by a friend. The rest were either unreliable shooters or parts would break easily.