Gun Buying Regrets

We’ve talked about Regrets before… Selling Regrets.  But what about buying regrets?  Has there ever been a gun that you were just sorry as all get out that you bought?   Buying that one gun that just had you kicking yourself over and you just wish you never even seen it.  Now, I’m not talking about buying a gun and then finding it cheaper some place else… because you still liked the gun but are just pissed at yourself for not shopping smarter.  No, I’m talking about getting a gun that you just hated and are wishing you never got, seen, touched.
There have been some guns in my personal gun history that I didn’t like as much as others… but honestly I really can’t think of a gun that I wish I had never bought.   Usually I’ve always been able to flip that gun for same money or maybe even a bit more than what I was into it.
I really can’t think of one that I regretted buying.   There was a .30-06 Mauser I bought in American Fork that couldn’t group under 4 inches at 100 yards… But when I sold it, I made a couple hundred bucks on it.  There was an AK-47 I picked up in Orem that had a drastic cycling issue… But I got more out of it on a Trade In than what I had into it, and I did have some fun with it while I had it.  So that did leave me coming out ahead, so I’m not sorry I got that one either.
No, I think all my Gun Regrets all stem from Selling Guns, not Buying them.
Fact:  Buying a Gun is NEVER a Bad Idea.
The only real buying regrets I’ve got are the “I should have bought it” regrets.  For example, I remember seeing a Steyr AUG for 600 bucks.  This was back in my BYU days and I was a broke college kid.  I had the cash, but chose eating food instead.  I could have got it though.  Wish I did now.  Just the value on the resale would have been worth the sacrifice for that investment.  I came across a pair of matched Colt SAA’s for the price of 1,000 each.  Sequential serials.  At the time, I had less appreciation for those guns than I do now, so I passed.  Now?  I’d club a thousand baby seals to get one of them.
Again… Buying a gun is never a bad idea.
Unless it’s from a shady guy in a back ally out of the back of a van… that’s probably not a good idea then.

14 thoughts on “Gun Buying Regrets”

  1. You are one of a few who has never regretted buying a gun. Most folks who have spent years buying and selling guns have had a few we regretted buying. A whole lot more I wish I had not sold or traded. I have kicked myself a thousand times over some I let get away.

  2. SIG P232 that I bought used. Takedown lever kept breaking. If I’d done due diligence and researched it instead of impulse-buying it, I would have known that recent-manufacture P232s have become infamous for that issue. Between ammo, spare mags, a carry rig, new grips, and repairs, I probably put about $1k into the gun before I traded it off at a huge loss towards my 1911.

  3. The closest thing to a regret would be the Beretta 21A Bobcat my wife bought from her mother. We bought it because she wasn’t really comfortable with it and my wife wanted a .22. Unfortunately it is very finicky about ammo and often has FTEs on the bulk Federal I have. Still a fun little gun though.

  4. The thing about that S&W Sigma wasn’t that it was “bad”–it worked ( like an enema; it works but you really don’t want one). The gun was just so stultifyingly mediocre that it put me off semi-auto Smith and Wesson stuff long enough for me to not buy a M&P 9 tactical package for ridiculously cheap that had been special ordered with a huge non-refundable deposit and never picked up. And I do mean RIDICULOUSLY CHEAP.
    Pardon the all caps, it was just that cheap.

  5. Kel-tec P11. Worst trigger pull I’ve ever experienced. If they would’ve spent just a little bit of TLC in the manufacture of that gun it would be a decent gun at a good price.
    Soured me on all Kel-tecs.

  6. My gun purchase regret was a Taurus 24/7 OSS. I ended up trading it in on my S&W M&P in 45ACP and couldn’t be happier.

  7. Century C93 (HK93 clone) – Heavy, excessive recoil, and an absence of human engineering

    DPMS AR-15 – Buy once…

  8. I bought an AR-7 breakdown .22 at a gunshow for $125. Seemed like a good idea at the time. I tried over 25 kinds of .22 LR and not one would feed more than three rounds until there was a smokestack jam. I traded it for a little Hawes Western Sheriff .22 single action. A little monkeying around, a short spray of Liquid Flow on a piece of flannel and a good wipe made it into a pretty decent little backpacking gun. It is not a Ruger Single Six by any stretch, but it is accurate to minute of NECCO wafer and fun to shoot.

    Gerry N.

  9. Enfield “Jungle Carbine”. At least that was what I was told. It looked pretty good to a green kid with more money than sense so I bought it on the last day of the gun show. Turns out it was cobbed together out of a mishmash of odd parts and wasn’t really a No.5 at all. I’ve had shotguns that grouped better and point of impact would vary considerably over a shooting session. What a POS. I guess it served its purpose though – it separated me from my money and cured me of buying something I just had to have because it was “cool”. GRRR.

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