SIGforum
Well known firearms quality issues.

This topic can be found at:
https://sigforum.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/320601935/m/9400091025

April 03, 2026, 02:31 PM
400m
Well known firearms quality issues.
What arms manufacturers had major issues with a certain model or even issues across the board?
•What was the issue?
•Years it affected the products.
•Was it resolved?

I’m not asking if you had a 1911 with a bad extractor. Think Ford Pinto big.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: 400m,
April 03, 2026, 06:32 PM
egregore
I'll submit the early-production SIG 1911s, the ones with the little circular plug, with two holes to take a spanner wrench, in the slide, aka the "manhole cover". I had one, a 2007 Revolution Carry. That was just one of the parts that fell out of it or broke. After the third strike, they gave me a replacement gun, but that one broke. There were also a lot of fit and finish problems reported with them.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: parabellum,





"The Almighty, He put some livin' things on this earth so a man can eat." - Festus Haggen, Gunsmoke
April 03, 2026, 07:30 PM
RogueJSK
The Remington R51 was a good example of how the once-great Remington was really circling the drain in the 2010s.

Famously unreliable due to a combination of manufacturing issues, poor quality control, and an overly complicated and downright bad design. It was also potentially dangerous due to out of battery detonations.

It was recalled within its first year of introduction in 2014, followed by 2 years of silence, then reintroduced as a 2nd Generation in 2016 where it muddled along for a bit over a year before Remington finally went bankrupt in early 2018 and the gun was abandoned.

And no, the 2nd Gen wasn't much more reliable than the 1st, though it was at least safe to shoot (if it shot).


April 03, 2026, 08:36 PM
Appliance Brad
The Hudson 9mm Great idea, tons of issues. company went broke.


__________________________
Writing the next chapter that I've been looking forward to.
April 03, 2026, 08:42 PM
RogueJSK
quote:
Originally posted by Appliance Brad:
The Hudson 9mm Great idea, tons of issues. company went broke.


Daniel Defense redesigned and resurrected it, and claims to have corrected the reliability issues. They also went with an aluminum frame instead of the original steel, and included some modern quality of life updates like optic cuts and a picatinny rail.

https://danieldefense.com/daniel-h9-handgun.html

April 03, 2026, 08:48 PM
RogueJSK
And who could forget the infamous magazine production/supply issue for the Bren Ten when it was first released.

The initial batches of magazines were not properly heat treated and would deform/distort, and the feed lip design was not reliable.

While trying to correct their magazine production issues, the company continued to ship Bren Ten handguns... They just came with IOUs instead of magazines!

This was one of the reasons for the company rapidly going bankrupt within 3 years of release.


April 03, 2026, 08:49 PM
whanson_wi
The Remington 700 series rifle trigger/safety problem with over a million recalled. I own two that (supposedly) do not have the issue, but I don't chamber a round until it's about "go" time, and the only safety I use is keeping my finger away from the trigger. Procedure trumps mechanics.


===
I would like to apologize to anyone I have *not* offended. Please be patient. I will get to you shortly.
April 04, 2026, 12:22 AM
limblessbiff
Let’s not forget the P320
April 04, 2026, 01:17 AM
Ogie
Sig GSR 1911 circa 2004. After the fourth trip back to Sig they issued me a full refund for the pistol.
April 04, 2026, 04:13 AM
C L Wilkins
quote:
Originally posted by whanson_wi:
The Remington 700 series rifle trigger/safety problem with over a million recalled. I own two that (supposedly) do not have the issue, but I don't chamber a round until it's about "go" time, and the only safety I use is keeping my finger away from the trigger. Procedure trumps mechanics.


Remington had a recall and replaced it with the 7400.
April 04, 2026, 07:42 AM
stiab
quote:
Originally posted by C L Wilkins:
Remington had a recall and replaced it with the 7400.


No, that was the Remington 742 replaced by the 7400. The 742 aka "Jam-O-Matic" deserves it's own post here.


"While not every Democrat is a horse thief, every horse thief is a Democrat." HORACE GREELEY
April 04, 2026, 07:52 AM
.38supersig
Kimber's first attempt at a 1911 in 10mm.

Absolute crap. The only gun I had ever been tempted to throw on the roof as I was leaving the range.




April 04, 2026, 08:14 AM
oddball
Century Arms WASR-10 AK47s. They used to be dirt cheap, but a number of them had canted front sights, inconsistent mag wells, etc. I remember that it was luck of the draw on those.



"I’m not going to read Time Magazine, I’m not going to read Newsweek, I’m not going to read any of these magazines; I mean, because they have too much to lose by printing the truth"- Bob Dylan, 1965
April 04, 2026, 09:03 AM
stiab
Gen 2 Glock 19s for the PhaseIII problem. NYPD returned hundreds of them, and Glock never figured out the probem, for FTE that could not be cleared without tools.


"While not every Democrat is a horse thief, every horse thief is a Democrat." HORACE GREELEY
April 04, 2026, 09:09 AM
Aglifter
The Browning salt wood guns, but I suppose those have all been dealt with by now.
April 04, 2026, 09:12 AM
Fly-Sig
Walther P22. At least the early ones. Idk if they ever fixed it.

They'd fail to feed and/or eject. They were very picky about which ammo they liked. The safety lever pin was the problem. The pin is round, which interferes with the cocked hammer as the slide cycles. It prevents the slide moving freely. The fix is to dremel a flat into the pin so that when the safety is off that flat is what rides over the hammer.
April 04, 2026, 09:18 AM
Cous2492
quote:
Originally posted by limblessbiff:
Let’s not forget the P320


This was the first one that came to my mind. Whether its a real issue or not, its definitely a stigma attached to the platform. I know that I dont want anything to do with the P320 anymore. The classics and the P365 still hold places in my collection but the P320 was out quite a while ago. To be honest, it didn't do anything a Glock or M&P 2.0 didn't do better for less money.
April 04, 2026, 09:27 AM
cas
All these Remington’s mentioned reminded me of the 1100 loading problem. I don’t know that it’s a quality issue, more a design issue. I also don’t know how well-known it is these days.

Basically when you’re loading shell into the tube and you do it just right (wrong), so that the shell is past the end of the lifter, but not fully clicked into the tube, when you let go the shell it will slide back under the lifter and tie up the gun. Sort of like ghost loading a Benelli, only on a gun that can’t be ghost loaded.

I first learned about it as a teenager, out in the woods hunting. I found myself in possession of a useless gun. And I didn’t have anything with me to punch out the pins to take out the trigger group. In a defensive situation that would be a death sentence. I never fully trusted it after that.
April 04, 2026, 09:29 AM
2Adefender
Yea, the SIG GSR 1911. I had one, and it never ran normally. I even sent it to Bruce Gray, it ran ok for a while, but then crapped out. After a couple of broken extractors, I traded it in on something else. It was a shame, I enjoyed that 1911 when it worked.


_________________________
2nd Amendment Defender

The Second Amendment is not about hunting or sport shooting.
April 04, 2026, 09:54 AM
egregore
quote:
The Remington R51 was a good example of how the once-great Remington was really circling the drain in the 2010s.


About the same time, this one may or may not have been actually bad, but it was certainly a sales flop. The poor choice of font probably didn't help.