We’ve had the topic of guns you shoot well, so how about the guns you do not shoot well. I have three that come to mind that make me scratch my head a bit.
Beretta 92FS/M9 - like the way it feels in my hand, points well, but man I can not seem to shoot it well. I keep an M9 because I love its classy lines.
HK USP9SD Tactical - doesn’t feel bad in the hand, pretty decent match trigger (by HK standards). Again I suck with it, but keep it around.
HK45 Tactical - felt way too big in my hands, not overly surprised I didn’t shoot it well. Sold this one.

I and fairly consistently mediocre with almost any small arm from air guns to Barret .50's. That said........

Beretta Tomcat....holy hell that gun is my shooters kryptonite. The best place to be if I am shooting it is probably right in front of me. Should I ever find myself in a situation where I had to use one for self defense......I am just going to wing it at somebody's forehead as I am far likely to score a hit that way.

To a lesser extent the original Ruger LCP. Jesus that was a tiny gun with a trigger weight measured in days not pounds.

I am fairly passable with damn near any other small arm that I have handled but damn those two guns........just......wow.

Glock 19. It's just the wrong amount of small.

Anything with a crappy trigger.

Small handguns especially with a larger caliber.

quote:

Originally posted by .38supersig:
Glock 19. It's just the wrong amount of small.

Ya know while I don't shoot them badly I actually shoot a G26 with a G19 mag much better. I do think the 19 does have something JUST off in its grip (beyond it being a Glock grip in general ) where I shoot a 17 and a 26 much better.

Smith and Wesson revolvers.
I have tried, and tried.
My Rugers…,minute of paper plate at 25 yards.
Every S&W ….minute of barn door, if I’m inside.
Finally traded off all the Smiths and settled on Rugers (and my one Colt..an original run 6” King Cobra)

Springfield XDs. I have a few friends and family members with them, so I've shot quite a few of them, but I just can't get them to work for me. And it's not just a pointability issue like I have with the Glock. I can at least group with the Glock, it's just in the wrong place (which tells me I'd be fine with a little practice), but the XD family of guns just throw rounds all over the paper when I shoot them unless I'm extremely slow and deliberate.

Thankfully the XD doesn't really offer anything that I can't get elsewhere, and I don't particularly enjoy shooting them, either, so I've never really felt the need to expend the ammo and effort to master them.

ETA: Also, the P239. Sadly, I want to love that gun. It's a DA/SA Sig in a handy little package, and the idea of it really appeals to me. In practice, the length of pull between the backstrap and the trigger is just too short for my hands, and I can't maintain a consistent grip on the gun and press the trigger straight to the rear at the same time. A buddy put some huge grips on his, which kinda helped my problem, but that sorta defeats the purpose of the gun. Stupidly, I like the idea of the gun so much that I'd probably buy one anyway if I found the right deal, but the P225 is a much better fit for my hands.

I'm with the OP about the Beretta 92. They feel good in my hand, however I just can't get good results.

My Steyr M40. Love how it feels in my hand. But unless I REEEEEALLY concentrate and pull the trigger at an unnaturally slow rate, or I take my strong hand thumb and curl it up tight and put it as low as I possible can on the grip, every shot will go very low and left. never hand this issue with any other pistol.

Mostly with heavier pull D/A is where I have the most issues. The reality is that small hands with short fingers don't usually add up to a strong hand grip.

J-frames. Generally crappy actions right out of the box. Not really too heavy but jerky in their travel. And that sucks, along with the snap of its recoil.

PPK and PPK/S. Maybe it's the HEAVY double-action first pull. Maybe it's the harsh .380 blowback recoil that I know is coming with the 'bang'. Probably it's both. One of many myriad of reasons why MI-6 said "don't call us, we'll call you"...(sigh)

SIG/GSG Mosquito in D/A. Any rimfire Ruger LCR. Walther PPK/S .22LR in D/A. What nefarious, clandestine oversight committee exists that told these companies that a UBER SUPER heavy trigger is a mandatory thang for rimfire?!? The D/A of the SP101 in any caliber is another.

HK VP70 and Mk23. One for its crappy trigger, the other for its giant-friendly grip that run counter to my tiny, tiny mitts. The Deagle for the same reasons as the Mk23 is also a ergonomic PITA for me as well, though for some reason I can do slightly better with it despite the heavier recoil that I know is lurking than with the monster HK.

Beretta 92FS D/A (without benefit of a re-spring). Some 92s come a decent D/A trigger pull. The 92FS--amongst a few others in its family--is not one of those. My consistency with D/A of the 92FS is pretty mediocre, certainly not helped by my small hands and short index finger.

CZ75B D/A, though it can vary from model to model. Usually I lighten the mainspring a couple of pounds to improve the D/A pull weight to a more tolerable level. Otherwise like the earlier pistols listed, it's a bit of a crap shoot whether I will, uh, shoot like crap.

My P238. I'm convinced that my particular P238 is cursed by a VERY drunken ghost. It has its moments when I can shoot a decently good defensive group at 7 yards (3" to 4"), then it can proceed to make a soccer ball sized silhouette of a group only a couple of mags later. I don't tout myself as a great shooter, but c'mon, I'm not THAT bad. Or am I? A very ego-deflating pistol, this one can be.

The gun I wanted to love but could not due to it's trigger and reset was the HK P30. I have bought some and then sold them a few times, thinking maybe they are better after each time. I would take them to the range and was amazed at how long the trigger pull felt and was waiting for the break, that seemed it would never come.I love the way they fit in my hand and it's style but if it doesn't work for you, it just doesn't work.

quote:

Originally posted by patw:
The gun I wanted to love but could not due to it's trigger and reset was the HK P30. I have bought some and then sold them a few times, thinking maybe they are better after each time. I would take them to the range and was amazed at how long the trigger pull felt and was waiting for the break, that seemed it would never come.I love the way they fit in my hand and it's style but if it doesn't work for you, it just doesn't work.

I've had similar experiences with most H&Ks that I've shot. They feel good when I pick them up, but in actual practice they're unremarkable. The controls are goofy, too. I can make them shoot ok, but it takes a little more work that other things. They're quality guns, and I wouldn't knock somebody for choosing to carry one, but from my perspective they're over-hyped.

Any 1911, why I don't know but I just do not shoot them well.

Definitely J frame revolvers. Long heavy trigger pull combined with tiny nigh-unusable sights, with a grip that's way too small for my big monkey paws and inordinate recoil (especially with +P or Magnum loads) that makes rapid follow-up shots tough. And that's not even getting into the low capacity, and slow reloads.

I carried one as a last-ditch BUG for duty use for a couple years, but was quite glad to rid myself of it in favor of a better ultra-compact semiauto 9mm option.


Runner up goes to the Glock 36. The dimensions were just off for me. I shoot the G30 and G19 just fine, but I just couldn't get the seemingly similar/in-between G36 to work for me. And it didn't help that a beavertail option didn't exist for it, while I have beavertails on all my other Glocks.

I am called by my friends a freak of nature as I can pick up any sort of pistol and shoot it well.

While I can still shoot it well ( here comes the sacrilege!) the one I struggle the most with is 1911’s.
I can put seemingly less effort to get better results with just about anything else.

H&K's standard DA/SA I never liked, but the low lb LEM (3.5 lbs) I really do like, so I've converted almost all my HK's to low lb LEM, excepting one that has a Grayguns DA/SA trigger, and that one feels amazing and runs better for me/more accurate I mean, than the LEM's even.

For me it's Glocks. I can't shoot Glocks worth a crap.

quote:

Originally posted by RogueJSK:
Definitely J frame revolvers. Long heavy trigger pull combined with tiny nigh-unusable sights, with a grip that's way too small for my big monkey paws and inordinate recoil (especially with +P or Magnum loads) that makes rapid follow-up shots tough. And that's not even getting into the low capacity, and slow reloads.

Same here, especially with rough triggers that modern j frames ship with. Absolute garbage ergonomics replaced by a Walther PPS and LCP Custom. I only keep my 442 as a compact snake shot dispenser, and something compact that doesn’t eject shells.

Ruger SP101