Once Bitten ... Never Again

[CharlesT]

What is one item or brand you will never purchase again? It could be firearm related or not.

I thought of this as I dumped 100 pieces of Hornady brass in 6.5x55 that I had fired only 3 times. I was getting sticky extraction on some and when trimming them, some pieces needed far more brass trimmed off than others. The inconsistencies in the brass was also reflected in the accuracy of my loads. I am never buying Hornady brass again.

What is your "I wouldn't give this to my enemy"?

CT

 

[mikecatt13]

Winchester anything, especially their "hunting" bullets and loaded ammo. Modern day anyway, in the last 10-15 ish years

 

[JimP]

Cabela's

 

[mark-hunter]

Never had it, by my friend did. It was some cheap Burris rifle scope, with picture totally blurred on the edges. Ever since, I have prejudice against burris scopes.

 

[Mike B]

Cabela's

This is sad, because I agree. It’s not the same as it used to be.

 

[Pheroze]

I found my Tikka too light for caliber. Nothing wrong with the gun at all. It's the design philosophy that doesn't fit my ideal. To me Sakos and Tikka always seem a bit light. And Sako has that annoying habit for ejecting cases into the bottom of my scope. I have learned that I actually prefer a bit more weight as long as the gun balances well.

 

[BeeMaa]

Federal ammunition.
Not a bad product, but inconsistent supply.

 

[Newboomer]

Harbor Freight chicom crap. Cheap junk doesn't hold up.

 

[deewayne2003]

Beretta Shotguns

I shot trap & skeet during college with the same synthetic stocked Beretta AL390 and never had a single issue with it, while most of the members of the college team were shooting nice over under guns.

When I finally got out of college I decided to treat myself to a Beretta 687 Silver Pigeon II & I went all out and bought full Briley choke set & even a 28ga set of Briley barrel inserts.

After less than a year the wooden stock on this BRAND NEW shotgun cracked at the tang with less than 500rnds fired and when the stock was removed, it was obviously from improper inletting.

I sent it back to Beretta to have the stock replaced, only to find out that Beretta will only warranty their wooden stocks for 1 YEAR after purchase; they offered to sell me a new but stock and they would
"try and match the wood" for $700 or I could buy a new set of wood for $985!

I brought up the fact that I purchased it less than one year ago and they demanded a receipt which I did not have and from the serial number it had been manufactured 14 months prior so my options were to buy new stocks from them or NOTHING; so I brought up the improper inletting and was told that I was mistaken and the inletting was fine "stocks just crack sometimes".

I took this issue as high up as I could with Beretta and honestly the attitudes of the people I dealt with left me with the opinion.....

I WILL NEVER BUY ANOTHER BERETTA SHOTGUN FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE!

I still have that AL390 though with more than 10,000 confirmed rounds and its still going strong - with its black plastic stocks still intact.

 

[Tanks]

Any of my ex-wives.

 

[GuttormG]

Cheap optics!
And Chinese optics.

 

[375Fox]

A Thompson center bolt action rifle. It was absolutely the biggest piece of junk I have ever bought. Gun shop I bought it from stopped selling them and even refused to take it back on trade.

 

[Ed Lally]

+1 Cabela's. I used to buy HD duck/canvas work pants as well as boots, ammo, lots of hunting clothes and hunting and fishing accessories. Not always the best quality but much better than "good enough" Now almost all is Red Head and not worth the purchase price. Plus nothing relating to DG or hunting in Africa except some reasonably good taxidermy on the walls. I used to use my Cabela's Black card to try to get points for "free" gear. Still have a lot of points because the last time I visited, I found nothing I wanted.

 

[Hogpatrol]

Chinese knockoff auto parts, carburetors, starters, etc. If it's on ebay or amazon, don't waste your money. Buy OEM.

 

[375Fox]

Chinese knockoff auto parts, carburetors, starters, etc. If it's on ebay or amazon, don't waste your money. Buy OEM.

I’ll add to your post. Always buy a brand name anything from an authorized dealer. I’m amazed how many fakes exist, good fakes.

 

[Whacker]

Cheap Chinese knockoff junk of any type of product. But firearm related would be federal ammunition...I have only ever bought two boxes in my life. One was a federal fusion 7mm mag round. It wouldn’t shoot better than a 6 inch group out of a Remington 700 I had that shot everything else I tried well. That was several years ago and this year I decided to give it a go again as I was running low on 44mag reloads due to supply shortage but found a box of federal power point 240 grain 44 mags. They shot very well...1.5 inch group at 75 yards through my hunting pistol. Opening morning of modern gun I had a nice 6 point come out around 60 yards in front of me...now having shot several with this pistol before I always go for just through the rear of the shoulder so it takes out the shoulder and heart and they go down right there without running most of the time. I eased the shot off and off went the deer jumping high in the air signaling he was hit. Not a drop of blood and several hours of walking around no deer. Four days later he walked out at another spot and immediately recognized it was him due to the limp and I felt horrible that he was out there injured that long. Got him that morning with the same shot with one of my reloads and he was down right there. Upon inspection, the federal round hit the shoulder and came apart or fell out sometime during that time as there was only a hole about an inch deep with no bullet to be found. My round hit an inch higher and made complete penetration of the deer. Will never use federal ammunition again.

 

[gizmo]

Hornady DGX/DGS

 

[Whacker]

Hornady DGX/DGS

Really? I’ve never tried that bullet from Hornady but have had good success with their others. May I ask what you didn’t like about it as I have had thoughts of trying them. Thanks

 

[gizmo]

Really? I’ve never tried that bullet from Hornady but have had good success with their others. May I ask what you didn’t like about it as I have had thoughts of trying them. Thanks

Well I almost ended up lion crap because of them and dang near lost a Buffalo too. Now on the buffalo I didn’t make the best of shots but a better bullet would have certainly held together and done more damage.
There are 2 Hunt reports and a ton of retelling of the story on various threads here on AH with my experience with that garbage. I agree their mid and small bore stuff is fairly good (not in the same league as Barnes though) but I do my dead level best to avoid any Hornady ammunition. Their “whitetail” loads are crap at best also.

 

[mikecatt13]

Really? I’ve never tried that bullet from Hornady but have had good success with their others. May I ask what you didn’t like about it as I have had thoughts of trying them. Thanks

There are endless posts on the subject on here. I, too, am a big Hornady fan based on their other lines.

Short summary: theres pretty well documented failures of DGX especially where weight retention was very poor and resulted in wounded game.

Based on the reviews and experiences of the newer DGX BONDED, this has been corrected but the reputation still exists (understandably) and will take a while for people to trust the improved design