What’s your top 5 worst designed/fatally flawed firearms?
1. J-22
Made by Jennings, Bryco, Lorcin, Jimenez and a bunch of other “Ring of Fire” cheapo pistol producer I have never seen one of these that did not jam after 2 or 3 shots. They are junk. My dad has one and he wants to get rid of it. I told him to take it to one of those gun buyback shindigs for a $50 gift card but I couldn’t ethically do that because it would be cheating the gun buyback people.
2. The Sten Sputter Gun
Invented by a man named William F. York, the Sten Sputter Gun was a short lived attempt in 1982 to circumvent NFA laws. According to ATF definition a machine is a firearm that can fire more than one shot per trigger pull. York was like “ah ha ha!, a gun doesn’t need a trigger! So he modified Sten submachine guns to fire without a trigger. Like most SMG’s they fire from an open bolt. So the user would just release the bolt and it would fire in full auto continuously (an most likely uncontrollably) until the 32 round magazine was empty, which took around a second. The ATF made York cease and desist, and ordered he issue refunds to his clients. This proved moot however because after three years of producing them he didn’t have any buyers.
3. The Canadian Ross rifle
A straight pull bolt action created to arm the Canadian Expeditionary Force during World War I the Ross Rifle was one of the worst combat weapons ever devised. Now to get something straight, it was an excellent sporting rifle that had unparalleled accuracy. However it was not a good combat weapon. It was highly susceptible to mud, dust, moisture, and other outside weathering. It was very ammo picky, requiring the highest quality ammo to function properly. Breakdowns were common. There was even a flaw where when cleaning the bolt could be assembled incorrectly, causing it to blow straight back into the forehead of the user when fired. Ian from Forgotten Weapons actually demonstrates this. Demonstration at 13:35
Due to national pride and hubris the Ross was issued regardless of it’s problems. Many soldiers hid their Ross rifles, preferring to use British Lee Enfields instead and only taking them out when high ranking officers did inspections. Eventually the Ross was replaced with the Lee Enfield.
4. The Breda 30
This was a light machine gun invented by the Italians and used during World War II. It’s big flaw was that it used a fixed magazine. Not a detachable magazine but a fixed magazine. Loading was done using fragile stripper clips.
So the gun would fire a burst of 20 rounds and everything would have to stop in order to load it with a stripper clip. US Army tests found that the Breda 30 could put out the same rate of fire as a couple of infantrymen with M1 Garands. The weapon was prone to jamming. It had an internal lubrication system to oil cartridges as they fed into the chamber. Of course this could be counterproductive as the oil would attract dust and dirt, and considering these were deployed in North Africa and East Africa…
5. The Early SA80
Britain’s first modern bullpup assault rifles, it would also go down in history as a national scandal and embarrassment. As soon as it was adopted in 1985 field tests showed that it had many problems. The British Army and Government addressed these problems by sticking their fingers in their ears and shouting “la la la la la”.
When the SA80 was deployed in the Gulf War in 1991 it was quickly revealed how bad it was. It jammed constantly and soldiers often kept the magazine partially loaded to prevent malfunctions. It was very susceptible to the elements. Parts broke down and were damaged easily. Maintenance was painstaking and laborious. The magazine would fall out of the magazine well on a whim. It’s plastic furnishings would melt in the hot Iraqi sun. It’s parts made a rattling sound that would signal when British forces were approaching.
Hundreds of thousands and SA80′s had to be taken off the line and sent to Heckler & Koch to be “re-manufactured”. Since then a number of new models have been produced and supposedly most design flaws corrected. However it still has a bad reputation, whether deserved or not.
