Guest Post: The Worst Firearms Ever Designed

Occasionally I get content from friends and gun forum associates, this one was written by friend and neighbor Bobby Thurman. 

Here is my list for the top ten worst firearms ever designed, from the home office in Myrtle Point, Oregon

Number 10: The Gyrojet

If you think a rocket propelled bullet is something out of a James Bond movie, you would be right. This gun was actually featured in the 007 flick You Only Live Twice. 

The gun used an unconventional idea, but functioned about as fast as an Antebellum camera, stay still while firing it or you could shoot your dog instead of the bad guy.

Number 9: The Zip Gun

Probably the only gun in history to take down the venerable Colt 45. Let me explain this: the Zip Gun was created by the Unites States Fire Arms company or USFA. At the time of its introduction USFA was making what many believed to be the most accurate and well-made copies of the model of 1873 Colt 45 revolver, they even made them at the old Colt Hartford factory. The owner, which I can only imagine was high on bath salts at the time, decided to sink the company's resources into a shitty little plastic POS, then had the bright idea to name it after an improvised and often dangerous weapon.

Number 8: The Chauchat

Among the many things the French have contributed to the world of firearms is this flaming hunk of excrement. The rifle was designed by a colonel Louis Chauchat, who after years of managing the white flag factory in Bordeaux, decided to contribute to his country's ability to defend itself from German invaders. What he built was a mechanism that killed more Frenchman than the Germans. It jammed due to its crappy magazine that could easily fill up with debris, but what was worse was that the parts were not interchangeable, despite that technology being more than 100 years old at the time.

Number 7: The Cobray Terminator Shotgun

While I have to give props to the folks at Cobray, who seemed to always be giving a middle finger to the ATF. Unfortunately, this gun wasn't one of those "stick it to the man" situations. It was basically a complicated slam fire shotgun.

Number 6: The Richardson Guerilla Gun

Another single shot shotgun, with an equally bad ass name. The reason I gave it a higher position was that it was developed by a War hero who learned how to build them by actually fighting with Filipino Guerillas during WWII. The "patent pending" was a bit much though, don't you think?

Number 5: The Dardick

I have to assume the reason for the Dardick to be designed was maybe a secret CIA plan to build a gun using little to no metal and ammunition that also used less metal. The gun used custom plastic cased ammunition that were shaped like a triangle. This gun also ranks high on the list of ugly guns.

Number 4: ERMA/Excam RX22 Pistol

Copying the sexy lines of the legendary Walther PPK, the pistol was produced by German gun maker Erfurter Maschinenfabrik (ERMA). Made from "pot metal" and featuring sharp edges was just the beginning of the problems with the gun. It had a tendency to slam fire, when being loaded. 

Number 3: The Streetsweeper

This shotgun looked tacti-cool and modern as hell but used a simple and somewhat unreliable method of repeating. The drum held a spring that must be wound like a watch. The ATF decided to classify the weapon a destructive device as they claimed it had "no sporting purpose". As some have said, it fired slower than an extremely dirty Remington 1100.

Number 2: The Rohm RG 10

This gun would have slipped into obscurity except for its horrible construction and the fact that a psycho tried to kill President Reagan with a similar model. Besides being made of pot metal, the design was shoddy, the cylinders often free spin not aligning with the barrel during firing. The only reason they didn't kill any of the owners is that they were chambered in the hapless .22 Short.

Number 1: The Japanese Type 94 Nambu

What can be said about the Nambu 94? It was ungodly ugly, not very accurate and would fire off a round whenever it felt like it. Also, the magazine would self-eject while being holstered. I am not sure you could design a worse gun if that were the objective.