I really only ever had one rifle that came back to bite me. That being said, I never regretted having it, but it was not how I expected things to go.
Here is the story:
I was working the desk one night, years ago, while I was in the Border Patrol. A friend of mine and I were talking rifles. I said that I was done buying right-handed rifles. He said that he had a friend that had a left-handed Savage that he had traded for. I said that all I had was a Marlin (Westernfield) 30-30 to trade to him. He said that he thought his friend would go for it.
He brought his buddy (who spoke only Spanish) over to the house one evening. It was no issue, as I also speak Spanish, so it was all good and he did not have to translate. We did the trade on the old 7 mag, Savage 110. The rifle was an absolute tack driver and I shot it for many years and killed deer, elk and New Mexico Oryx with it.
Fast forward to 2011. I was trying to decide which rifle to take to Newfoundland on a moose hunt and decided that this rifle was going to make the trip. Just to avoid possible issues, I had a cop buddy run the serial number on the rifle, as I did not want to be caught in Canadian Customs with a stolen rifle. Sure as shit! That rifle was stolen in Phoenix, Arizona, about six months before I traded for it. What was even crazier, was that the insurance company wanted it back! I pulled off the custom stock (which is on another Savage) and put back the old wood stock (luckily I still had it). On top of that, I had replaced the firing pin, so I took the pin out, too. My buddy took it and sent it back to Az. I think that after shooting it for 30+ years, I got my $100 out of it (that is all I had in the original rifle). You can't make this shit up.
I used that as an excuse to buy a new Remington SPS, in 7 mag, which made the trip, killed a moose and now resides in a Bell and Carlson stock. It shoots Nosler Partition 160-grain seconds into 1/2 moa groups and has dumped a lot of game.