The Worst Pistol in Every Call of Duty, From COD 4's M1911 to Black Ops 7

Pistols usually aren't the most impressive guns in a Call of Duty game, until they are, and those are some wild moments. More often than not, though, they're not that impressive, so I went through every Call of Duty, all the way to Black Ops 7, to name the worst pistol in each one. The first pick, from the original Modern Warfare in COD 4, sets the tone: it's the M1911, and it won't be the last time that gun appears here.

COD 4's M1911 was outclassed by the USP, M9 and Deagle

The M1911 in COD 4 is bad. It had a tiny magazine and high recoil, and its damage was perfectly in line with the other standard handguns in the game, all of which had bigger magazines and better accuracy. So why would I ever pick the dinky version of the M1911 when I could use the USP, the M9 or the Deagle? Those guns were way better than this.

World at War's Walther P38 had a bizarre recoil pattern

In World at War, the Walther P38's damage and fire rate were okay compared to the other pistols in the game. The problem was a bizarre recoil pattern that made it difficult to actually see the fruits of your labor. Other pistols may have had similar stats, but they were at least easier to land shots with, so you didn't have to worry about somebody getting away from your follow ups.

With the P38, you didn't have any confidence in where the bullets were actually going. And even when the bullets did connect, they didn't really hit that hard.

Modern Warfare 2's USP .45 was filler next to its ridiculous secondaries

The original, great Modern Warfare 2 had some ridiculous secondaries. Why would I ever take the USP .45 into battle instead of the SPAS 12, the Raffica, the G18, the Ranger, the Striker, the Deagle or the .44 Magnum? I could go on. It was a dinky little handgun with no damage, and the visual recoil was annoying.

Infinity Ward somehow expected you to pick it up over some of the best secondaries in any first person shooter. Seriously, I believe the gun was in the game as filler.

Black Ops' ASP could never stand up to the Python and CZ75

When I put this together, around 5 million people were reportedly playing the Black Ops 1 and Black Ops 2 ports, which I love. The worst pistol in Black Ops 1 is the ASP. I always like to ask people what they think ASP stands for, because there isn't really anything else to talk about with this gun. It was weak, it was unreliable, it was awkward to control, and it was somehow supposed to stand up to the Python and the CZ75, which was not going to happen.

My own guesses at what it stands for include "a stinky pizza" and "ant shoot pool", and I have more. Later in this piece I may actually crack the code.

Modern Warfare 3 made the USP .45 the worst pistol twice in a row

On one hand, the USP .45 is one of the only guns to appear in all three classic Modern Warfare games, and I respect that. On the other hand, this is two Modern Warfare games in a row where it is easily the worst pistol, because it's going up against total behemoths, legacy pistols. Why would I pick it over the MP9, the FMG9, the .44 Magnum or the Five Seven? I'm probably forgetting some.

It had to be filler, right? Otherwise, what were the devs thinking? What was the point of even putting it in the game when the competition was going to be that stiff? I am genuinely asking that question.

Black Ops 2's Executioner is the worst shotgun pistol by a landslide

Every time I criticise this pistol, I get one or two people insisting I'm wrong. But there's no way you're thinking straight if you believe the Executioner was good. It was the first proper shotgun pistol hybrid in Call of Duty history, and it's the worst one ever by a landslide.

It looks awesome and the name is awesome, but it was inconsistent. You could never know what you were getting when you pulled the trigger. Would you instantly kill the target with a single shot to the pinky toe? Would you hit them point blank in the face and watch them walk it off like nothing happened? There really was no middle ground, and that inconsistency made it a detriment to your loadout every time you spawned in with it. There's no redeeming it.

Ghosts' PDW couldn't get a one burst kill in a fast game

In a game with an extremely quick time to kill, you probably shouldn't be running a three round burst pistol that can't get a one burst kill. That's the point of it, so what is the point? The PDW had a three round burst, a super slow fire rate and completely inconsistent damage, while basically every other gun in the game would kill you in the blink of an eye.

The gold PDW was at least fully automatic, which is cool and a little better, since you weren't waiting around for the burst delay every time you pulled the trigger. But the standard PDW was terrible. And on top of that, why was it so ugly?

Advanced Warfare's Atlas 45 was simply unmemorable

The Atlas 45 really wasn't that bad, but it wasn't that good. I'm putting it here because it wasn't memorable in any way. Sledgehammer had to make a starting pistol, and they came up with a perfectly basic handgun that got the job done but didn't do anything super impressive.

That gives me another idea for the ASP: a starting pistol. In fact, that might actually be what it is. We may have cracked the code.

Black Ops 3's Rift E9 and Infinite Warfare's Kendall 44

Black Ops 3 gave us a two round burst energy weapon with slow moving projectiles instead of the instant bullets every other pistol in the game used, plus a really slow fire rate. Does a super slow two round burst that's hard to hit things with, because it's shooting out little blue snails instead of bullets, sound like fun? No. That's the Rift E9, and they locked it behind supply drops. Imagine spending a crisp 100 dollar bill on supply drops and the only gun you get is the Rift E9.

In Infinite Warfare, if you were running the full auto variant of the Kendall 44, which I think was the auto sear version, it was pretty solid and viable. But the normal semiautomatic version was an extremely frustrating experience. Fire rate was low, damage was low, recoil was weird, and the average time to kill felt extremely long. Then again, you were also playing Infinite Warfare, so you were probably having a bad time regardless.

World War II's machine pistol was nerfed to oblivion

There was actually a time when this gun was the best pistol in COD World War II. Wild, I know. But Sledgehammer thought it was a little too good and nerfed it to oblivion. In its current state, the machine pistol is pointless: a peashooter with high recoil, a small magazine, and way too much muzzle flash to be consistent beyond point blank range. Who decided to give this gun so much muzzle flash? Did Infinity Ward sneak it into COD World War II?

Black Ops 4's RK7 looked like the Raffica but hit like nothing

The RK7 may have looked like the M93 Raffica, but it didn't share any of its best traits. It was a three round burst pistol with low recoil and a cool weapon model, but the damage was pitiful. It felt like you had to hit somebody 20 times to drop them.

Some people will say the pistols in Black Ops 4 weren't supposed to be great, that they were meant to be normal, authentic, realistic sidearms. My answer is that there were plenty of pistols in the game that were way more viable as damage dealing guns. Other pistols in the game were way better at putting a dent in your enemy's health. The RK7 was bad, and I don't want to hear those excuses.

The 1911 was the worst in both Modern Warfare 2019 and Cold War

Modern Warfare 2019, which I call the last great modern Call of Duty, brings back the 1911. What's the deal with this legacy gun showing up so many times and never actually being good? You could say the 2019 version was capable of being buffed in the gunsmith, but its starting stats just weren't very good. It had a lot of visual recoil, didn't hit that hard, and its fire rate cap was annoyingly low. Even beefed up with attachments, you got an average pistol rather than something awesome like basically every other handgun in the game. It was clearly the worst pistol in my opinion, "and I am the COD historian, so my opinion counts or something."

In Black Ops Cold War, they took the M off, which is annoying, and the 1911 was once again the worst pistol. It just didn't have great stats compared to the other pistols. Yes, you can beef it up in the gunsmith, but you need to put a lot more effort in than with other pistols, so there's no point equipping it once you've unlocked something else. From here on, I'm in the post Modern Warfare 2019 era, which is my least favorite part of ranking these games.

Vanguard's Klauser, Modern Warfare 2's X13 Auto and Modern Warfare 3's TYR

I didn't like Vanguard or play it hardly at all, so I'm going off the community's general consensus. Thankfully, the community generally agreed the Klauser was terrible, while the other pistols at least had something going for them. The fire rate and damage were bad, the high recoil seemed out of place for a gun this weak, and it only becomes viable if you load it up with high level attachments, which means grinding for hours just to make it a C tier weapon. Nobody's doing that.

In the newer Modern Warfare 2, a full auto pistol like the X13 Auto seems like a great choice in a game with a near instant time to kill, but it wasn't. The damage and recoil were so inconsistent that you might as well learn to get a decent trigger finger on the semiautomatic pistols, because you basically never had a good time with it. I'd say the same about the game. Speaking of trailers, did I see a full auto Deagle in the Modern Warfare 4 trailer?

Shockingly, Modern Warfare 3 in 2023 doesn't just repeat a Modern Warfare 2 gun, because it gave us the TYR, a hand cannon that was terrible. It could get a one shot kill to the head, but it was heavy and clunky with a horrible fire rate, so follow up shots were impossible, and a really long trigger delay made hitting your first shot almost impossible unless you were in easy lobbies. I like the idea of a super powerful hand cannon, but the occasional one shot kills weren't worth all the deaths along the way.

Black Ops 6's .22 pistol, Black Ops 7 and COD Mobile's MW11

A super light, super fast firing handgun sounds great, but Black Ops 6's .22 pistol had horrendous damage and "required 79 shots, specifically 79 to kill somebody." It's no shock that it was by far the worst pistol in Black Ops 6, because of how fast the movement was. If somebody didn't notice you spitting on them with it, they were going to zip away before you could land another two dozen. Other pistols killed much quicker with far fewer shots. As for Black Ops 7, its pick is okay, and that's all I have to say.

Finally, COD Mobile's MW11, its version of the M1911, is once again outclassed by every other pistol in the game. It's not terrible on its own and can do decent damage in the right scenarios, but nine times out of 10 you'll wish you had picked a different secondary because of the high visual recoil and the low fire rate cap.

Have you used the ASP in the Black Ops ports, and do you have a better guess at what it stands for?