American expression for an average weapon

Question

I want to translate the expression

It's better to hit the target from a Makarov rather than miss from a Glock.

from Russian into English. In Russia, many people know that

• a Glock is a fancy, trendy gun, whereas
• the Makarov pistol is an old, pretty average weapon, workhorse of the army and law-enforcement agencies (nothing fancy about it).

In German, there is an expression 08/15, which means usual, nothing special, and refers to machine gun MG 08/15, which was commonly used in World War I.

What's the American term for a commonly used, average weapon?

Answer 1

Despite the American propensity for violence, there is (as far as I know, and I'm a native speaker) no such thing as a word for "an average weapon". However, I have heard the phrase

It's better to hit with small than miss with big.

used when the joys of large-caliber weapons comes up.

Answer 2

According to the link from Guns & Ammo Network :

http://www.gunsandammo.com/blogs/history-books/firearms-nicknames/

There are some word that describe average weapons and handguns:

AKAs such as “Heater”, Shooting iron”, “Smoke Pole” and “Persuader” are pretty easy to figure out, as are “Saturday Night Special”, “Suicide Special” and “Flyapart”, the latter a trio of terms to describe cheaply-made, inexpensive handguns intended for limited, somewhat specialized usage.

Hope it helps you.