Is trying to make your gun "look cool" okay?

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I'm more into the practical application of a gun rather than the tactical modifications you see on a lot of guns these days.

Probably the only "cool" looking gun I would be interested in having would be a vintage '60's era Man From U.N.C.L.E. gun.
 
Even the stiffest of the gun community deep down inside has a "cool" preference. Would you try to make them look not cool?
 
Form follows function.

I don't care how awesome your gun looks, if tarting it up like the cover of a 12 year old girl's school notebook negatively impacts how the gun shoots or how you interact with it, there's not much point.
 
I guess I just wanna know what others think of putting together builds just for the sake of making a cool looking firearm.
You could make an argument against non-functional modifications for a firearm meant for SD or Hunting, I suppose, but in the end its your gun to do with as you wish. Who cares what anyone else things of it if you like it? ;)
 
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ooh, an absurd guns thread!! Like a laser rangefinding scope on a pea-shooter.

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Was a joke, after I shot distinguished expert in Highpower Sporting rifle with a bone stock PS90 on a 200 yard course using the factory non magnified optics, I came home and tossed a scope on a still-sightless tri-rail version I had in the safe. Full thread is on here somewhere.
 
Long as it shoots to my satisfaction I don't care how it looks. That being said ill take wood and steel over plastic and aluminum
 
Is trying to make your gun "look cool" okay?

Well I figure it this way. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. You plop your hard earned bucks down for a gun, any gun, you have the right to make that gun look however you want it to look. The gun becomes an extension of your personal taste as it well should.

I have seen guns and trucks that leave me open mouth wondering why someone would screw up a nice gun or truck. I mean if my dog's face was as ugly as that gun or truck I would shave his butt and walk him backwards.

However, that is here nor there as the only person that gun or truck needs to please is the person who owns it. If they are pleased with it then I am happy for them. What I think really matters not. :)

Just My Take
Ron
 
the cool dudes are what keep the accessory market alive, it's not me but C'est la vie, they (cool dudes) must have more cash than me because I'm struggling just to feed my guns let alone make them fancy.
 
I prefer function over looks, but if it's your gun and you prefer it the other way around, I certainly have no right to tell you what you should or shouldn't do.
 
If it's a carry gun, I want it stripped down for low weight and easy concealment, otherwise it's your money.
 
The key part of your question is "your gun"....it doesn't matter what I or anyone else thinks...It's your gun. If you like it, then do it.

Totally agree. As long as your taticool stuff doesn't endanger me (or my kids) in the lane next to you, I don't care about what you've done to your firearm.
 
Speaking as a cz82 fan... How is a laser on one just a ''look cool''?
I installed the rail and laser on the CZ82 just to see if I could make a decent looking setup. It turned out better than I expected.
The gun actually makes a good, accurate, fast, low light gun but I didn't/don't want to use it for a defense pistol since I have other guns for the job.

So, the project was done just to see how it would look (cool) and function. The laser is now on a better defense gun.


Now this is not only not cool, it is down right ugly.
A Red Dot sight on a good looking Winchester 9422 just looks bad.
But I have to use a lot of Red Dot sights on a lot of guns because of 75 year old eyes.
Since the picture I have installed a smaller Red Dot that doesn't look as bad.

Winchester9422.gif
 
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Now this is not only not cool, it is down right ugly.
A Red Dot sight on a good looking Winchester 9422 just looks bad.
But I have to use a lot of Red Dot sights on a lot of guns because of 75 year old eyes.
Since the picture I have installed a smaller Red Dot that doesn't look as bad.

Winchester9422.gif

Wow, you're right. That *IS* ugly.

But if I see an old timer pick up a rifle like that and start ringing steel silhouettes at a fair clip, I'm surely not going to pick on him.

Much. :)

Whatever keeps you on the firing line, good for you, good for me. Been trying to talk my grandpa in to going to the range for a decade now, he won't budge, says his eyes are bad. Think I'll show him that pic. See if I can change his mind.
 
I read a book a few years ago that really changed my thinking on these sorts of questions. It's called The Substance Of Style and the basic point was that it matters, in a real way, how things look and feel.

We tend to trivialize the importance of that stuff, and when we do, this can cause us to fool ourselves. Yes, style should never inhibit the function of an important tool, and yes, like anything else, it should not be taken to extremes. But by the same token, I've never met a craftsman who did not consider the physical beauty of his tools and materials to be important to him. Learning to see and appreciate beauty is part of what makes his work genuine. I don't think you can really be a craftsman of any sort without it.

How many of us here "would not mind" finding a large ugly scratch across the surface of our guns? Of _course_ looks matter. They matter a lot. An entire industry exists just to provide refinishing services to firearms, and believe me, it's not just about rust protection.

Similarly, we all agree that a well-built gun is a gun who's parts fit cleanly and smoothly and crisply together. Any little wiggle or grit or binding or mushiness in the feel of any part attracts our immediate and negative attention, even if the function is otherwise perfect.

Only a small fraction of our guns are genuinely just utilitarian tools, even if we like to think of them that way. Enjoying firearms is, in a large part, all about enjoying aesthetics. The look, the feel, the balance, the grace, the beauty. Why not make the most of it?

For some of us, deliberate attempts to make something beautiful will always fall short, while the 'accidental' beauty of a purely functional piece is something to discover, something to learn to appreciate. I fall into this camp myself, even as I admit that the beauty of such things is, more often than not, far from accidental.

When a guy like John Browning designs a pistol, he does not set out to make it pretty, but you can bet that the beauty of the design is central to his vision and his process. It's part of the whole picture, part of the whole truth. So why not appreciate it openly?
 
People have wanted their weapons to look cool since the beginning of time. Usually this has taken the form of engraving, inlay, and the like. Modern weapons, however, being largely things of black plastic, matte black, and stamped steel, are less amenable to such traditional embellishments. Thus people resort to hanging geegaws and doodads of dubious usefulness on them. Not, as is often claimed, as performance enhancements, but as decoration.

Me personally, I'm certainly not averse to a gun looking good, but it needs to work, first.

Sent from my C771 using Tapatalk 2
 
People have wanted their weapons to look cool since the beginning of time. Usually this has taken the form of engraving, inlay, and the like.

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Not sure of the carbon dating on that one.

But "old".

:)
 
Function over looks every time for me.
I'm more into the practical application of a gun rather than the tactical modifications you see on a lot of guns these days.
Form follows function.

I don't care how awesome your gun looks, if tarting it up like the cover of a 12 year old girl's school notebook negatively impacts how the gun shoots or how you interact with it, there's not much point.
^^^What they said.

Some of my modifications are decidedly "uncool" -- at least to some -- like the "Scout Scope" on my Garand. When I posted a pic here, somebody demurred. But I'm vision challenged, and I bought my Garand to shoot, not look at, so the scoped stayed. So I generally ignore what people think as "cool" or "tacticool" and just outfit the weapons to my own taste and needs.
 
I stenciled Domari Nolo on the butt stock of the AR I use in High Power with green spray paint. Does that count?

Of course it does.

I took a factory-new H&K 91 clone once and dropped on a set of original, beat to hell German surplus H&K G3 furniture. Makes the rifle look all battered - the german stock set was in horrible shape, finish wise. Over time the receiver was beat up, scratched, pummeled by brass ejecting, and is almost matching now. Looks like an authentic G3 one might pull off the rack in some German national defense armory that's seen too much field use.

Didn't add any capabilities, or subtract them, just changes the look to be an old weathered warhorse.

Beauty is in the eye. Others might look at it and see a neglected, worn out rifle. I look at it and see an old friend.
 
Like custom cars and bikes, guns are works of art too. May not be my cup of tea but I can appreciate the work and talent that goes into it on a project well done.

I have a friend who is trying to make a 9mm sub caliber RPG and AT4 just for shock value at the range LOL (bored machinist). Totally impractical but would be awesome to see the looks on the faces of the old guys when he opens his bag, whips one out and shoulders it, especially at the indoor range.
 
Never been into dressing things up 'tacti-cool', however, I did change out the grips on a revolver because I liked how the others "looked" -so yes I've done it.
 
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