Talent for turning cheap guns expensive?

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rocinante

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I can not buy a cheap gun and resist the urge to doctor it up.

Saiga 12, initially 400, ace folding stock, tapco grip, conversion parts, sights, etc, multiple 10 round mags probably 900 now with lust for about 400 dollars more for drums, etc, etc.

Saiga 7.62 new 250, 300 in conversion (expensive folding stock too) , 250 in kobra red dot, 100 in magazines.

on both these got the urge to put a quality finish on them. $$$

SKS, 250 new, 250 in tapco sanity

ruger 10/22, 230 new, 100 in magazines, 30 in speed loader, 25 fiber sights, 25 misc parts, about to spend 80 on T6 stock and 70 on techline peep sights.

ruger vaquero. 450 new, 50 on pimp pearl handles. Still researching slicking them up.

The king of insanity but I love the pistol

Walter P1, 250 purchase, 150 for hard chrome job, 30 for walnut grips.

I can't just leave them as is. Anybody else got this problem?
 
Wait til you get your first NFA item. Then it really goes insane. Every $500 pistol ends up needing a $200 threaded barrel, a $700 silencer, and $300 worth of taxes and fees. Every $700 AR-15 needs a $200 Beta mag, $12,000 drop-in auto sear with $300 in taxes and fees, a $1400 short-barreled piston upper, $800 silencer with $300 more in taxes and fees... it never ends. :(
 
Why don't you simply buy an expensive gun and leave it alone?
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Because doing it myself is always less expensive and I get what I want? As much as I have in the Saiga 12 I could sell it for a profit. Admitted that is the only gun I can make that claim on. The rest are just fun I guess. I never tend to sell a gun so the economics doesn't really enter into it.

If I got something classy I wouldn't mess with it. Kind of like hot rodding a Ford but you wouldn't dream of touching a Ferrari.
 
I don't see it as a problem. I only buy guns I think I will like, regardless of the price. I then put the new gun through its paces and if it checks out it's my gun, that I like. If there's a few things that I'd like to change on it then I do so and I don't care about the price because that was never the point, having a gun I like was and is the point.

For instance I have a 91/30. I've spent more money on ammo and accessories than I spent on the rifle. I really like it, it works well for me and it's enjoyable to shoot. Because I like it I'm making a new birch burl stock for it by hand. That will also cost more than the rifle cost me. I'll probably get my Mosin refinished and that too will most likely cost me more than the rifle did. In fact by the time I'm done I could easily have afforded any one of several new rifles that many people would say are better than the Mosin. I've owned and handled a number of them and despite whatever theoretical advantage they had I just didn't like them as well for reasons ranging from lack of character to available chamberings to outright durabilty, etc. The end result is I get a rifle I really like. The fact that I put more money into it getting it just-so than I spent on it initially just means I got a really good deal on a barreled action and that helped keep the overall cost of the project lower than it would have been if I didn't. Then there's also the fact that I enjoy personalizing my prized possessions. The only wasted money is the money you spend on stuff you don't like.
 
I can't just leave them as is. Anybody else got this problem?
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I put $80 grips on a $300 Sig - and am seriously contemplating ordering an $80 peep sight for a $400 Kel-Tec.

I do this with my cars and computers too, it's a sickness.
 
Anybody else got this problem?
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Yes, I WOULD have this problem, if I wasn't alway spending he "upgrade/accessories" money on new guns instead. So I'm in the yes AND no category at the same time.
With me, for my milsurp, I HAVE to have the correct bayonet,cleaning rod, sling, and anything else its "supposed" to have or it just really bugs me. For my modern guns, I REALLY want some Crimson Trace laser grips for both y carry gun, and Tritium sights for my HD shotgun and SHTF M4, but s soon as I he the money for the more expensive stuff, it gets spent on a new gun instead. Yes, I'm sick, and weak, and need help.:eek:
 
somtimes making a el cheap-o into a mega dollar gun is all the fun. I took a Rock Island 38 super 1911 for $299 and have about $700 in ad ons and work so far.
 
I like to make things my own too, I have $400.00 into a 10/22,not counting the original price of 125.00 20yrsago. It looks beautiful and puts all the rounds in one neat little hole a 100yds.:D
 
Ha - I have that exact same disease! I cannot leave well enough alone. I put so much stuff on them that I can never get even close to what I have in them when I try to sell them, and I refuse to lower my price "too low", so I end up keeping almost all of them. I have $85 kingwood hogue grips on a $160 CZ52 - just one example among *many*.
 
I have the same problem.

I see nothing "wrong" with it, but I've had to have a realization about platforms.

I'll explain.

I wanted to create a very accurate autoloading rifle that I could also use as a deer rifle. I dabbled with this idea years ago, but let it drop for other focuses. Over the last few years, I started with a Centry L1A1.

After a number of weeks of toying with the rifle and a few hundred dollars of cost, I had a somewhat accurate rifle that had hit-or-miss reliability with a cheap scope on it. But it was pretty. I was never satisfied with the performance.


A couple years ago, I took another stab at it using a Saiga 308 as a platform. I've posted pics here of my final result.

But let's see... I ended up putting about $950 in the rifle. My end result was a pretty accurate semi-auto rifle. It beat the Century L1A1, and would do well with quality ammunition. But I never liked the side optics mount. I shoot both right and left handed. The off-set optic prevented left hand use. Also, the PSOP optic was horrible for light transmission at dusk and dawn.

Then I started realizing something. You just don't see precision rifles built off of certain platforms. In an autoloader, you more than likely see them built off of an AR platform.

Hence my latest project platform: A DPMS LR-308. I'll let you guys know how it works when I am done. This time, I am starting with the proper platform and working with high quality additions. The rifle is a 24" stainless fluted bull-barrel, and it will sport Ziess optics.

In the end, I'd rather have $2.5K in one rifle that I KNOW I did right than go through 5 or 6 more projects that I end up spending $5K by the time I am done and still not have what I want.



Next fun, but expensive project was my Ruger 10/22. I think I now have about $400 in the rifle-- and it was worth every penny. At 50 yards, that sucker is a tack-driver and it has made me enjoy shooting the rifle often. It has a GM 18" blued fluted barrel, match trigger group, and modified standard stock. Right now, it is sporting crappy Tasco optics, but still holds its own. I think I am replacing the Tasco with Nikon later for light transmission purposes.



I'm just having to learn-- and have learned the hard way that "Garbage in= Garbage out." I'm not calling per se any firearm "garbage" but I recognize that there are better choices of platforms for certain tasks-- so please excuse the expression.



-- John
 
Oh yea, I've got it real bad!
Ruger New Vaquero - Had to add a set of Eagle Polymer Ivory grips.
Walther P22- Add silencer and tax stamp
Garand X 2 - Total overhaul, one with a new barrel, new stocks repark etc...
Colt OACP - Videcki trigger, Wilson beavertail, Wilson GS. Ambi safety,aftermarket sights, slide flat top milled, Dehorned everything, hard chromed upper/barrel, painted frame KG Gunkote, McCormick slim grips, reverse spring plug.
AR15 - Added Magpul trigger guard, RRA 2 stage trigger, about to add tax stamp for SBR.
10/22 - Stock change only at this time, but I keep adding ideas in my head.
M1 Carbine - Replaced wood handguard with metal ventilated handguard.
M1A- just buying magazines and ammo are enough! But I did get a USGI fiberglass stock to take it out hunting and draggging it up in a hunting stand.
Taurus Mod. 85. - Lighter springs on hammer/trigger
AR15 pistol- Just a money pit in progress
Some guns I have I WON'T touch:
2 USGI Colt 1911's made in '42 & '44
Colt Python 6"
Savage bolt action .22LR -Just not worth putting anything into it!
Dad's old Model 12 and LeFever .410 double barrel SG - Keeping them the way Dad had them.
 
Not only do I customize every "weapon" I own I customize every thing I own. House, car, BBQ, bike, boat...
 
To a lesser extent. However, accessories always compete for money with more ammo and more guns.
 
i do it but its stuff i find to be nessesary to me.

glocks come with atrocious plastic sites and the guide rod isnt super durable.
i replace the plastic sights with aro teks and install steel recoil rods.

on sub compacts i leave the slide release's alone but on my g19 and 17l i use extended releases to make the guns operation better feeling.i also like to plug the backstraps hollow on them,useing sherer plugs.

i have a brace of g17 mags that i moded with taylor freelance 10rd extension bases and springs giving me a 28rd cap without the extreme length of the g18 33rd mag.

my guns suit me.
 
With shipping costing what it does, all it takes is a trip to the gunsmith for night sights and a trigger job to put you over the top.
 
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