why so serious? Bubba?

would you sporterise/tacticool a milsurp rifle?

  • Total voters
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I just dont see the sense in sporterizing a classic surplus rifle when you can buy a sporter ready to go cheaper than the overall project would cost. You make a thousand dollar rifle into a three hundred rifle with about eight hundred dollars worth of parts and labor, when you can buy a great rifle for anywhere from three hundred to one thousand dollars thats probably more accurate.
 
My thinking:

If it's just not a good collectible (numbers mismatch, stock broken or otherwise damaged, needs new barrel, etc.), I'd have rather little trouble sporterizing it. While the term "collectible value" matters, it isn't just a dollars and cents proposition. An SKS with a busted stock and missing magazine isn't ever going to be a collector's piece. May as well rework it into something shootable.

For those guns that are decent examples (good bores, numbers matching, etc.), I don't do anything to it I can't put back. I have a clamp-on scope mount on a K31, but that's the extent of it. Even if it's never going to be in much demand for collectors, the historical value means something to me.
 
For me, a rifle is a tool, and it has a job to do. If it can't do the job as is, it needs to be adjusted. That being said, I would not make changes to a truly valuable piece... then again, I probably wouldn't buy it to begin with. Right now, I can only afford to have functional utilitarian rifles. There is no room in my safe for queens...
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This ^^^^
 
if your really worried about it only do it with whats going for cheap right now and buy 2 of them. a set of 91/30 mosins will run you between $180-$220. keep one as is and play with the other one, that way you always have an original as a collectors safe queen if it suddenly becomes highly desirable

if you have a surplus gun that you only have one of, sporterize it if you like but always keep the original stuff so that you can put it back to stock and dont do anything that cant be reversed
 
It's a gun and you bought it. Do whatever you want to your heart's content! If one wants to keep it stock mil-surp, G_D Bless. If one wants to paint it purple, um...sure why not! As for retaining value... In what lifetime? Certainly not in the current one. Even if they doubled in value, er how much is it? Quadrupled in value, yeah...again, how much is it? I remember the SKS's coming in at $100 a piece. They're going for what, $300 - $350 today after 20-something years? Heck, don't invest in guns, invest in real investments. Guns are for fun!
 
I try to get and keep my old mil rifles the way I find them. but I respect the action of the gun along with the history of it.
 
I recently picked up a sporterized 91/30 that has matching numbers and a really nice bore/crown. I have a "stock" 91/30 that does not have matching numbers. I will be swapping things around until I have the matching numbers in the original stock.

What does that make me? ;)
 
I certainly wouldn't bubbaize that 1894 Winchester, but for the most part, lifes too short to leave the 57 Chevy in the garage so, weapon dependant...in a heartbeat.

If that makes people mad, well pffft.:D If you've never made someone mad, check your pulse, you may be dead lol.
 
Again, what has "No Collector Value" today, may not have "No Collector Value" even next year.

Two years ago, Soviet Capture K98s were available all over the place for about $200. Now, when you can find them they are about twice that.

Ten years ago, Swede Mausers were going for $99 for a M96 and ~$125 for a M38, retail. Now good examples of either are going for $500.

The newest WW2-era rifles are 67 years old, and they aren't making any more.

If you want to pimp out your milsurp, do yourself a favor and keep the parts, and don't do anything that can't be reversed.

Or leave it alone, and take it out and shoot it. The Sacramento Valley shooting center has Vintage Military silhouette matches monthly, and Long Range Milsurp matches every couple months, out to 800 yards. Hell, I shot a 3-gun match with my K98, in the rain.

bolt1.jpg


Yeah, safe queen. :rolleyes:
 
David_The_Gnome said:
People said the same thing about all those surplus 1911's and look how much those are worth today, even for a mix-master.
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Ha! I'm only 38 and I can remember when they were $200.00 surplus, but who the hell wanted an old rattletrap like that?
 
These are the funniest threads to me. I am easily amused I suppose. I just can't wrap my little mind around the extreme desire to keep things original. Even the Constitution has several Amendments. From now on, I refer to sporterized milsurps as amended milsurps! :D
 
I'd rather amend guns that the constitution but this is drifting into the realm of political discussions which were discouraged on TFL last I checked.

Emissions control 5,
that as a very nice mauser, I really wish I could find a decent one but at the same time I would dread every visit to the ammo shop. I have never even seen a 3 gun match but I find it hilarious that everyone and their dogs use AR15s and frown on anything else and yet you were able to use an old bolt rifle. this makes me want to get my little brothers enfield dialed in(better sights than mine) and compete with it :D
 
Their gun their choice, I prefer mine simple and functional and if a change won't make it shoot better I don't make it. Shooting good counts more than pretty in my book.

Also in my book tactical is a response to a situation and how you react to it to resolve it to your satisfaction. Not hardware.

Tacticool is synonymous with tacky and only makes the gun heavy, bulky, more things to go wrong and more likely something will get broke just when you think you need it the most. If tacticool makes you happy well it's your money, your gun, and you have only you to please. Just don't show it to me and expect me to say, "Like wow, really neat that there gun is like really slick you know, oh wow can I touch it?" It ain't gonna happen.
 
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