Cheap rifle mods that spark joy

Putting a rubber o-ring (I think #9 size) onto the safety of a new Marlin lever gun to lock it in place. Best 5 cents I ever spent on a firearm thing! Wasn't my idea though.

Won't have that needless safety snapped on again during a hunt but I can also easily remove it if I ever wanted to down the road.

Old trick my high school wood shop teacher showed us was to remove the buttplate of your rifle and drill out a couple recesses to hold a few spare rounds and a matchsafe. Just had to make sure to coat with varnish and stuff some tufts of cloth to silence. Also paint the inside of the plate white and write your name and address on it after it dried in case it got stolen.

Spring replacement with Bic pen on Marlin trigger (pretty much free)

Heggis Flip on Browning buckmark (Free)

What’s cheap? tech sights on a marlin 60 are incredible. Much cheaper than decent scope and mount.

Tuning a 700 trigger. Small investment of time and care, great return on the investment.

Added to my ruger American

How about some checkering on rossi 92? Of course no lever action is complete without a buttstock shell holder! Both are free if you do it yourself, the shell holder leather came from an old rotten horse saddle. And the checkering took about 4 hours per side. Immensely satisfying, yet free!

Velcro side saddle on the buttstock of any synthetic stocked shotgun. Can load up many shot cards with slugs, 00 buckshot, birdshot, or waterfowl loads and have them ready on shotgun to be swapped out as different game presents itself (small game, deer, geese). Makes for rapid reloads for waterfowl hunting when the waves of birds keep coming!

Basic trigger jobs.

Little cost, big change in user appreciation. Takes some practice, but isn't hard.

Definitely trigger jobs. It’s the first thing I do to every new gun that comes my way, usually before I ever shoot it.

Next thing is properly oiling a wood stock.

Next is making the sights or scope the way I like them.

Remington 700 in .223. . . Drilled and Tapped a hole in the left side of the receiver for a small hex bolt to serve as a bolt stop IN THE RIGHT PLACE. The OE stop was .325" too far to the rear, and set the bolt rim behind the magazine box. Now it's right, because I fixed it.

Refinishing the stock of a $99 NEF 12ga. It come with a grey and darker gray camo pattern, but I fixed it.

Bubba jobs on cheap guns are just fun in general. My victims of choice got a tad expensive though.

An extended magazine release on a Ruger 10/22. The old style release is clumsy and annoying.

A good scope, even more so on rifles that come without any sighting device at all (a lot more common these days than years past).

I go a bit crazy with a new rifle.

Before shooting, clean the bore. Then, adjust the trigger, rout out the barrel channel to assure that the barrel is free-floating by at least 1/16", then pillar-bed the action and mount a good scope.

Only then do I reload ammo and shoot it at the range. If it doesn't shoot well, I try a different load. If that doesn't work, take off the scope and sell/trade it!!! (Haven't had to do that for a very long time, probably because I don't buy junk.)

Some of the things mentioned in this thread verge on bubba tinkering. As a collector, I see stuff like this all the time. Not good.

AlexanderA said:

Some of the things mentioned in this thread verge on bubba tinkering. As a collector, I see stuff like this all the time. Not good.

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Not your guns. Tough noogies.

RedlegRick said:

Old trick my high school wood shop teacher showed us was to remove the buttplate of your rifle and drill out a couple recesses to hold a few spare rounds and a matchsafe. Just had to make sure to coat with varnish and stuff some tufts of cloth to silence. Also paint the inside of the plate white and write your name and address on it after it dried in case it got stolen.

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In the same spirit, I drill a hole (guns with a stock bolt already have one, which is easier) down the middle and put a cast lead bar in it. Adds a pound or two, which cuts down on recoil. Biggest expense is the lead bar, about 10$, with shipping.

Rossi 92 lever action: Swapping out the factory ejector spring for a hardware store Century C-530 spring alters ejected cases from flight to the next zip code to dropping at your feet. Added bonus, also lessens effort to cock.

RedlegRick said:

Old trick my high school wood shop teacher showed us was to remove the buttplate of your rifle and drill out a couple recesses to hold a few spare rounds and a matchsafe. Just had to make sure to coat with varnish and stuff some tufts of cloth to silence. Also paint the inside of the plate white and write your name and address on it after it dried in case it got stolen.

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What was his trick to easily remove the buttplate in the field?

doubleh said:

What was his trick to easily remove the buttplate in the field?

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You don't have a screw driver on your swiss army knife?

There’s a lot of little things to do that can make a gun much more user friendly to its user. The question becomes of its resale value. I tend to quote a certain line from Gone With the Wind when it comes to resale... I buy things to use. I intend to keep them. I make them as usable as I can and then do my best to wear them out while they are mine.

Cut and crown a beat up old single shot 22 to 17” and “minimize” the stock so that it’s a ridiculously light and packable critter gitter.

Stock modification... patch box fitted to a marlin 60 (new beech junk stock) that’s rusty as hell but still functional. That whole shebang got dolled up with a light coat of spray on truck bed liner.

Various rifles fitted with single or multiple sling studs on the forend to attach a bipod.

Drilled and tapped receivers on cheap guns to put scopes on.

Similarly on shotguns, pump forend changes, sling studs, choke tube install

And on pistols, bobbed hammers, trigger jobs, “custom grips” consisting of a cut up Mtn Dew bottle and epoxy putty with my hand squeezed in while the putty sets up. I don’t have any of those right now.... maybe my Phoenix 22 needs a set.

Minor reshaping of AR pistol grips. Slimming oversized handguard on Marlin lever action. Smoothing an action. Getting LOP and scope eye relief set right. Replacing iron sights with aperture sights. Replacing bead sights with a partridge or a post front sight.

I'll second getting a Remington trigger properly adjusted.

Doubleh,

Most likely to use the Swiss Army Knife (SAK) in his left pocket.....

I gotta go with the guys that talk about trigger mods. Gotta 10/22 hammer that needs to go in the vise with a 1/8 inch drill bit, get positioned with a single edged razer blade, then reshape the knotch and polish it... Got to Rim Fire Central for details and look in the 10/22 section on the action in the permanent post section.

I will likely also file out the "heart" on the bolt lock while I have things apart to make it an "auto bolt release" so I need only pull back the bot handle and release to close the bolt with out all that RUGER anti lawyer juggling of the bolt release lever to close the darned thing.

If I have one laying about in the junk drawer yes the magazine release with get and extended replacement

-kBob