Does anybody have any fun, creative ideas to apply to cheap guns? Let's say you've got your beat-up $50 Nagant carbine, if it's not going to be a valuable collecter anytime soon, maybe you could get some brass tacks to nail into the stock in a decorative pattern, like the Sioux did on their Winchesters. Then there's always ideas like doing the home-made "leaves and paint" camo-job on cheap rifles and shotguns.
I'm looking for little ideas of that sort, particularly ones that apply to pistols. I read an old Gun Digest article recently that showed a 1934 Beretta that had been extensively engraved by its bored owner over the course of WWII. Primitive and strange, but a fascinating piece of history.
Can your average fool with no training (e.g. yours truly) manage to add some quirky folk-art ornamentation to a cheap firearm with negligible resale value?
In particular, I've got a Bulgarskij Makarov with ugly surface wear and a horrendously massive importers stamp stipled over half the entire slide. I was thinking that I could grind off the stamp (not the serial!), maybe cut some cool geometric patterns into it, and do a cheap polymer or cold-blue refinish. Can this be done?
Along similar lines, there's a 1917 S&W with messed-up finish at the local gunmerchants. I've got some plans to get it off their hands, and since it's beat to hell but functional, it'd be a good candidate for decoration, being that it's pretty far down on the collectable list, destined to be a field gun. (a chill courses thru his blood as he wonders whether it's so cheap because it's actually a .455 Eley chambering, must check on that. It's right next to a .455 Colt New Service that's marked down from $700 to $500 to $400 to $300...)
Thanks for any ideas or insults, or especially cool photos of your partisan folk-art. -MV
I'm looking for little ideas of that sort, particularly ones that apply to pistols. I read an old Gun Digest article recently that showed a 1934 Beretta that had been extensively engraved by its bored owner over the course of WWII. Primitive and strange, but a fascinating piece of history.
Can your average fool with no training (e.g. yours truly) manage to add some quirky folk-art ornamentation to a cheap firearm with negligible resale value?
In particular, I've got a Bulgarskij Makarov with ugly surface wear and a horrendously massive importers stamp stipled over half the entire slide. I was thinking that I could grind off the stamp (not the serial!), maybe cut some cool geometric patterns into it, and do a cheap polymer or cold-blue refinish. Can this be done?
Along similar lines, there's a 1917 S&W with messed-up finish at the local gunmerchants. I've got some plans to get it off their hands, and since it's beat to hell but functional, it'd be a good candidate for decoration, being that it's pretty far down on the collectable list, destined to be a field gun. (a chill courses thru his blood as he wonders whether it's so cheap because it's actually a .455 Eley chambering, must check on that. It's right next to a .455 Colt New Service that's marked down from $700 to $500 to $400 to $300...)
Thanks for any ideas or insults, or especially cool photos of your partisan folk-art. -MV
