Have you ever had any work done on a gun for your significant others gun?

[horsemen61]

Ok guys here it is my little lady wanted a sig p238 well I looked and looked and the only guy who had one wanted 750 it was nib for it . I told her that I really didn't care much if I ate or not if that is what she wanted and her being very rational and good with money. Asked is that a fair price I said why no it isn't at all she said no then. Low and behold I find a used one a week later so on layaway it goes and I purchased it for under 500 me very happy. While it functions fine and all,I've decided that I want to go all out on it I'm thinking an action job a fiber optic front sight maybe custom grips a crimson trade laser because I'm sure like the rest of y'all I want her/him to have every advantage possible available to her. So I ask you have you every had any work done on her/his gun if so please state what and why.

Thanks horsemen61

 

[herrwalther]

Broach (subtly if this is a surprise present) her if she would like these upgrades to her SIG. Some women don't feel safe with fooled around with triggers, such as my wife, so be sure to gauge her reactions and responses. I find it best to do these at gun shows. When she is trying out a firearm, ask what she likes and dislikes about the one she is holding. Is the trigger to stiff? Are the sights hard to see etc. Congratulations on your/her new purchase. I am sure she will love it.

 

[horsemen61]

Thanks herr yes I am going to be subtle about it think behind enemy lines so gotta keep it under wraps right now it is any old sig p238 but I want to make it Special so she knows its for her

 

[bannockburn]

The only thing I did to her S&W Model 34 Kit Gun was replace the factory stocks with a Goncalo Alves Monogrip from Vogue. Made the gun much more comfortable for her to shoot. Looks a bit nicer too.

 

[hso]

Your idea of special might not be her idea of special so any glaring "improvements" should be her idea and you should in no way do anything obvious without her support or you might spoil the appearance of the gun in her eyes.

What does make sense is having the best smith for these pistols go through it and tune it up so everything possible is done internally to make it function perfectly in her hands.

See if there's a set of grips she would prefer. Find out if she'd rather have a different finish on it. Point out that the appearance can be easily changed to whatever she wants with ceramic coating and off the shelf or custom grips.

After that you can start playing with sights and lasers and such.

 

[JeffDilla]

My 92 year old grandmother passed down to me her old Winchester 94 manufactured in the 40s that my gramp had "worked on" for her.

See, she's a woman of small stature, so gramp sawed about 2-3 inches off the butt. I shoot the rifle at the range for fun now and then, still shoots like a dream, but shouldering the thing is quite a task. I'd like to take a deer with it some day, for old time's sake, because that old rifle has taken a LOT of deer in its day by my gram.

 

[horsemen61]

Well hso I agree with everything you are saying I just want it to be a top notch performer before we do anything cosmetic

 

[Fremmer]

Start with new grips and let her pick them. A good set of hogue rubber grips on that pistol will stop it from moving in her hand so much, and may render any other mods unnecessary.

 

[Glock Doctor]

After my wife almost got carjacked by two teenage thugs (Who would, probably, done worse if they'd been successful in getting in the car with her.) she went into both mild shock and panic. She insisted I go to the safe and let her choose a pistol. Problem is that nothing really seemed to be either simple enough or sized proportionally for her small hands.

I, also, had the problem of being her husband; and she wasn't going to listen to me in the same (awe-inspired) way as most of my new pistol students. So, I took her to visit a highly regarded local gunsmith (Who happened to be a very good friend of mine; and he knew how to read my reactions, 'like a book'.)

The gunsmith took out an assortment of different pistols. I made facial expressions and gave hand signals behind her back; and little by little the two of us steered my wife into choosing a very sensible Ruger SP-101. I insisted that this revolver should have a 3 inch barrel and an exposed hammer spur. (Experienced pistoleros will know, 'Why'.)

Then we got rid of the undersized, very slippery, factory grips and added a soft rubber Hogue Monogrip which turned out to fit her hand very well. Finally, I paid an extra $75.00 to have the action polished and stoned. Does my wife realize that this is a great little gun? Nope, of course she doesn't; but what she does do is to shoot it very well. I've trained her to shoot double-action; but she, also has the option of going single action on the longer shots.

I let her begin practice sessions using 38 Special; and, as she gets into it, I'll switch her to full-house 357 Magnum loads. She's at the point, now, where it truly doesn't matter what's loaded in the gun. She will shoot well, regardless of caliber; and I'm happy to say that she really listened to me while we were on the firing line; and, consequently, most of her shooting is done double-action. (Which pleases me no end!)

 

[BSA1]

The only thing adding Whistles and Bells are guarranted to do is lighten your wallet.

Spending the same amount of money on ammo and range time will guarrante she will be more knowledgable about using her gun and may improve her marksmanship.

 

[horsemen61]

I really don't think that an action job and having a competent smith look it over is bells and whistles thanks for your opinion though BSA I appreciate it.

 

[Fremmer]

So how is the stock trigger on it? Does it have any issues or problems? If the trigger breaks reasonably cleanly and isn't real heavy, and if it runs fine, I'd be inclined to leave it alone. But a new grip or refinishing will make it nicer and I'm sure she would like it.

 

[horsemen61]

Well fremmer the stock trigger is ok but ask yourself this if I make an ok trigger a better trigger would she want to shoot more I say yes in my case.

 

[BSA1]

Horsemen61,

Years ago when revolvers were King I read a interview with a S&W Head Honcho. One of the questions asked was what was the best way to improve the action?

His response was simply "shoot it...a lot."

I love whistles and bells but I am the first one to admit that I shoot a bone stock gun such as Model 10 best.

 

[rklessdriver]

I spent a little $$$ with a semi-local well know revolver smith to have a Security Company trade in S&W Model 15 re-done.

I orginally bought it on a whim as a range toy because I'm a sucker for quality guns and they were really cheap... but the wife absolutely fell in love with it after shooting it and wanted it as her house gun...

I had it Parkerized, new spring kit and the chambers champered/polished. Turned out great and I've posted pics here many times before as an example of what those old beat up PD trade in revolvers can be with a little work.

Will

 

[herrwalther]

Your idea of special might not be her idea of special so any glaring "improvements" should be her idea and you should in no way do anything obvious without her support or you might spoil the appearance of the gun in her eyes.

This. It is often a very fine line with women (and some men) on what they like on a particular firearm. Eventually my wife wants to upgrade the sights on all her pistols to make them easier to shoot in low light. And thanks to visiting several gun shows with her, I know that I won't be using pink or yellow fiber-optic sights. Green or red were the only ones she would consider. As well as she will NEVER have wood grips on a pistol but the wood stock on my Marlin and Mosin are gorgeous. She is a picky one, but a keeper.

 

[horsemen61]

At least she knows what she likes Herr

 

[PRM]

Yep, I've had work done on guns. They are tools and if used, have to be tweaked on occasion. Mainly springs and such. One example is the trigger bolt spring on the SAA. The traditional flat spring is a weak point on that platform and will break from time to time. Wolff makes a wire type spring that is pretty much a permanent fix for this problem. Custom work is another area. Yes, I've done that too. I like the older revolvers and have outfitted several of mine with pre-ban elephant ivory (just for eye candy). I did send my Colt SAA .45LC back to the Colt Custom Shop and had a .45 ACP cylinder fitted to it. Basically because of ammo cost - money well spent. All comes down to what you like and are willing to buy.

 

[madwildcat]

I'd actually suggest giving her the gun outright "as is" and then after she shoots it some, ask if there is anything she would like done to it (making the trigger a little "nicer" or the sights "easier to see"). That way, not only do you not do work that she doesn't want done (lasers are nice, but if she doesn't use them its wasted money), but you get the points for getting the gun and for later offering to make it better

 

[tcanthonyii]

Let her decide what she wants to do with it. It's her gun after all. The things you listed May or May not be an advantage to her. It may make her shoot worse maybe better. A trigger job may make it less reliable. I wouldn't consider any of those things advantages. That's just me personally.

Every woman is different. Some may love that you did the work. Some would be really pissed. Most of the women I'm around would get pissed. Sometimes doing nothing at all makes you a hero.

 

[AlexanderA]

There is an unstated predicate for this discussion. That is, that your significant other is mature and stable, and that your relationship is stable. You hear so many horror stories these days about crazy spouses, alcoholic spouses, messy divorces, unjustified restraining orders being filed, domestic abuse allegations, etc., etc. Considering the statistics, I would think that less than half of people in relationships could/should trust their significant other with a gun (to say nothing about adding bling to that gun). A person living alone could be perfectly fine with a gun -- but a relationship complicates matters tremendously.

This has nothing to do with somebody's legal right to a gun. It has to do with the wisdom of certain people having them, under certain circumstances. The last thing you want to do is enable your own murder. Yes, it happens -- more often than we'd like to acknowledge. Just be careful who you trust with guns.

 

[7mmstalker]

Sweet tuning your sweetheart's pistol?

At my house, there is no such thing as "new and improved" -at least according to my wife.
Some time ago she went through the process of trying quite a lot of handguns to pick one for her camping gun. To my surprise, she choose a 1911. I was thrilled, until a routine disassembly / inspection revealed that the dealer had swapped the slide from a different pistol. Maybe no big deal, but serial # matching assembly is a strong preference. Went to the LGS and insisted that they either find the slide that was fitted to our gun at the factory or offer an exchange. Not possible, the slide was now in the hands of another customer. So they agreed to take ours back and give 100% credit for a different purchase.
First upgrade- the only "standard" 1911 in stock was stainless, so we paid a few extra bucks and everybody was happy.
Next improvement, grips, the factory thin rubber slabs were just "OK" and I felt the grip could be improved. Her - nope, not gonna happen, it's my gun, it's OK just the way it is. Next to be shot down was a spring kit, and sight upgrades were also suggested and promptly rejected.
I am a tinkerer, she chooses what suits her and loves it "as-is".
I guess the bright side of that is that she has stayed committed to me!

 

[r1derbike]

Whew! Several Months' Trial!

My wife finally decided on a wheel-gun, as every semi-auto she tried in multiple calibers, she couldn't rack 100 percent of the time. She understood that is a bad thing.

After months of renting and shooting, she chose a Taurus 85 ultra lite, for a nightstand and when I'm away arm.

Had to fit Hogues, and dry fire (many spent casings in the cylinder) several thousand times to get the trigger and springs softened for her, so she wouldn't pull every shot low. Didn't go the aftermarket springs route. Can of worms there. Not gonna do it.

After that, I really enjoy shooting the snubbie too, and it is my BUG when she is away. I made her shoot DA only, as that's just the way it has to be in an SD situation.

The Guardian and LCR would have been choices, but they couldn't be found anywhere earlier this year, and were out of her price point.

I found them to be a bit punishing when I shot them a lot later. Have a habit of sending too much ammo downrange sometimes.

 

[saltydog452]

Colt Cobra on body carry

My lady's revolver wasn't exactly ftiendly to on body carry.

With the addition of Birami Hip Grip, Tyler Grip Adapter, and colt hammer shroud, it spends more time on body.

Since her Cobra had to be drilled/taped for the hammer shroud, I guess that qualifies with the thread title.

salty