Modifying guns (long read from old man)

Last November I was intrigued by a handwritten ad at my local range for a private sale.

I have chosen to omit it to protect the innocent, but here it is in a gist.

Glock project gun for sale. New Smyrna slide, CUSTOM S3F barrel, OEM frame and parts, PLUS EXTRAS!! Comes with 6 PMAGs or without. $300 OBO!


Here is the alleged gun.

I met the guy for the sale, took it apart with the Glock takedown tool (TM) that I carry with me for such occasions and confirmed that the inernals were unmolested, tried not to ask him WTF had happened to necessitate a new slide and barrel and offered him 250 for the whole thing which he took after offering me to look at the "custom slide" he was working on with RMR, comp barrel, and "other extras." There was also a Tyr god of something trigger on the table as an added incentive.

No thanks. I'm good.

Since I was already at the range/FFL for the transfer I fed it some ammo, it worked and put it on the back burner of my projects.

But it bothered me.

The G19 gen 3 is a perfect firearm out of the box. Aside from the personal decision to upgrade to factory or aftermarket sights, they are very capable of putting lead downrange in an expedient, reliable, and accurate fashion. Their stock appearance is also nicely minimalist and while it won't win beauty contests, it has the charm of a blocky 1980s SUV.

Mine looked like a hot mess of aftermarket parts.

The magwell came off, I got pins from Glock to remove the beavertail, and there's nothing wrong with Glock barrels, so I got this from someone who was in desperate need to upgrade their Glock. Looked pristine with my borescope.



Thus the finished product that I posted up in the neglected Frankenglock thread from a few months ago.

There, from a working firearm, to some project gun that may have suffered a catastrophic mishap that necessitated an rebuilt slide and new barrel, to how it originally looked again.

Then last night over my taxes that I didn't want to do I started to think how many times we take a working gun, modify it to make it better with an endless catalog of aftermarket crap, only to wind up with something we are unhappy with, dump, and wish we had never started the project in the first place.

Clearly custom Glock seller guy had a vision of a "better" G19, but reality ensued and he was upset enough with his project to sell it off.

We are all guilty. I have sent off 1911s for work and no AR I've owned resembles the rifle I bought after a few years. We can't be happy with just shooting and learning the guns we have, we need to improve the trigger, file down stuff here and there, need a better barrel that has more MOAs, add a spring here or there because the stock spring is no good, and the end product can be a hot mess if we're not careful.

The older I get the more I resist modifying a gun that works. A 400 dollar Glock that works can be a 2000 dollar project that doesn't if you're not careful. Old guns that I "customized" I reverted to stock and learned to enjoy them the way they were out of the box. I have a box of upgrade parts for Glocks, 1911s, Berettas, shotguns/rifles and ARs that haven't lived up to their potential. The more I shoot the more I think that the best gun is the stock gun.

 

lol, me too.