How do you feel about aftermarket replacement parts and modifications for firearms?

[NotSo]

For me personally I could see replacing broken parts with aftermarket, but not fine functioning ones. Of course that would be only on guns I use for sport. If it were a personal defense gun I'll keep it stock, with the exception of some pinky extender magazine base plates. If I ever have to use a gun in defense I'm not going to let the prosecutor point to a skeletonized glock slide, gold barrel, flat faced skeletonized trigger, flared magwell, and aggressive stippling and claim I was out there looking for a fight or a reason to shoot. I'm not about to make their case that easy. Heck, give me a gun with a 15 pound trigger pull. I know with adrenaline I wouldn't even feel it, but I could sure make the case that I had to fear reasonably well enough to overcome that heavy trigger. Just my .02.

The circumstances surrounding the incident will tell the tale whether you were looking for a fight or not. Much like this recent shooting in Florida:

https://wusfnews.wusf.usf.edu/post/m...g-lot-shooting

But by explaining how each of the modifications enhanced your ability to defend yourself in a situation where you clearly were the victim or interceding on the behalf of the victim would not hold up against that type of argument. Unless you happened to be in one of those states/locales where the mere sight of a firearm sends people stampeding for cover. Then, it pretty much doesn't matter. You're going to jail.

[Jkoht]

The circumstances surrounding the incident will tell the tale whether you were looking for a fight or not. Much like this recent shooting in Florida:

https://wusfnews.wusf.usf.edu/post/m...g-lot-shooting

But by explaining how each of the modifications enhanced your ability to defend yourself in a situation where you clearly were the victim or interceding on the behalf of the victim would not hold up against that type of argument. Unless you happened to be in one of those states/locales where the mere sight of a firearm sends people stampeding for cover. Then, it pretty much doesn't matter. You're going to jail.

But why should I make a job for myself explaining additions to a gun illiterate jury and public? Most people don't know one gun from another, let alone the intricacies of specialty parts and how the affect performance so why have that hurdle when you're already on a trial? Obviously this whole situation is hypothetical, but I just don't see it as a winning scenario. Like it or not, believe it or not, but a sizeable portion of the population are now scared of guns and don't want anything to do with them. If you're on trial for a shooting don't give them any more ammunition to use against you, make your case as clean and neat as possible.

[olfarhors]

I thought Clint said the question I should ask myself is “did he fire all his ammo or does he have a round or two left? I’m a punk and I really need to know . . .

ahh I was talking about Clint Johnson my neighbor that lives down the street!
is this the same Clint that you are now talking about?

[olfarhors]

For me personally I could see replacing broken parts with aftermarket, but not fine functioning ones. Of course that would be only on guns I use for sport. If it were a personal defense gun I'll keep it stock, with the exception of some pinky extender magazine base plates. If I ever have to use a gun in defense I'm not going to let the prosecutor point to a skeletonized glock slide, gold barrel, flat faced skeletonized trigger, flared magwell, and aggressive stippling and claim I was out there looking for a fight or a reason to shoot. I'm not about to make their case that easy. Heck, give me a gun with a 15 pound trigger pull. I know with adrenaline I wouldn't even feel it, but I could sure make the case that I had to fear reasonably well enough to overcome that heavy trigger. Just my .02.

really!

wow you guys have some very, very smart prosecutors where you live, they can discuss modifications to weapons of all sorts, and even point IF you used a reload or not. and all of this even though the beat COP / Detective doesn't put it in a report or notice it.
Gosh almighty I read this stuff and it could be but I have no idea of how many shooting that I have been to and never do I remember a police making note of any reload, or modification to a weapon except possibly an unusually long extended magazine or a cut off barrel.
course we here in the south are a simple bunch.
hey look he put a different sight on his guuun so he could shoot the guy right in the heart and not miss!--really?

[CaptainMorgan]

I haven't modified the triggers in anyway on any of my firearms. I haven't even polished a feed ramp. A gun is a tool.... if I don't like it, I'll get rid of it or keep it as a collectible if it warrants.
I will add things to make it more useful.... slings, bipods, lights, sights, and similar.
If it ain't broke, I'm not going to fix it.....I would need a serious demonstration to consider a trigger kit or other internal mods.
A friend of mine did mods to the trigger and some other components of a gun he competes with... he picked the parts and had them installed by a gunsmith. He lost a match cause of it. He had issues during a practice and thought he had them fixed...nope. Unfortunately, I dont know what the parts where, only that the gun was a heavily modified 1911.

[NotSo]

But why should I make a job for myself explaining additions to a gun illiterate jury and public? Most people don't know one gun from another, let alone the intricacies of specialty parts and how the affect performance so why have that hurdle when you're already on a trial? Obviously this whole situation is hypothetical, but I just don't see it as a winning scenario. Like it or not, believe it or not, but a sizeable portion of the population are now scared of guns and don't want anything to do with them. If you're on trial for a shooting don't give them any more ammunition to use against you, make your case as clean and neat as possible.

Earlier in this thread I said that I would use modifications to improve my chances if I were in a situation where I had to use a gun. That is why I (or you, I hope) would end up explaining each of the modifications. The alternative potentially is laying on a slab in the morgue. Maybe a stock weapon would have been enough. But in a life or death situation, I want every advantage I can get.

[olfarhors]

Gunsmiths are like Mechanics , just becasue they use that catch phrase doesn't mean knowledge or experience.
any weappon that I do anything to, even IF I do not change parts but have the weapon apart and then reassembled gets a through field test for reliability.
we all have our thoughts on what we should/ shouldn't do but in all honesty I have had a few weapons that the aftermarket parts were far superior in both manufacture. quality and certainly fit from factory parts.
I also have a modified CZ P-01 that is now well past 8=K rounds with not a single malfunction, so that says a lot to me, and yes its my carry weapon along with a Sig 365 that is bone stock.
so it has to do for me in what improvement that I can achieve as to whether the weapon is adapted or not.

[Backpacker]

Nearly all of my guns were tools of one kind or another. I've read that sights and grips account for the most common mods, and my guns would certainly support that. I sent quite a bit of money to Novak for sights. I have no estimate for how many third-party grips I installed. Each made a usable difference in how my guns handled.

I almost bit into the "solid guide rod" craze for 1911-pattern guns, but resisted after being able to compare some modified ones to my stock ones. Finally I read that they MIGHT reduce cycle time by .01 seconds, something the competition guys got all wet over, but meant nothing to me. I've owned or been issued about a couple dozen 1911-pattern guns with the original-style guide rod and spring and have never had one malfunction in any way. They few that had solid rods were mostly just more complicated to disassemble.

A lot of people extol the virtues of replacing the mainspring and guide rod springs in 1911-pattern guns, often after so-many rounds. I have a couple Viet Nam-era M1911-A1's that were made during WWII and still have the springs that were in them in the '60s, and had no issues with them. I've never felt the need to replace any. Changes in caliber, lightened slides or increases over SAAMI standard power might require replacements. Convert a 1911-pattern gun from .45ACP to .460 Rowland and you'll need stiffer springs.

Mag wells for autos? Helpful for competition, certainly, but I trained with stock, straight-walled autos for decades, making countless mag changes without ever thinking I needed a funnel.

How about magazines? My Viet Nam-era M1911 magazines are rusty and some cannot be taken apart to clean. None has ever given a problem. The only 1911 magazine that ever gave a problem was a nearly-new Springfield one. The lips went soft after about one year and the factory said they are "consumables" and not eligible for warranty replacement. That said, my Mec-gar, Magpul and Wilson mags work so well I have no hesitancy about buying them for any gun, and sometimes they are cheaper than factory mags.

Some of my Sig magazines date from the late '70s and have never given a problem, and they have been beaten a lot.

Finishes? I've used guns that were spray-painted. Sure, it wasn't durable, but for my "tools" it worked fine for the needed time. At the other end, a Sig with factory-standard Cerakote starting showing wear after only 100 rounds.

Barrels get a lot of attention for autos. I have no-name barrels in a couple 1911-pattern guns and they are as accurate as the originals. Do I need tack-driver accuracy in a working gun? Nope. One of our sons is a Wilson snob and IF his Wilson can be held tightly enough, it exhibits better accuracy than other guns.

After-market barrels usually have to be fitted. I've done that twice with Sigs, installing Storm Lake barrels. I used them because Sig no longer made them as replacements. Accuracy was at least equal to original.

Barrel bushings? "Tight" always means restriction, something I NEVER needed!

On a couple S&W revolvers I installed larger cylinder releases, and felt they increased usability. For SAA revolvers I substituted tighter base pins and bushings, and installed different base pin locks to good advantage. I once spent a disturbing amount of money to have the charge holes and ejector star chamfered in the cylinder of one, and saw no difference in how quickly I could reload.

Action jobs. Usually not of benefit on a working gun, and any working gun that really needed it was probably not worth it and was better off traded away. I have a pair of S&W 25-5/.45-Colt revolvers from the late '70s with wonderfully smooth triggers. Working guns. Years later I bought a S&W 625-6 Mountain Gun/.45-Colt. Trigger was gritty and heavier than those earlier guns. So what? I bought it for backpacking, not precision shooting, and really didn't even notice it when shooting for practice. A friend suggested a "toothpaste" trigger job, which I did, and that did smooth it out some.

Another worthwhile mod to big-bore revolvers I found, is MagNaPort. I had an S&W 329PD, and a Ruger Redhawk modified by Hamilton Bowen to 500-Linebaugh, and both benefited from the ports. For doubters, I had an unmodified S&W 329PD and could let people shoot them side-by-side. It was convincing.

One gun I really went crazy on is my Ruger 10/22. I installed the Ruger precision trigger, a Fedderson barrel and a peep sight. Made an impressive difference in accuracy. Also added the lever-style magazine release and a larger bolt handle. They improved ease of use.

I fall squarely in the camp of "Save your money" and buy ammo.