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

4K views 43 replies 24 participants last post by  GreenWolf70 
#1 ·
We interrupt your regularly scheduled news threads regarding which retailer is siding with anti-gunners and recent shootings to bring you an actual discussion that isn't about drama. (If you don't like it, feel free to exit the thread immediately and resume posting about retailers PR campaigns and who shot who.)

In the past I was never really into aftermarket modifications to firearms because my interests were more geared towards utility than anything else and as such I couldn't care less about how good of a trigger my gun has as long as it works reliably enough to save my life should the need arise. Now in many ways that hasn't really changed, I'm still more concerned with functionality than overall performance or comfort, but I've at least dropped in on threads regarding modifications and explored the concept of modifications to improve firearms for more practical reasons like extending the service life with the installation of more robust aftermarket parts or making the firearm easier to aim/hit with through the installation of high visibility sights.
However, in a rather unfortunate turn of events, I find myself growing steadily less interested in aftermarket modifications than ever before due to the sheer number of instances I've seen of firearms actually becoming LESS reliable after installation of aftermarket parts, and I'm not talking about Bubba's kitchen gunsmithing going horribly awry here either, I'm talking about simple drop in parts made by reputable manufacturers which are supposed to be helpful ending up completely detrimental.

Lately I've seen a concerning amount of threads in which a firearm which is generally known for its reliability becomes a complete "jam-o-matic" after the installation of a simple drop-in part like a guide rod, recoil spring, or barrel. Worse yet is that on the occasion in which I've followed these threads, I've witnessed the ever more concerning trend of the manufacturers of these aftermarket parts providing absolutely horrible customer service, often due to their own arrogance and inability to accept that every little part they manufacture might not be perfect, or even as universally compatible as they advertise them to be. To avoid any unnecessary drama here, I'm going to avoid naming names here, but I keep seeing the names of otherwise well respected and highly praised manufacturers come up in these threads as well.

Due to the proliferation of these threads, I have seen a growing sentiment arise in their wake that perhaps these aftermarket modifications aren't necessarily at all to begin with, with those who have been burned first by the dip in reliability they've experienced after they installed said modifications and again when the manufacturers got uppity with them for daring to contact them with the issue implying that their parts may be to blame questioning why they ever felt the need to augment what was previously a 100% reliable firearm.
As much as I tend to value first-hand experience over all else, I must admit that such reports as well as the growing sentiment which has arisen in their wake has gotten me to thinking along the same lines. Like many others, I have followed the conventional wisdom that is; "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." but I have also been guilty of seeking to improve upon something that already works just fine, nitpicking otherwise negligible flaws in the process. Now I can't help but wonder if in many cases the most that aftermarket modifications offer is a solution in search of a problem. The aftermarket Stainless Steel guide rods to replace the factory polymer guide rods which have no reputation for failure, the aftermarket recoil springs to soften felt recoil and extend the service life of a firearm which isn't known for having harsh recoil nor lacking durability, the aftermarket match-grade barrel with polished feed ramp offered as a replacement to a factory barrel which is neither inaccurate nor prone to malfunction. Are any of these things actually necessary? Do the benefits they claim to offer justify the cost in cases in which they actually function perfectly?

What do you think?
 
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#41 ·
I imagine that anything CAN happen but first who would know?
unless the shooter made a statement well hell ya I honed the trigger, put silencer on it, loaded up the new Mankiller all the time booletts, and put a Radar guided sight system on it so I could always hit the person right between the eyes?
I think personally all this about improving a weapons function and such, same with reloaded ammo is a lot about nuttin myself.
Now I mean IF the prosecutor has a video of you drilling out hollow points in projectiles and putting Arsenic in them then yea that's a bit extreme but I honestly have never seen anything like adding random aftermarket items to a gun make it more Liable myself?
Truth be known MOST prosecutors know very little about firearms around these parts.
But one should do what makes them warm, fuzzy and happy.
 
#42 ·
Ed Brown parts.
Wilson magazines and parts.
Novak sights.
A bazzillion grip choices to improve how you grip your gun or just to tart it up.
Precision barrels for the Ruger 10/22.
Enhanced trigger groups.
Optical sights.
Red-dot sights.
Finishes such as Robar for guns exposed to heavy use and adverse weather.
Crimson Trace Lasergrips.
Magpul stocks.

I have some of each, among others. No problems at all.
 
#44 ·
LOL, I remember a top 1911 smith once being asked if it was easier now to build a 1911 with all the aftermarket parts on the market now. He replied that imagine building an engine using the best parts from each of the major car manufacturers, Ford, GM, Chrysler, BMW, Mercedes, etc. Yes, it could be done, but it would not be easy, and it would require hand fitting of every part, that is how it is to build a 1911 from a collection of aftermarket parts.
 
#43 · (Edited)
Well, first, let's get the 1911 out of the way. Rule #1 of the 1911 is, "There is no such thing as a drop in part for a 1911, and that includes the grips." There are so many variations on the 1911 MILSPEC that the 1911 is now truly a gunsmith's build. I remember one of the top competition parts manufacturers moved to making all of the 1911 parts oversize, so that they all had to be hand fitted. Their reasoning was they found over 14 variations in 1911 frames, and they even found variations within models from the same manufacturer. With so much variation in 1911 frames, there is no possibility of an aftermarket part being a drop in part for the 1911. It is even doubtful that that you will find a drop in part from the manufacturer of that 1911, hence Rule #1 of the 1911. Simple fact is the better the 1911 gunsmith, the better the 1911, regardless of the parts used in the build. That is the reason you see such high prices on custom made 1911, depending on the smith that built it.

The guns you see in the market place now come in 3 varieties, production, semi-production (production with some custom fitting) and custom. I don't think there is a production firearm on the market that can not be made better by simply going over the standard parts and "cleaning them up". By that I mean, filing off burrs, polishing the shiny parts of trigger parts, removing burrs and polishing the feed ramp, polishing rails and contact points, etc. In the hot rod world back in the 1960s, the popular way to pickup a good bit of horse power was to blueprint the production engine. That kept the car stock, you were just tightening up the tolerances. This is pretty much the same with production guns.

Custom guns should have all parts cleaned up and hand fitted out of the box, IMO. Semi-production means certain areas of the gun are hand fitted and the other stock parts are cleaned up.

Now IMO, if you install a "drop-in" part and suffer a loss of reliability or functionality, it probably was not a real drop-in part, regardless of what it said on the packaging. The other thing to watch out for with aftermarket parts is error stacking. Some production manufacturers, like Ruger, sort their parts by plus or minus tolerances and make sure they combine plus and minus parts so they avoid tolerance error stacking in assembly. You drop in an aftermarket part that is minus tolerance that replaces a plus tolerance part and you run the risk of error stacking.

Now where I use aftermarket parts is where that part improves some aspect of the gun in question that I do not like, or I just want to change the function. Being a lefty that is often ambidextrous safety parts. However, for those of you with a Ruger 10/22, you know that the bolt release plate is a PIA to operate. I replaced mine with a Volquartsen bolt release plate, so to release the bolt, I only pull it back now. But, while I had the trigger apart, I put that aftermarket plate next to the stock plate and figured out what I needed to do to the stock part to achieve the same functionality. The other annoying part on that 10/22 is the mag release, which I replaced with a Tactical Solution extended lever release. So there is a need for aftermarket parts as long as they make the gun more to your liking. Glock is another firearm that comes to mind. Glocks have a glaring design flaw, that they have only begun to address in their Gen5 guns. It is the barrels which do not fully support the case head, hence the infamous Glock bulge. Aftermarket barrels have corrected this almost from the very first aftermarket barrel replacements. The Glocks all use plastic trigger shoes and these have too much flex for some people, therefore the aftermarket has addressed it with billet aluminum trigger shoes, and now even solid plastic trigger shoes that just have better leverage angles and the flex designed out. Despite, a lot of marketing chatter, 98% of the Glock "trigger kits" on the market use OEM parts behind their trigger shoes and a few use an aftermarket connector, much cheaper to buy just the trigger shoe and connector and install them yourself. However, you can still make the Glock trigger much, much better by just cleaning up all the OEM parts. After all, most of those parts are just stamped steel, not exactly the best process for meeting tolerances. You will be surprised how much of an improvement there is by simply removing all the rough edges and polishing up contact points.
 
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