Was talking to a few buddies last night and after the required DEMOCRAT trashing, we moved on to rifles.

One guy mentioned he likes his rifles "Ready to go" as soon as he buys them. Doesn't mind paying a Gun Smith to do minor things to get it accurate and for sure wants it to stay accurate when he gets it from the Smith.

Another said he actually enjoyed "figuring out" what was keeping a rifle from being accurate. He related he was in no big hurry to get one going because he has plenty of them which are Ready. He mentioned he enjoys doing minor Gun Smithing projects like Bedding. Trigger Adjusting/Tuning, Muzzle Nicks, Scope Mounting, Stock Changing, etc.

Another is into Rechambering to Wildcats and enjoys doing that work himself - on "HIS" rifles - but doesn't want to work on other folks rifles at all. He had some excellent reasons why which had to do with straining friendships when unexpected problems appeared.

And one mentioned he didn't understand why they bothered with all the "fretting" over the Factory Rifles, because he has always been happy with the ones he got, just the way they left the factory.

You may find this difficult to believe, but the last guy's comments seemed to "Fire-Up" the discussion.
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Which brings us to -

1. Which do you prefer, Ready to go as is, or do you enjoy figuring out and correcting minor issues with a new rifle?

2. What brand rifle are you talking about?

most of the rifles i own are used. the price or the deal is more important to me. like any rifle new or used need to be tinkered with. any thing from triggers to bedding or in some cases a new wooden stock, do not like the black plastic stuff. the last new rifle i purchased was a winchester model 70 and I am still tinkerin with it. i think it's around 5 years old now.
Dave

The tinkering is half most of the fun, for me at least. I would suspect that the vast majority of gun owners are fine with straight out the box performance. I'd bet those of us who really get into the tinkering are the definite minority. Fine with me. I will 'play' with a friends gun however.

I would prefer to find a factory rifle (not expensive custom) that shot lights out, without tinkering. Most of my factory rifles do require minor tinkering and some are still projects for when the mood hits me.
My favorite rifle, M77 .308 flatbolt, isn't what I would call a lights out shooter, but I've got a lot of faith when I pull that trigger!
BTW, I'm still in the market for that great factory rifle and thinking that a SAKO might provide a fix (for a little while anyway)!

I like to tinker!
Usually rifles don't require much to make them shoot but once an awhile I have to really tinker to make it happen, I like it both ways actually.

The easier it is to get the desired results, accuracy, reliability, repeatability; the happier I am. Especially involving a NEW rifle - I expect everything to be "just right" and demand it from the dealer & manufacturer. O.K.; inital cleaning, checking, inspecting and ensuring all is Hoyle is always involved.

When a used "treasure" that someone else has foolishly discarded arrives; I don't mind rolling up my shirtsleeves and getting to the heart of the issue(s).

Stocking, stock work, shaping, checkering & re-checkering, re-finishing, bedding, pillar bedding, trigger work, mounts, rings, barrel crowning, lapping, polishing, parts, new springs, triggers; I'm pretty confident and will attack almost everything except install a barrel, chamber work & blueing (entire rifle, not nicks, cuts, & scrapes) because I don't have the space, Tools or equipment to obtain professional results.

I find it rewarding and relaxing to bring a rifle back from the "brink"; especially when the rifle or shotgun deserves such attention-to-detail.

Two specific examples of rifles & pistols pop straight to mind.

Ruger 22 MKI or II .22lr pistols because they ALWAYS need the triggers done and are easy once you've taken one apart, polished and installed a new trigger.

Savage 10, or 110's are the only rifle I'll take down to their single basic componet pieces because they're a Piece of Cake to work on, get right & re-assemble with inexpensive, easily obtainable hand tools & equipment, including the "old" non-AccuTriggers.

Like others have already mentioned though, I only do this for myself - firstly because I normally spend considerable resources on such projects and over the years found other's expectations not worth my effort.

Where would the fun be without the tinkering?

I am a tinkerer as well. I like "sleepers" and mutts that shoot!

of the 7 rifles i have, 5 are built on mausers, of which i either stocked and/or did all the metal work except the barreling/chambering and drill/tap for bases. of the 2 that are from a factory, 1 is a howa 1500 in a plastic stock (my beater) and the other is a rem. spr18 that will get a much needed stock re-work as time permits. i have one 1909 and a .35 whelen barrel waiting.
i don't much care for guns from the factories, they have to be a little more personal to me.

I tinker a bit too.
Not many rifles come with a decent factory trigger any more. Some of them are comming around.
The new model 70 trigger is very nice , and the new X-bolt is too.
But I put timney trigger in a ruger and several mausers.
Replaced a spring or two, free floated some barrels.
Most of the new rifles are prety darned good out of the factory as far as accuracy goes.
But a nice light trigger is a must for me in the field.
...tj3006

If I'm buying a high dollar high performance rifle that's what I want and expect out of the box.

When getting a bargin rifle it is reasonable to exspect to go the tinkering route. The seven Steven mod. 200s have given me a lot of enjoyable tinker time.

All the Mauser scout conversions have left me tinker twiddy as well. roger

The only guns I've bought and haven't tinkered with are Blasers. They shoot great and have an excellent trigger. Nothing to tinker with.

quote:

1. Which do you prefer, Ready to go as is, or do you enjoy figuring out and correcting minor issues with a new rifle?

2. What brand rifle are you talking about?

Most of my guns are self built Mausers so I tinker a lot building them.

A trio of Remingtons and four M-70 featherweights, all required a very little tinkering and mostly load developement.....pretty good guns!

However when I buy a gun (like a Howa .223 I have on order now) I'll tinker a little but it better shoot quite well with minor tinkering.....floating the barrel is minor to me.....

I'll feed it ten or so different handloads consisting of V-Max, TNTs, ballistic tips, and several types of powder.....if it don't shoot within a couple hundred rounds it gets traded!

IMO if one gets a gun that shoots great and functions great right out of the box with factory ammo he has a very unusual gun....and it does happen....but one would be best off to tinker a little with the ones that don't shoot as well immediately. It's worth the time.

most all of them can stand to be bedded or at least re-bedded get a little trigger work. if a guy invests a little in a few of the right tools and some reading, at least these two are fairly easy to get your feet wet on. sites like this are a great place to start.

Definitely ....fix it till it's broke
Seriously, I enjoy working on my guns to do whatever it takes to make them accurate. Trigger work, bedding, crown, stock refinishing, etc.
For me it's half the fun of ownership.
But I agree re working on other's guns, no more.
It's as if my working on them supposed to make the the OWNER shoot better. And, I no longer handlaod for others...I'll help them load, even on my gear...but won't do it for 'em. No thanks!
If the gun won't shoot after working on them, working up loads, down the road. "Only accurate guns are interesting"

I own Ruger No 1s and Thompson-Center Arms products for the most part. Tinkering is just a fact of life with these guns (whether they really need work or not). Owning these types of guns is a form of Self-flagellation. But once I have them dialed in, it’s sweet and rewarding.

I’ll work on the kid’s (the youngest one is 28) stuff (mostly bolt action guns) if I’m asked. But there better not be any complains about what I do, otherwise they can run their butts and their sad rifles down to the local gunsmith. The same goes with friends. So far there haven’t been any complains.

quote:

Originally posted by Cossack2:
Definitely ....fix it till it's broke ...

A really good buddy of mine wanted me to help him "tune" the trigger on his 44Mag Red Hawk. This was back when you could actually order Parts from Ruger, so it has been a long time.

We had it real slick and down to about 3#. I suggested we STOP and let him use it there for awhile to see if he liked it. The problem was, he kept comparing it to the Trigger in my 357Mag Target Revolver which was considerably lighter than 3#.

Kept telling him I always change the Hammer(where the Sear surface is located) on it to a totally different Heavier for Hunting because I had the Pull on it Heavier, but he wanted his just a tiny bit lighter.

Next thing you knew, it would not work at all. Only took Ruger a few days to get the new Hammers(he ordered two) in for it and he was back in business.
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The longest I ever fooled with one rifle before it got to go Hunt was 3 years. Nothing really horrible about the groups, but they just were not consistent in shape or size. Tried a lot of things and nothing changed.

As bad as I hate to admit it, the real problem was the guy doing the Trigger Yanking had not adjusted the Parallax properly. Talk about feeling totally stupid - good gosh.

Killed the first Deer it was aimed at and then I traded it off. Brought back too many memories of pure Stupidity.

I've not repeated that error.