the munchkin wrangler.

I can only hope that the first desecration was done long ago before these were rare. I remember M1 Carbines available at the local Woolworths for $70. Of course, $70 went a lot farther back then, but there was a time when there were more milsurps than people who appriciated them.

That is an absolute travesty. Just heinous.

Why do you complain? Someone converted a dangerous military assault rifle into a safe civilian hunting rifle. Just think how many innocent lives have been saved.

(just joking, for those who did not catch the irony)

You're right, it's one of the nicest hack jobs I've ever seen on a classic Milsurp, horrible none the less but at least it isn't a synthetic nightmare.

Horrible to US, it may be. Seems it wasn't all that bad an idea to whoever did the work.

Back in the day, these were plentiful and cheap. Converting mil-surp rifles was common practice.

We can all read the pros and cons, but try not to be too hard on the memory of shooters who's footsteps we fill.

I can picture, one day, a group of folks raking my column soul through the coals because I put a VZ24 front sight blade on my 1938 pattern Turkish Mauser.

Sure, I bagged and tagged the original, and sure, it now hits point of aim at 100 yards, and sure, I know most of the Turkish mausers were built from parts piles anyway.

Still.... I 'touched' it....

Now that seems a travesty.

I purchased several WWII Mausers for just such tomfoolery. Well, not quite that much, but to make a Scout-style rifle.

I also possess a WWII 1911 largely because it had been "customized". And so the collectors left it alone, and the price was dropped to "quite reasonable".

Now there are lots of "cheap" rifles - but back in the older days, it was far more affordable to take a surplus gun, and customize it accordingly.

To my mind, an understandable sin, if done well.

I'm of two minds.

Sporterizing rarely makes economic sense. For the money you'll spend on (say) re-barreling, installing scope mounts and stocking a surplus Mauser, you can pick up a used Savage or Remington at any pawn shop that will probably be more accurate out of the box, and you'll still have bucks left over for glass. And your new custom rifle will never be worth the money you've put into it.

On the other hand, it's your damn rifle. The end result will be like no other rifle on the planet. And for every original rifle that gets chopped up for a deer gun, my original ones get more valuable. :)

Oh My God. . They've made it the Joan Rivers of firearms.

That was one fine piece that didn't need enhancement.

I have to admit to "Bubba-ing" one of my Garands, but only to the extent of putting an S&K scope mount on it. It didn't require permanent modification of the rifle to do it (it mounts to the rear sight's "ears", and will only leave two small set-screw marks on the top of the receiver, which will be covered when the rear sight is put back on).

But my eyesight has disintegrated with age and sequelae to uveitis to the point where I just plain can't shoot over open (or peep) sights anymore. Have pity on us geezers who need glass on their rifles, 'cause otherwise they wouldn't be fired (at least, with any degree of accuracy).

So, you wouldn't like what I did to my 1903 Springfield, I'm guessing? :)






















(Settle down, people-- it was heavily Bubba-ized when I bought it. only the action is Springfield, these days.)

Beauty as well as Ugly are in the eye of the beholder.

To my eye that looks to be a Rienhart Fajen Aristocrat stock on the M1.

I'd have to see the targets before I'd judge the rifle as Bubba'd.

Randy in Arizona

But wait! There's more!

http://jeffersonian.name/blog0612.html

Scroll down just a bit, and brace yourselves.