A customer at the shop last year said something that still bugs me about old military rifles

This guy brought in a 1917 Enfield he'd bought at a gun show in Tulsa. He wanted me to 'sporterize' it, cut the barrel down and put a modern stock on it. I told him I could, but I always try to talk people out of messing with historic guns, you know? He got real annoyed and said, 'It's just a tool, and a broken one. It's mine now, so I'll make it useful again.' I mean, I get that it's his property, but it felt wrong. Where do you all stand on modifying old military surplus? Is it always a sin to cut one up, or is it okay if the original condition is already rough? I've got a Garand coming in next week with the same request and I'm still torn.

3 comments

3 Comments

willows381mo ago

Ugh, that guy's take is so bad it almost loops back around to being funny. "Make it useful again," like the thing that won a world war was just a fancy paperweight. Next he'll want to turn the Garand into a lamp. Some people just have no soul, man.

stella90420h ago

What gets me is the history lost. That rifle could have stories we'll never hear now.

ruby_gonzalez1mo ago

Man, my buddy saw a perfectly good M1 turned into a tacky coffee table last year.