Buying guns for novice and youngsters
I have had several regrets in selling off firearms that I wish I would have held on to. One of my biggest regrets was selling a Russian Saiga rifle off because I couldn’t get anything but 5rd magazines for it, and then I found out that it was possible to legally alter the firearms so that it could take 30rd magazines. It was a very small gunsmithing alteration that would have been done in a few minutes. You just had to know that it could be done.
Another regret I had was selling off a Ruger 10/22 rifle because the gun wasn’t very accurate compared to my Marline bolt action rifles, but after taking several kids to the range, I found out that the children under 8yrs old had trouble with the length of the rifle stocks and something as small as the Ruger 10/22 would have worked since it had such a short LOP. If a gun isn’t junk, you may want to think about why you should hang on to it, because you may wish you did.
There is another issue that I see come up when taking new students to the range. I usually bring various military style rifles with me to get people to adjust to recoil and realize the common military style weapons that exist in the world. Many of these individuals, after a day on the range tend to select the gun that fit them the best. When I first got into shooting rifles, I started out with all of the military surplus firearms that came into the Country in the early and mid 1990s. There may never be another time where Soviet style weapons are imported into this Country. The military warehouses got cleaned out after the fall of the Soviet Empire and American gun owners were the beneficieries.
There area a lot of good upgrades one can do to a firearm, a fighting rifle should be customized to fit an operator. Advanced Technology makes some quick and easy upgrades for your shotgun or carbine that can give you better grip or balance. Shotgun shell holders on the buttstock or riding side saddle is a practical tactical upgrade you can do on your remington 870. The fiberforce stock for the MAK90 is a way to legally get around some firearm bans and are a big step up compared to the stupid thumbhole stocks. Attach a rifle sling that fits yoru purpose from Blue Force Gear, they come in 1 point, 2 point and 3 point attachements. Minor firearm modifications make need to be done to attache rifle slings, but do some research on various rifle sling configurations to see what works for you.
In the early 1990s there was a surplus of military style rifles coming into the Country. There were goofy thumbhole stocks to avoid violating gun laws or cheap parts for kits. Many of these rifles had pretty ugle stocks especially many of the rifles coming in from China or Egypt. If you have one of those MAK90s or Maadis that works great, but looks like crap, you might want to upgrade your stock with a synthetic. Many of these stocks are made in the US and can be considered US Parts to add to your legal alterations of your gun.