Random Thoughts # 15: Gun mods and me.

Hey folks, your old pal 12-Gauge Chimp here with a new edition of Random Thoughts.

I was just doing a bit of online gun browsing and after watching a few videos of various types of guns, I've decided to dive into the wonderful world of gun mods. The only two guns that I own that I really want to modify to suit my personal tastes are my Mossberg 500 bullpup 12 gauge shotgun and my Mossberg 702 Plinkster .22LR rifle.

Now, I'm not going to go and swap out the stocks or lighten the trigger springs or sears or anything like that. I don't have the knowledge or the tools to even attempt something like a trigger job or sear work. I can swap the stocks with no problems. Well, at least I could if someone would make an aftermarket stock for the 702 like they do for pretty much every other semi-auto .22 rifle on the market.

Getting away from that minor gripe, I plan to swap the factory sights on the 702 with something better than the factory sights. Now the factory sights are good, but the fact the front sight blade is made of plastic has me concerned about the durability of it in the long run. Granted it's covered by a metal hood that serves as protection, but I want something made of either steel or aircraft grade aluminum. I'd love to see a sight blade made of titanium, but that would probably cost me more than what I paid for the rifle itself. So the sights will get replaced with something a bit stronger.

As for the Mossberg 500 bullpup, I plan to either attach a length of mil-spec picatinny rail to the foregrip and put some kind of pistol grip on it or continue looking for the factory grip assembly. As for the sights, I'm considering removing the carry handle/sight assembly and heatshield and replacing those parts with a heatshield with a picatinny rail on it and putting some folding iron sights on it. Now all I need to do is find a company that makes something like that and purchase it. If all else fails, I can just buy a regular heatshield and weld or silver solder a rail onto it.

So, let's go over the plan.

Planned mods to the Mossberg 702 Plinkster are:
1. New sights.
2. a different stock, if one can be found.( Not likely, but I can dream, right ?)

Planned mods for the Mossberg 500 bullpup shotgun are:
1. swap the sights out for something that doesn't suck.
2. locate factory foregrip or modify existing slide assembly with picatinny rail and aftermarket foregrip. ( I suppose I could just leave the slide assembly alone and call it good because it works fine in its current shape.)
3. swap out the factory heatshield with one that has a picatinny rail attached and put folding or fixed iron sights on it.

So, as you can see, I have a good deal of work ahead of me. Now, once I have the work completed, I'll let you all know how it went.

By the way, I'm contemplating doing a couple of YouTube video reviews based on the gun and knife reviews I've done in the past. It's still in the planning stages at this point and I may end up not doing so, but I'll let you all know what I decide soon.

That'll do it for this edition of Random Thoughts.

As always, this is 12-Gauge Chimp signing off.