Do you start with a swan or turn an ugly duckling and turn it into a swan

[Therealld]

 

Ron,

You guys miss an important point I learned decades ago about airguns. Don’t buy an expensive new airgun in perfect shape and try to improve it if you don’t know much about them.

So how to learn? Do research as much as you can, and ask questions … but take most airgun posts by other hobbyists with a grain of salt. Buy cheap used guns that may or may not work, take em apart, fiddle, modify, tune, what ever. Don’t be afraid to junk one when you are done either! BUT BE CAREFUL and SAFE.

Remember, most folks waste many thousands of dollars at college for a piece of paper, with only a portion of that education often being truly useful later in life. So don’t worry about “wasting money” fiddling with used ugly guns if you are getting constructive knowledge and entertainment doing it. Before I built my first guns from scratch, I went thru over a hundred inexpensive used and new ones of every sort I could get ahold of.

I also read all the airgun literature available (no utube or airgun forums back then).

While I don’t consider trophies as sure proof of tuning competency. … I guess I have a accrued couple wall-fulls too.

 

[Blackpaw]

As I see and I am sure there are many others, is some people just love tinkering to bring a thing of beauty into this world from more humbler beginnings. One gun I see converted a lot is the Crossman like @biohazardman did, and if I remember correctly put about a grand into the Crossman to get it to the point it is today. I guess once I learn more about tinkering with airguns I will probably do the same for a Marauder.

Thanks everyone for your input, it has given me some prospective into WHY some people have the passion go from ugly duckling to glorious swan.

 

[AirNGasman]

"Ron, You... miss an important point I learned decades ago about airguns."

Your airgunsmithing talents are without question LD. But you'll go to hell for making fun of the weak-minded! ;-) (Note my purposeful edit of your quote, so no-one misconstrues who is the self-effacing individual I'm referring to as weak-minded).

BTW, you're right. I probably shouldn't have started my blind-dive into airgunsmithing forty years ago by practicing on such expensive airguns as $20 Crosmans for a couple decades.

I could probably have saved almost a hundred bucks by concentrating on pop-guns and Daisys. 

 

[Therealld]

"Ron, You... miss an important point I learned decades ago about airguns."

Your airgunsmithing talents are without question LD. But you'll go to hell for making fun of the weak-minded! ;-) (Note my purposeful edit of your quote, so no-one misconstrues who is the self-effacing individual I'm referring to as weak-minded).

BTW, you're right. I probably shouldn't have started my blind-dive into airgunsmithing forty years ago by practicing on such expensive airguns as $20 Crosmans for a couple decades.

I could probably have saved almost a hundred bucks by concentrating on pop-guns and Daisys.

I wasn't trying to disparage your methods …. Just saying one can learn a lot by looking into every sort of gun, especially non-working ones you don’t even care if you can improve. I see many airgun guys modify guns to try to make them prettier, smoother-shooting and more accurate, all within the same project span! And there are guys like you, me, and my cousin Scott Hull, that thrive on the pleasures of making an inexpensive American-made gun into a serious competition tool, but thats not what I mean here.

Just tinkering in order to learn and explore the different kinds of airguns inside and out can be a very satisfying pastime all within itself! Its akin to “collectors” that research and try to obtain an example of every airgun that piques their interest without the “investment drive” most collectors get wrapped up with. Yes, just the fun of exploring the world of airgunning has been huge for me, even though I did have a bit of a competitive streak with respect to sensible design for target guns as well.

If you only knew about the unfinished “projects” and discarded or near destroyed parts in bins and corners of the garage that serve as reminders of wrong directions, poor planning, impatience, and “aha moments”. But I don’t throw most in the trash, as they ARE knowledge reminders that help curb some of my wilder urges.

But I think my main difference in direction is in divorcing COST as a comparison tool for evaluating improvement levels. To me, the initial cost of a donor gun is immaterial if I spent dozens of hours tinkering and tuning on it, since IF I had to monetize projects like that at the sort of salary I was getting as a design engineer when I retired … it would be senseless to not just buy a new gun that was “close enough” even at ten or twenty times a donor gun’s cost. No, to me its the fun factor of making something do better, not saving money.

 

[AirNGasman]

VERY WELL SAID, LD! Thank you.

I think where you and I diverge on this particular airgunsmithing discussion relates to a couple finance-related issues. 

Having been in bicycle retail virtually my whole "career" out of such deep love for cycling that I accepted the fact that my income amounted to little more than just enough to support my cycling habit, I neither had enough money for expensive airguns, nor ever considered my time valuable. Hence my propensity(s) to "invest" more 'sweat equity' in cheap airguns that I could afford. So with my early airgun "collecting" concentrating on extremely affordable vintage American guns, and some of the Crosman's surprising me with their fine accuracy, my early "airgunsmithing" efforts naturally gravitated toward improving them... nevertheless very cautiously in order to not only waste the financial investments, but not destroy what I consider valuable relics of airgun history.

That vintage Crosman's continued surprising me by responding to my efforts beyond my wildest dreams kept me motivated to continue pouring sweat equity into them. Being naturally conservative in many ways, particularly fiscally conservative, my progression to more expensive platforms was not just slow, but probably better described as stunted by fiscal restraints.

Recent forays into high-end PCPs (by any measure, especially fiscal), having been largely disappointing, have resulted in a relapse of my OFR Syndrome (Overactive Fiscal Restraint Syndrome). And as in my distant history, my most recent such foray has proven successful beyond my wildest dreams. 

So in retirement I've not only reverted to my childhood, but to other old habits as well. With my fixed income now coming under relentless assault by Ever-Weakening Dollar, I doubt I'll go a-changin' my old habits anytime soon.

Thanks again for the most-excellent post, LD. Happy shooting.

 

[Therealld]

I get it Ron! Sadly a couple trades I can think of that are admirable to me, but normally barely offer up enough income to support one person, let alone a family!

The trades are: Gunsmith and Bicycle mechanic! I know both require lots of background knowledge, special tools of the trade, and physical work, yet hardly deliver the income of a mailman.

Strange, but currently, bike mechanics are doing much better!

 

[AirNGasman]

"Strange, but currently, bike mechanics are doing much better!"

No doubt bicycle mechanics moved up several notches on the social ladder when my retirement removed the albatross dragging them down.