My choice is not to modify any Milsurp. That being said, I do have a soft spot for already Bubbaed rifles and will acquire them when possible. I have added Photos below of my Milsurps and their somewhat representative Bubba counterparts. Although I did not bubba these guns I did upgrade some of Bubba's work. The Mosin was not permanantly modded in any way and can be 100% reversed in less than 30 minutes. This was my first gun at 13 years old, bought at Sears as a Christmas gift by Dad & Mom. Origionally modified by a company known as Golden state arms. I D&Td it and upgraded the stock. Turk, Yugo and Spanish. The bolt was bent and the stock was hacked. I replaced the Hacked stock. This is pretty much as was when I got it except a lot of BLO. Timney trigger, stock, bent a replacement bolt body, machined a scope rail and drilled and pinned it to an extra rear sight mount, mounted the scope. Was it worth the work and expense? Hell No! But It was Fun.
I'm not a fan of bubba'ing a rifle, but also have a soft spot for these ill treated firearms. I always get a kick out of some people, and more often shops that think a modified rifle is worth more. Give me a hacksaw and some sandpaper and I can make it better attitude.
The local Goose Mtn. Had A poorly Bubbaed No.4 Mk1 they wanted $300 for and a No.1 Mk 3 that looked like it never saw the field they wanted $145 for. I mentioned it to a mngr. and he said his customers wanted more modern looking guns. I told him if I had the money I would pay the 300 for the No.1 but wouldn't even look at the bore in the No. 4. He said "Thats why I am the manager and you aren't". Another customer nearby looked at me with a grin as he raised his eye brows, I smiled back and we both left the store.
I got a bit of a Bubbed' up 03A3 a few years ago that had been an attempt to sporterize. Needed a NOS barrel as before I aquired it the barrel had been shortened, threaded, and a funky muzzel brake had been installed. The reciever was intact and the iron sight lug hadn't been ground off but the bolt had been replaced and the trigger was screwed up. Actually the bolt was NOS and hadn't been used yet. It had a Boyds sport hunting stock and the attempted bedding job had to be ground out and redone. I replaced the funky brake with a nice timed brake, had it bedded proper, replaced the Bubbed' up trigger with a Timney trigger, had the Boyds hunting stock cleaned up a bit and oiled, placed a 1" Pachmyer Decel pad on the butt stock, put on a used but very nice condition Leupold VX III 4-14X50mm scope I had laying around and was not using, used the scope mounts that used the rear factory sight lug so I didn't grind it off, and finished all the metal with Ceracote. Project came out real nice and she is a shooter. However, she has little to no value in this condition. It could be put back to original condition with a NOS barrel, original stock, original trigger, and original iron sights. But for now I'll just shoot her.
The way I understand the law, if you buy mil-sup on your C&R you're not suppose to modify them at all. Although I'm sure you could swap out a stock and add a scope and get away with it since it'd be easy enough to return it to it's original configuration but cutting barrels or anything like that is "forbidden".
It is not forbidden. It just changes the C&R status. That is for us that don't hold a C&R license. A loophole.
