A Beginner’s Guide to Gun Customization

Gun customization can be a great way to take your shooting hobby to the next level, and Pennsylvania’s Largest Gun Show is a great place to get started. From aftermarket gun parts that help your gun fit your shooting needs better to custom guns already upgraded by professionals or previous owners, you’ll find everything you need to tailor your shooting experience for improved precision and accuracy, more dynamic weapon handling, improved tactical performance or just to have more fun at the range. If you’ve ever wondered exactly how much better your gun could be, we’re about to tell you how to get started finding out.

Why Gun Customization?

There’s no single reason gun owners choose to upgrade their firearms, but the shortest answer may be: because they can. Just like modifying your car or truck, gun customization uses aftermarket parts, accessories, or treatments to change the weapon’s stock functions, appearance, or features to meet the criteria you set. Some gun owners want to make longer-range shots, and others want to shoot faster or for their guns to have a better feel in their hands. Some gun owners don’t even care about function as much as appearance, adding custom coatings or shiny pits and baubles to catch the eye. Our American firearms heritage is largely based on self-reliance and determination, and gun customization follows those philosophies to a T.

What to Consider When Customizing a Gun

Before you pick up your tools and drop some money on new parts, it’s important to plan your gun’s build. The last thing you want to do is rush and hurry your way into building an expensive paperweight. Here are a few things to consider before starting any gun customization project:

• Know the Law – Not every custom gun upgrade is legal, and it’s your responsibility to make sure the parts, accessories, or modifications you’re planning won’t land you in jail. Firearms are powerful tools that are heavily regulated at the federal, state, and local levels. If you find out an upgrade you’re planning isn’t allowed in your area or at all, look for legal alternatives. There are a lot of very bright engineers working to support your Second Amendment rights with innovative parts and accessories that don’t violate the law.

• Understand Your Experience and Limitations – Before you set out to install aftermarket parts and accessories yourself, consider your experience with mechanical devices, tool usage, and firearms. While DIY upgrades for custom guns are increasingly available, some work is still better left to professional gunsmiths.
• Know the What and the Why – Take time to understand what you want the end result of your gun customization to be and how the parts, accessories, or modifications involved will help you meet that goal. Don’t fall into the trap of buying a new doodad just because it sounds cool. Know why you think it should have a place on your gun and what it changes to help it meet that criteria.
• Do Your Research – Before buying any aftermarket parts or modifying any of your gun’s existing parts, do your research, and then do a little more. The old adage of “measure twice, cut once” is especially true with firearms, where a mistake can lead to a weapon that won’t fire or may injure you. Look for detailed parts specifications, online reviews, how-to videos, and instructionals that can help your gun customization project. Don’t forget to network and talk to people at your local gun show to get their advice and any custom gun tips they have to offer.
• Budget Your Build – During your research, price out your build, including the parts, necessary tools, and cleaners, solvents, adhesives, or lubricants you may not already have on hand. You want to make sure you have the money to get everything you need to do the job right when it comes to gun customization.
• Safety First, Last, and Always – Finally, don’t forget the basic rules of gun safety at any time during the process. Never work on a gun that you haven’t first verified is unloaded and made safe. When testing our newly upgraded firearms, choose a shooting lane away from others, start slow, and take note of any unplanned changes in your gun’s performance. 

Gun Customization Starting Points

While every gun build is different, there are some common upgrades custom guns feature that also offer a beginner-friendly experience to get your feet wet. That doesn’t mean these gun customizations don’t pack a punch. They’re so popular exactly because they offer plenty of benefits to gun owners who want to do more with their firearms.

Modern Precision Optics

Replacing or augmenting your gun’s stock iron sights with new optics is a great place to start because so many gun manufacturers build their products to be optics-ready. That means instead of taking your gun to a gunsmith for custom milling, you can just look for an optic that has a compatible mount footprint to get improved accuracy, precision, and target acquisition. You’ll find optics at our shows from every major optics manufacturer, but one of our favorites is Gideon Optics. Gideon builds practical red dot sights and scopes for the civilian market, fully featured and backed by a lifetime warranty. From micro red dots for pistols to a true 1X prism scope and a new range of LPVO Optics that are perfect for tactical carbines and rifles, they offer something for just about every gun at cost-effective prices.

Custom Gun Barrels

Gun barrels are an easy on-ramp to gun customization because, in many instances, they’re a drop-in modification or require only the removal of a retaining nut, lug, or pin. New barrels can restore the accuracy of a well-used firearm, offer better handling thanks to porting, allow for the attachment of accessories to a threaded end, or just add a little visual excitement with a shiny chrome or gold finish. Patmos Arms is a relatively new aftermarket gun parts company specializing in Glock and Sig Sauer barrels right now, but they’re backed by decades of experience in the gun industry and know how to build a barrel that lasts. 

Extended Magazines

Magazine extensions and larger capacity magazines are another pair of easy gun customizations that enhance your weapon’s capabilities and can help with handling. The greater weight makes recoil easier to manage, as does the extended support for your off-hand. Extension baseplates, new larger-capacity magazines, and even drum magazines are available to give you more rounds between reloads on a variety of pistols, rifles, and carbines.

Custom Trigger Groups

Once you have some experience, it might be time to upgrade your gun’s trigger. This involves manipulating small pins and springs, but the results can pay dividends on the range. Custom triggers can reduce travel distance or the amount of pressure required to fire a round. They also might give you a sear that breaks over cleaner for a smoother action that reduces gun movement. If you’re looking for more bang for your buck, a popular and fun aftermarket gun part is a pull-release trigger. PR Triggers makes cost-effective pull-release triggers for Glock pistols, and it’s a relatively simple drop-in modification. It effectively doubles your rate of fire by releasing the striker on both the pull and release of the trigger. Unlike illegal modifications, your gun is still semi-automatic since it only fires one round per trigger action.

Gun Wraps, Cerakoting, and Refinishing

If you’re looking for an eye-catching way to zhuzh up your gun, consider custom coating or wrapping. Gun wraps use specially designed adhesive skins to apply a decorative layer that enhances and protects your gun’s appearance, while Cerakote finishes use a ceramic-polymer coating permanently bonded to the gun’s exterior to give it a whole new look. 

Find Gun Customization Parts and Services at Your PA Gun Show

Your local gun show brings in vendors from across the country and service providers from around the state to your community for a weekend of gun buying, selling, and trading fun. This includes not only firearms retailers but also aftermarket gun parts sellers, trainers, gun coating providers, and more. Visit our gun show calendar to find out when the next gun show will be at a community exhibition hall near you. Order your tickets online to your local Eagle Shows Gun Show today.