Originally Posted by T-town
I couldn’t bring myself to cut down and alter the rifles I grew up hunting with. Still torn over it because I won’t shoot them as much anymore.

That's a personal choice, but a physical change doesn't have to remove the memories. I try not to get emotional over replaceable things. I might kill a deer at some point with my Dad's Remington 742 or my son's 762, but the scopes will be different if I do.

One of the rifles we recently had modified started life as a Tikka LSS in 308 Win. I killed a few deer, a ton of pigs, an axis, and a scimitar oryx with it. One of my friends took a great South Texas buck with it also. Took it out of that stock, put it in a McMillan to fit my wife, and she shot a deer and her blue wildebeest. Loaned it to a friend in the McMillan stock, and his daughter killed a deer with it.

It came home, then went to Isaac Gallagher to be rebarreled. It is back home now with a threaded Lilja barrel, chambered in 257 Roberts, ready to kill some more critters. We are excited to see what is next for that action. The original stock is now on a 25-06 Tikka that I rebuilt and sold to a good friend after I killed a few with it. He is trying to keep his 15 year old son from claiming it now. I bet I know who wins, so I am already trying to get another 25-06 ready after they figure out who gets to hunt with that one.

Most of our rifles have had some modification. I look at it this way - If the stock broke, you would replace or repair it, right?

Why is barrel length or thread any different?