How to Upgrade Your Firearm Without Breaking the Bank

Choosing the right firearm upgrades when you’re customizing your gun can give you a better shooting experience without taking aim at your bank account. Aftermarket parts and accessories can improve your accuracy and precision, give your gun a better feel, help it manage recoil more effectively, or fine-tune it for tactical performance, but those improvements often come at a price. We’re going to take a look at how to get more bang for your buck with your gun upgrades by focusing on your shooting needs, buying for performance instead of branding, and choosing manufacturers who are in it for the everyday shooter and not just for as much money as they can siphon from their customers.

Targeting Your Shooting Goals

Before you start spending your hard-earned money on firearm upgrades, start by figuring out what you want your upgrades to help you or your gun do. Not every part or accessory is right for every use case. The surest way to run out of budget before getting the gun you want is to buy any and every component you’ve seen in a magazine, on a YouTube channel, or on a buddy’s gun at the range. You can get some good ideas in any of those places, but at the end of the day, successfully customizing your gun is based on your uniquely personal shooting needs, skillset, and preferences.

When selecting your firearm upgrades, consider three factors:

1. Specific Goal – Start with the specific goal you want a part to accomplish. Simply wanting to “shoot better” or “have more fun” is vague, and it really doesn’t point you in a starting direction. “Make aiming more intuitive” sets out a specific result you want the firearm upgrade you choose to achieve.
2. Function – When weighing a part’s potential effectiveness against your goal, ask how the function of the gun upgrades you’re considering will directly impact your goal. Gun parts and accessories are engineered to either replace, improve, or augment one or more of your firearm’s capabilities, and in doing so, you want them to make the right kind of change in your shooting. 
3. Cost – Finally, ask yourself whether the benefit of the firearm upgrade is worth the cost or if you need to look for another, better-priced option that provides a similar benefit. This will help you avoid overpaying for your gun customization.

Do Your Research

Take the time to check out parts, components, and builds online and in person. There’s great first-hand information out there. Just remember to take into account other firearm upgrades that may be used while testing or reviewing the ones you’re interested in and that the source you’re using may have different shooting needs and goals than you do. That way, you can make a decision based on facts instead of worrying that you’re “doing it wrong” if your preferences don’t match theirs.

Look For Bundles

Bundle purchases can be a great way to get multiple firearm upgrades for a single–often lower–price. Aside from saving you money, the parts in these bundles have been packaged into a bundle because they play nicely together when installed on a compatible gun. This helps take the guesswork out of taking your gun to the next level.

When evaluating a bundle, look at the components that go into it. Does their function, either individually or collectively, address your gun upgrade goals? When buying a bundle, you may get some parts you weren’t necessarily planning on upgrading yet or at all, but it may be worth it to go for the package deal anyway if the price justifies it.

Know Your Budget

This doesn’t have a lot to do with the firearm upgrades themselves, but it’s good common sense. The easiest way to break the bank is not to have a plan for your cut-off point. Without a hard spending limit, it’s far too easy to justify a little more…and a little more…and a little more. Decide what you’re willing to spend, and stick to it. If you need to build in some “wiggle room”, then use your research to set a price on specific upgrades or a package deal that you can’t say no to. If the budget isn’t there and the sale price doesn’t hit the strict “can’t miss” target, then hold off while you save up a little more or watch for a better deal.

Our Top Firearms Upgrade Picks

Here are some of our top choices to get you started. These items either provide the most bang for your buck when you want to take your gun to the next level.

Complete Firearm Upgrade Bundle

The Judah 19 Optics-Ready Bundle has proven to be one of our most popular Glock upgrade kits. Based around the Judah 19 custom slide from Patmos Arms, with deeper serrations for better handling and an RMR optic footprint pre-milled into the slide. While it is available as a stripped slide, opting for the complete version adds a match-grade Patmos Arms forged barrel and all the slide internals. You can also add a practical Gideon Optics red dot sight for a steeply discounted price to improve accuracy and precision. Finally, for the price of a burger run, you can get a lower parts kit to upgrade your frame’s internals as well. 

Cost-Effective Pistol Optics

When it comes to practical firearm upgrades, your sight picture has to be at the top of the list. Gideon Optics produces cost-effective red dots and reflex sights that are built rugged, offer plenty of features, and don’t come with the “big brand” price tag. They also stand behind their sights with a lifetime warranty that covers everything short of intentional damage. The Alpha and Omega give you a standard and large lens red dot for RMR pattern slides, while MOS Glock owners will love the Granite Comp and Granite Carry models that are fine-tuned for competition of concealed carry. If you prefer a Slimline model, the Judge is fully compatible with the narrower RMSc design.

Practical Rifle Scope

Along with their industry-disrupting pistol optics, Gideon has kicked open the doors to long-gun scopes with their Guardian line, which includes several low-power variable optic (LPVO) options to fit your shooting preferences. The original Guardian 1-10X28mm LPVO installs on any 1913 Picatinny rail with the Guardian 34mm Mount (Bundle this with your scope at the time of purchase to save!) to give you solid short-to-mid range accuracy with your ranch or tactical gun. This firearm upgrade has plenty of versatility, with adjustable brightness, windage, elevation, and zoom, as well as a bullet drop compensation reticle to help you make every shot count.

More Range Fun

When you want to hit the range, bust some caps, and have some fun, you need a firearm upgrade that gives you a unique shooting experience. The PR Triggers Model G is one of the coolest gun upgrades we have for Glock pistols. This is a pull-release trigger system, which means your gun will fire when the trigger is pulled and when it’s released, effectively doubling your rate of fire. This keeps your pistol a perfectly legal semi-automatic handgun–one round fired per trigger action–while letting you get as close as possible to “rock’n’roll”. 

Get Your Firearm Upgrades for Less

We work hard to find quality upgrades priced for the everyday gun owner. To save even more money, sign up for our email newsletter to receive special promotions and deals in your inbox. Shoot better. Order your gun parts and accessories from JSD Supply.