I look at it this way, it's your rifle so do what you want with it. If someone doesn't like that then they can buy their own and do what they want with theirs. A few surplus rifles are rare and valuable and I personaly wouldn't hack up one of those. But there are loads of cheap military surplus rifles to play with. If someone gets snooty about it then that's their problem. It's not their rifle it's yours. They can buy their own.