Gun finish, Beauty and its importance to you?

Kind of depends on the gun for me. Long guns get beaten up pretty good. With pistols, I'm all over the place.

I like the way blued 1911s age. Glocks I don't much care. I seem to be a little more careful with my Berettas. I have no idea why.

I love the looks of a deep blued revolver or classic semi auto’s like a Hi Power, but I won’t pay a premium for one. There’s a local pawn shop that I like. Most of their stuff has a couple scratches or some wear, but they realize it and list the prices accordingly and are happy to negotiate. I’m not really into collector items so I’m OK getting something with a slightly worn finish as long as I’m getting a good discount for it.

There was a time i would have a bad day if I scratched my gun. Now I buy a rifle with a plastic stock so i have a good day when I scratch my gun.

In my early and inexperienced days I thought the only 2 finishes were blued and stainless. Long before I learned what parkerizing, cerakote, melonite, and regular bluing are. I couldn't figure out why my blued firearm rusted but my melonite firearm did not. Much research later explained why. For the most part my firearms work. So durable finishes are what I look for when buying. And not so durable finishes, like bluing, I avoid.

I love a beautiful finish on a gun as much as the next guy, and have owned some, but even for a Trap gun, I am probably going to get a Remington 1100 Competition Synthetic. Unless someone has a Perazzi or Kreighoff for sale for $1000.......

I love the older guns and their fine polishing and rust bluing. And I use them. Good honest wear only makes them more beautiful. I only have two exceptions, my 99% C-96 and the 1911 above my name. Can't bring myself to shoot it!

Now Clint Smith, on the other hand, Has a TR engraved just like it and he shoots "the snot out of it." as Les would say. He sent it back to us, years ago, and it was....er.... well worn, to say the least.! I'm thinking Clint views a pistol as a tool, regardless of how pretty it is. And tools are made to be used.

1) Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I find highly polished, glossy firearms to be gaudy. I've seen stocks so glossy (early Weatherbys, for example) that you couldn't see the wood grain very well because of how it reflected the light. A blued steel & walnut rifle with a satin finish however, can be very beautiful.

2) Life is too short to shoot ugly firearms.

3) My list of ugly probably doesn't match yours.

entropy said:

I love a beautiful finish on a gun as much as the next guy, and have owned some, but even for a Trap gun, I am probably going to get a Remington 1100 Competition Synthetic. Unless someone has a Perazzi or Kreighoff for sale for $1000.......

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For $1K, you might be able to find a used gun case from either brand

George P said:

For $1K, you might be able to find a used gun case from either brand

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If it was dropped from the door of an airplane...onto a gravel tarmac... in the rain

Those guns are spectacular... and their fitted cases can be, too!

I certainly like a great blue finish and have my share of a few. But, 10 years ago I started buying stainless guns and those are the ones I use the most.

I like the nice wood to metal finish of more ol rifles and shotguns,,,Also I love to make custom fit cases, for all types of guns. Real wood, and nice cloth,, not the plastic cases that come with them now..Though I understand the ‘why’ of it.

I've probably bought more guns strictly because of the finish, than I have for their utilitarian purpose. If there is a prettier blued finish than a Colt Sauer and Python....I'd like to see it. Have a Gold Cup from the Colt Custom shop that is stunning. Browning is a close second with their premier shotguns, Pidgeon Grade Superposed.

Blue steel and walnut..................a WHOLE lot better than cheap matte finishes and plastic....................

EVERY day, EVERY time; life is TOO short to shoot ugly guns, drink cheap whiskey; and marry a woman who combines both of those ugly features.......

I see no reason to buy ugly guns with all the choices out there, old and new.

But function comes first for me.

The only finish I really like on a non-military firearm is high polish blue.

I don't like stainless and especially dislike matte stainless.

The only stainless gun I own is a 3" Smith 65, and the only reason I own it is I hadn't seen a 3" 13 at a show in a good ten years. Last Saturday, I finally saw one at a show for the first time in at least twenty five years. It was $700 and I'd just bought a couple of studio strobes, so I passed.

guess..

For me? Guns are tools.
The ones I plan to carry around, bang about under a hood or on a bench, put to serious work, and toss in the trunk don't need to be pretty. In that situation I'm not about to pay extra for one I'm going to feel bad beating it up a little. They need to not show damage, have a finish I don't care about, or be ugly enough it's not going to matter.
Heck, I like stuff with honest wear and patina and smoothed rust.
As long as it still works at least as well as the pretty stuff. Function is a distant #1 to any other aspect. Fit and feel is #2, becoming part of function in its own right.
That said, the few things that I'd expect to baby, prevent from the littlest dent and scratch, and show off? Precision measuring tools and pretty guns fall into that category, and, yeah, I'll pay more for beautiful bluing and hand-polished wood that I'll enjoy just as much polishing to hang back up after a day. I love it. It's just not a 'working' gun.

The old stuff has appeal and the new stuff has appeal; like others have stated, it depends on the gun. Each gun speaks to our own individual likes/ dislikes; too many variable combinations to reasonably write about.

I like to look at "pretty guns" as much as the next guy but I'm a shooter not a collector. I had been on the lookout for a 8 3/8" Model 27 for several years because I wanted one to shoot. I happened to run across a darn near new one in the box at a gun show. I did a little trading and wound up owning it for about the same price that I was planning to pay for a shooter grade. It would be a safe queen to most and my buddy told me on the way home from the show that he guessed my quest for a shooter would continue. His jaw nearly hit the ground the next day at the range when I pulled it out and probably shot 200 rounds through it that afternoon. Over the last 6-8 months I've probably put at least 1000 rounds through it if not more. While I keep it clean and am careful with the finish, there is a difference now than when I bought it. The way I figure it is maybe the value is a hundred or two less than when I bought it, I've had more than $200 worth of fun with the gun and will continue to have more fun with it. I own it cheaper every time I go to the range. I don't fault people that have a safe full of guns that they just look at, but that's just not me. One of my favorite shooters is a 1956 Colt Model 357. It might have 10% of the finish left. Tight and as slick as the day it left the factory. I take care of it just like it was in mint condition, but when I'm pulling the trigger, the finish adds nothing to the fun. On the flip side, my hunting revolvers are stainless. Even I wouldn't take a really nice blued revolver in the elements to hunt with.

I bought a Ruger Gunsite Scout 308 a couple years ago with a laminated stock. Bought it because i liked the way it looked. It’s become a range only gun because I don’t want any dents or dings. At least it’s not a safe queen....

I really like shooting and handling nice rifles, good finish included. My shooting buddy has mostly composite stocks with flat finished metal that are really ugly, but shoot just as good as my shiny ones. With that reality it really is a tug-of-war for me when I shoot prairie dogs for example. I shot PDs with my Ruger #1 .204 for years and scuffed up the beautiful wood pretty badly. Recently had it refinished and the finish job is now better than factory new. Now I'm afraid to take it out...such dilemmas. I also want the scope to add to the appearance in terms of finish and fit for the gun. Of course accuracy is the top priority but have found that I can have both looks and functionality.

I like the deep blue finish along with color case hardening on older revolvers but aside from that I want a gun to be reliable, accurate, and to have a durable finish that will last a long time. I really only have one "pretty" gun, an older bright nickel Colt Combat Commander that has seen a great deal of use over the years but still looks decent enough when I clean it up. Other than that everything else I have gets used a lot (either through concealed carry or frequent range trips), and so will have rightfully earned the wear and tear it has picked up along the way. Hard chrome plating, stainless steel construction, matte blue, parkerizing, and anodized aluminum all work great for me and have held up surprisingly well over the long haul.

Any gun of mine that gets pretty (as in, the market decides it is valuable) gets sold and the money finances two plain ones. Guns are tools, not jewelry. But then, I ain't Jelly Bryce.

I have various rifles for hunting. Most are kind of plain . Some plastic and blue or parkerized , some plastic and stainless.
The one`s I like best are wood and blue or Wood and stainless. Two of the best looking rifles I own are the Browning BAR Light weight Stalker and a BLR White Gold Medallion . IMHO the BLR is a work of art and a fine shooting rifle. The BAR has the fancy wood too. I hunt with both.I bought both of them because I like the way they looked. I have to like the way a gun looks or I will not buy it. I am not afraid to take my fancy wood stocked rifles out into the woods . They all hunt. Life is to short to own ugly guns!