How important are aesthetics?

[Old Dog]

Eh, sorry, but I've just got a thing for some nice figured walnut and blued steel. Esthetics matter to me, and I will pay premium for a rifle that's pretty. I could care less what anyone else thinks. Black plastic and stainless, meh.

 

[MistWolf]

Nicely figured walnut and blued steel is gorgeous. I just cannot stand California stocks (like Weatherby used, back in the day) or any kind of Monte Carlo. I'd rather have a synthetic Modern Classic stock than a beautifully figured walnut stock with a Monte Carlo

 

[CyanWestley]

I would say the most important aspect to me is the performance of the gun. If the gun can't preform it's not worth the price paid on the fancy finish, but I do have to admit though, even while owning a black rifle, I still prefer blued steel over stainless, wood and steel over materials like fiberglass and plastic. Even when they get bumped and scratched it just adds character and tells a story.

 

[Officers'Wife]

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder the saying goes. Heirloom quality even more so. I have an old revolver that one of my friends (and Dad's employee) gave me that is quite frankly hide in the closet ugly. It's battered, has this dingy old Bakelite grips and a ring in the butt. Ammunition is nearly impossible to find and the thing "tilts forward" to load. ( I think it's called a top break.) But it was Ian's pride & joy that he delighted in giving Gramps a run for his money on the range when he brought out his old army revolver. What makes it heirloom quality isn't it's lines or it's age but those wonderful times when the man taught me stance and grip on the range and the stories of his native Ireland afterward. And that day two weeks before he died when he told me to take it home because he couldn't think of anyone he would rather see have it than me.

Could it be such a thing that years from now when LR takes down his father's AR15 he will remember that first time Dave let him fire it and he managed to clip the target at 50 meters? And how his father smiled at him in the process of giving him glowing praise? Aesthetics are all well and good in their place, but it's that rifle used to take the first deer, the handgun your grandfather praised your operation of and a hundred other personal considerations that makes you see wood or plastic bonded to steel a prize.

That reminds me... I think I'll dig into the brass bin and take a jar of .455 Webley to a certain unnamed idiot that shall remain my brother to reload for me. I'm suddenly in the mood for a walk down memory lane with steel, brass and smokeless powder.

 

[chicharrones]

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder the saying goes. Heirloom quality even more so. I have an old revolver that one of my friends (and Dad's employee) gave me that is quite frankly hide in the closet ugly. It's battered, has this dingy old Bakelite grips and a ring in the butt. Ammunition is nearly impossible to find and the thing "tilts forward" to load. ( I think it's called a top break.) But it was Ian's pride & joy that he delighted in giving Gramps a run for his money on the range when he brought out his old army revolver. What makes it heirloom quality isn't it's lines or it's age but those wonderful times when the man taught me stance and grip on the range and the stories of his native Ireland afterward. And that day two weeks before he died when he told me to take it home because he couldn't think of anyone he would rather see have it than me.

Could it be such a thing that years from now when LR takes down his father's AR15 he will remember that first time Dave let him fire it and he managed to clip the target at 50 meters? And how his father smiled at him in the process of giving him glowing praise? Aesthetics are all well and good in their place, but it's that rifle used to take the first deer, the handgun your grandfather praised your operation of and a hundred other personal considerations that makes you see wood or plastic bonded to steel a prize.

That reminds me... I think I'll dig into the brass bin and take a jar of .455 Webley to a certain unnamed idiot that shall remain my brother to reload for me. I'm suddenly in the mood for a walk down memory lane with steel, brass and smokeless powder.

I felt like I was reading an editorial in a gun magazine. Thanks for the post.