FWIW, I prefer turn of the century British sporting rifles and their modern knock-offs. IOW, fine walnut, blued steel, and iron sights or low-powered optics. I find these guns to be the best combination of handling, accuracy, and appearance for my purposes, which consist primarily of hunting, plinking, informal target shooting, and general woods loafing.
Of course, the typical milsurp will accomplish all of these things, but none of them nearly as well. I find them generally lousy handlers (too long and too heavy), rarely more accurate than 3-4 MOA, generally poorly finished and carrying very plain "hardwood" of some description, and possessed of sights ranging from barely adequate to almost completely useless. As always, there can be exceptions, but there is a reason why the average prices for sporting rifles are many times higher than those for milsurps. Apparently the average shooter finds sporters much more useful than milsurps and has voted with his wallet.
Buncha snobs!
