All of my firearms are pristine because I baby them; if I displayed photos, they would appear to be NIB. They all get used and they all get shot - however, they always get handled (especially in the woods and at the range) with awareness and attention. Unlike others, I do not look at my firearms as tools, to me they are my hobby and my art collection so they get special attention. I understand honest wear, patina, handling marks - impossible to avoid over time but the extra awareness (but not to a paranoia level) has helped me maintain my firearms in an ultra condition. I am very careful by nature so the extra awareness comes naturally. I have seen firearms that were abused, that kind of wear/ condition I do not understand.
I am in complete accord with your opinion and experience, Steve S. I have many guns that I've carried and used over the past several decades, including for hunting, target shooting (especially Bullseye competition) and during a thirty year le career but none used so much as a Browning Double Auto shotgun I bought new in 1962, shortly after graduating from high school and just before enlisting in the Air Force. I've hunted hard with the old Browning in all types of cover and weather and for all kinds of game, including rabbits, squirrels, pheasants, quail, woodcock, grouse, waterfowl and deer. After over a half century of use, aside from some slight burnishing on the metal and some superficial scratches on the wood, the gun appears much like it used to when new.
When it comes to wear and tear over the years and distinguishing between hard, honest use and lazy and/or careless neglect, I don't need a lecture from anyone to discern the difference. If you are in a circumstance where attention to the care of a firearm is compromised (i.e., the battlefield or in a survival situation), obviously, lack of care
at the time is understandable. But, as examples, when you use the butt end of a shotgun to hold the barb wire on a fence down to make crossing it easier (I've witnessed this happening) or stow a wet gun away for any period of time, or use a cleaning rod incorrectly, I can "comfortably" call such practices neglect and/or ignorance; not merely evidence of the "use and wear" life's experiences brings.
And though I'll never understand the people who want to spend their hard-earned money for new firearms that are made to look used (or, for that matter, brand new blue jeans that come with holes in them and look well-worn before being wore), last I heard, you can still get them. Contrived wear and tear, however, does not translate to "honest" wear and tear. Honest is as honest does.
