Well I have a dilemma. I bought an A Bolt II Medallion 25-06 a while back. It is pretty much spotless, came with the box, all paperwork, both Bosses, and engraved rings. It shoots well and is easy to tune with the Boss. It’s just too pretty to carry for the rough hunting around here. I added a lightweight faux Ti SA 700 in 257 Roberts since then. I hate to sell the Browning b/c it’s a helluva nice quality rifle and I have no idea what I’d replace it with. It would need to be a fairly light weight blue and oiled walnut rifle. I’ve pared things down to 30-06, 25-06 and 257. I figure at 74 8 or 10 rifles gets goofy. The cost of components for a new cartridge is batchit…. So what’s an old phart to do? Maybe a Tikka Forest or Hunter but in what chambering? These first world problems are rough.

Hunt the 25-06. What else was it made for?!

I would hunt it no matter how pretty it is.

Honest wear from getting in and out of trucks, four wheelers, deer stands, is prettier than some safe queen!

There is no gun that is too pretty to drag through a briar patch.

I’m in agreement, the is nothing better than a rile with honest wear. The first scratch is hardest…

OK guys, ima send you pics from the thorn patch and when I bust my azz on the loose rock under the leaves. (Ask me how I know. Scouting the slopes yesterday in a new area was an adventure.)😜

I just finished an elk hunt carrying a model 70 super grade. Didn't give it a second thought. To me, guns are tools. If I had one that's too pretty, I'd give it to a grandkids. Ymmv.

I had an A-Bolt Medallion in 7 Mag when I was a teenager. It looked like it had been in the Battle of the Bulge by the time I traded it to buy a BLR ‘81 in 308 when I was 21.

I had the same rifle in 300 Mag. Beautiful gun. I did hunt with it and killed a deer about 2 min before legal shooting time was over. I was blind and deaf for 15 min....

Hunt with it. That’s what it was made for.

I think y’all are right. Edm1, 💥😜

I enjoy the beauty of custom guns but I hunt with all of them. There's almost nothing a little sandpaper can't cure if your in the frame of mind to use it. I have a scratch on a nice custom #1 from the door of the blind hitting it. When I look at it I remember that day and to be a little more careful.
Consider a 7X57 if your looking for another caliber.

Sounds like your real issue is you have to have a walnut and blued rifle, but don't want to hunt it if it's "too purty". You need to change that mindset. At the very least, pull the walnut off and throw that rifle in a synthetic stock. Or buy a synthetic stocked rifle and hunt it, so as to leave the purty ones in the safe, unmolested.

I carry my nice rifles out to my stand in a soft case so they won’t get jacked up.