vapodog, I have a Savage American Classic and its not too ugly. but it ain't pretty either
My personal experience with Savage has been horrendously poor.....but that was a very long time ago. Since then Savage has come out with the accutrigger.....proof that they are very interested in improving their product....it's a splendid innovation and now copied by several arms MFRs!.
While a lot of old time manufacturers have folded up, they have kept the doors open.....accuracy has been a high point with Savage for a long time.....seems that take precedence with a lot of shooters.....even the model 99 I had years back was an excellent firearm in the accuracy department. However as the trend of buyers turned to the bolt action guns, Savage seemed to be much more into price points and retaining their accuracy values.....all other features like feeding, extraction, ejection, etc be damned. Yes, they don't have the style and flair that the Winchester M-70 gave us......but they were cheap.....and that seemed to be the Trump card.....looks be damned!
Had they found solutions to their function issues, maintained their accuracy issues, their appearance might command a different view point. That said they ignored their product....their customer didn't seem to care as long as they were cheap.
Today's Savage might just be the finest of the bunch.....but I wouldn't know as I haven't bought one in 30+ years....so in my eyes, the UGLY continues.
