The most important characteristic I demand of my rifles is accuracy. If they can't deliver the bullet to the intended POI with high reliability they are sent down the road. Rifles that can do that are beautiful, no matter how homely or plain.
The hand-me-down Savage 110E in .22-250 is a good example. Dad gave it to me with about 2,000 pieces of brass. "Walnut finish" wood stock (ash?), blued barrel. Kept the 1,600 or so Federal pieces and gave away the rest. Worked up a load and it would deliver 5 into a group you could cover with a dime. Daughter #2 was kind when she called it "homely". After a couple K rounds in my hands it started shooting patterns. Cleaning would help for a few rounds but then it was back to patterns. So long to the Savage.
The Ruger American .30-06 Dad gave me is another example. Didn't mind the looks so much as the fact that no factory ammo I tried shot worth a damn. After Dad died it went down the road and the funds received for it helped on another purchase.
Not sure how many synthetic stocked rifles are in the safe but they are numerous and the number keeps growing. Kept missing the 4" steel at 600 a couple weeks ago with my .338WM Ruger boat-paddle/stainless semi-custom, but the misses weren't by much and were due to wind drift in variable/gusty conditions, elevation was right on. Nailed it on the 5th shot. Last time I tried something like that it took 3 shots to hit a clay pigeon at 600, and the first was a ranging shot as I'd never fired it at 600 before. Immediately after that shot I used my boat-paddle .30-06 to hit a clay pigeon as 600 as well. Took two shots to connect.
Beautiful rifles are nice to look at, but if they can't shoot they are museum pieces or safe queens in my book. My safes don't have room for either.
As I mentioned before, though, I do enjoy looking. Keep those pictures coming - especially of ones that shoot great.
