Just for fun...name your top 2 pet peeves when it comes to rifles, either in form or function.
For me:

#1- scope rings/bases extending into the loading "port"

#2- white line spacers...be-it grip cap, fore-end cap, recoil pad or where-ever.

go ahead, sound off , you're sure to offend someone!

Somebody trying to tell me my choice of what to carry is wrong. It's my money, my time, and my choice. Everybody shut the hell up and use whatever you like.

#1 sucky triggers
#2 sucky triggers

1. Ruger's decision to go to the matte finish on the Hawkeye.

2. Gonzo checkering patterns. Fleur de lis is perfect - no need to do lightning bolts.

1. Limited left hand bolt action options. With CNC equipment making a LH bolt action is a snap.
I've concluded the manufacturers merely hate us lefties.
2. Monte Carlo style stocks and rollover cheekpieces and their inevitable white line spacers.

1. Shortage of left hand rifles in anything other than .270. .30-06, .243.

2.Sixties style stocks- gloss, high cheekpiece, and so on.

Mediocre barrels.

Mediocre squared up receivers, bolts face and lugs.

Over-rated/Under-Rated rifles -- The Model 70 and 700 are very good. But both have had their ups and downs. The Marin 336 in 30-30 is a darn near perfect hunting rig, but is continually marked as "underpowered."

Absurd Accuracy Requirements So many MOA rifles, so few MOA shooters.

BMT

1) Muzzle brakes

2) Blind magazines

Monte Carlo stocks.

Muzzle breaks.

#3 way too big scopes

1) Muzzle brakes
2) Gloss
2a) Crap triggers
2b) Monster scopes

#1 poor feeding/ejection

#2 poor trigger

1) Ugly in rifles... like the Encore, ugly bolt handles.... they should all look like the pre-64.
2) Factory customer service.

1) MUZZLE BRAKES
2) Crappy triggers

1. People who mount a sling swivel stud in the Marlin "Bullseye"

2. People who fill in the lettering on guns with white or gold paint.

Muzzle breaks
WBY Freebore

1)Less than spectacular accuracy.

2)Unlevel scope mounting.

Potential gun-buyers who need the approval of others on the net to see if their next move is OK.

See through mounts

Suck triggers

Muzzle breaks

Engraving, a little goes a long way.

I know you only ask for two, but I have a two more:

Remingtons habit of discontinuing a product when they have hit a home run.

Winchester refusing to make a true lightweight that deserves the Featherweight handle. Not Kimber or Nula light, but a scaled down version of what they have now. Start with the bolt and work back. There is a lot of beef in that receiver.

Lack of sling swivel studs:

No centerfire rifle should reach the consumer without QD sling swivel studs properly installed by the factory! Can't begin to count the number of otherwise nice, desireable pre-owned rifles I've encountered that were ruined (to my eyes anyway) by crooked, cock-eyed, off center studs drilled too high or low by some ham-fisted moron with a hand drill. Do it right from the factory to begin with and save the consumer the hassle!


Plastic (aka "polymer") parts such as magazines, trigger guards, etc.:

Listen up Browning (X-Bolt, yuck!), Tikka, etc.... You expect cheap crap on "econo" Savages and Mossbergs, etc. but not on rifles costing $700+. Cheap, injection molded Tupperware stocks are bad enough but a plastic magazine is unforgivable. I own and love 3 A-Bolts but will never own an X-Bolt. Good move Browning, take a perfectly fine rifle, do away with some of its best features, cheapen it (while telling us its an "improvement") and charge more for it! Tikka? Don't care how good they shoot. A cheaper more Mickey Mouse looking rifle I can't imagine.

High priced crap, such as Realtree injection molded handles and the aformentioned cost-cuts.

Shoddy workmanship and lack of attention to detail, such as barrels making uneven contact in the stock. It sometimes seems as if nobody even looked at a rifle before it left the factory.

Everything else is personal preference. There are still a lot of good options out there.

1) Short magnums

2} Synthetic stocks

I hate muzzle breaks too, but you said I could only have 2.

muzzle brakes and monte carlo stocks.

stumpy

long barrels
heavy barrels

Muzzle brakes

Huge scopes

Plastic belongs on cars ( I guess,) but not on rifles.

friggin bolt handles that hit the eyepice when low scope mounts are used.
AGHHHHH! freakin steyr. my favorite rifles but the GD bolt handles are 2mm too high for low leupold rigngs!!!!
FK!!!

1.0 Lawyer proof triggers
1.1 champagne bottle scopes
2.0 "seeing" magazines (Floor plates, detachable)
2.1 gimicks (heck - I have a hard time Not calling variable scopes such... for hunting)
2.2 open sights installed from factory, that are next to useless (Marlin listening?)

Apologies for cheating.

Yep +1

Having to spend time and/or money sorting out factory issued

1. triggers

2. bedding

Lawyer triggers and 'restricted' parts...

1. BOSS system/Muzzlebrakes
2. big scope
3. cheap plastic stock
4. Bolt handles (a-bolt,i-bolt)
5. Stock style (x-bolt)
6. cheap machine engraving
7. noisy hard safeties

1. Reliability to include feeding, extraction, ejection, and consistent trigger.

2. Just won't shoot 1.5 MOA or better.

All else I can live with or easily fix.

RH

lack of...


Pointability

and

Handling.




Kimbers about the only one even close to making a rifle these days.

If I wanted a chunk of Rebar on a 2x4 I can do that myself...

Just sayin'

1. Factory rifles - Would rather have one custom than a dozen factory guns.
2. Factory ammo - I hunt with handloads
3. Cruddy triggers
4. Know It Alls who think they are the epitome of hunting & shooting (they usually don't know zip)
5. Muzzle Brakes
6. People who know what I like better than I do.
7. People who don't know what they are talking about (related to #4)
8. Surveys that limit our choices - just being humorous there.

Brakes
Plastic parts
[bleep] inletting
Gold triggers! Ha!
Scope bases over the port
Pic rails
Fixing what ain't broke!

+1!

1. fluted barrels.

2. WSMs

1. Lack of "guarenteed" accuracy at a decent range. Any idiot
(even me), can get three touching at 25 yds.
(Kimber - you guys reading this one?)
2. Higher end rifles with free floating barrels that aren't.
(Kimber - ya reading this one too?)
3. Hunting rifles with detachable magazines. Just something else to lose, malfunction, or misplace, IMHO.

I know, I know. Limited to two but I couldn't resist a 3rd.
Bear in Fairbanks

1 - Any rifle w/ other than a wood stock
2 - Cheesy feed systems (such as Remington)
3 - Rifle extractors that leave brass pieces in bolt (Remington)
4 - Lousy triggers that can't be worked on
5 - Poor factory bedding
6 - Lousy striker assemblies, such as Remington's, especially the key lock system

Boresighted scopes on bargain rifles straight from the factory; along with the "ready to hunt" marketing.

1) The lack of rounded contours on the tang area and bottom of the wood stocks on pre-Hawkeye M77's. They were great looking rifles to my eyes until I rolled them over.

2) Muzzle Brakes

engraved serial numbers & make/model.

yuck, roll mark that stuff.

Plastic stocks
wood with white line spacers
inaccurate rifles
junk triggers

1) Lack of integral scope mounts

2) Bad triggers

#1: Camoflauge anything.

#2: Lightweight rifles. I'd rather see lighter hunters than lighter rifles.

Honorable mention: Poorly balanced rifles, which is to say, the majority of factory rifles today.

This is a funny thread because I swear some guys can't count...maybe me included.......
Remind sme of the time as a college student the superintendent on a construction site looked at me and two companions,and said:

"You three guys..half of you come with me.........."

Top two pet peeves?

1) There are no pre 64 M70's made today.


2) Variable scopes.

Honorable Mention: Todays definition of "custom rifle"...

Man those are two I agree with.

Bad triggers
Sixties style stocks
Muzzle brakes
Huge scopes

1) Oversized scopes

2) Muzzle brakes

Must be an AARP thing..............................grin

1. Muzzle brakes. I thought Rem's TRG was interesting, but what girly man needs a MB on a bolt action .223? It's not like you're shooting it full auto!

2. Makers who claim their wood is "Exhibition", when it doesn't look half as good as this...

#1 - Cheap, cheezy spray-on finishes on wood stocks.

#2 - Bottom plates/trigger guards made out of crap metal to save a couple of insignificant ounces.

In no particular order
General lack of fit and finish
Bad triggers
Plastic and pot metal
Checkered bolt knobs
Over designed and under engineered junk

THUMBHOLE STOCKS!

Browning A-bolt magazine, why do you make a hinged floorplate with a detachable magazine, IDIOTS!

Diamond maple inlays on stocks(weatherby guys!)

Gloss on AAA exhibition wood, totally killed it!

Pressed Checkering

#1 That fctory stocks are all 13.5 lop. Some people are taller then 5'11".
#2 Bad Triggers

Tex, awesome wood in that #1

Greg

Alloy bottom metal and terrible triggers.

1. Crappy triggers.
2. Crappy accuracy.

Give me a good trigger and accuracy and I can forgive most everything else.

1. Browning A-bolt

2. Tikka

1. Lack of options for left handers.

2. General lack of quality control. How often do you have to do some tuning to a new rifle to get it to shoot when, for the money we pay now days for a new rifle there is always something out of whack.
Doc

1. Poor fit and finish.
2. Average or poor barrels

My number one complaint would be a rifle with a safety that DOESN'T lock the bolt closed when it is on safe.

Number two would be a scope whose objective end resembles a large funnel for putting fuel in a tractor.

If a third was allowed it would be a trigger guard and floorplate that was NOT made out of good old steel.

Hit the nail on the head there with the A-bolt!

1. rinky-dink safeties
2. custom barrels that look like the caliber was stamped on by a drunk working in the dark

1. Safeties

2. Muzzle brakes

Amen.

1) 3 position safeties (not sure why)

2) Wood stocks

3) Carbon steel

4) Brakes are for cars, not hunting rifles.

Bad factory triggers
plastic stocks

{1} 2x10 scopes on 30-30s

{2}Thumbhole stocks

{3} Stocks made of anything but wood

Handwerk: #1: The "looks" of savage Rifles & #2: The "feel" of savage Rifles.
A distant third would be the backwards safeties on CZ Rifles.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

1. Muzzle breaks

2. Cheap plastic stocks

1) heavy gritty triggers
2) too long LOP (some of us are less than 5'8")
Randy

Krylon painted guns.

Bolt locks

Gun dealers that tell me left handed rifles are worth less than right handed rifles but charge more for them.

Any plastic part on a firearm.

1.) Accuracy

2.) Reliability

These two azzholes pretty much raise havoc in my excuses department...



Travis

1. Scopes above 10X on deer rifles.

2. Military/Special forces looking rifles in the deer woods.

1: White line spacers/the space cadet "Weatherby look"

2: shiney stock finishes (Remington mostly). I'll carry a signal mirror in my pocket thank you.

Super Mega-Glossy stocks...(700 BDL)
Folks who tell me what I should like
That the Model 70 is the only rifle worth owning.

Ken, everyone knows what they have is what you should ......

True.......

1)$1,000+ bolt action rifles that won't feed and function worth a damn.

2) Manufacturers who can't figure out how to make a $1,000 bolt action rifle feed worth a damn, and won't admit they have a problem.

Bolt actions ain't exactly rocket science.

1. Rifles that don't work simply because they get a little dust, brass shavings, water, or some combination of the above, in places like their enclosed trigger assemblies, bolt releases, and ejectors.
2. Scopes and mounts that don't hold zero, especially when you've carried and used them alot. E

1. Warped stocks !!!!!!!!!!

2. Bad barrels

triggers can be lightened
feeding usually can be fixed

Bad barrels have to be replaced, same with stocks

True, but the question is, why should you pay $1,000+ for a rifle and then have to "fix" it??

Or to come at it from another angle, if the manufacturer is going to charge those kinds of prices, why can't they produce a product that functions as advertised?

`1. camo paint on a perfectly good bluing job

2. Stainless steel shotguns

I agree smokepole, thats the raeson I sold the Kimber I once had. It shot one good group the whole time I had it, sent it back to Kimber. They said it was fine, it still never shot good. It also had a bad spot in the chamber just below the shoulder,every piece of brass that came out of the gun had a ring where the brass flowed into a crevice that went all the way around. I suppose the reamer had a burr when the chamber was cut. I can still recognize brass that was fired in that gun(2 or 3 years ago).

Short barrels

Skinny barrels

1) Ten year olds shooting trophy bucks with a 223.
2) Picture of #1 above.

1) Safeties that get stuck like the 3 pos M70 and early Kimbers
2) Blind magazines

I have at least 1 number 1 and at least 2 number 2's... A least..

1. Ruger's crummy bolt handle cut out in the stock of their M-77's. It's Cheap. It's fugly. It degrades a perfectly good rifle

2. Variable Powered scopes.. There, I said it and I'm happy. Lack of high quality, fixed low power scopes, ie, Swaro, S&B, and Zeiss

2.a. Stainless Steel hunting rifles. Hunting rifles are supposed to be blued, with Walnut stocks.. At least at my house. YMMV