Leapin -I don't think anyone's taken your post as being negative or out of line - perhaps you wish it was? Most all of us use our rifles, not matter how they look or how much they cost. Every one who shoots one of my brother's rifles at rendezvous or every Sunday on our weekly shoots, is shooting something that cost him or her, $4,000.00 to $12,000.00. Guns are made to be shot - we all accept that. It's nice to show pictures of when they are new, or before they gain some earned patina.