Am I the only one that does not like the way these new toy looking rifles look ?

I looked at a run through of most all of the new rifles from the shotsow .I hardly saw any I liked most had toy like stocks and usually bolt like a doorlock bolt .The new rifles have lost my interest almost totally .I loved Weatgerby Accumarks when I bought mine 25 years ago but these plastic rail guns dont appeal to me at all .They look like they would melt by the fire or get stuck in every stray limb they touched in all those holes .I hated when they tried to make lever guns look like ar15s too not my cup of tea .I guess I just got stuck in time but my rifles still shoot cloverleafs at 100 yards and are smooth as butter to bolt .I am seeing alot better deals for a new rifle buying a classic one thats awesome and as classic as Rachel Welch was in her youth .

I didn’t read anything I disagree with.

dgr416 said:

I looked at a run through of most all of the new rifles from the shotsow .I hardly saw any I liked most had toy like stocks and usually bolt like a doorlock bolt .The new rifles have lost my interest almost totally .I loved Weatgerby Accumarks when I bought mine 25 years ago but these plastic rail guns dont appeal to me at all .They look like they would melt by the fire or get stuck in every stray limb they touched in all those holes .I hated when they tried to make lever guns look like ar15s too not my cup of tea .I guess I just got stuck in time but my rifles still shoot cloverleafs at 100 yards and are smooth as butter to bolt .I am seeing alot better deals for a new rifle buying a classic one thats awesome and as classic as Rachel Welch was in her youth .

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I like them all. From classic to modern. It just depends on what I’m gonna use it for. Guns are tools first for me and I’m going to hunt with them and I like when they hold up to the abuse of a mountain hunt and will put a bullet where it needs to go wayyyy out there. I also love blued steel and walnut. Used both this year.

As to the lever guns with a modern twist. My brother has one in .357 magnum he calls the space cowboy. He put a suppressor on the end and everyone who shoots it giggles a little bit.

Elkeater said:

I like them all. From classic to modern. It just depends on what I’m gonna use it for. Guns are tools first for me and I’m going to hunt with them and I like when they hold up to the abuse of a mountain hunt and will put a bullet where it needs to go wayyyy out there. I also love blued steel and walnut. Used both this year.

As to the lever guns with a modern twist. My brother has one in .357 magnum he calls the space cowboy. He put a suppressor on the end and everyone who shoots it giggles a little bit.

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I feel about the same as @Elkeater . Different strokes for different folks. I like some from modern AR style to walnut and blued.

Accidentally banging the synthetic stock of a modern rifle off a rock, thorn tree, or branch your buddy lets swing back usually doesn't even show up. Doing the same to a nice walnut stock often damages the stock and slightly bruises my soul (being dramatic).

I use both, and I like both for different reasons and different hunts.

No, you are not. Everytime I go to any gunstore and see vast racks of plastic and aluminum I get depressed and wish I could step back in time to my youth when a synthetic stock was a rarity, guns were blue, and scopes were gloss.

Can’t stand ‘em.

And get off my lawn!

Been going on awhile. Ask Jim Zumbo, Most of the gun rags, including the NRA magazines, have been featuring various rattle battles of seemingly endless designs for a long time. I don’t get it either.

fourfive8 said:

Been going on awhile. Ask Jim Zumbo, Most of the gun rags, including the NRA magazines, have been featuring various rattle battles of seemingly endless designs for a long time. I don’t get it either.

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If I remember right Zumbo did not get in it for plastic stock hunting rifles.
It was him stating there was no use for the sim-auto msr and he was fine with them being banned.
It was not so much his taste in what to use hunting.
But pro banning the msr .

fourfive8 said:

Been going on awhile. Ask Jim Zumbo, Most of the gun rags, including the NRA magazines, have been featuring various rattle battles of seemingly endless designs for a long time. I don’t get it either.

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I detest all the rails, light rails, weird looking stocks, pipes on the muzzle, ports and plastic. Give me a clean wood and steel rifle without all the garbage hanging off it. Same with handguns. All these new plastic contraptions with the junk on them give me the willies. Again, steel or some kind of metal. I can tolerate the composite grips but cans and ports turn me off. That's sissy stuff. Shoot it in stock form like a man or get something you can handle. Yeah, I know. I'm old school from when guns were real.

I’m lazy, I want to carry the lightest gun possible, I love my Kimber Mountain Ascent .308 at 4lbs 13oz, and I’m looking forward to the day I get my hands on the new Weatherby Capra, it claims their .308 weighs 4lbs. I love composite stocked rifles.

I can't say much here. I have plenty of space guns in my collection.

M workhorse guns have laminated stocks, my "shooting guns" are walnut and blue steel. The only chassis rifle I’ve ever liked had a custom built aluminium ergonomic chassis in 22 lr (anshutz 2013 ) I didn’t think it looked nice , but it was a tack driver.
Gumpy

I love a fancy wood stock as much as the next person, but I have this thing where I HATE scratching stocks...
For some a scratch on their favourite rifle is a memory or a story, but for me it just absolutely ruins my day/ week/ life.
So now I just prefer synthetic stocks. No need to worry about scratches or rain, and most of the time they are lighter than wood.
And as I do a lot of walking when I hunt - and as I've gotten older, I'm more and more appreciating the lighter weight.
So now, my hunting rifles all have synthetic stocks - except my Sauer .300 Win Mag that wears a beautiful wood stock... that's the rose amongst the thorns!

Russ

u can easily remove a scratch on a wood stock, and yes it is a memory or adds a little character
i do see function in synthetic stocks, suppressors, but personally a gun should look good, so its wood and blued steel for me

dgr416 said:

.The new rifles have lost my interest almost totally

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I am on the same page.
When I see "top ten rifles for year 26, 25, 24 etc" I see nothing special, all has lost the meaning and the point. Its ongoing like that for years.

I get it the SHOT Show 2026 lineup felt like a parade of plastic tactical toys with AR style bolts and skeletonized stocks that look like they'd snag on every bush and melt in a campfire. You're not stuck in time; you're just holding onto what works classic walnut stocks, smooth actions, and rifles that actually feel like rifles, not scifi props.

Those old Weatherby Accumarks or similar classics like pre 64 Winchesters, vintage Sako Finnlights, or even well kept Ruger No.1s still shoot cloverleafs at 100 yards and handle like butter because they were built with soul, not just cost cutting. And you're spot on about the deals used classics in excellent shape are often cheaper than new rail guns and hold value better long term.

Rachel Welch in her prime? Perfect analogy. Timeless beauty and performance never go out of style. Stick with what you love the classics are still the gold standard. What's your favorite old school rifle in the safe right now?

They were / are purpose built tools. One doesn't use a screwdriver to try and undo a bolt. Go to any local PRS matches and you will not see any Monte Carlo shaped stocks with glossy scopes. These may not be your idea of what a "proper rifle" should look like but it works for that shooting discipline. Based on the replies that I've read so far I can only "assume" that the majority of the people that have never shot any type of organized Bench Rest shooting !!

Not a dig, and for what it's worth, not to many of the responders here would like my 74 lb. aluminum stocked, heavy gun with a 36" / 1.450" dia. barrel chambered in "my" custom 6 Dasher rifle that shoots sub MOA groups at 1,000 yards for 10 shots quite regularly. Different tools for different applications like I stated above. I will also that these are not my cup of tea and I think that they are selling like hot cakes due to the "monkey see / monkey do" mentality just like what I've witnessed when it comes to "cartridge" selection for ones custom "competition rifle".

When one, two or six competitors start winning with a "specific" cartridge its a mad dash to get a barrel chambered in the latest and greatest "whizz bang" offering. I've seen this repeatedly over the last two decades of competitive shooting at both 600 and 1,000 yards. My gun won't shoot clover leaves at 100 yards, but be reassured there are no highly figured wooden "Monte Carlo" rifles with "glossy scopes" shooting at any of the matches that I've attended in the 3 different states that I compete in on the firing line.

dgr416 said:

I looked at a run through of most all of the new rifles from the shotsow .I hardly saw any I liked most had toy like stocks and usually bolt like a doorlock bolt .The new rifles have lost my interest almost totally .I loved Weatgerby Accumarks when I bought mine 25 years ago but these plastic rail guns dont appeal to me at all .They look like they would melt by the fire or get stuck in every stray limb they touched in all those holes .I hated when they tried to make lever guns look like ar15s too not my cup of tea .I guess I just got stuck in time but my rifles still shoot cloverleafs at 100 yards and are smooth as butter to bolt .I am seeing alot better deals for a new rifle buying a classic one thats awesome and as classic as Rachel Welch was in her youth .

Click to expand...

I also prefer classic rifles with wood stocks, but as some have already written, rifles are above all tools and depending on where they are used, a synthetic stock can be very advantageous. It is true that cheaper rifles with synthetic stocks often look more like plastic toys, but in the slightly higher price range, there are rifles with such stocks that are quite well-made. I no longer own a rifle with such a stock, but I did own one years ago, a Remington Sendero caliber 300 RUM with a fluted barrel, a nice rifle.

I don’t mind a synthetic stock or even some of the new stock designs that are non traditional. As other have said they are different tools for different jobs.

What I can’t stand in any gun is the giant bolt knob that almost all of them seem to have now. Not only don’t I like the looks I don’t like the functionality. I’ve shot a few of them and find the knob awkward to work. I guess just too many decades of a standard sized bolt knob.

Wouldn’t give 2 shits for modern guns. None of um. Give me the classics, give me romance, give me Grandpa’s guns