slide scratches rant

[Charlie50]

Scratches, blemishes, scars, dents, age spots all suck when they appear on the stuff and people you value. I too have a P-220 that got its first scratches (from me, it was used) on my jeans rivet. I now use a different holster (oldFaithful.com) That is a IWB type. Practice a fair amount with it. The finish shows some minor wear but its my everyother day carry... it works for a living.

[CrippledPidgeon]

I like how everyone here refers to damage on firearms as "Battle scars." Its not a battle scar if you drop it on a pile of bricks and hobo spit while admiring how beautiful it is.

I'm not afraid of wear on my firearms. In fact, as a big C&R guy, I like character to my guns. Having said that, if I buy a brand new gun, I want it to look purdy for at least a little while. If it happens to get scratched while in a HD/combat situation, or while using it for severe training than so be it.
But if its first damage comes because of my carelessness or an accident, yeah I'm gonna be pissed.

Exactly. I don't intentionally go out to add wear to the gun, but I don't stress over it if wear happens.

For instance, I have an M1 with parallel dings in the stock where some soldier tried to seat the rounds in his en bloc clip. My Glock proudly displays holster wear. My AR barrel has a blotch of melted plastic where I accidentally rested my sling on it after a firing session, and scratches on the receiver when it fell on rocks (I rested it against a wall while I was cleaning something else, and it fell over, putting a nice scratch on the wall, and scratches on the receiver)

But I don't take new guns and throw them into dirt or gravel on purpose. Any time you do something like that, you run the risk of actually doing damage to the pistol. I have a friend who did that with a Glock slide, and he broke a slide rail where it fell wrong on concrete.

[triple-tap]

I saw an interview of Chris Costa where they ask him how can he trash a $4,000 gun. He simply said it's a tool.

A different invterview with James Yeager to a gunsmith a Wilson Combat said when he gets a new gun he drops in the gravel on purpose. That we he won't baby it and will be able to push it.

I guess I have to agree somewhat. Although there are some guns I just don't want to scratch. hmmm.

The way I see it, you just popped it's cherry. Time to run her hard.

Good point here ^

If anyone conditions himself to baby a gun. Maybe during a moment of need that baby factor may impact them badly, and they think more about hurting the gun and not about the deadly scenario.

An instructor told us one time that guys who pick up brass after shooting, sometimes pick up brass during a shootout, because they conditioned themselves. I do not know how true that is, but it is something to think about.

Don't worry about the finish, think about conditioning the mind set. You can always refinish a gun, but not your mind if you mess up.