RE: Is quality what it used to be??
One of my biggest beefs is synthetic stocks.
Gun companies tout these as being 'all weather' or will hold a more consistant zero than a wood stock, but istead of giving you a quality stock, you get a $15 flimsy piece of injection molded tupperware made from recycled milk jugs, worse yet, there is nothing useful you can do with these stocks if you replace them. You can't even burn them in your fireplace.They then slap on a coat of black krylon spraypaint as an 'all-weather' finish instead of doing a nice blueing job and charge you the same price as if you bought a nicely blued walnut stocked rifle. [:'(]
Another pet peave of mine is called 'MIM' or Metal Injection Molding. Its a shortcut used in making pistol parts to avoid precise machining and fitting. Sure they work great but they are nowhere near as strong as a forged and machined piece. You buy a mid priced pistol and end up spending hundreds of dollars replacing all of the MIM parts with hand fitted parts so that the pistol becomes nearly 100% reliable and is less likely to break a slide stop or extractor when you least expect it.