There are obviously many who think it adds elegance to the stock. Surely a properly fitted skeleton plate or a heel(not heal) and toe plate is very handsome. However, as Chuck said, the few sparse lines scratched into a lower level Spanish gun like the ones I can afford, make it look unfinished to me, like a cheap air rifle. That's my opinion. I don't like the way hard butted guns slide around in a gun rack, whether the butt is plastic or checkered. Any gun I expect to keep for any reasonable length of time will likely end up with a Pachmayr pad on it.
