By the way, David (Furman), either you are exaggerating the cold Northeast temperatures, or you mean 0 degrees Celsius.0 degrees Kelvin is the same as -273 degrees Celsius...absolute zero! It doesn't even get that cold here in Wyoming :<).
Joe
Nope, I meant Kelvin. Bottomed out the thermometer the other morning, so I figure it had to be colder than a witches...hence my "off the charts" temp rating, always wanted to see absolute zero from the comfort and privacy of my living room. Purely subjective, but I'm sure there's a grain of truth to it:) (Not unlike this duscussion) Reality it was only -32 F, but who's counting?
I'd post the picture of my frozen beard, but already got made fun of on another board for my visible (and frozen) nose hairs, and you good folks just don't need to be subjected to that.
I have no desire to refinish my stocks every time I'm out in the rain...or even every season. My guns are fancy by my standards but they are not high-grade and while well-cared for they donot get babied--for me, a stock finish should be relatively durable...barring anything catastrophic I think a finish should last several years at the inside before I need to redo it or touch it up.
Above comments about the emotion involved seem spot on to me--I invest a lot of my time and energy in this, so I want to like my finish in all respects in addition to gaining function. It won't ever be perfect, but we all have different wants and needs and there's no reason any of us should want or need exactly the same thing. And we haven't even gotten to aesthetics yet...