I am out of my league among you, gents, but I could not refrain from reading this and write my own; not even sure I understand it all.
I agree with Jerry Lape on this matter. If I am to hunt, I do it with most pleasure holding a beautiful gun in hands. If I hit or not what I shoot at it is less important to me. The flush is far more excitant than the kill. The trip in the woods with a beautiful gun is more atractive than the kill itself.
I have a few friends who tolerate my nonsense, with a good dose of laugh. They all shoot uglier guns than mine (I think), but do it better. I would not trade my pleasure of hunting with a beauty for a kill. To each his own.
In two words, I like the Beauty before the Truth.
Now I can see my friends vomiting if they would read this...