I've done a little cabinetry ( don't have the patience) and agree it's an excellent repair. If I wasn't happy with it I wouldn't have put my hard earned in it.

I'm not complaining about the rifle or the repair. If that was within the parameters of the contract of organization that originally contracted for the rifles then who am I to question it. At the same time if I was the organization paying for new rifles, 1 or 100,000 I would want new rifles in every sense of the word, not a new rifle with a new repair, cosmetic or not. If you were buying a new rifle for yourself would you buy a "new repaired" one over an unblemished on sitting beside of it? You wouldn't because there is no such thing when selling to individuals spending their own money. I don't believe contract stuff should be any different in appearance or function than any commercial item. It was peacetime after all, no rush to supply a fighting army.