In my case experience trumps advertising hype and promises of new wonder rifles. I have been looking for that magic combination for over 50 years, and it just doesn't exist. Factory rifles of recent manufacture are better than ever, with some individual examples being far above or way below the median performance level. This is primarily due to CNC machining combined with other manufacturing techniques that hold closer tolerances. Still, some just fail to live up to expectations, and nobody knows why. Nobody knows why a barrel, made from the same lot of steel, on the same machines, with the same processing, will shoot lousy while those on either side of it in the production sequence will shoot accurately. It's a mystery.
The problem with small companies is that they have the tendency to go bankrupt. This can leave the customer out of luck for parts and service, especially when the custom rifle is assembled with a proprietary action. I have a couple of firearms residing in my safe that fall in this category. The advantage of a factory rifle is that parts are usually available, but there is no guaranty. If a rifle is built on a common action, such as a Remington 700 or Savage, then parts will usually be plentiful. I have a older Sako which parts are scarce should I need them, and Browning reproductions that are difficult to find parts for. I have handguns where the manufacturer went out of business with no parts available, making them useless should they break.
Then there is the commonality factor. So the hunter or shooter wants a new custom rifle, but very few custom or semi-custom hunting rifles will be any more accurate or dependable than a new quality factory rifle. Most custom rifles use the same type components common to all rifles, yet they are far more expensive and produce little if any advantage in accuracy or reliability. I read of a custom rifle that cost $5,000, but the article went on to show an accuracy of around an inch, not much of a recommendation when many factory rifles can duplicate or best that.
Next, we come to what can be built up today by a shooter capable of a DIY project using commonly available parts. For example, I assemble my own varmint rifles using new Savage, Remington, or Anderson AR-15 lowers. For barrels I purchase Pac-Nor, Shilen, Brux, Krieger, Hart or Criterion barrels, all pre-fits and ready to be installed with a barrel nut. Then I use either a pre-fit pillar bedded laminated stock, or a Bell and Carlson aluminum bedding chassis stock, or Magpul stock for the AR-15's. Everything comes out of a catalog, and cost runs between $1,750 and $2,200 retail. Even the Remington 783 can be rebarreled, or converted to a swap barrel rifle for the cost of a Criterion barrel, using the Savage barrel nut wrench and tools I already have.
So, there you have it. Some of us can be a bit critical, because we know that nothing much is truly new in the firearms game. We know that each little gain in accuracy costs a proportional amount of money. We also know that a newfangled cartridge is nothing to get too excited about, because usually there are many existing cartridges that will drive a given caliber and weight bullet at similar velocity. All that counts is bullet diameter, mass and velocity, no matter the name on the headstamp. Some of our attitude can be attributed to being closed minded, but mostly its due to knowing the limits on what is possible under the law of physics and the psychology of manufacturing.
