z1r,
Very interesting that you've had the same experience as Charlie Sisk, the gunsmith I mentioned--and yep, European rifles and brass do tend to be of higher consistency.
But he builds rifles on whatever the customer wants, usually American bolt actions, especially Remington 700's and Winchester Model 70's, though he's also built 'em on Ruger 77's. He uses the same two brands of American-made after-market barrels on all his rifles (or at least he did, last time I talked to him about it) and buys most of his reamers from one company.
He's also the gunsmith who built my Remington 700 in the wildcat we co-designed, the 9.3 Barsness-Sisk the .350 Remington Magnum necked up. Like most wildcats, it's totally redundant, since its basically provides 9.3x62 ballistics in a short action, the reason we usually shorten the name to the 9.3 B-S. But we both use Remington brass, the same brand used in most .35 Whelens, and not only my rifle but the couple dozen Charlie's built for other people (including himself) are also very accurate, just like most 9.3x62's.
So I dunno!
