I live near Empire (or at least compared to most of you) and have been there. At some point, especially over on AR lots of these Mauser discussions are reduced to picking fly poop out of pepper. Empire initially consulted with the late Fred Wells on the 98S design. I imagine you'd have as much into having a m70 re-worked by someone like Mark Penrod or other top flights smiths as you would on the 98S. I call it an even match.
I will say I did not fire one of the rifles so cannot report on that. I can also say I have my CZ in the hands of Dennis Olson FWIW and he is now re-shaping the factory stock as it appears to have some pretty good wood underneath the awful factory goop.
At the end of the day, I'd consider Empire but I would certainly demand results in terms of the rifle's funtion.
