I have to confess to having always been more concerned about how well the rifle would feed loaded cartridges. Enough so that I always test with complete cartridges and don't much care how well the rifle might feed empties. See, I've been hunting and target shooting for nearly fifty years and am unable to recall a situation where I thought an empty case was the right choice for the shot I had to make.
When it comes to custom gunmakers, there are, literally, hundreds of them whose skills impress me; a lot. GD
