To the question of top gunsmith, that needs to first be clarified by what considers a top notch rifle. For bolt action rifles, there seem to be two main catagories of rifles being built these days. The more modern catagory is what I'll call the tactical rifle, this is likely a Rem 700 action that has been blueprinted, ie squared and trued, and a barrel is fit to it, then it is bedded into a synthetic stock. The metal finish is likely some sort of industrial finish, and the trigger is maybe swapped out with a Jewel or the like. Not to denegrate the folks making those sort of rifles, but they really don't require a true gunsmith to craft, they are more the work of a machinist/mechanic, ie someone that dials in the lathe and bolts on swaps out parts.
The other type of rifle is the classic hunting rifle, typically built on a mauser 98 or Win model 70, wood stocked, nicely blued and perhaps a bit of fiddling on the magazine/feed rails. This requires not only the machinist to fit the barrel to the action, but also a true gunsmith for hand fitting of metal to metal, and metal to wood. There are both darn few of such folks capable of such work as well as customers that appreciate what it takes to do such work. I'd venture to say while many of those building fine classic hunting rifles are also duly capable of making highly accurate tactical/target guns, the reverse is not true.
My two cents.
