I thought I would have to get the parts together and give them to a reputable Smith to assemble.
Would you mind providing a link to a match report so I have an example?
OK.... so this is going to get me in trouble but in for a penny
"reputable smiths" is a broad term. There are thousands of reputable men building rifles in this world but blessed few qualified to assemble a competitive Benchrest Rifle. 99.99999% of all the so-called "shooters" on the planet will never even SEE real accuracy much less experience it. And there are about 7 BR gunsmiths who make the guns that win everything. Well, maybe even as many as 20 but the number is small.
Right now, on this site there are three rifles for sale. A 'Clay Spencer' Kelbly, a 'Bryant' and a 'Powell'...... WHY are the names listed you ask? Because they're KNOWN gunsmiths, people who've paid their dues and built multiple winning rifles. You buy THEIR packages because they're qualified to make the decisions re components etc and qualified to put them together...... and because they have an entire community to answer to.
You show up at a match and win something and everyone will ask you "who put your gun together?". Conversely you show up at a match with a gun built by Powell, Bryant or Spencer and everyone there assumes that you suck, not the gun. And in simple fact when a known riflesmith builds a gun that DOESN'T win, everyone hears about it.
I say this not because you're planning to show up at a Match... but because the folks building the gun don't know that, because truly REPUTABLE gunbuilders know for an absolute fact that thier reputation rides on every gun that leaves their premises whether it "shows up at a Match" or not. They build GOOD, because they can't bear to build bad.....
and because they know the difference.
A GOOD gun will shoot whether you "do your part" or not.
Every other forum on the innertube you will see folks nodding and bobbing "it's the indian, not the arrow" and
"it'll shoot all day if I do my part" and
"You give Tony Boyer a Savage and he'll hand you your ass on a plate"
Pure-Dee ininformed and ignorant bullsh!t.... when you buy a good gun,
YOU will go out and shoot teeny-weeny dots. YOU will go out and shoot 5-shot groups that make one hole.
And YOU will smile.
Or, you don't lissen to me and you spend the next 10-15yrs chasing your tail and wondering "is it me or the gun???"
I've invited dozens, perhaps hundreds of people over to my place to "shoot a good gun" and a number of them have handed me blank checks because they've realized first hand the exquisite WONDER of truly accurate equipment.
what I'm saying bluntly is, "
you don't know what you don't know"...... that you're not qualified to "pick components" nor to pick a "reputable smith" to put it together.
Take it from one who has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on this road..... you name the rules, you pick the scenario I've BTDT ......whether it's "saving money" or "wanting something different"..... I've BTDTGTTS over and over and over.
As I've recently stated baldly in several episodes on my youtube channel....... IF THE GUN IS
CAPABLE OF SHOOTING 5-SHOT GROUPS WITH AIR IN THEM,
IT'S BROKEN!!"
This is true.
If you live within a hunnerd miles of a winning gunsmith or a Bench Rest Match 100yd Group or Score ..... GO!! ...... HASTEN Ye forth and SEE what accuracy is.
Anything else is masturbation