AI vs customs threads are my favorite
@ChuckP65, have you tried and gotten behind an AI rifle? If you like what you saw, felt, shot, then you may as well jump on the AI train and buy one. Seriously, they are awesome rifles.
The advantage to the AI is that one manufacturer is producing all the parts. All the parts are designed to work with each other from the factory. You buy an AI rifle, and it's going to work, and work well. They are robust, and shoot well. The downside to the system is that you are more or less stuck with the rifle "as is", which for most people is certainly not a bad thing. It's a "one size fits most" kind of rifle, and if it works for you, it's hard to do better then an AI.
Custom rifles are nice because you can have it built to your liking and to fit you exactly the way you want - like a good custom made suit. But you need to start with good materials, a good "tailor" (gunsmith) and you need to know what your preferences are. You can get a rifle built that's reliable, has the ergonomics you like, the trigger you like, the stock/chassis you like, and one that shoots very, very well. BUT, you need to know what you're preferences are, and have a good gunsmith put it together so it doesn't have problems once it gets to you. And even then, there can be quirks as you are assembling a rifle made with a bunch of different parts with different tolerances, and they may or may not integrate that well together, causing everything from nuanced little quirks to full on fuckery.
I love custom rifles, and I personally wouldn't trade my custom rifles for an AI. It took a lot of time and money to get there though. My first custom rifle, an early generation GAP Crusader, was a fucking nightmare to run in dusty conditions. It would lock up tighter then a nuns you know what if it had a spec of lube on it to attract dust, in some matches I had to clean it after every couple of stages. Where AI's would just run. There are custom actions/rifles that can be very fickle, and if not setup correctly, will just be the cause of endless frustrations - you won't get that with an AI. The components for custom rifles have been gotten a lot better, but there are still buyer beware stories out there of people having issues with $5K+ custom rigs. Where I ended up with my PRS rig, a Mausingfield with JAE chassis and BnA Tacsport trigger, has been an absolute dream to run in all conditions and it fits me like a bespoke suit, but I would be lying if I didn't tell you that it took a lot of iterations, time and $ to get there.
While I fly the custom rifle flag high and proud here, I bet if I started with an AI, I would probably still be rocking that same AI today. Rather then going through several iterations of custom rifles to finally get a reliable solution that fits me. I'm not huge on the ergonomics and the trigger of the AI, but the rifles just flat out work and in all conditions, and there's something to be said about that.
If an AI rifle checks all your boxes, then just go and buy it. You can't go wrong.