I have always been a devotee of the factory rifles, with my sole custom being built on a 2001 Savage 10FP 260.
I made my bones on this site by conducting and writing up basic and simple accurizing and handloading projects for the basic factory rifle (the Black Thoughts series of article/posts), and my devotion to the basic platform has not wavered by a single iota. I remain committed to the concept that enough is enough, and that significant excess is nice but not an imperative. I have accepted that my own marksmanship skills are not superlative, and that major injections of cash into the process are not going to be met by major improvements in my own personal performance. Not really such a painful admission, it's just my way of adjusting to the realities of my own abilities.
Today's factory rifles have come a long way since my entry onto this site before its actual emergence, back in the LowLight Directive site days. They shoot far better O/O the box, have far fewer design and QC bugs, and while they cost more, they are worth more, too.
IMHO, it's always been a matter of matching load to barrel, ergonomics to skills, education and practice to those skills. Get those bits right, and that humble factory rifle is usually more capable then the person operating it. I think a lot of potential tends to remain in those rifles that the Eager Beaver crowd tend to look down on and replace ASAP. The shame is it's already paid-for potential, and it's their own potential they are passing over. As I first suggested here nearly 20 years ago, the mark of the accomplished rifleman is their ability to get nearly all of the potential out of nearly any rifle, or be able to tell the owner what's wrong with it if the results aren't so good.
I learned much of my basic skills from my Elder Brother Bill, who shot on the Ft. Sill Base Rifle team in the mid-1950's, and worked out a way to do a temporary bedding job on a Garand with Paper Mache.
I have rarely sold a gun, and they all depreciate, not just the customs, which just depreciate more because they start out costing more. My guns are given to my offspring (and soon, their offspring, too). I try very hard to make sure they are up and running at their full potential before putting them into those valuable hands.
All of this is just a series of personal opinions, but they're ones I've never needed to set aside. Lots of folks can and have beaten me on the line; and for them, the extra expenditure makes perfect sense. I know my limitations and my own equipment is simpler, cheaper, and relatively humble by comparison. It supports the realities of an older shooter's capabilities, and is fully adequate for achieving my own complete personal enjoyment.
YMMV.
Greg
