I found this thread and had to add on to it. Russell is building me a 7-300WM AI, we are just waiting on the reamers (chamber and die) to get started. I dropped off my donor rifle at his place last Thursday as I had to be at Ft. Hood for the weekend anyway. Since I first sent Russel an e-mail about maybe building a rifle on Jan 20th we have exchanged no less then 12 e-mails back and forth, and have talked on the phone at least 15 times going over what exactly we wanted to do, reamer ideas, (he has also talked to Dave Kiff at PTG at least 5-6 times about the reamer), scope idea's etc, and he has always taken the time out of his day to listen and talk. When I went to his shop he showed me several rifles that he has built to give us some idea's, and let me look through different scopes to see what I thought. Let me tell you, in this day and age when a smith takes that kind of time to talk to a customer and ask me what exactly I was looking for, and then takes the time to help guide me in the correct direction...well, it means a lot. This is the first rifle that I have had built and I am already thinking of the next one that I am going to have him do. And I do not even have the first one yet! He is a stand up guy who has the knowledge base to bounce idea's off of and then tell you what will or will not work. Based off of my conversations with him I have 100% confidence in going with different things that he suggests. When going over the reamer idea's as I mentioned above he talked to Dave Kiff (who by the way is one of the masters at making reamers, if he has an idea or suggestion you sit back and listen) many times. Then one morning out of the blue he gives me a call and says "Ok, I know the reamer we are going with and it is ordered". And I just said "sounds good" as based off our prior conversations I knew that he would do what would work out the best. Of course he explained why we using this particular reamer and he had all of the bases covered, and then some that I did not even know to ask about.
Moral of the story is that even if it means my next build may take a bit longer due to his business picking up even more, I would highly recommend Russell and Scout Supply Company if you are considering a build. His customer service and communication are excellent, and from what I have seen and read you can bet that you will receive an absolute tack driver of a rifle from him. I could see this getting expensive quick, I might have to start hiding my new rifles in the back of the safe as my wife has a pretty good idea of what I already have!
