Excaliber,
I have the same OCD thoughts and tendencies when I'm building rifles. If it was not for my office manager telling me that I cannot "donate" hours of labor into a Rem 700 action just to make me feel better, I would do it to every action I touch. I believe the same things as you, however I have to be realistic and make educated decisions on what I need to do in order to get a rifle to shoot. Because there is so many rifles with minimal work put into them that still shoot, and I'm not a good enough shot in order to reach our rifles full potential, I have to favor the side of doing the "Meat and Potatoes" services that customers can appreciate and keep me happy while not losing money on truing an action up. Here is what we do when we true an action.
-Hold the action in a fashion that is as stress free as possible.
-Use proper fitting and well maintained action bushings and action truing rods.
-Sharp tools set up properly in a well maintained machine, set up correctly.
-Single point cut action face, lug abutments, single point cut receiver threads concentric/square.
-Single point cut back of bolt lugs, bolt nose, front of bolt lugs, bolt face after bolt is dialed in co-axially.
-chamfer all critical surfaces that need clearance.
-use one of our match recoil lugs and or a properly ground recoil lug.
Add that action, with a well fitted barrel with a straight/concentric chamber with proper headspace from a quality barrel manufacturer in a stress free properly bedded stock and I just don't see how I can prove that it will not shoot worse than a BR style precision ground bolt in a perfect raceway type action. Now on paper, I will agree with what you are saying. But I am not able to tell the difference in pure accuracy numbers. I can tell the difference in features and fit and finish.
I also try to push customers for a quality custom action for a bunch of reasons even though it may not be a great business move considering we can charge around $1000 in services just fixing up a Rem 700 action. I have been working on a project that may satisfy your need for perfection in a Rem 700 action. Its a floating bolt head Rem 700 action. On paper, there should always be square lug contact, square bolt face and assuming the action is trued as mentioned above, it would yield near maximum accuracy potential with one negative effect that I can think of. Due to a sloppy bolt clearance, the firing pin will not be traveling perfectly parallel with the centerline of the action. This is something I can live with considering the benefits.
By adding the floating bolt head, I gain these benefits.
-I can install the bolt head in a fashion that brings the bolt handle as far as possible in the bolt handle cutout for maximum extraction.
-I can time the bolt handle timing perfectly
-Maintain Rem 700 reliability from the loose raceway while maintaining square bolt lug/face
-Guided, minimal clearance firing pin
-Post 64 style extractor.
-Gas Check behind the lugs
-Superior metallurgy on the lugs.
Even though these things probably cost me money and are not great business moves, I'm always pursuing perfection in everything we do. Lots of it is behind the scenes until proven out completely.
Mark