Gilt-edged accuracy is greatly overrated in a hunting rifle. What is VASTLY more important is how well the rifle fits the shooter, how comfortable it is to shoot and how it handles. Any pea-brained machinist can build an accurate rifle. If you think that building a highly function AND accurate rifle is anything less than an art form, regardless of how "pretty" it is, you've got another thing coming.
The merit of gilt edge accuracy in a hunting rifle depends entirely on what kind of hunting is being done, now doesn't it? For dangerous game where hitting a pie plate at 25yds is all the accuracy required but function must be 100% reliable, then yes, gilt edge accuracy would be highly overrated. For game ranch hunting where "hunting" is often little more than driving out to the herd and picking hte animal and shooting it at 100yds or less, again the rifle doesn't need to be all that accurate. For hunting wary game in difficult conditions where that same pie plate now may have to be hit at well over 500yds, the rifle cannot be too accurate.
Saying that any machinist can make an accurate rifle is insulting to quality riflesmiths that pride themselves on making accurate rifles. If any idiot could do it, the demand for the work of the best accuracy 'smiths would be nil. Oddly contrary to your claim they have all the work that they can handle, can charge a premium for their work and have a backlog usually of several years. The elements of getting a rifle to fit the shooter are well known and most of these 'smiths do essentially nothing custom WRT fit because they don't need to. They're working from the time proven designs in stocks, weighting and proportions. They'll accommodate a different length of pull than standard if requested by the customer, but that's usually about it.
PS, looking down your nose at "pretty" rifles is no less snobbish than the snobs you implicate.
I don't look down my nose at them at all. If that's what they want to spend their money on, their business. My point was that you can spend a lot of money on a custom rifle and get "pretty" without getting a real shooter and if you'd actually read the post that I quoted, I was the one giving credit where it was due. There is certainly an artistry involved in making heirloom firearms. If I wanted a display piece, that is the type of rifle builder that I would approach. Wouldn't really care how it shot if I had that kind of money to spend on a showpiece, much as the typical customer of those builders doesn't. They are buying a work of art in the form of a rifle and they get what they want in that regard. They are not usually riflemen. I can appreciate a beautifully figured walnut stock and inlays and engraving for the art that it is, but the reality is that none of that enhances the quality of the rifle from a hunting perspective and in many cases it detracts from it.
For a hunting rifle, I don't give two shakes what the thing looks like. I don't want pretty. I don't want wood. I don't want engraving and color case hardening and all the other artistic touches. I want a rifle that is capable of better precision than I am, able to withstand the elements and the abuse of being packed through a harsh and rugged environment and light enough that I don't feel like I'm lugging a lead weight around. My point is that, by definition, custom rifles of that ilk are going to be the most accurate hunting rifles available because the capability of guaranteeing that is what I as the customer are seeking in the custom riflesmith that will get my business. In that regard, the custom rifle will most certainly shoot better than a mass produced rifle, because that is what I'm paying for.
