I have 6 customs, and have shot customs by a LOT of other smiths.
My personal rifles are all from AZ smiths. AxisWorks & Phoenix Custom Rifles. All of them are .2-.3MOA guns with proper load work up. Some were .2 right out of the gate. Some required finding the right load. All are amazing. I would recommend either of these to any AZ shooter/hunter.
I have also shot rifles from:
LRI, SAC, Lane Precision, Piercision, Defensive Edge, Craig's Customs, West Tx Ordinance, Montour, Hill Country, many other AxisWorks, many other PCR, Southern Xpress, and probably 8-10 other smiths that I cannot think of off the top of my head, but knew the names of most. A few built by some home based smiths as well. Some shoot better than others, some are far more refined than others. Some were probably specified by the owner in a route I would personally never go, which biased my opinion of build quality & choice. Some are works of art that I would feel bad taking into the field. Some looked like they would be a good loaner rifle to your cousin's friend's brother who drives around hanging out the window of his dude-bro truck chucking beer cans out the window and smoking a cigarette while blasting some modern rap crap @ 180db that sounds like every other rap out right now while driving down the dirt road with all 4 windows open, with dust engulfing every inch of the inside of his cab.....in other words, it would make a good paperweight or hammer for your fence posts.
Only 1 or 2 of the aforementioned names in the last 5 pages would I avoid from what I have personally seen, handled and shot.
As for my "dream rifle gunsmith".....man, that is like asking what is the one thing you would pick to eat for every meal for the rest of your life. Variety man, it is the spice of life. In other words, Too hard of a choice for me to make.
