Can relate to many of these posts! Based on all the various rifles/calibers I've owned and shot, a few seem better to me. I have built and have had built quite a few custom and semi-custom rifles over the years. But if comparing a good factory rifle to a good custom rifle- the lines gray somewhat as to which is the better tool.
For me it's hard to beat the basic CRF Winchester M70 for hunting. I've had and shot quite a few pre-64 M70s and they are generally very good but don't seem any better nor more useful nor more accurate than the ones made in the early 2000s. I've read about a slump of QC sometime in the late New Haven rifles but I haven't experienced it. All those later M70s were still made with quite a bit of hand labor and with machines that were old with some having to be re-set after each shift to correct runout. I suppose if an employee got lazy it would cause a problem- I just never saw one.
I had a new post New Haven, FN M70. I shot it quite a bit so we had some mileage- it was OK. Seemed reliable enough and within average accuracy potential of all the M70s I've been around. I did not care for the MOA trigger, however. We never "bonded" so It was in a group of my earlier liquidations- a few years ago.
Thinking back on all the actions and rifles, a few stand out for impressive workmanship in the category of "factory or military factory rifle". In no particular order- Chilean M1895 7mm Mauser made by Loewe (Berlin), a couple of the Mexican War - Civil War era rifle muskets made by US armories like Springfield or contractors like Whitney, an M1950? FN Mauser, CRF Winchester M70s in 375 HH and 416 Rem Mag made in the early to mid 2000s, some of the early Winchester lever guns in Models like 1876, 1873, 1892, 1886 and 71. While I had several reliable M1894s and still have one, they always seemed to be the "rattle battles" of the Win lever group and not my favorites. The "odd feller" of the Winchester lever group IMO was the M1895. Cumbersome as all get out to carry, not the best geometry for heavy recoil but really a very strong action with better than average smooth cycling. Of all the M1895s I had, the best shooter by far and the one I liked the best was in the nearly instantly obsolete caliber of 35 Winchester.
With a good bullet and proper loading, mine was as impressive if not more so than the famous 405. The 405 I had was pristine in nearly unfired condition and was 1st year production. And last but not least- the Winchester lever gun and caliber that impressed me in the same way the M1895 in 35 Winchester did was the M1876 in 45-75. All three I had were impressive shooters!
