One big thing a CNC can do that you can't easly do on a manual lathe is transition from the bore part of the chanber to the lead with out a pause.More involved than most are doing is a big statement to make. Especially if you haven't spoke to most about the process as well.
Finishing with a boring bar, quite a few are doing them start to finish that way. I thought that his finish machining where it counted (leade) was with a Henrickson (probably spelled wrong there) reamer after he done all the work with the boring bar.
As far as CNC lathe? The two other people that own one are using it. CNC does not mean its going to be the greatest thing ever like a bunch of people think. Really all the CNC is going to produce over a guy with a good manual machine and machining practices is maybe faster production volume and maybe easier to do the feed rate variations for finish he talks about. Don't get me wrong, Jerry does quality work and uses the machines he has to do it with, but I would say he could do just as quality work with a manual machine too. I would bet his process for that manual machine would be different from the CNC/very similar to a lot of other guys on manual machines as well. May be wrong on that but I suspect. I doubt his expectations for finish product would change from a barrel done in the CNC vs done on a manual machine too. He would still expect his work to be competitive and capable of winning.
Tad