OP, you've received all sorts of feedback, and maybe at this point info overload. However, let me pile on some more. Choosing an action -- other than cost -- might should also factor in:
a) is the action readily available, or could there be significant lead time involved? (weeks or even months)
b) what is your friend's timetable?
c) who's going to put the rifle together? With some of these actions, 'prefit' barrels are available, which theoretically means your friend could screw it together without screwing it up. Otherwise, choosing a rifle builder is sort of a big deal, especially if it means sending stuff back and forth. Delivery times, package theft, cranial-rectalitis of people in general these days, etc. can all add up to stress. Seems like having a rifle built should be fun. I chose a local-ish builder for my latest, because of his familiarity with Stiller. Super-fast turnaround, i.e. less than a week after he got my barrels/stock/bottom metal. Would I use him again? I'm not sure. I bet there are forum members here would absolutely use their builder again. But is that builder taking new work, how long, how expensive?
If I lived an hour from Pierce (like one poster said), I would use them. Other things being equal, I would choose an action that my builder liked, or that I could barrel myself with the prefit stuff if you believe in that option. I'd rather have the rifle sooner than later, and not just because the liberty-loathing socialist fear-mongers perhaps soon to occupy the White House will do whatever they can to destroy the 2nd Amendment. We live in uncertain times; more so than at any point in US history since WW2. This time, the menace is from within (and of course, externally, from China).
So, talk to your friend, and then get to it !!!! And then tell us how it worked out.
Borrow a tradition commonly seen (i.e. pre-Covid insanity) at the Trevi Fountain in Rome but modify it to your situation. Once you get the new rifle, shoot it, and then toss an empty case backwards over your shoulder. Ensuring you'll be in the market for another rifle, like the rest of us! (If the case was Lapua headstamp, retrieve it because it's worth about a dollar.)
a) is the action readily available, or could there be significant lead time involved? (weeks or even months)
b) what is your friend's timetable?
c) who's going to put the rifle together? With some of these actions, 'prefit' barrels are available, which theoretically means your friend could screw it together without screwing it up. Otherwise, choosing a rifle builder is sort of a big deal, especially if it means sending stuff back and forth. Delivery times, package theft, cranial-rectalitis of people in general these days, etc. can all add up to stress. Seems like having a rifle built should be fun. I chose a local-ish builder for my latest, because of his familiarity with Stiller. Super-fast turnaround, i.e. less than a week after he got my barrels/stock/bottom metal. Would I use him again? I'm not sure. I bet there are forum members here would absolutely use their builder again. But is that builder taking new work, how long, how expensive?
If I lived an hour from Pierce (like one poster said), I would use them. Other things being equal, I would choose an action that my builder liked, or that I could barrel myself with the prefit stuff if you believe in that option. I'd rather have the rifle sooner than later, and not just because the liberty-loathing socialist fear-mongers perhaps soon to occupy the White House will do whatever they can to destroy the 2nd Amendment. We live in uncertain times; more so than at any point in US history since WW2. This time, the menace is from within (and of course, externally, from China).
So, talk to your friend, and then get to it !!!! And then tell us how it worked out.
Borrow a tradition commonly seen (i.e. pre-Covid insanity) at the Trevi Fountain in Rome but modify it to your situation. Once you get the new rifle, shoot it, and then toss an empty case backwards over your shoulder. Ensuring you'll be in the market for another rifle, like the rest of us! (If the case was Lapua headstamp, retrieve it because it's worth about a dollar.)
