The artisans who created the work we admire used rifles or actions that were readily available, of acceptable quality, and were relatively inexpensive and did the best they could with them. There was very little collector interest in "old army rifles". And there were lots of them available. There were very few other options than 1903 Springfields or 1917 Enfields, especially if the client or customer wanted a 30-06 or longer cartridge. The Winchester 54 first showed up in 1925 and had some stamped parts. The Model 70 did not show up until 1935, the middle of the Depression. IIRC, the Remington Model 30 showed up in the late 1920s. If you build a custom sporter today, you have many other options. The old masters did not.
