Cough, cough. I think I know what you're saying Bill, but maybe the category could be trimmed down to classic sporter styled production bolt actions. There's got to be a few lever action fans that have a thought or two on the quality of their favorite production rifles.

I may be recalling it wrong, but I think the old catalog prices of pre WW I German sporting bolt action rifles were well out of the price reach of someone looking for a mass produced rifle. I think, they were for a limited market, available in limited numbers to match. With influences from many parts of the world, I think American custom gunsmiths take the absolute scale edge for sporting bolt rifles, but that stretches much farther from mass production.

Is it design or execution, or some balance of both that's under consideration. The point being is that '98 Mausers are rather common, some current production arms are very well crafted, but what does it take to make them interesting.