500grains,

Best quality in the USA starting at the typical over the counter prices most people are wiling to pay is likely an old Sears aka JC Higgins FN Mauser chambered in .30/06, if you can find one. I had one once...I paid $300 and the price included a brand new Leupold 3x9 on top and it did 3/4 MOA 3 shot groups from a bench with I forgot what Federal factory ammunition...I gave it to my neighbor's son who will probably be able to use it for a lifetime.

For the "money is no object" rifles, as you probably already know, I've been studying that myself to decide what .375 to buy to use for the rest of my life. The conclusions I've come to are that the bolt actions built by Johannsen and Prechtl are as good as you can get, but I am thinking I may purchase a bolt rifle from Butch Searcy to avoid the import mess. The Ryan Breeding rifles you mentioned appear to be too short or too blocky for my personal taste but seeing and handling one in person could possibly change my opinion fast. I was decided on a Johannsen, but after checking importers, NECG and GSI told me they no longer import them, but NECG says they will order a custom built Johannsen for a buyer.

Also for "best" rifles, I don't consider anything that has a cheap "custom" plastic stock spray painted to the customer's choice of color to be desirable...the stock should be virtually waterproof oil sealed wood and built to fit the customer...nor do I think that any rifle is desirable if the maker chops off machined portions and welds new parts on, or if the maker builds a gun so that all parts that may need to be replaced at some point have to be custom made...unfortunately this rules out several big name gunmakers.

I want most of the "best quality" work to be done to improve function and the work of that sort is usually done on the inside, where it isn't visible to the world, whereas most of the "best" work frequently appears to be done on the exterior as eye candy.

Richard.