I once asked the people at Heym about the proud wood.

They noted that they could surely take the wood down level with the hardware, at no additional cost. The reason they build it proud is in anticipatation of a few refinishings along the way. Every time you refinish the wood (if done correctly) you end up taking some of it away. Since you cannot add wood back, seems like a good strategy.

Heym builds their rifles as honest to goodness working guns. And they build them to last. No sense anticipating that the rifle may be refinished a time or two unless the rest of it is built to last.

As for the higher end stuff, I believe it was a Heym double that SCI chose as one of their "stars" back in the 80's? Can't recall what the competition was that SCI was running at the time, but it was by no means a limited field.

They have been around since 1865, and from the looks of them they'll be around through their 200th anniversary.