Brit,
1)Customers chose Remington world wide not Parker Hale!
2)If you go into a custom rifle workshop you'll find take off barrels from
any manufacturer. Plenty new T3 barrels on the net too, not
only Howa or Remington. Just depends on what action one chooses for
a custom rifle. Plenty take off stocks lying around too, maybe a few more from
Remington because there are more of them out there. Just about all plastic
injection moulded stocks are not really fit for purpose. Remmy, tikka, howa, steyr etc.
Maybe I was just lucky with my remington, I have it in the same stock as my sako
and can therefore compare the handling well. Sako L579 (~1969) vs 2009 sps stainless.
the sps has a much lighter up stroke on the bolt, with the sako one must grab the bolt
fairly hard vs one finger with remmy. Safety is very slippery sucker on the sako which
is not great in our wet climate, remmy has a larger lever which is a bit quieter to. Also easier
to see/feel in which position it actually is.
Ejection, sako very patchy sometimes needs two whacks back. Remmy 100% reliable.
Generally the Sako action has an integrated recoil lug and is a better design than the remmy
but one doesn't really notice it when out stalking.
One thing I'm also a bit worried about is the steel quality of older rifles. Quality standards
are higher nowadays.
If you want good service from a rifle manufacturer....Blaser might be the best bet.
I wouldn't want one though.
In the last year I'm noticing that for affordable custom builds the trend seems to be
going strong towards Tikka T3 and Remington 700. Remmy clone actions are on the increase too.
You are right that especially a remmy sps is quite awfull out of the box, but it is cheap and
with little work one can make a very useable rifle out of it, better than some others.
By the way I also took the barrel off my Remmy and replaced it with a border barrel, not because
of accuracy, just because I need a heavy barreled remmy for a project.
My old barrel will be going on another rifle soon, it shot under 1/2" and only has 400 rounds done.
Get your self sorted and out stalking again. Sika rut is in full swing here.
edi