For a custom hunting rifle I like a Howa action. They are everything that a Remington is, such as the "three rings of steel", but come standard with little things like a m-16 style excractor so you don't have to install a Sako extractor. Vented bolt body. One piece bolt. Flat bottom receiver with integrated recoil lug. Bolt release on the top of the receiver rather than inside the trigger guard.

Barrels depend on how much you want to spend and what kind of accuracy you want to get out of one. Shillen, Douglas, Adams and Bennet, ER Shaw, Lija are all good berrels and will provide you with much better than acceptable accuracy for hunting.

In all honesty a truely custom rifle gets a stock made to fit you from a blank. This is where a rifle becomes yours and no one elses IMHO. You can drop a rifle into a semi inleted laminated or wood stock or synthetic stock like HS or Mc Millan but what's custom about that? Nothing really. A custom rifle deserves a custom stock either from a wood blank of your choosing or a laminated blank is you desire.