I've emailed back and forth with Kirby a bit regarding his bolt action pistols and bolt pistols in general. As accurate as his bolt pistols are, I can only imagine his rifles are disgustingly straight shooting.

Boyd Allen has been a very helpful fellow in my pursuit to learn this thing they call long range precision shooting. He gave me his number via 6mmbr.com a few years back, been a great resource for different projects, identifying smiths/gunbuilders or vendors for custom dies/reamers, etc. I suppose "Allen" is a common enough name that it might be coincidental, but two guys playing at their level of long range shooting, I'd expect they're more likely related than not. But that's purely speculative. Might just be two dudes last-named "Allen".

But back on topic - Custom hunting rifle vs. the extremely overpriced Weatherby Thompson:

Custom Precision action: $1000, give or take
Shilen or Krieger select grade barrel: $280-350
Jewel trigger (if the action didn't come with a trigger): ~$200
Rifle stock: $200-500
Proper Scope: Leupold VX-3 LRT 6.5-20x50mm $1000
Rings & bases: $100-200
Smithing to put it all together: ~$500

Puts you right around $3500, to have a FAR better scope, far better barrel, and better action, let alone the difference in a hand built custom rifle with a high attention to detail, rather than a bone stock over-priced rifle with a fancy "W" stamped on it. You can build one cheaper, but can also spend a lot more.

If you're remotely mechanically inclined: Buy a Savage rifle, sell the barrel and stock, buy a Savage barrel nut wrench for $75, or borrow one, buy a go and no-go gauge set, then build it yourself. Custom stock for a Savage at $400, buy a Savage 12 used for around $500 net after you sell the take-off barrel and stock, bed it yourself. Screw on a Shilen drop in for ~$300, maybe spend $100 for smithing on the trigger if you can't do it yourself. Have a semi-custom rifle that will potentially put up 1/4MOA for around $1000, put a Leupy on top for $1000 = $2000 total investment, and it'll shoot straighter than that Weatherby.