It took 5 different quality boots to get a good fit figured out, which was more than a good rifle and scope at the time and a lot of miles. I don’t miss sore feet from poor fit.
Correction: make that 6 boots.
However, getting a rifle dialed is both the easiest to get a good setup and the hardest to get a great one. First rifle was an off the rack Remington, crappy but functional Weaver mounts, and the mediocre but reliable Weaver fixed 4x. Shooting factory ammo it would put everything into 1-1/4 to 1-1/2 MOA groups once I figured out how to shoot it. In one afternoon a 13 year old kid followed the recommendations of a believable writer (Bob Milek) and assembled an acceptable rifle that would still be usable to 400 yards today. Easy.
Reloading for bullet selection adds complexity to do well. Figuring out a better scope mount and scope with limited budget are like good fitting boots, you dink around with a few versions until a reliable setup emerges. Going from good factory rifle to an accurate one is complex with bedding, freefloating, better stock, custom trigger, bare barrel/muzzlebrake/can, factory barrel or custom, barrel length, bipod height, style and use, etc. Hard to do all that, but once you figure out the combination that works for you it goes back to easy to put together additional rifles.
No way would I want to go back to all the afternoons at the range trying to figure out accuracy issues for the first time. Lol
