When I have work or restoration done on a best rifle or shotgun the mileage is a lot farther than you're proposing. Last job was from Chicago to Vermont, then to Mass, then to Connecticut, then back to Vermont, then to Northern Illinois, then to Chicago, then to Tennessee and back.
Point being is this: Mastery of any task happens after 10,000 hours on the job. That applies to journeymen carpentry, masonry, applied math, chemistry and gunsmithing.
With gunsmithing, you're a journeyman stocker after 10,000 hours. Again another 10,000 hours for action filing, browning, case coloring, pads/checkering/oil finishing, laying ribs and striking barrels, cutting rifling, making locks, engraving, cutting and filing claw/pivot mounts, etc.
When best guns were made 20 people with at least 10,000 hours of training each came together to make that beautiful gun. We now expect a guy with a 6 month correspondence course to be able to repair or reproduce any and all of those tasks. And this is why gunsmiths suck and why everyone is sorta hesitant to give you a glowing recommendation of a guy close by. The best gunsmiths in this nation refuse work for which they are not qualified and therefore it becomes a game of collecting all the names you need to get the work done on your project.
I have one guy that is exceptional at cutting stocks and doing pads and recoil reducers. He's in far northern Illinois. He's the best I've seen and he's reasonable. Once I let the guy that refinishes wood and services Purdey/Holland/Dickson do a pad for me in a rush last year and it looks like crap... I should have known better, its not his center of excellence.
You need a lot of gunsmiths.
***For your CZ550 the company doing business as the CZ custom shop would be a great resource as that's all they do so they have mastery of the rifle. Reasonable priced but in Missouri.***
