Uhm, well, the SC-1 being a sweet rifle is a matter of personal taste. That does not mean that I do not respect Mel's work on it. On the contrary, I have a lot of respect for him pulling it off, especially managing to do the tradeoff between quality and cost.
Admittedly, rifles etc are a tad more expensive over here, but my current dream custom rifle system would cost well over $4000...
Mel:
Would the recoil for the kind of loads you're planning really give you less recoil than 7.62x51? I'm somewhat skeptical... Of course, I've never had the opportunity to shoot them from rifles that have the same kind of stock etc.