Dedicated followers of Fashion ...

[Hawkeye20]

Over time I have seen alot of exotic rifles get more and more popular, had few myself but what I have seen that if you haven't got the talent it shows no matter what gun you have. It's true that you can pay for consistency and that's all a good shooter needs. Hft and ft are completely different but it doesn't state on what make and model you can and can't use in both disciplines so use what ever you want as long as it's sub 12ftlb

[gsxrman]

I believe to a degree, yes you can. As long as you get the best out of your purchase.
Good example would be scopes, I prefer quality glass over mega magnification.
Fellow shooters have had Tasco, Nikko mega scopes but they never look in focus to me.
I prefer the image to be crystal clear. Is stick to no more than 24-32x Scopes.
I used a Weaver Scope for HFT as out of all the scopes I looked at, it had the longest depth of field so was clear from close to 40 yards.
I had it set like most to be just going out of focus at 45 yards.
I believe where a lot of people go wrong is they tinker too much, because its there, it must be played with...
Anything that can consistently group half inch groups at 50 yards is good enough, would spending 2k on the latest rifle that looks like a meccano set and all the latest trickery built, make you a better shot probably not, might it be more ergonomically suited to you yes, placebo effect too...yes.
I started FT properly with a very rare Theoben 17 FT, after a few years I had it serviced by Ben Taylor and built a regulator for it.
Did it improve my groups or scores, I don't think so, It gave me 350 shots per charge which let me practice easier.