Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters JB: Shooting the Echols Legend

JB:

I enjoyed your article in the January "Rifle", "Shooting the Echols Legend .375 H&H". I was interested in reading more about Echols and his new rifle, but you didn't actually write very much about shooting it beyond saying that it was accurate.

What was your subjective impression of it? Particularly from field positions and while working the bolt for second and third shots.

D-'Arcy is a custom riflemaker, who unlike some who call themselves that, actually makes rifles for individual customers, the way the customers want. I would not have him build a .375 H&H anything like the test rifle for me, because it was far heavier than I'd prefer, with a longer length-of-pull than I'd use, wasn't much interested in shooting it other than for accuracy.

Plus, the focus of the story was the new action, and how D'Arcy thinks he has improved on available actions. That took some explaining, which didn't leave any room in the word-length limit for subjective opinions--especially from somebody who wouldn't choose that particular rifle in the first place. Which is how I tend to write my rifle reviews.

JB, I enjoyed the review. Your writing is always tops !! D'Arcy's attention to detail is refreshing. Just like many things in life, we get what we pay for !

Just over 11 years back I took possession of my custom Pre '64 M70 in 9.3x62. Our own Redneck did the metal work and Charlie Santoni of CS Sports finished everything else. I'd obtain the Echols Legend stock from D'Arcy and sent it on to Charlie. It's one of my favorite rifles, looking just as I'd hoped it would and shooting even better. It's slim where I want it and beefy where it needs to be so you can hang on to it and so it manages recoil very well. Not that the 9.3x62's recoil is brutal but it needs respect; the Legend handles the recoil quite well. Shooting off a bench for load development or zeroing has never been taxing. The balance is as I want it. The rifle carries as though the rifle is lighter, weighing in at 8 lb 4 oz, and comes up to my cheek so my eye is correctly placed behind the VXIII 1.75-6x32.

Alan

This seems like a very fair and balanced approach to the work of Mr. Echols.

Thanks for the explanation.


Okie John

I have to say I thought the turning (reduction) of the barrel contour post forend not something I would expect from him rather than a rebarrel as necessary to get it "right". Maybe a disconnect between buyer and builder?

Why would D'Arcy rebarrel a rifle if a turn-down would "get it right"? There's no steel-stress in a cut-rifled barrel that will change anything, unlike turning down some button-rifled barrels.

Yes, there can be "disconnects" between buyers of custom rifles and their makers. I could probably tell 100+ stories about that. Some have primarily involved the gunsmith, and others the customer.

In this instance the customer was very happy--which might be the definition of a custom rifle.

Is this exact stock only available if ordering a custom rifle?

Dunno, but D'Arcy can answer that question.

I wasn't worried about stress rather funding a proper rifle from a stellar builder and kind of going "half fast" in the end. Just seems like something D'Arcy would not do give his drive for perfection in a rifle.

Then you don't know what you're talking about.

I know more than one very qualified gunsmith who prefers to turn barrels to get exact dimensions.

Mule Deer:

Just wanted to say thanks for the article!

Went out and bought a copy of Rifle just to read your piece. Well put together and very informative! Now I dream of being able to afford one....

Best,

BB

[/quote] I wasn't worried about stress rather funding a proper rifle from a stellar builder and kind of going "half fast" in the end. Just seems like something D'Arcy would not do give his drive for perfection in a rifle.
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You're entitled to your opinion, but turning barrels to get exactly the right balance is pretty common among custom gunsmiths. As I mentioned in the article, D'Arcy only uses Bartlein and Krieger custom-rifled barrels, which only come in certain contours, which may or may not balance right given the parameters of the customer's order. Since it's usually hard to know how the rifle will balance until it's together, recontouring is not exactly a quick-and-dirty way of "fixing" the balance, since the barrel must be removed from the action, put on the lathe, and recontoured, after come calculating how much needs to be removed to take off X number of ounces. This also generally means repolishing and/or bead-blasting the barrel.

Some barrel companies will turn them to specific contours on request, but that also costs more--and works best if the barrels are stress-free, either because of being cut-rifled, or heat-treated correctly afterward. One of my rifles was originally a .270 Winchester FN Mauser. It was restocked in fairly fancy Juglans regia, grown in New Zealand. Eventually the barrel got shot out, and I decided to turn it into a 6.5x55. Charlie Sisk had Dan Lilja (Charlie uses a lot of his barrels) turn down the barrel, which works despite Liljas being button-rifles, because Dan uses a big heat-treating furnace to de-stress them. It slipped perfectly into the custom stock's barrel channel.

You're entitled to your opinion, but turning barrels to get exactly the right balance is pretty common among custom gunsmiths. As I mentioned in the article, D'Arcy only uses Bartlein and Krieger custom-rifled barrels, which only come in certain contours, which may or may not balance right given the parameters of the customer's order. Since it's usually hard to know how the rifle will balance until it's together, recontouring is not exactly a quick-and-dirty way of "fixing" the balance, since the barrel must be removed from the action, put on the lathe, and recontoured, after come calculating how much needs to be removed to take off X number of ounces. This also generally means repolishing and/or bead-blasting the barrel.

Some barrel companies will turn them to specific contours on request, but that also costs more--and works best if the barrels are stress-free, either because of being cut-rifled, or heat-treated correctly afterward. One of my rifles was originally a .270 Winchester FN Mauser. It was restocked in fairly fancy Juglans regia, grown in New Zealand. Eventually the barrel got shot out, and I decided to turn it into a 6.5x55. Charlie Sisk had Dan Lilja (Charlie uses a lot of his barrels) turn down the barrel, which works despite Liljas being button-rifles, because Dan uses a big heat-treating furnace to de-stress them. It slipped perfectly into the custom stock's barrel channel.
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For the price of an Echol's I would think he would contour the barrel as needed rather than in the stepped fashions shown. Was the barrel of yours turned down in a single step like D'Arcy did?

I've never owned an Echols rifle, just borrowed some over the years.

I do know that with the Legends, D'Arcy is more concerned with function than esthetics. With the wood-stocked Classics he's far more concerned with esthetics, of course, but they're also obsessively tuned for function.

Also do know that the customer is very happy with the rifle, but if you really want to know about the step D'Arcy's phone number is listed on his website, and like most (but not all) custom riflemakers I've known he's happy to answer questions.

Frankly, the step on this rifle barrel doesn't bother me from an aesthetic standpoint, and if the client had told me he had asked for it as a design feature I would have believed it without question.

Still, it's apparent that turning it down was to resolve a problem. A three-year-old Forbes magazine article says the Legend rifles cost around around $15,000 with the Model 70 actions, and I imagine that this rifle, with the new proprietary action, cost more than that.

Say between $15,000 and $20,000? I wonder if the client would have really objected to paying Krieger to do up a custom-turned barrel that didn't need to be fixed at Echols' shop.

Maybe he just liked it after he saw how it had been done.

tjm,

Another factor may have been time. If I recall correctly, this was the first Legend built with the new action, and the customer planned to take it on a Cape buffalo safari early last summer--and did. I got to test it after the safari season.

I'm familiar with the rifle Mule Deer reviewed, its owner, and D'Arcy. The stepped barrel was requested by the owner (who loves it) and quickly stacked a number of Buffalo with it this past season.

John, I found the article very well done and learned some new things that had been incorporated in design. I can't wait to take delivery of mine sometime this year.

Thanks! (I'm glad you answered the barrel question.)

What's your rifle going to be chambered for?