Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats Echols Legend?

The 200 Partitions from almost any .30 caliber work great. Have you chronographed yours? I get 2700 fps from my 30-06, which works fantastic, but see in the new Rifle magazine that Mule Deer gets over 3100fps with his 300 Wby.

It would be a little more difficult to do at the going rate of a Legend these days. How many people spend over 25% of their income on a hunting rifle, much less five of them.

458 Win, would you use this load on Brown Bear as a trophy Hunter? Nosler's reloading manual lists IMR 4831 at 71gr pushing 2972fps wiht 200 gr. Partitions in the .300 Win Mag.


Or would you pack a 416 Rem. Mag with 350 gr. bullets if that's what your next largest rifle's cartridge was?

Ralphie's rifle looks great.

Yes, curious also as to what actual load or velocity you're getting.

If I had to pick a single rifle for the bulk of North American BG, it would be like Ralphies rifle in 300 Win Mag. I'd have DArcy or Gene Simillion build it and wouldn't blink at the cost of either one.A Simillion is very similar to a Legend.

I've blown more than the cost of either screwing around with lesser stuff.My Simillion 7mm Mashburn is the best I've owned,and was built so that it could be a 300 Win Mag if I ever get unhappy with the Mashburn. All it takes is a new barrel.

Both are "lifetime" rifles.

The Myth !!!

For decades the 30-06 was the single most popular rifle carried by guides in Alaska and the current world record bear was taken with one. I even used my Lon Paul 30-06 to take this bear after a client had wounded it. I have posted this photo many times but it shows the size of critter we are talking about. And the largest bodied bear any of my clients have taken was more than 300 pounds heavier than this bear and was taken with a single shot from a 300 WM and 180 gr Partitions.



I would prefer to see a client show up with a 30-06 or 300 loaded with 200 Partitions than with a 416 simply because most folks, if they are honest with themselves, shoot a 30 caliber better than a 416.
But if given a choice between a .300 with Partitions and a 416 for sorting out a wounded bear I would feel better with the 416.

Ha! Yeah...."myth". i don't think so.

Maybe it'll never happen, but I do look forward to the day to being able to have Gene or Echols build me that "one" awesome rifle.

I'm loading 70.5 grains of H4831. I have never chronographed that load in my rifle. Win brass and fed primer.

We did in several other Legends. A wag is somewhere around 2900 fps. Mine has a 25" barrel. That is a wag but I doubt there would be enough difference in the actual velocity to notice.

I'm not an experimenter or extreme tinkerer with handloading. When this rifle was built I was hoping to shoot 200 partitions. They shot good and they kill good. So I have no desire to change up my hand loads either.

Ralphie

There was a post out lining some of the steps that were done to up grade a model 70 action to meet the requirements of the Legend actions.

Was this one of your post ? If so do you remember the name of the thread?

Great photos. I like the photo of the young hunter holding a Legend.

Hal

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0317/8397/files/EcholsLegend_6-5-2014-2.pdf?7163

Legend Standard Sporter

1. The heart of our Legend Rifle begins with a Winchester Model 70 action made from
either Chrome–Moly or Stainless Steel. Once inspected these actions are extensively
refined and modified.

2. The receiver threads are re-machined to 1.032 X 16 TPI. The recoil lug seats, recoil
lugs, receiver face and bolt face are re-machined and trued to remove any dimensional
run out from the factory. The recoil lugs and lug seats are then lapped to remove any
machine marks. A select grade chrome-moly or stainless steel barrel is then fit and
chambered to the action. Our chambering procedures assure that maximum accuracy
potential of the barreled action is realized. For the past 15 years the most popular
chambering’s for the Standard Legend’s have been the following: The 7mm Remington
Magnum, 300 Winchester Magnum and thirdly the 300 H&H Magnum. These three
cartridges have proven time and time again their effectiveness around the world when
use for the smaller Antelopes up to and including the Elands and larger Moose species.
The international hunter is well served with these three cartridges. I keep an inventory of
these barrels in stock at all times and have these barrels contoured into specific weights
and lengths to further enhance the rifles final balance.

3. The underside of the action is re-machined to create a uniform bedding platform and
to accept a proprietary Echols & Co. heat-treated, stainless steel magazine box and
follower assembly. Our magazine assemblies are cartridge specific and allow our
magnum magazine box to hold one additional belted magnum round, giving the shooter
a total of five rounds instead of the usual four. This feature alone is almost unheard of in
any currently available factory or custom produced firearm. All of our Legends will be fit
with our Echols & Co. floor-plate and trigger bow assembly.

4. The receiver’s feed-ramp and guide rails are then modified to assure reliable cartridge
feeding. Our rifles have an established reputation for flawless reliability.

5. The ejection port is lengthened to allow easy access to magazine to permit ease in
loading. A spring steel extractor replaces the factory extractor and is properly fit to fully
utilize the advantages of the claw extractor system.

6. The trigger, ejector, and bolt stop are re-pinned to remove all undesirable looseness
or play. The sear engagement surfaces are machined to guarantee a consistent, crisp
trigger pull set at 3 lbs. The safety wing and bolt lock engagement is refined to ensure
smooth and positive manipulation of the safety. The factory sleeved bolt handle is then
pinned and soldered to the main bolt body to prevent any separation between the bolt
handle and bolt body permanently.

7. Then I install my two-piece scope mount system. This solid steel mount is available
for both 1” and 30 mm scopes, and features an integral base and lower ring halves that
are precision fit and secured to the action with 8x40 Torx head screws. This design
provides an exceptionally strong joint between the scope base and the action. The front
and rear bridges of the action are surface ground concentric to the centerline of the bolt
bore before the scope mount is installed. The ring I.D. is bored to the actual external
diameter of the scope tube, thus assuring a perfect mechanical fit with the scope. The
top half of the ring secures the scope in place with four 8x40 Torx head screws for each
ring. Done in this manner the scope tube is under no stress whatsoever. This unique
arrangement provides several important advantages:
 The scope base does not overhang the ejection port front or rear
 The scope can be mounted as close to the bore as possible
 This system eliminates the joint between the base and the ring, which can
become a significant weak link in the standard scope mount.
This is the only scope mount I have used that will prevent heavy 30 mm scopes from
sliding in the rings under severe recoil generated by such calibers as the 458 Lott. Our
scope mount system has a proven track record and is the only system we will install.
The customer should be aware that no other commercially made scope base will
fit our rifles and they cannot be replaced by any other factory scope mounts
currently on the market.

8. The Legend rifle is fitted with a synthetic stock of my own design that is the result of
over three decades of Classic rifle design and construction. It allows the shooter to
control heavy recoil and has the styling, feel and handling features of a best quality
French walnut sporter. This stock design fills a void in the current inventory of
commercially available synthetic sporter rifle stocks. McMillan Fiberglass Stocks, Inc.
manufactures our stocks exclusively for D’Arcy Echols & Co. The Legend stock is
available in both left and right hand configuration. Either version features a straight
comb (with no drop from comb to heel), contemporary style cheek piece, functional
point-style checkering pattern, open grip, and cast “on” or “off” both at the toe and heel
depending on if the rifle is made for a left or right hand shooter. A 1” red or black recoil
pad is standard. The actions are pillar bedded with 3 separate pillars and the barrels are
free floated.

Length of pull is available from 13.5 ” to 15” as a standard feature. Factory trigger guard
and floor plate screws are replaced with high quality heat-treated Allen screws.
These stocks are available in the following solid colors: Black, Sage Green and Desert
Tan. We then add an additional flecked and spider webbed overspray of a contrasting
color to compliment the base color. A Camouflage pattern is also available that is based
on a combination of Black, Sage Green and Desert Tan. Pictures that show this effect
may be viewed on our website www.echolsrifles.com.

9. All the appropriate metal is carefully hand polished, bead blasted, wire wheeled and
then caustic immersion blued. Unless other wise requested any Legend made with
stainless steel hardware will be bead blasted and left a satin silver color.

10. The rifle is test fired at the range to confirm that feed, function, accuracy,
scope viability and safety requirements are completely met. A variety of factory
ammunition is used during testing to determine which ammunition delivers the best
accuracy for that particular rifle.

This is a good chance to clear something up. There have been posts talking about 82 steps that were done on the action alone to make them into Legends. This isn't true. The 82 steps is about what it takes to take a factory M70 turn it into a Legend ready to ship out to a client. There is a lot more that goes into these than just work done on the receiver itself.

Ralphie, as I was reading through Echols' blog I noticed it mentioned a few instances where the shop sells pre-owned Legends from time to time. Any idea how often this occurs?

No I don't have a good idea. I'd call D'Arcy about it and tell him you are interested in one if it becomes available.

Ive seen them in the shop at least several times.

Thanks. My friend tried the 200 gr partitions out of his Model 70 (24" barrel) and he's getting 2870-ish FPS. You're likely right on with your load producing a little over 2900 FPS with a 25" barrel.