Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats Shooting Echols' Rifles

Last month I found myself in Cache Valley, Utah with some time to kill. I used to work for D'Arcy so I called him up and he suggested we go do some shooting. That sounded like a great time to me so we met early at the range. D'Arcy had a .300 Win Mag that just needed to be shot some before shipping it off to a client. The client supplied scope was having some issues, debris showing up around the reticle, some of it fairly permanent some of it appearing and disappearing. This brought on some comments from D'Arcy about this range being the elephant graveyard where scopes come to die. Having shot a few of his rifles with a variety of scopes what he said is true. There are a few carcasses of scopes laying around there that spit the bit. We shot it some and then also shot it with one of D'Arcy's scopes. The client supplied scope got packed up and shipped off to the manufacturer. We managed some pretty decent groups, sub 1/2 inch with it.

I was really excited about shooting D'Arcy's rifle with the new LX-1 action that is all his own. This one, which is the first one, was in .375 and has already been to Africa where it took buffalo and several other trophies.

We pretty much had the range to ourselves until one other guy showed up. People like to talk to other shooters and this guy was no different. He had some pretty unique ideas about shooting and he wasn't afraid to share them. I got a good lecture on how to improve my form. Sometimes its just easier to smile back at them.

Was a pretty nice way to spend a couple summer mornings.

Ralphie, thanks for sharing. D'arcy sure makes some fine shooting irons! I'd gotten an email about his new action some time ago. It looks top-drawer (duh).

Very cool. Would love to go get my hands on a Echols rifle one day. Did he say whether those actions will be available for commercial purchase?

Bet he was glad to have a different shoulder behind the rifle !
Those new actions look mighty nice.

Looks like a fun day, D'Arcy is an enjoyable guy to spend time with, and then there are the rifles.....

Nice.

I first learned of his rifles when I joined here. Allen Day was a huge proponent. One really great rifle, fill an ark. His choice IIRC was Echol's. (300 WM IIRC?)

I'll never afford one but I have that mentality a lot now - one good rifle that covers as much as possible and spend the rest hunting.

Nice to see he went with square bridge receiver for his own action.. and not the cheap ass, round top American actions are plagued with!

I had one of his stocks on a rifle until it was stolen. A year, I'd like them a lot more if they had some drop at the heel like say an inch or so.

Said the only man in America who thinks that!

I believe he also designed one with picitinny square bridges, which makes a lot of sense but was not as aesthetic.
And look who is talking aesthetics 😜

Make that two men. As a prone stock or off the bench, it's great, as an off-hand stock, it's too straight. So are most stocks today.
I would love to get a close up look at one of those actions. GD

Isn't it Smithson who has designed a synthetic stock with appropriate drop at the heel for good stock fit. You guys need to go pick up a proper English rifle to feel it. With a big scope intended rifle the Echols is good but think we've lost a lot with that comb style.

The only stock I have found to have nearly perfect fit for me, is a McMillan A-3.
It has 0.188" drop of comb.

And I mount the scopes as low as possible.

If that's D'arcy in the t-shirt, he doesn't look to have an overly long neck.

Still only one… you’re in Canada so don’t count!

😁

I was starting to think I was the only one left that likes to shoot standing up.

I'm laughing inside. GD

Yep. Same here. From Allen Day but from posting on HuntAmerica and AccuraterReloading. Got to hunt Pronghorn with Allen in 2000 in New Mexico.
He had three Echols rifles in .300 WM, .338 WM, & .416 Remington.

I have the Echols stock on my Mark Penrod made M70, .300 Weatherby. I like this stock much more that the Weatherby factory monte carlo.

I have one on a Model 54 Winchester in 256 Newton and it is a very good stock on this rifle. I built this as a prairie rifle which is most likely to be shot prone or sitting and the stock is perfect on this one. At first I felt like the grip was more open than I liked but, the more I handle it, the better it feels and it looks real good. GD