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

By his waiting time it would appear that he makes an outstanding rifle but there is no way that I would pay that kind of money for a rifle with a plastic stock on it!

BobinNH, great post. Your wisdom is much appreciated.

Terry

Absolutely dead-on critique. Calls to mind the quote from P.T. Barnum "nobody ever went broke underestimating the stupidity of the American people."

Bob,

While you are a superior creator of prose I can't help remembering the passion of Allen Day here on this forum and his relentless promotion of the D'Arcy Echols rifle.

All the while while I read Allen Day year after year I could not help remembering that I never had a problem with my guns. I have never had much of a problem with my cars or boats either.

I suppose I got this confidence from my late dad who could fix anything. Now I am not him and never will measure up to his skill. Perhaps I have to admit that I have not "got out much" as compared to some. But I have lived aboard the boat for decades fixing, maintaining it and keeping it sound. A boat is far far more complicated than a rifle.

For sure in a lifetime of hunting I have never had a 99 Savage fail or fall short in any way. I keep it in my hands and its good there.

This quote is taken from your advertisement above:

"The factory sleeved bolt handle is then pinned and soldered to the main bolt body to prevent any separation between the handle and bolt body while in use."

The word soldered must be a misprint?

Well I am going hunting for awhile now. Because as he said I don't get out much and some top smith has not checked out my rifles I will pack two of them.

And I will be careful not to loose my keys in the snow.

Don, in all fairness to Allen, (may he RIP) he was a strong proponent of one or two rifles for all of his hunting. And he hunted his @ss off. He didn't have a bunch safe queens in his arsenal and I suspect that any photos (if he had chosen to share them) weren't glory shots of the rifles in his KITCHEN.

Why don't you call him up and ask about wait time? That might tell you something about how many folks are already in line. Might also give you some clue as to how much time is put into each rifle. They aren't just a stock, action, and barrel thrown together.

I used to work for D'Arcy and actually have some idea of what goes into these rifles. Actually we mostly just sat around the shop laughed at all the stupid people that we could scam into spending 14k. Then when one of these "rare" orders did come in we'd just slap it all together, dry-fire it a couple times and call it good. You'd be surprised how easy it is to fool folks smart enough to make good money, or PHs, other guides, etc. Most of them are retards and easily parted with their cash.

Wait, maybe I meant to say the retards are the ones who speak about that which they have no idea.

Interesting way of trolling...

Allen, God rest his sole, owned something like 5 Legends and was a serious hunter and a man of means as well. I believe Barsness even eluded to him in an article about rifle loonies. Guess the way I look at it is if you have the means, [bleep] it and go for it cause you can't take it with you.

"Wait, maybe I meant to say the retards are the ones who speak about that which they have no idea."

But if it wasn't for those guy's, the Campfire would only have 100 members.

Chet

And go for it he did, he was a wealth of experience on most subjects

Alaways had respect for that gentlemen. Tough to argue with experience.

And if you haven't had a mechanical device fail, you haven't used them much.

I'd like to have the funds to pick up one of those rifles. It seems Mr. Echols does a bit of functional testing with his rifles. That is good IMO. Looks to have drawn a home state desert sheep tag.










6.5-06 with a 6x Leupold at 360+ yards.

Since you mentioned Gene Simillion. A local guy who has hunted africa a bunch decided he needed the Simillion experience and ordered a rifle.The rifle gets shipped to a local riflesmith which I use a bunch and of which the proud simillion owner also uses and hangs around the shop all the time. I happen to be in the shop when the rifle is delivered.The proud owner opens the rifle case and finds the rifle has no scope on it.So he calls Simillion up and asks "where is my scope,you said you were going to do load development with my optics?". Simillion replies that it must be a simple mix up,send back the rifle.The owner asks "can't you just send the scope and I'll let my regular smith mount the scope for me and we'll call it good". Simillion replies no way,I have to mount the scope to stand behind our work and we'll test the rifle again". So the guy sends the rifle back and Simillion sends it back about a week later. I get a call from the smith and he says get down to my shop quick you have to see this [bleep] simillion job. I get there and the owner is beyond pissed.The rifle looks ok.Scopes on it as promised.Problem is the bolt handle won't clear the rear of the scope. Simillion didn't do a [bleep] thing but throw the scope on and ship the rifle back.

Watching a 65 year old retired executive go ape [bleep] on simillion over a speaker phone was priceless.The term "You lying Cock$ucker" was used a bunch.

Geezz, funny.....he built my Mashburn,and because it was a wildcat,he did the load workup(not that I needed that but he wanted to be sure the rifle shot well....it does).

I have the targets here.....during testing one scope went TU.....he mounted another.The loads he gave me were very much spot on,as I was unable to really improve upon them,and settled very close to what he recommended.You don't "guess" with a wildcat, do you Bauer? I would imagine you know,right?

So,you got a retired executive who was pissed.....and a 60 year old lawyer who is pleased.........what's your point?

That based on a sample of "two",evenly divided,Gene can't build rifles?

Because I know others who have had Gene build rifles and consider him to be one of the better people out there....and BTW these people all "hunt"....whether at home or by getting on planes and going places......

Just as an aside.....how many customs have you built, bought, shot, and hunted with? I know this is a silly-assed question but I am just curious.......

Because I am not trying to put you on the "spot", but am trying to understand your line of thought......is it that these guys charge to much? That the "improvements" they make to a rifle are of no value? If so,then I suppose that the same would have to be said of Griffin&Howe,Al Biesen, Tom Shelhammer,Tom Burgess, Karl Kampfeld, Micky Coleman,Mark Penrod, or a host of other custom builders.....did these guys make "trick moves",too, with the Mausers, Model 70's or Rem 700's that they work over?

There must be a lot of pretty dumb riflemen out there,who know less about these things than you do,because these smiths have always had back orders for their work and folks line up to pay for it........

Here's another rock star..

..and you know all this...."How"?

Tell me of your experience with these things....I'm all ears....

Savage: I have seen your rifles...you have a lot of really nice rifles And I am not surprised that they all "work"...

But I bring to your attention, the fact that many of them are no longer made....and they work because of the skilled craftsmanship with which they were built....the point I think you are missing, is how much it would cost to build them today...your Mannlichers,your Savage 99's, your pre 64 M70's and your Mausers....all dead and gone, and no longer manufactured, because to build for example, your Mannlichers, would cost thousands today....

And to have a Mauser 98 action manufactured today does cost about $3-$4k from someone like Stuart Satterllee or Granite Mountain.....not to mention what it would cost to build a Savage 99....which is why it is no longer built and modern rifles are built more cheaply to hit "price points"....do they always "work" as well as the stuff you own?.......uh...no.

Some one building a custom rifle today is simply trying to obtain the same level of reliability, accuracy and quality of workmanship that we took for granted years past,obtain the same attention to detail,accuracy, reliability,and function that we came to expect before rifles got "cheap".....

Not that you are doing it,so this is not directed to you as I know you know better,..... but why some folks rail against this, accuse everyone who buys them of being "stupid" for paying the price,and accuse them all of being spoiled brats and trust fund babies,and people who are not hunter/shooters, is something that I don't quite understand.

Personally I think it all boils down to that same old sad human characteristic that has existed for centuries....Jealousy....the Green Monster.

There is no other logical explanation.....

How is this trolling? I copied this info and I believed it was true, I also copied and read that they did 82 production procedures and I just found out it was BS. I am just looking for the truth about one of the top builders of custom rifles and what he does to his rifles.