D'Arcy Echols is now blogging and hanging youtube videos.

Not commenting on his rifles as I don't own one, seriously doubt I ever will but this is an interesting video. I remember Charlie Sisk had one similar with the 450 Marlin. Rack em as fast as you can to see how they go...

THAT is how they OUGHT to work. All of 'em, every time. My 416 Rigby will do that with round nosed solids but sometimes hiccups with pointed slugs. Need to work that kink out if I ever get another opportunity to hunt the big bears.

Sounds like he had em all in the air at the same time too.

IMPRESSIVE!

Wow!!

The only failure to feed with a control round action I saw was with a guy who was plning to hunt bears in Alaska. Like you his would feed the round nose but absolutely would not feed the spitzers he wanted to use.

Since one is not going to be shooting at a Brown Bear aqt any kind of long distance, probably no handicap to using a good controlled expansion round nose bullet.

When I got my 550 Classics 2 years ago I had to take it to the range and thank goodness I did. Could not feed the next round without me looking like an amateur trying to feed it. Took it to the 'smith the next day with a couple rounds who said it is a rough rifle that needs some polishing. He did his magic and a couple months ago I could put 3 quick shots into an elephant.

Great stuff what a good smitthie can do.

Glad I saw this thread. The video prompted me to attempt the feat with my new box stock Sako 85 9.3x62 Black Bear. Using factory HDY 286gr SP-RP ammo, I was happy to see I could cycle all (6) six rounds, (5) five in the box with (1) one in the tube, fast as Echols without a single blip. Not a mark on the brass.

When the wife gets back, I'm going to borrow her camera to make a duplicate video to post with my rifle review. Maybe show it once without mounted scope and once with mounted scope. Not an Echols rifle, but the first factory production rifle I've ever handled which cycled to that extreme when untouched

I have seen a bunch of CRF rifles fail to feed smoothly, and not just with one style of bullet. In fact I once bought a Mexican military Mauser is 7x57, and it wouldn't feed ANY sort of 7x57 ammo at all--until I worked on it for most of a day.

Have also seen a bunch of people jam CRF's when working them under stress. D'Arcy makes sure they work as perfectly as possible, but one of the factors in working any bolt-action rifle is the nut behind the bolt!

Gotta admit - the biggest kick for me was him getting all of those cigar sized cartridges in the air at one time.

I bet a steak dinner in Las Vegas during SCI that those are not D'Arcy's fat fingers in that video.

Any takers?? Brian?? D'Arcy??

ps. My AR-15 feeds almost as fast.

Have also seen bolt guns do the same thing. One was a Remington 700 and the other an Ed Brown Savannah. I sent the Savannah back and got a full refund.

It makes you wonder how a rifle with that sort of pedigree makes it out of the shop with the defect undetected. They must single round load them when test firing not to detect such a problem. Or perhaps they don't test fire them at all.

BTW, I'm not a fan of detachable box magazines, either. Had one (rifle was a Sako 75) fall out between shots on a pig hunt. Sako has modified the mag release on the 85 to make such an occurrence far less likely.

IMHO, the simpler it is, the less likely it is to fail or for the operator to screw it up. That's why my stopping rifle is a double.

[quote][/quote]Have also seen bolt guns do the same thing. One was a Remington 700 and the other an Ed. I sent the Savannah back and got a full refund.

Was this Savannah on the 702 or 704 action?

Cool vid! Behaves just like a pre 64!

Hell, I can do that with my 700 upside down but none will go in the chamber

W

World Hunter:

it was a 704. The so called "controlled round feed" Ed Brown action. In my personal opinion, a piece of over priced junk with zilch quality control. And I paid for the "break in service" as well. How this defect went undetected is a mystery of the ages.

Not hard to do with those round-nose bullets... Even the pointed ones go in rather easy due to the cone breech.. Just don't try it with a CZ...

Why not with a CZ? Can the CZ feeding of pointy bullets be remedied? Mine feeds slick as snot with Barnes Monolithic solids and various round nosed projectiles, but can get hung up if run real hard on a spitzer shaped cartridge. My solution has been to not use them except on varmints and such but I am curious. THANKS

Exactly..


Customer of mine had won a trip to Africa on short notice.. Bought a CZ in .458 Lott.. He could never get 100% feeding with it, even when trying three different makers of ammo.. The tips would get caught on the flat portion of the breech and everything stopped.. It has to do with the breech design..

He had only 7 days before he left on the trip. Nothing I could do with it in that short a time - but the best remedy would have been to remove the barrel, machine a cone breech like the M70 Winchesters and refit the barrel to the receiver.. Neither of us had the time to allow that procedure..

No amount of magazine tweaking would cure that CZ breech style.. I've had other customers complain of the same thing.. Some feed very well - a few others won't. If you're going to Africa on a DG hunt, that rifle MUST feed 100% every single time..


Yesterday, after watching the video, I had the opportunity to try the same thing on a M70 Classic in .375H&H I had just finished installing a barrel on.. I went as fast as I could and every shell fed as slick and quick as the one in the video..

Sorry, but it's darned hard to find feeding as nice as the coned-breech Winchesters... Just my .02...

I wonder what the negatives would be of slightly radiusing the chamber mouth, making sure the radiusing stopped well short of the area of the cartridge where the case web narrows down and becomes the much thinner cartridge case body. Seems to me like that would help some. Especilly with a relatively low pressure round like the 416 Rigby which does not put much pressure on the case anyway.

I talked to the guy about that very idea.. It's 'possible' that it would work ok, but we didn't have enough time to even attempt the process.. I was swamped at the time and he had too many things to do to get ready.. And if it didn't work, we'd be right back at square one..

My hesitation on the outcome was based on the pure size of the 'flat' before the chamber.. If the rearward section was relieved it might have actually made it even more prone to failure.. The only surface I would have tried was the actual chamber opening itself - which could easily support a slight bevel - then highly polish the cuts to ensure no case damage or hangups.. But that still does not address the flat that is responsible for the bullet tip jamming there..

I just don't know why CZ wouldn't have gone with a coned breech to assure positive chambering..

Agreed, and a more robust saftey and trigger mechanism so that we didn't have to change then out when we got them into our hands. And maybe some crossbolts in the stock.

I have seen and shot the new Winchester Safari in .375. It fed everything I put through it (including Barnes flat nose monolithic solids) without a hitch and shot 1" to 1.5" groups at a hundred yards (depending on the load) consistently.

The trigger was crisp and the stock had crossbolts. The one I shot, which belonged to a friend, had a Leupold 1.1-5x24 30mm illuminated scope mounted in Warne QD rings. It was a solid combination. With the scope, my friend said he had about $2K in it.

The basic rifle costs about $1,250. It apparently is now also chambered for the .416 Remington and .458 Winchester.

For someone who wants a reliable heavy rifle and doesn't want to spend a small fortune, the Winchester is a very good choice.

Agreed, for sure.

When I bought and started modifying my CZ 416 Rigby, the 416 Remington round had not yet been thought of and Winchester was not making good DGR's yet.

Take another look. Those aren't round nose bullets...all 5 of them.

I just looked and yes they are. They are a round nosed flat points, similar looking to (and very well may be) my favorite Barnes Round nosed flat point solids.

The problem with many of the big bores is with spitzer point bullets, but the Round nosed flat point jobs can give some guns trouble as well.

There is a difference between the two, round nose and round nose with flat point.

And the Echols' rifles feed the spitzers too. At least they did when I was testing them.

But, they are both called round nose. You are correct that they are different. I would have bet folding money that an Echols rifle would have fed the spitzers or even empty cases. My old Model 71 lever action in 348AI would feed a tube full of empty cases. Pretty impressive old gun, that one.

I remember that rifle, and dang near sent a pile of greenery to WWW

Gunner

I sure wished I could have afforded to keep that one. One that I miss a lot, but such is life.