My ideal, BASIC African battery consists of just two rifles.

Both are custom Model 70 Winchesters built on Model 70 actions by D'Arcy Echols & Company. One of them is a 416 Rem. Mag., and the other is a 338 Win. Mag. Both rifles are absolutely reliable, durable, perfectly balanced, fast-handling, superbly accurate, and they do not change zero, ever.

They're stocked in Echols' own McMillan stock, so they're not pretty in a traditional sense. But pretty is as pretty does, and I prefer synthetic stocks to wood. I'm not hung up over the romance of rifle ideas from the 1920s.

When it gets down to serious use, these two rifles deliver the goods every time, and I have no reason to use anything else. That is, unless I substitute another Echols 300 Win. Mag. for the 338, or else go with another pair of Echols rifles I have in 270 Win. and 375 H&H

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