I have 2 Echols-built custom Model 70s in 300 Win. Mag., 2 in 338 Win. Mag. (1 more in production), 1 in 375 H&H, 1 in 416 Rem. Mag., and 1 in 270 Win.. I've hunted with all of them except for 1 of the 338s and the 270, and I've taken scores and scores of big game animals with these rifles -- everything from Texas whitetails to Cape buffalo.

I've never every owned better hunting rifles than those that D'Arcy has built me, pure and simple, and I've been getting custom rifles built since 1980.

Echols is my age (49) and he went to the Colorado School of Trades right out of high school. After graduation, he apprenticed as a stockmaker under the great Jerry Fisher, then taught stockmaking at Colorado School of Trades after that. In a very real sense, D'Arcy also apprenticed under the legendary Tom Burgess in metalwork, as well as Jasper Rayborn. He's a down-to-earth, intellectual guy who never stops learning, never stops growing, never stops networking with other top riflemakers. He builds rifles around the classic constructs, but he also takes advantage of rifle technology that was born out of benchrest competition.

Echols builds COMPLETE rifles that not only shoot with incredible accuracy, but balance perfectly, and otherwise feed and function perfectly and exhibit the highest level of quality and workmanship. Only the very best components are used, and no stone is left unturned to make every rifle the equivalent of the very best he's ever turned out. No rifle is sent out untested and unproven in terms of reliability and accuracy. He breaks them all in and tests and shoots every single one of them.

He makes his own scopemounts, and his own magazine boxes and followers, bottommetal, etc. The scopemounts are the toughest and best-built of anyone's, and his magazine system feeds so perfectly, so effortlessly, and with such utter reliability that you can't tell if you're feeding cartridges or not, and you can bet your life on the reliability of the feeding system and the entire rifle.

As something of a first for a custom riflemaker of the classic school, D'Arcy hand-built and hand-finished and checkered a stock, then sent it to McMillan to have it made into a synthetic copy. With that, his 'Legend" series of rifles was born, and this has become his most popular rifle by far. All of my Echols rifles wear these proprietory McMillan stocks, and they are not only incredibly rugged, but they are handsome in their own right, point and balance perfectly, and never they change zero. All of them will shoot into 1/2 MOA with premium hunting bullets. I've hunted with them from Alaska to Tanzania.

D'Arcy doesn't offer any sort of accuracy guarantee, but then, he doesn't need to.........

D'Arcy Echols & Company
Millville, Utah, USA
(435) 755-6842
legend@bridgernet.com

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