I can't afford a 14K rifle, but I don't particulary envy, and I certainly don't resent, the people who can. Perhaps that is the key to getting on with life?

To T.W. Davidson: You raise some very interesting points. One of the things I can still do reasonably well is shoot fast. However, I have to give a lot of credit to the rifle; I've owned other RBG guns that would not perform nearly this well, mostly due to slop in the bolt. Also, there is a certain amount of adrenalin provided by a rifle that costs this much. In real life, I can't remember having time to take more than two fast shots at something that was trying to terminate my furtive existence. That's because a) I use big fuggin' rifles and b) things happened so fast there wasn't any time for more than two.

One last thought: When you get past the .404-.416 level of recoil, I guarantee you I can't shoot this fast. I have a .450 Dakota (500 grains @2350 fps) that kicks so hard it takes a second or two just to get the muzzle back on target and remember what your name is.

Thank you, Mr. Petzal. Despite the fact that I shoot probably 1500-2000 rounds/year through my various rifles (the hardest kicking of which is a handloaded .280 AI), I'm pretty sure I could not personally shoot five rounds downrange accurately into an 8" target at 75 yards in less than 10 seconds with any of them except maybe a .257 Roberts with 75-grain V-max loads (in other words, almost zero recoil).

Every rifle I've ever owned has always been a RH shooter. My odds of success on your test may improve when I (someday) receive my first LH bolt-action rifle, a 257 AI ER Shaw Mark VII I ordered last year. I am very curious as to what it will be like to finally own and shoot a rifle meant for a left-handed person, and whether my speed and/or my accuracy will measurably improve.

On another note, it is damn unfortunate about Ms. Richardson. Sad. I always thought of her as a very classy, elegant, beautiful woman. I think about all the times I've badly banged (or been banged on) my head (with scars to show for it), yet I'm still here.

How fickle is fate.

TWD

Mr. Petzal . . .

While it is genuinely impressive that you put five Really Big Game (RBG) rounds accurately downrange in less than 10 seconds, how much of this is due to the Legend and its qualities vs. your training, your innate talent, and your fifty years (or is it ninety?) of throwing bolts? Please analyze.

Notwithstanding your achievement, couldn't you have achieved the same accuracy score in the same less-than-10 second time with a Kimber or your Jarret or any other well-crafted RBG rifle (or even a plain jane OTC one, say a Savage), all modified to hold five rounds, and all costing up to $12.5 less?

This raises an interesting issue and question: How much of your performance, if any, do you think was enhanced or improved because you were holding a rifle that you knew cost $14K? (Something along the lines of, well, this darn thing cost $14k, so of course it should be very fast and easy and accurate to shoot, and thus your confidence level before you began the shooting test was enhanced to a higher level than normal, which resulted in a very high performance.)

If someone had just loaned you a good-handling RBG rifle that you knew nothing about, but which held five rounds and was ready to go, do you think you would have achieved the same score?

Suggestion: Conduct further tests at 25 paces using other RBG rifles that you know nothing about before they are handed to you. Lock and load and fire the hell out of them. Get other experienced, accurate shooters you respect to do the same thing. I would be very curious (as, I'm sure, would just about everyone who reads your blog) as to the comparitive test results.

TWD

Great series of articles!!! Thank you!

Watch out. I think Obama is proposing a 100% tax on rifles over $13,995.95. Also he wants to lump them in as Assault Weapons.

As for Ms. Richardson, it's a shame when a person dies suddenly. I hope she enjoyed her time on this earth and wish her family the best.

As for the $14,000 rifle, more power to those of you who would buy one. I still think it's a waste of cash.

Jim

Well from one "old guy" to another at this stage in our lives it's whatever floats your boat. I can't judge the merits of owning a $14K rifle while I have a $14.5K motorcycle sitting in the garage (and it's not a Harley). It is the bike I have always wanted and I hope I have a few more years to try to wear it out. I purchased it as a trade-in/upgrade last fall before we found out exactly how bad the economy was. I must confess I felt some twangs of remorse for buying a newer bike when people were out of work and losing their homes, and that there was nothing wrong with the one I had. I don't remember who said that "the only things certain are death and taxes" but it sure seems to be true. While we can sometimes avoid the latter, there is not much one can do about the former. So as the Sergeant said, "Smoke'em if ya got'em!"

I for one, could really give a rats butt about shooting a gun that costs that much. I don't live in a fantasy world of custom guns; the accuracy level of todays rifles are good enough for any shooting any man woman or child could desire.

As my father would say, "That's Life!"

Some people buy $14K rifles and some die before their time!

There is a plan for us all.

Maybe mine includes buying a $14K rifle, but that is a lot of ammo that I could shoot through a $500 rifle, a $300 shotgun and a $600 SA 1911!!

Have a good weekend Dave.

V/R

C_S

Well, I took the challenge. I took my win 70 in 458 out back and let loose with my 500-grain handloads.

The best I could do was seven-seconds [more or less] for three shots: at one at 50, two at 25-yards from low gun….keeping all the shots within an eight-inch bull…..done cold turkey.

I now need an aspirin and my sinuses and cheek feels funny.

Ms Richardson: She and her family has my prayers

Good series Dave. For the real traditional types out there, how fast could you get four rounds off from a pair of matched doubles in say 470? Off course the gun bearer passing you the rifles would get some of the credit. If you want more than four shoots, get three rifles.

Sorry about Ms. Richardson, may she rest in peace.

I have survived numerous close calls from 'Nam to last summer. When your time is up it's up. She was a classy lady married to a very good actor (Schindler's list is a favorite).
As for the fancy overpriced rifle T.W. has it right.

My own Untimely Addition:
A good friend of mine, Kent Henry, passed away on Wednesday, March 18, 2009. He was only 60. Many of you may know him as the guitarist for Blues Image (Ride Captain Ride), and Steppenwolf (For Ladies Only, 1971). Although not an outdoorsman, he was a man of the greatest kind, He would do anything for anyone that he could. I have too many stories for this forum.
He was a great man beyond his fame...
I'll miss him

DP,

After doing your challenge The experience gave me some thought.

-I immediately wanted to further polish the rails and lugs of that Model 70 to lessen more drag. I never realized how rough that Model 70 action is compared to my Custom Mauser, and even to the old Springfield 1903.

-I can get three cartridges into the Model 70's magazine, but that's the way I'll keep it. Keeping a round in the chamber and three in the magazine affects the feed although the feed ramp is polished.

-I doubt I can beat seven-secs on my modest course. I think I can reasonably expect eight to nine seconds for three 458 shots and keep on target. I'd save the my 2nd or 3rd shot for when the furball was about to chew on the muzzle. May be wrong, but its what I'm thinking now.

Just out of curiousity, Dave, what would Mr. Echols' yearly production be? And is the "Legend" the only gun he makes?

...so, Dave, I forget if we have discussed this issue before; Do you handload any of your ammo? Target, hunting, or otherwise?

And by T.R., I mean T.W.

Take that as a compliment, I got you confused with Mr. Roosevelt. But something tells me you're a better shot.

Dave: in your speed/accuracy test what weight bullet did you utilize? I have 300s and 400s max loaded and thought I would test myself giving consideration for my four round limitation. Thanks.

DP I'm glad you addressed our concerns about the priciness of the shootin iron and the fact that you're not getting a kick back. Is this on the Obama stimulas plan by any chance if it is I'll take two because they ought to be down to about 500 dollars after stimulas! Otherwise thanks for pointing out another good rifle. I will have to agree with you one one thing, not that I'd ever pay 14k but the Jarrett rifle is a better shooter, and I'll probably have to own one of THOSE in a few years and save that 10k for the stock market!

Mr. Petzal,
how do have negative 20 million points? Who came up wih that number for columists?

Nate

I always get a light headache when I shoot the heavy recoiling rifles. Dave, don't do to your brain with heavy rifles what Natasha Richardson did to hers by accident. Keep those synapses firing in the right order, o.k.?

Jim in Mo . . .

I enjoy a good peep sight on a good rifle, but in a close quarters situation I'd rather have open sights because, for me, I would feel that I had a better ability to be fully aware of my surroundings, and particularly of my flanks.

I am 48. A month or two ago, while reading late at night, the words on the page seemed a little blurry and were hard to read. I thought I was just tired. Then the same thing happened a few days later in the late afternoon at my office. Then one Saturday day a few weeks ago my 14-year old daughter pointed out that I was holding magazines and books farther away from my face than I used to, and asked me--in the typical manner of an insolent, sassy teenager--if I was going blind.

(When I was younger I had 20-12 vision, meaning that what most people could identify at 12' I could identify at 20'. I've always prided myself on having outstanding eyesight. My daughter and my ex both wear contacts and have long resented my assistance-free vision.)

I secretly went out and spent $8 at a pharmacy for some off-the-rack reading glasses. I now use them almost every night, and I always need them on a day where I didn't get much sleep the night before. So far I have been able to avoid using them in front of clients or in other places where I conduct my business.

But the other day my daughter caught me using the reading glasses. She laughed--cruelly--and said, "Welcome to the club, gramps." The insolence!

I'm left to wonder if I'll develop a preference for open sights over peep sights in the near future, too.

TWD

That's what's ironic about paying $14,000 for a stainless synthetic rifle; you get a stainless synthetic rifle so that you can scratch it, leave it in the rain, etc. and not worry about it. A stainless synthetic rifle you have to worry about is like a punching bag that is too expensive to hit.

To PB Head: I doubt I could keep up much of a rate of fire from a pair of doubles. The point of a double is to shoot a cartridge so horrendous that you can get yourself out of whatever you've gotten yourself into in two shots. That said, I have a friend against whom I compete who can get off four shots very quicky from a double rifle. And hit.

To Carney: According to D'Arcy, his annual goal is to turn out 10 Legends (the synthetic stocked rifle) and 3 Classics (wood stocked). In addition, the shop does precision stock duplication, a limited amount of gunsmithing, and tries to fit in some product development in the time remaining.

$14,000 for a Mr. Echols' Legend? If you got that kind of money to burn, I say go for it! For this old guy if I want fast rounds into a target, I stick with my Ultra Match Grade Springfield custom made M1A. 10 rounds rapid fire sitting at 200 yards, 4-X’s, 4-10’s and 2-9’s was my norm.

NRA 25-yard Timed-Fire target (5 ½-inch bull) ?
That’s like shooting at the side of a barn! LOL!!!

4.3 200 Yard Targets
(a) No. SR Military "Target, Rifle, Competition, Short Range."
Aiming Black (inches) Rings in White (inches)
X ring 3.00 8 ring 19.00
10 ring 7.00 7 ring 25.00
9 ring 13.00 6 ring 31.00
5 ring 37.00

Jim in Mo
Speaking of prescription glasses, a close friend and team member TSgt Paul Turner on the verge of being medically blind according to military standards for even being behind the disk, placed 3rd at the New Mexico State match on the 1000 yard line shooting a M1 Garand!

God bless the Old Guys who have done enough and learned enough not to listen to the petty bitching, and God bless Natasha Richardson's family, who have lost a wife, mother, and sister.

There's one idea that probably could be tested by some kind of poll... that people who buy expensive guns don't use them in the field for worry of marring the finish.

I doubt that idea for two reasons. Most people who buy fancy firearms can afford to have them refinished if they're too ugly from wear, or else just buy another.

The other reason is that I've heard this theory wafted about for less expensive guns. I bought a Weatherby Athena d'Italia SxS (2 triggers). By my standards it's a fancy gun and it looks like one. But I hunt with it, and it primarily, during quail season, because a gun like that feels good to carry, even though I'll surely ding up the fancy wood stock. A nice gun *needs* to be hunted. It's only fair to the gun that you make sure you take it for regular walks.

Happy Easter to Dave Petzal and to everyone. Today the sun shone and the sky was blue in Wyoming with the thunder of a .416 Rem Mag from an old Sako action and barrel in a McMillan stock with a Pachmyer Decelerator. Well Dave since I only have four rounds in the gun the first volley showed 2 tens, 1 nine, and 1 eight in 10.3 seconds. The second round was 1 ten, 1 nine, and 2 eights in 8.8 seconds. This was Hornady 400 gr Dangerous Games bullets mixed softs and solids at about 2410 fps. By my calculations/ratios I failed to beat your performance with the Legend. Looks like I need to get out and shoot more, sure was fun. I still want to make one of those moving cape buffalo heads like the one on the Heym website. If you look at the site note that the bolt rifle guy appears to get his shots off quicker than the double gun man.

If money was no object, a $14,000 dollar gun would be in my gold encrusted safe, along with several other keepers.
But for now, I'll just keep "The Legend" in mind.

I'm reminded that we all have an expiration date, and Natasha Richardson will be sadly missed.
Rest in peace Natasha ...

I agree with you, that it is "better we don't know what life holds in store for us."
That's the mystery of mysteries.

I'd gladly plunk down $14K for this gun, if I had say $100K to spend on my shooting equipment per annum. Otherwise, it's hard to invest in a gun with a plastic stock, regardless of who makes it. Wood appreciates better, and I doubt too many, say, new Merkel double .470NEs fail in the field... though I grant they won't put out five shots like this one.
Dave, it'd be nice to hear an African safari story from you in which having this Legend would have been a blessing. Any experiences with a buf that your 4-shot Jarrett .416 Remington couldn't quite handle?