By David E. Petzal

D’Arcy Echols is a Utah gunmaker who turns out the most expensive synthetic-stocked working guns I know of. His Legend rifle currently sells for $14,000. These past few weeks, courtesy of a Legend owner who very generously lent me one, I got a chance to see what goes into a rifle that costs this much. Broken down into components, it looks like this:

McMillan fiberglass stock, made to Echols’ own pattern.
24-inch Kreiger barrel (a number 3 taper, I think)
Left-hand Winchester Model 70 action with the original bottom metal

The metal is rust blued, the stock is plain black, and the rifle weighs 9 pounds with scope. It’s chambered for the .404 Jeffrey, an old but highly useful cartridge that Hornady just brought back to life. The .404 fires a 400-grain bullet at 2,100 fps, so this is a dangerous-game rifle. It’s been to Africa twice, and has about 500 rounds through it. It is, you might say, nothing more than a highly worked-over Model 70. And this is true, in the sense that the car that Jeff Gordon drives is a highly worked-over Chevrolet.

To understand Mr. Echols’ approach to gun building, let us turn for a moment to... [ Read Full Post ]

By Dave Hurteau

Apparently, not all stocks are toxic right now.

From Forbes:

Shares of outdoor sports equipment retailer Cabela's Inc. jumped 17 percent in premarket trading Friday after the company's results beat expectations and an analyst said clearance sales of firearms helped shore up the company's balance sheet.
[ Read Full Post ]

By David E. Petzal

Just when you thought it was safe to go back to The Gun Nut…here are more noteworthy guns I found at SCI.

Mark Bansner Safari Hunter, .416 Remington: Bansner is known for building slim, trim rifles, and the Safari Hunter, even though chambered for the .375 H&H, .416 Remington, and .458 Lott, is still as slim and trim as a medium-heavy rifle with a drop magazine can be. This gun is built on Bansner’s own action which is equipped with a heavy recoil lug and an M-16-type extractor. As Bansner points out, the people who hunt the most dangerous game of all—Army and Marine snipers—do it with push-feed rifles, so spare him the full-length-extractor b.s., please.

This rifle comes with a specially reinforced High Tech DGR fiberglass stock, New England Gun Company iron sights, and a muzzle brake, which you don’t want. The Jewell trigger is set at 3 pounds even. Price is a bit over $6,000. Bansnersrifle.com.

Connecticut Shotgun Manufacturing Company RBL Professional 20-gauge Slug Gun:
It is quite possible that Tony Galazan, who runs CSMC, knows more about fine scatterguns (and in particular, how to make them) than anyone in the U.S. This, however, is not a scattergun; it is... [ Read Full Post ]

By Philip Bourjaily

It’s not often you get to see something brand new in the world of shotguns, but here’s a new one on me: it’s a delayed roller-action, fully ambidextrous 3 1/ 2 inch semi-auto. The gentleman with the stogie and the greenhead  is inventor, Jeff Hajjar of SRM, maker of the Sure-Cycle spring kits and Terror Chokes. The gun in his hand is his own invention and the only one of its kind . . . so far. Actually, this is the hunting version of the SRM 1216 a tactical gun Hajjar showed at last year’s SHOT. This new gun is unnamed for now.

Yes, that is the cocking handle you see in the forearm. Don’t worry about your fingers -- it only moves when you use it to open the bolt manually. The handle reverses easily for left-handed shooters, and you can switch the gun from right to left-side eject, too. Remove one pin in the receiver, and the whole thing breaks open like an AR-15  for cleaning or for carrying safely around the clays course.

Hajjar says the delayed roller action is similar to that... [ Read Full Post ]

By David E. Petzal

The horror, the horror…

Anyway, before we get into guns, you all heard about the jet that took a swim in the Hudson River yesterday because a flock of birds flew into the engines. According to a friend of mine who works for the Federal wildlife control service, the person who got the bird-control stopped at New York City airports was Madam Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton. Apparently Hillary heard they were killing birds and made a phone call. Now she is off to bring peace to the world. I will not hold my breath.

Much as it pains me, I’m able to report that there is no shortage of very good low- and medium-priced rifles out there for ’09.

First on the list is the Thompson/Center Icon Venture model, which dispenses with the high metal finish and pretty walnut stock of the original Icon and replaces them with matt bluing and a very nice black synthetic stock. The caliber selection is the same, but the price is a lot lower at $499, and T/C still guarantees a minute of angle.

Mossberg’s 4x4 line of bolt-actions includes 104 different configurations, and some of the stock designs are truly radical. Calibers range from .25/06 to .338,... [ Read Full Post ]