Pete Treboldi's Classic 375 H&H and desert gold

Pete Treboldi traveled to the border between South Africa and Namibia last October to hunt Lion with Somerby Safaris. On day three the Kalahari desert gave him the cat of his dreams. He used a Classic 375 H&H we assembled based on a Winchester Model 70 action. This Classic was made per our usual standards and  housed one of our peep sights within the trap grip cavity to accompany the scope. The rifle was fit with the last set of detachable mounts I had in inventory made by the late Tom Burgess. The Lion was taken with two Woodleigh 350gr round nose soft points. The rifle was also used for Eland and Eastern Kudu at some rather extended ranges. Having shot the rifle a lot Pete knew the bullet drop at these ranges and held accordingly. Pete's next destination with this 375 is the C.A.R. on a quest for Bongo.

Visting the Flathead Valley

Just before the Christmas holidays I drove north into the Flathead Valley of Montana to spend some time visiting old friends and attending to some business. I spent 3 of those days as a guest of Jerry & Celeste Fisher. Jerry as usual was kind enough to pull out all the stops and allowed me to handle every project he was currently working on. An almost completed Hagn was in the old Parker vise and a pattern stock for a Winchester Low Wall was being modified to suit. Needless to say I left a lot of fingerprints.  We spent many hours discussing the past, current and the future state of our profession. At 80 years of age he has some opinions and insights that deserve contemplation. I have known Jerry since the late 70's when I worked under his roof as an apprentice and casually sitting again with this master of the trade brought back a flood of memories.

One of the more interesting conversations was of his early days working with Monty Kennedy another grand talent from the past. Using machine turned stocks he was expected to fully inlet 3 FN Mauser on Monday and have all finish on all 3 by the end of the week. I have handled a number of these early rifles from this period and the craftsmanship is as precise as most rifles assembled today. I have a very good friend that has carried a Fisher Stocked 7-mm Durham Magnum every season for over 40 years and has never felt the need for any other big game rifle.

When I arrived Jerry and Celeste were getting ready to travel to the Dallas SCI Convention and he was putting the final  touches to a 505 Gibbs based on a GMA action. The rifle was typical of every Fisher rifle I have handled, it was simply beautiful. Jerry had just finished regulating the iron sights and was awaiting an engraver to cut the yardage lettering into the sight blades so he could blue the sights and complete the assembly.

Jerry's shop is well lit, well laid out, impeccably clean and very comfortable. At some point we dug through his inventory of stock blanks discussing the merits of each and remembering other blanks we wish we could replace with similar attributes.  I found one in particular that he was kind enough to part with for a special project of my own.

 I can only hope I am able to remember who I am when I approach Jerry's age much less be able to execute one project after another with the same unfailing degree of quality. The days spent in Jerry's company was priceless as always.

Scope Mounting Alignment Bars

Quite a few years ago I made up a pair alignment bars to allow us to rapidly and accurately re-mount a set of our 1" and 30mm rings and a variety of scopes during the construction and accuracy testing of a Legend or Classic. This simple tool allows the front and rear rings to be precisely lined up and then tightened down on the receiver through the bar body. We now supply these on request with each rifle assembled with multiple ring sets or a rifle made with our peep sight system and a set of scope rings.

As the years have gone by a number of people have seen us use these bars in the shop or at the range and have requested that we produce them for resale.  These will work quite well on standard Leupold and Burris dual dovetail type rings and bases to allow one to remove the ring and base without having to spin the rings out of the bases and loosening up the dovetail fit over time. They can be used to spin the front ring into place and visually center a dual rear windage screw ring in the optical center of the rear ring and allow one to tighten the windage screws before the scope is installed to prevent bending the scope. 

The most recent issue of Rifle Magazine, January # 266  featured these bars in an article entitled  Scope-Mounting Tools by John Barsness. We'd like to thank John for this review.

The 1" and 30mm scope alignment bars are now an in-stock inventory item. The cost is $90.00 per bar plus the shipping to your destination.

Bound for Germany

We have just finished up two Legends that will shortly leave northern Utah and begin a journey to Germany to the new owners. One rifle is chambered for 458 Lott and is fit with our peep sight system as well as a set of our 1" rings for a Leupold fixed 3X and a Leupold 1.7-6X.

The other rifle is chambered for 375 H&H and has two sets of our scope rings. One set made in 1" for a Leupold 1.75-6X . The other set of 30mm rings are made for a Swarovski Z6-I 1.7-10X42 L.

The rifles will be shipped in a Pelican Model #1750 which is included with each rifle as well as a Wiha adjustable torque screw driver and a set of 1"& 30mm alignment bars to accurately swap out and reinstall either set of rings when required.

We look forward to the field reports on this pair of Legends in the near future. The international interest and clientele list is beginning to increase steadily.

Safari Club International Expo Reno-2013

We invite all of our friends to visit us at the D'Arcy Echols & Co.  temporary home in Reno, booth numbers 2725 and 2727 in the Reno Sparks Convention Center January 23-26.  We will be displaying a variety of rifles including a .505 Gibbs Classic, a Legend Heavy Sporter in .375 Ruger,  a Legend Long Range in .300 Weatherby,  a left hand Legend Sporter in .280 Remington, and a peep sighted Legend in 9.3x62.

We will also have on hand our new scope alignment bars and the prototype pattern for our new Legend Remington 700 synthetic stock.