An interesting side note of my hunt in Lobo.
While waiting to catch my flight from Amsterdam to Kilimanjaro, I see a gentleman dressed out in safari attire. I walk over to introduce my self. It is non other than D'Arcy Echols. We naturally start telling about our respective hunts that we are embarking on. He was starting a 28 day hunt (two locations) Moyowisi and Lake Natron. He is hunting with Tanzania Game Trackers and Joe Coogan. D'Arcy was equipped with a 7mm Rem Mag, a 340 Weatherby and a 458 Lott.

The big news was that both D'Arcy and Joe waould be using 458 Lott and testing new proto-type loadings for Federal Premium! D'Arcy would'nt share much about fps or bullets. Just that Federal is soon to be loading the Lott. Good news for all of you with Lotts!

D'Arcy was a great guy. Very nice and humble. I look forward to hearing about his hunt.

D'Arcy's one of the best men in the hunting and rifle business I've ever known. He's proof that if you live an honorable life, are made of the right moral fiber, are intelligent and work hard, good things will happen to you, and your reputation will grow, with peace of mind to spare. Some of the dishonorable mental-midgets I've heard about recently would do well to learn from guys like Echols....

I think Federal entrusted the 458 Lott testing to the right people!

AD

Hugh W,

Thanks for the update. I am glad to see more and more Big Bore cartridge loadings making it on to the shelves each year. Good for all of us I think...and much better than some 'new' cartridge which is nothing more than a remake of a 300 mag. etc etc.

Did you get any idea of a release date for the lott? 2006...?

I hope D'Arcy posts his trip results & photos upon his return. It would be great to get his perspective on things. I am sure he will doverywell building the kind of rifles he does and shooting as much as that requires.

BTW Hugh, I enjoyed your hunting report. You took some great animals...esp that Buff! Good job!

Regards,
Dave

A question for you learned gents on teh 458 Lott. I know that the Lott is what the 458 Win Mag was supposed to be. Can anybody elaborate as to some of it's characteristics when it comes to real vs actual velocities, pressure levels to attain adverstised numbers, etc. I'm just thinking....jorge

jorge, 2300 fps is realistic with a 24 inch barrel out of a Lott shooting Woodleigh bullets. Cut that number down if using Barnes bullets because the Barnes bullets are so long they eat up some of the Lott's powder capacity.

DavidC

Since I know Joe Coogan, have corresponded with Darcy and hunted Natron I also would be very interested in how the hunt goes. Sounds like the makings for a good safari.

Regards,

Mark

Mark,

Since Joe also does some writing and the introduction of a new DG stopper load is certainly a good enough reason to run an article IMHO.....I am hoping D'Arcy & Joe's Safari will be written up and appear in a future issue of one the gun mags. Maybe that has be in the works from the get go...? Without trying to start any rumors here...I hope that is the case.

Though I'd also like to see it written up on AR as well...

Regards,
Dave

Any rifle that leaves D'Arcys shop is a DGR, nuff said...

I've gotten a bunch of load info for the Lott from D'Arcy. He is a wealth of information on the cartridge and, IMHO, The Expert on it. As was said before, Federal picked the rigth guy.

-Steve

I can echo what 500 grains said. Expect a little less (2260) from a 22" barrel. I can say that a 550 gr Woodleigh at 2150 simply hammers elephants on head shots.

465H&H

I just got off the phone with D'Arcy this morning. We didn't have long to talk, but he is back, and he had a fantastic safari .

I don't know if he'll have time to make a post about his adventures or not, but I do believe he enjoyed Tanzania!

AD

Since Federal is now owned by Speer I asume dhtey would load the 458 Lott with the Speer Trophy Bonded which is one of the worst .458 bullets I tested. Lousy expansion and weight retention. Very dissapointing. But accurate. The custom rifle makers will love it.

According to Speer web site and description in Midway catalog, they are made of "gilding material" rather than pure copper like the original TBBC.

Too bad.

I tested mine at 2360 fps, and if you load down to 2250 or so and shoot from 100 yards away they might hold their frontal area. It tumbled and had worst penetration of any 500 grain bullet in the world though. Only 500 grain Hornady Interbond was as bad.

Nice thing about a .458 solid base is that it will be fairly effective even with the front end blown off like mine did.

Andy

Nice to hear that Federal will be taking the plunge.

I asked them a year ago about their plans to load for the Lott and they said then that they had no such plans.

I must wonder if market research changed their minds?

Nice also to hear that Mr. Echols can find the scratch to pay for a 28 day Tanzanian safari, which when all is totted up can run in excess of $100,000.

Who says that the custom gun business doesn't pay? Unless, of course, some kind of subsidy was involved. Which is none of my business anyway and still more power to Mr. Echols.

How the safari was paid for, or by whom, is no business of anyone's but the folks involved. I'm glad he was able to experience Tanzania!

quote:

Originally posted by John S:
How the safari was paid for, or by whom, is no business of anyone's but the folks involved. I'm glad he was able to experience Tanzania!

I believe I just said that. In any case, we agree.

I try to stay out of other people's business, and as far as I'm concerned, that especially goes things of a financial nature. D'Arcy is a friend of mine, and he has been for many years, but I stay out of his business as well -- because it's none of mine -- and I have every intention of keeping it that way. I do know that he works, very, very hard at what he does, and I'm just happy he's had the chance to make a quality safari in a top safari country.

Most guys on this board remain properly mum about their professions, incomes, etc., and no one seems to pry or quibble about someone else's ability to pursue some rather expensive safaris to Tanzania, Botswana........or wherever.

But if one of our members happens to be a well-known custom riflebuilder, all of a sudden questions arise about the rightness of the whole enterprise, or even if he should have been able, financially, to be there at all.

Unlike some of the practitioners who call themselves custom riflemakers, D'Arcy shoots and hunts a LOT, and whatever he learns in the bush is going to translate itself in some manner into the custom rifle product that he delivers to clients like me, and that deep hunting experience of his has long shown in the rifle that he produces. So the more he hunts, especially in Africa, the better as far as I'm concerned. Indirectly, I benefit as well......

AD

Well said AD!

I shouldn't have been so nice to D'Arcy in my above post, he will be calling me asking if I'm mad at him!!!

AD,

I wish all of the builders of fine rifles could afford first rate safaris, because they deserve such rewards for their skills, dedication and ingenuity.

Anyoen who can make enough money building rifles to afford top-drawer African hunts deserves them.


Okie John

I admire custom gunmakers very much because in a way they are really artists, blending the dynamics of ballistics with wood(or other) metal and the "black magic" of accuracy, length, feeding, extraction, sights, balance and "feel." The great makers are true creative geniuses. That said, we have all experienced rifles that didn't perform as represented. I wish that gunmakers would go on dangerous game safaris so they would really understand how critical it is that the rifle performs perfectly every time. A failure to extract or feed can actually cost your life not just another shot at an animal. Once they understood this, I bet no gun would leave their shop until it was perfect. I don't own an Echols gun but apparantly his standards are so high that every gun of his doesn't leave his shop until he knows it's right.