In the next day or two I'll be sending a donor Mod 70 to D'Arcy Echols. He will make it a dream 375H&H that I hope to take to Africa in 2006. I'll hunt elk with it in the USA. Having never had a custom rifle built for me before I feel like its Christmas already. I would appreciate any suggestions about features to have on the rifle. Thanks Gary T.

Without knowing whether you intend to use this for DG:
- a magazine that holds at least four .375H&H rounds
- a proper set of iron sights (if you intend to use them) with a pop-up low-light bead made of warthog ivory
- put the front sling swivel stud be at the front of the fore-arm, not underneath it
- 24" barrel (no brake)
- Pachmayr Decelerator pad
- receiver drilled and tapped for 8-40 scope mount screws
- if you're going "whole hog", ask him to install a cartridge trap in the buttstock.

George

I recommend 24 LPI checkering for a quality look. Also, upgrade the wood blank to the best you can afford - preferably in the $1K to $2K range for just the blank. As you are already paying for the labor, might as well have it look as good as possible.

Also, inletted rear sling stud, and front barrel band sling stud.

And English pancake style cheekpiece.

Sounds like a real beauty! Send us pics as it progresses and of course the finished product...

What sort of iron sights will you be using? I'm a big fan of sturdy, all-steel ghost ring sights on my open-sighted rifles, but also am very impressed with the express sights on my RSM Ruger M77 .375 as they are surprisingly accurate with all three leaves at 50, 100 and even 200 yds. Even if you do plan to use a scope primarily I'd still have an excellent set of irons on it in the event the scope is damaged, etc.

On the type of rifle you're having built I'd for sure go with the wide-V style express - now that I've tried them I'm sold on them. Being it's a custom rifle he will regulate those express leaves perfectly for you for one particular load (choose this load carefully, as other loads may not shoot to the same point). What load? Depends on what you're doing with it, but for a doing-almost-anything load I'd ask him to regulate the leaves with the 300gr Swift A-Frame at 2550fps personally. If you occasionally need solids it shouldn't be a problem as the ranges at which solids are used I doubt the sights would be off enough to matter.

Enjoy it and let us see your rifle when it's finished!