I'm looking to have a full custom .375 H&H built on either a Mauser or Winchester action ONLY. All the bells and whistles will be included. Since this is to be a DGR rifle I need a smith renouned for both form and function. Suggestions please. Looking to spend in the neighborhood of 7K- not including the blank which I already have.
Allen Day- please chime in here.

I am betting that Allen will tell you to sell the blank and have D'Arcy Echols build you a Legend with one of his Legend Stocks!!!

Allen might also suggest that you contact Mark Penrod for the metal work. He probably would also suggest Tom Burgess and Stephen Heilmann.

-Steve

I just had a custom 458 Win mag build on a pre-64 Mod 70 action. The action was sent to Shilen for the barrel and chambering and then off to Sergengeti Arm for a laminated walnut stock, sights and the trimmings. They did a great job.

One guy you might consider is Roger Biesen Website, excellent craftsman and reasonably priced.

A couple of examples of his work.





Regards,

Terry

From all my .375 H&H - My John Bolliger is very smooth, accurate and most of all reliable.

Roland

I would second the Penrod recommedation. I have a thread going about a new Rifle Penrod built for me if you wish to see some pictures.

https://forums.accuratereloading.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/9411043/m/997103992

There are a number of great ways to go. I'll list my personal top choices, and it won't make everyone happy, but here goes:

As has been mentioned, you can get Mark Penrod to do the complete metalwork, and then you could have James C. Tucker build the stock. Both of these guys are aces in their respective fields. Penrod is a perfectionist and true metal artist, and Jim Tucker, who lives here in Oregon is another true perfectionist who actually shapes the blank by hand. Both of these gentlemen are amazing, and wonderful to work with. By the way, Penrod's work is so precise that his runout when he chambers a barrel is something like .00010"! Yet, you can chamber and use factory ammo with ease. No tight necks or other disfunctional nonsense to contend with. Tucker will shoot the rifle after he stocks it, but the real break-in and testing will be up to you.

I don't think that a full-house Biesen rifle like Terry's is ever a mistake, and I've been a great fan of Biesen rifles since I started reading Jack O'Connor, and I became a true believer after I held one in my hands for the first time. The Biesen's build, by intent, HUNTING rifles, not safe queens, and they shape them and finish them for real-world use. I'm astounded at the quality of Biesen rifles, especially for I think is a most reasonable price. They are builders on COMPLETE rifles. Rilfes are finished to stand up to foul weather. No fragile tung oil-type finishes from the Biesens!

Gene Simillion is a world-class builder of complete rifles, doing metal and wood with equal skill, and he's a great hunter in his own right as well. He knows what works and what doesn't, and you can trust him. He has a very open grip that he employs on his stocks, but he will make a stock very similar to David Miller's/Roger Biesen's at the client's request. Gene was another Colorado School of trades graduate, and great firend of D'Arcy's, and like D'Arcy, he apprenticed in stockmaking under Jerry Fisher. Gene shoots and tests everything he sends out thoroughly. Rifles are finished to stand up to any weather.

I've seen enough of Joseph Smithson's work to know that he's one of the up and coming all-stars of the custom rifle world. He apprenticed under Jerry Fisher as well, from what I hear, and he has engineered what are possibly some of the best detachable scopemounts ever. He builds complete rifles, and I understand he's backlogged a couple of years, which does not surprise me at all. I don't know how thoroughly he tests what he builds.

David Miller Co. -- David Miller and Curt Crum build the most expensive bolt action rifles in the world, and they are backlogged for several years. They build 100% rifles, and no effort is spared in any little detail to make the product as good as can be built. They are hunters, and they build -- again, by intent -- HUNTING rifles, the vast majority of which are used for that very purpose, not to look pretty in the cabinet. But make no mistake, they are beautiful in every way, and they SHOOT. All rifles are thoroughly broken-in and tested -- no unknowns are sent out, ever.

D'Arcy Echols & Co -- There's no gunmaker that I trust and respect more than D'Arcy. He builds my kind of rifle, and his thinking meshes with mine when it comes to most things. He's a great rifleman and hunter, completely absorbed and dedicated to his trade, a total fanatical perfectionist, and you can bet your life on the rifle he sends you from the moment you first take it out of the case. All of his rifles shoot, feed, balance, and function to perfection. I don't have any wood-stocked rifles from the Echols shop, but my own 375 H&H is an Echols 'Legend', and a veteran of some of the greatest hunts I've ever been on in my life. Every rifle is totally broken-in, tested, sighted-in, etc. No unknowns are sent out, ever. Best client-support of any riflemaker I've ever worked with. D'Arcy always has his priorities in the right order when it comes to building rifles. Rifles are thoroughly finished to stand up to any weather. D'Arcy uses an intercellular sealer on his wood stocks, followed by some sort of plastic oil synthetic that stands up to anything, even the Gulf of Alaska.........

AD

http://www.rbbigbores.com

quote:

The Biesen's build, by intent, HUNTING rifles, not safe queens, and they shape them and finish them for real-world use. I'm astounded at the quality of Biesen rifles, especially for I think is a most reasonable price. They are builders on COMPLETE rifles. Rilfes are finished to stand up to foul weather. No fragile tung oil-type finishes from the Biesens!

Allen,

A perfect description of a Biesen rifle, well done.

Regards,

Terry

Thanks for all the excellent suggestions. A few of those mentioned are way out of my price range financially however.

I was suprised to find David Christman to be very reasonable and a great guy to deal with. 318-878-1395. Butch