Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/528216
S P O R T I N G C L A S S I C S 5 3 .577 boxlock on safari and that he couldn't wait to get home to sell the thing. Carrying a .700 Nitro Express is almost as much fun as carrying a railroad tie, a beautiful and very elegant railroad tie, but that's about how much it weighs— and shooting it would undoubtedly play havoc with your fillings and critical parts of your skeletal structure, but that's not the point. It's the ability to build such a thing that is impressive. And in the office of that dusty shop, there is walnut. Blanks of the iconic, incomparably beautiful Juglans reglia, famous for being the hardest for its weight of all woods, famous for its range of colors, from chocolate brown through shades of red and golden to an almost blue-black, the wood that more than any other single element catches your eye when you look at a fine firearm. In today's world of AR15-platforms and synthetic-stocked sniper rifles capable of shooting hyphenated calibers out to distances measured in four figures, it doesn't make much sense to build archaic, anachronistic firearms using frangible materials and techniques that have been around for two centuries. Thank God someone is still doing it. Unfortunately, how long someone will be doing it here in America is open to question. Like all of us, time has taken its toll on Butch Searcy. When I last visited his shop, he was recuperating from spinal surgery and talking longingly of spending more time with his grandchildren. He already has an offer for the business, so where it will go from here is anyone's guess. But it's nice to think that at least for a time there was a place in Boron where a single man did what storied companies in European capitals are famous for. Note: Contact Searcy at P.O. Box 584, Boron, CA 93516; (760) 762-6131.