For 30 years Butch Searcy has been building rifles—all sorts of rifles. While you might have seen one of his products at a silhouette or bench-rest match. His specialty is the big-bore double rifle used for hunting dangerous game in Africa.

Butch’s first double rifles were conversions of Ruger and Browning shotguns. In 1993 he designed and then began building his own rifle. His objective was to produce an extremely reliable, accurate and affordable “tool [his word] for serious hunters.” His perspective on how that should be done was forged by his own big-game hunting experience and a long relationship with executives of PHASA, the Professional Hunters Association of South Africa. Currently more than 40 African PHs—licensed Professional Hunters—carry Searcy rifles.

A letter Searcy received from Myron Crockett, of Bloomfield, Minnesota, is a testament to the quality of his rifles: “Please accept my sincere thanks for the existence and presence of one of your double rifles. On Sept. 1, 2002, I was hunting buffalo in the Gwaye Valley of Zimbabwe when our party of five (a professional hunter, two trackers, myself and an observer) were charged by an injured cow. Her right front leg had been caught in a snare and was severely injured and infected, and she must have been in really bad humor. She was lying only seven or eight paces from one of the trackers and only 14 paces from me. When the tracker yelled and ran I tried to get to my .375 up but I could see that I would be too late. But the PH, Roden Tourle, shot her twice with his Searcy double .500 Nitro Express and she fell five paces from me. I was never a fan of double rifles, but I am now. Roden would never have gotten off the second shot (which broke the buffalo's neck) with any other action. By the way, there were four PHs working with our party and another one of them was also carrying one of your double rifles.”

Great guns are made of the best ingredients by skilled craftsmen. Searcy rifles are CNC-machined with receivers of 416 stainless steel, PAC-NOR barrels, fine wood from Jim Preslick or Luxus walnut co. and sights from New England Custom Guns. Searcy rifles were built in Boron, California, a small desert community 100 miles northeast of Los Angeles. While other doubles may be assembled in the United States on German or Italian actions, only the Searcy rifle can be described as “all American.”