The Searcy .470 rifle Sweepstakes benefits the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action. The winner will walk away with this presentation-grade Searcy PH-model double rifle in .470NE, in a fitted Dan Walter alloy case and two boxes of cartridges.

Sadly, last year’s winner of this Searcy double, Dr. Richard Gilman of California, passed away before he had the opportunity to shoot it. We still remember his excitement when he learned that his sweepstakes ticket was drawn at the Vintage Cup banquet.

Dr. Gilman’s wife Janet told us that Richard had always been a supporter of the NRA, and asked that the Gold Medal Concours take back the rifle and give it away a second time, in his memory, to raise more money for the NRA.

Thus the Concours has created another sweepstakes to benefit ILA, the Institute for Legislative Action, the lobbying arm of the NRA that fights for our 2nd Amendment rights. And the prize is the Gilman rifle-Searcy boxlock ejector double rifle No. BL85, in .470 Nitro Express, housed in a beautiful alloy travel case by Dan Walter. The rifle is an upgraded, engraved version of Searcy’s PH model, so the retail value of the package is about $12,000. Dr. Gilman’s two boxes of cartridges add another $500 in value to the prize.

Note: The Gilman Searcy rifle will be on display at the Vintage Cup in Millbrook, NY, September 22-25, 2005. See it at the Gold Medal Concours or in the Shooting Sportsman booth.

To date, the rifle has been fired only by the maker, Butch Searcy, for regulation, and by NRA President Robinson, who last fall confessed that he had never shot a .470 and would like to give it a go. (Thanks to Concours VIII entrant Lena Gershenov, who handed over a fistful of costly .470 cartridges.) NRA President-elect Ms Sandy Froman plans to attend the Concours this year, and has already made known her desire to shoot the .470 as well. The eventual winner will thus have a rifle that is doubly unique.