.404 Jeffery Built On FN ‘98

DB404

DB404

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This .404 was built by Larry Brace and Dennis Olson. Larry opened up the post war FN action to the rear, no metal was removed near the lower locking lug recess. 3+1 capacity. 23” cut rifled Krieger barrel. Stock was turned from a quarter sawn blank of exhibition grade Bastogne walnut pattern by Shane Thompson. Dennis put it all together, adding two recoil cross bolts. NECG ramped barrel band front sight base with Sourdough style front sight. NECG scope bases and one of their removable back up peep sights. Weight empty is 8lb 4oz; this is a walking around gun made to be carried by its owner in brown bear and Cape buffalo country. 200 new Norma cases, new RCBS dies & shell holder. It’s basically new, fired only 4 rounds. Price $6750, plus the cost of shipping & insurance.

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Good looking rifle. With all the supplies priced very resonable. Shouldn't last long. GLWS.
KRISH
 
DB404 said:
I really really hate to let it go, but my cancer has metastasized into my spine, so I decided I need to let someone else hunt it. I’m optimistically holding onto my 7x57 and 9.3x62.
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I know how you feel. I have to sell my original .416 R Rigby for the same reason.
20 yrs ago it was my .450 Rigby rising bite,

Good luck and the best. Of wishes.

Lon
 
I did this same upgrade and am having trouble picturing what you say was done to make a longer 404 cartridge fit into a standard Mauser action. You claim the action was essentially moved rearward so that no metal was removed from the locking ring. But the rear ring is intact, externally anyway. If the action was moved rearward, then some of that ring would have to be cut away or cartridges/cases would not eject. Perhaps you mean a portion of the inside of the rear ring on ejection side is ground back between the ejection port and ejector? This will allow loaded cartridges to be ejected without grinding anything from the face of locking ring. However, the loading ramp still must be extended by grinding some of the 8mm forward ring (see attached image). I don't see any way around that. Who made the bottom metal? The weight is indeed surprisingly light. Mine weighs ten pounds but I opted for a heavy barrel taper and purposely left a lot of wood on the stock. My fragile retinas can't take a lot of recoil. Yours should be easy to carry. It is certainly a pretty rifle!
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Tokoloshe Safaris said:
I know how you feel. I have to sell my original .416 R Rigby for the same reason.
20 yrs ago it was my .450 Rigby rising bite,

Good luck and the best. Of wishes.

Lon
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Thank you, Lon. I wish you the best of luck as well. Dave
 
How did you find the detachable NECG peep? Did you go with peep or ghost ring or both? I thought seriously about ordering one but seemed to do fine with the express sights on my Springfield so I went that route again with the Mauser. Quick detachable peep is an interesting concept.
 
Ontario Hunter said:
I did this same upgrade and am having trouble picturing what you say was done to make a longer 404 cartridge fit into a standard Mauser action. You claim the action was essentially moved rearward so that no metal was removed from the locking ring. But the rear ring is intact, externally anyway. If the action was moved rearward, then some of that ring would have to be cut away or cartridges/cases would not eject. Perhaps you mean a portion of the inside of the rear ring on ejection side is ground back between the ejection port and ejector? This will allow loaded cartridges to be ejected without grinding anything from the face of locking ring. However, the loading ramp still must be extended by grinding some of the 8mm forward ring (see attached image). I don't see any way around that. Who made the bottom metal? The weight is indeed surprisingly light. Mine weighs ten pounds but I opted for a heavy barrel taper and purposely left a lot of wood on the stock. My fragile retinas can't take a lot of recoil. Yours should be easy to carry. It is certainly a pretty rifle!View attachment 584621
Click to expand...
The action was a new FN short belted magnum, not a GI 8mm. What I stated was that it had been opened to the rear. I believe it was in effect “lengthened” internally by Larry Brace by removing non critical metal inside of the rear ring; the bolt stop and ejector are also moved back, allowing sufficient bolt travel to feed and eject the .404 rounds. To the best of my knowledge, the only metal that might have been removed from the feed ramp was that removed in order to polish it and maybe to change its angle a might. Bottom metal is FN factory.

I learned to snap shoot in the dense woods of the PNW. If you couldn’t do that effectively, you’d just go home tired and wet to stare at your empty freezer. I wanted this rifle to be quick to the shoulder and with the sights where I wanted them.
 
DB404 said:
I really really hate to let it go, but my cancer has metastasized into my spine, so I decided I need to let someone else hunt it. I’m optimistically holding onto my 7x57 and 9.3x62.
Click to expand...

Prayers for strength during the fight with metastatic cancer. You have a beautiful rifle there
 
Ontario Hunter said:
I did this same upgrade and am having trouble picturing what you say was done to make a longer 404 cartridge fit into a standard Mauser action. You claim the action was essentially moved rearward so that no metal was removed from the locking ring. But the rear ring is intact, externally anyway. If the action was moved rearward, then some of that ring would have to be cut away or cartridges/cases would not eject. Perhaps you mean a portion of the inside of the rear ring on ejection side is ground back between the ejection port and ejector? This will allow loaded cartridges to be ejected without grinding anything from the face of locking ring. However, the loading ramp still must be extended by grinding some of the 8mm forward ring (see attached image). I don't see any way around that. Who made the bottom metal? The weight is indeed surprisingly light. Mine weighs ten pounds but I opted for a heavy barrel taper and purposely left a lot of wood on the stock. My fragile retinas can't take a lot of recoil. Yours should be easy to carry. It is certainly a pretty rifle!View attachment 584621
Click to expand...

If you ever see an original .404 FN jou will know exactly what he means, but they are few and far between. Ive held one batttered one in Africa and seen pictures of another prestine one.
 
Ontario Hunter said:
How did you find the detachable NECG peep? Did you go with peep or ghost ring or both? I thought seriously about ordering one but seemed to do fine with the express sights on my Springfield so I went that route again with the Mauser. Quick detachable peep is an interesting concept.
Click to expand...
Larry had the peep squirreled away somewhere in his shop. The peep has what they used to call a target aperture which is removed by unscrewing it before going out in the field, which leaves a ring that you’re not aware of when sighting. AKA ghost ring. My intent was to hunt it with a Leupold 1.5-5 straight tube with heavy duplex cross hairs with the peep sight in my day pack. Barrel mounted express sights look so damn salty, but I found I couldn’t shoot as well with them as I had in my 30s, so peep sight it was.
 
Dewald said:
If you ever see an original .404 FN jou will know exactly what he means, but they are few and far between. Ive held one batttered one in Africa and seen pictures of another prestine one.
Click to expand...
Parker Hale did the same with their 404 and 375 African/Safari Models.
 
Ontario Hunter said:
How did you find the detachable NECG peep? Did you go with peep or ghost ring or both? I thought seriously about ordering one but seemed to do fine with the express sights on my Springfield so I went that route again with the Mauser. Quick detachable peep is an interesting concept.
Click to expand...
That is a Talley peep.
 
Ontario Hunter said:
OP who had the gun made for him says the QD rear sight is New England Custom Gun.
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They may have gotten the bases and peep from NECG, but It’s a Talley. The 12 visible in the front base is also Talley’s number.

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Ontario Hunter said:
OP who had the gun made for him says the QD rear sight is New England Custom Gun.
Click to expand...
I will see if it’s marked. When Larry and I were talking peep sights, he kept bringing up NECG. That was long ago; I will see if it’s marked.
 
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