As I understand it, the rebated rim allowed for use of stripper clips which culling game control rangers liked. I can't imagine using that much 500 Jeffery ammo that fast for culling dangerous game. Ouch! Must have been exciting times! Those rangers were tough characters! Built for rugby.
404 Jeffery OAL is 3.53". 375 H&H is 3.60" long. Longer 375 requires trimming the ejection port of locking ring for ejection of loaded cartridges as well as trimming the bottom of ring for loading ramp. I did not need to remove any of the ring to accommodate ejection (but I don't imagine I could get away with seating bullets any higher than 3.53"). Looking into the action just now with scope detached, I see that the forward end of receiver magazine port is not cut into the bottom of locking ring any deeper than the unaltered top of the locking ring (ejection port). Of course a bevel must be added to the trimmed bottom ring to restore the loading ramp. I don't see that removing so little metal to restore the ramp would significantly weaken a standard action locking ring. Obviously there was plenty of extra metal in that area of the ring for 8mm box. Making standard 98 into 375 or 416 is doable but does require removing more metal from the locking ring both top and bottom. 404 is a stronger build on standard action.
Only on my own stuff, the law down here doesn’t allow me to work on other peoples firearms without paying the government for a piece of plastic that says I can, in fact they don’t like me doing my own stuff so it’s all gone over by my gunsmith friend who ok's it
You are correct about overall length but the cases are both 2.850 if I remember correctly.
404 case is actually slightly longer: 2.875". But it's the OAL that determines box length and how much metal has to be carved from the rings. I have actually never checked the clearance for ejecting loaded shells from my 404. It ejects them fine but I wonder just how close the bullet tip is to locking ring. Hmmm. I will go have a look.
That would make loading the super heavy weights harder. I guess you don’t need to.
I think a few companies make 450 gr 404 bullets but I'm not sure I would even use them to hunt elephants ... if I ever hunted elephants ... and I don't see that happening. 400 gr mono is as heavy as I will need and that's what I gauged at 0.07" clearance.
Absolutely beautiful stock work. I love the straighter grip.
Great choice of barrel, my 9.3X64Br has a Lothar-Walther barrel and shoots sub-moa.
I’ve never had one on my previous builds but they seem to be one of the only that make a short chamber in 404 ready made for Mauser threads, without being a custom job. They have a great reputation.
If you don't have a lathe, how are you going to cut the threads? If it is a short chambered and threaded barrel then I assume you have a chambering reamer to hand finish the headspacing?
Easier to do in a mill than a lathe as the bolt handle makes it very difficult to hold in a lathe 4 jaw, and the bolt face of a controlled feed is actually a slot.
Duane Wiebe's booklet for building magnums on standard 98 Mauser was very useful for my machinist to set up for opening the bolt face.
Lothar-Walther pre-cuts them for the standard 98 action threads. I can index and torque the barrel using my barrel vise/wrench and do the finish reaming with gauges for head spacing. Otherwise if cut from a barrel blank, I would have to send it out for the threads yes. Interesting thought with the mill. That makes sense to me. Either way for the bolt face, it’s beyond my capability to do a cut like that.
This information gold. Thank you. I’m sure I’ll have more questions when I get to it and I’ll see to getting the booklet. I understand what you mean by the rail work as that makes sense with the stacking order and the rail engagement depending on the stack but I am little confused by what you mean with ordering a magnum rail. Yes I’ll get the same 416 REM bottom metal as you did. I also read your report on the new Ontario shooters assoc. where you went into wonderful detail.
The 416 Rem box will be longer than your standard length action's follower. I know guys have made the shorter standard action follower work but having a follower full length is more asthetic and keeps stuff from falling down inside the box over the opening above end of follower. The military follower spring in my action didn't mate up well to the magnum follower and I had to modify it (follower) slightly. I can walk you through it if you decide to go that route. All you need is a vice and patience. I expect the longer magnum follower would require less modification to handle much thicker 404 cartridges. I don't know for sure because I didn't try modifying the standard length follower.
There's lots of guys on here who are more experienced.
Wait ... are you a club member? Maybe we're neighbors? That would be weird. Guess we could grab a coffee at Tim's some time?
